Q15.Re-read Oleanna from the bottom of page 71 (‘Oh. Your job’.) to the end of the play.
To what extent is the conflict between Carol and John in this extract and elsewhere in the play presented as a power struggle between men and women ?
Or,
16. Re-read Oleanna from the top of page 28 (‘No. Of course’) to page 33 (
Stops. Makes a note.) Explore how Mamet presents attitudes to education in this extract and in the play as a whole
Oleanna
Q.15 Possible Approaches:
• on extract : power has moved back and fore between John and Carol
• Carol’s accusation of rape, as extreme feminist position
• John’s final actions as evidence that man-woman struggle rests on physical strength at bottom
• effects on audience of phone interruption, the carefully structured revelations, dialogue’s change of volume, pauses and violent actions
• on men-women power struggle: might comment on John’s patronising words and actions in rest of play
• on Carol’s sexist claims in Act 2
• John’s behaviour in Act 2, especially touching Carol
• Carol’s speech on power in Act 3
• other likely readings: could draw attention to conflict as result of teacher-student relationship and Carol’s claim of elitism
• another cause of conflict could be difficulty of communication ( John’s ‘the screen we create’)
Q.16 Possible Approaches:
• on extract : attitudes include: is HE good for all?
• what is teacher’s role? Is it to ‘provoke’?
• has education become a game, exams a ritual?
• is education more than useful?
• Students are likely to comment on the balance of dialogue in the scene, the mismatch between John’s words and his actual behaviour, his vocabulary and tone, Carol’s hesitant speech here compared with later in the play, her shouting
• in rest of play , there are likely to be remarks on
• irony in that Carol becomes more articulate, asks questions, doesn’t just repeat teacher’s words and ideas, reverses their roles
• the idea of education as part of structure of power (Carol’s speech in Act 3) which raises questions of gender, status etc (who chooses the texts?)
• students might raise question whether Mamet thinks education can ever be free from these issues of power

Section B: Drama post-1990
AO4: most candidates were clearly aware of the double-weighting of this assessment objective. However, while many integrated a range of relevant contexts into their answers, there are still some who treat context as a separate section to be ‘tagged on’ at the beginning or end of the essay. This was the particularly the case with some answers on Kindertransport and Oleanna . Further, there is a significant minority of candidates who included no reference to wider context.
AO1: there were some extremely focused and well written essays. However, some candidates lost marks because they didn’t focus enough on the given extract: at times the extract was dealt with in a couple of lines. It is essential that candidates focus on the extract; otherwise they risk penalising themselves in AO1 and AO4 (the play as wider context for the extract).
AO2: as has been noted in past reports, the strongest responses were those where candidates showed clear awareness of the play as drama . Candidates should include detailed discussion of the effects of a range of dramatic techniques, including dialogue, stage directions, props, costume, staging, setting, sound effects, lighting etc. Some candidates who had analysed the Section A texts well, using suitable terminology, seemed to forget this approach when it came to the play, selecting extracts of dialogue without discussing the impact of language
David Mamet: Oleanna
Q.15 Re-read Act 2 from page 43 (JOHN and CAROL seated across the desk from each other ) to page 48 (CAROL: It’s ‘ludicrous ...’?). Examine how Mamet presents political correctness in this extract and elsewhere in the play.
Some candidates seemed uncertain about what exactly was meant by political correctness; this led to some vague, assertive and largely narrative answers. There was also a tendency at times to generalise about political correctness and feminism.
Some candidates included context as a separate paragraph at the beginning or end of the essay, disconnected from the text. However, equally, there were some very nuanced and sensitive arguments, with the strongest answers focusing on how
Mamet presents political correctness.
Q.16 Reread Act 3 from page 63 (CAROL: The issue here is not what I ‘feel’.) to page 68 (CAROL: I know what you think I am.). Discuss how Carol’s response to John’s principles and values is presented in this extract and elsewhere in the play.
The stro ngest answers outlined John’s principles and values, and kept focus on
Carol’s response to them. Some candidates showed real sensitivity when discussing the issues, such as attitudes to education and the differences in the characters’ socio-economic backgrounds. Weaker responses tended to paraphrase the dialogue, and some focused more on John’s reaction to Carol. Some wrote in great detail about the wider political contexts, but at times drifted from the question.
For how social/cultural events can be said to influence a play, consider the claim that
Oleanna was based on the American Senate hearings in 1991 on the appointment of
Clarence Hill to the Supreme Court in which sexual harassment was a central issue.
Mamet has denied this and said that he had already started writing the play. Mamet could also be responding to the cultural concept of political correctness which

appears around this time. Indeed, many critics think that Mamet was directly writing about the dangers of political correctness in academia and that he has loaded the play's argument in favour of the male professor. (For contextual material on these issues see The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet , edited by Christopher
Bigsby, and for fascinating discussions of the Clarence Hill case see Race-ing
Justice , En-gendering Power edited by Toni Morrison.)
Specimen Paper LT1 Q. 15
Re-read Oleanna from the bottom of page 71 ('Oh. Your job'.) to theend of the play. To what extent is the conflict between Carol and John in this extract and elsewhere in the play presented as a power struggle between men and women?
What is the focus of the question? Is there a power struggle? Relevance of context of writing/ performing the play. How is conflict to the question. presented as a power struggle in the rest of the play? Is it chiefly a gender How does conflict? conflict develop in rest of play? Look at the conflict between Carol and John in extract