The play ” Oleanna” by David Mamet
This piece is about one student named carol who take this course, she just cannot understand. As she is about to dump this profession, she tries to talk with the teacher, called John, if he could help her learn and explain it better so she could understand it. During their conversation there are a lot of misunderstandings, which in the end gives many consequences on the teacher.
In the first act has carol arranged a meeting with her teacher John. The purpose of this meeting is that she should explain to him that she has problems with the course and that she stands to dump. As she sits in his office John’s telephone suddenly began to ring and it was his wife who were ringing. He takes the phone and talks for awhile. She almost hears the entire conversation. As he turns his telephone off, she asks him directly what “the terme of art" means, he tries to answer her but like her he doesn’t know what it means either, and they talk a bit about that. When she tries to explain to him that she has difficulty in his profession, and that she would like to get some more help, he began to constantly interrupt her. An example for that you can see on page 2 when Carol has her 3 line when she starts saying: “You don’t do that”…. That interrupting could you put under the category positive face threatening acts, and that is the first example of him trying to get the power over the situation. He constantly tries and changes topics, and it also manages him. Since he is the authority, she has respect for him, and dare not to speak against him and goes with what he says. John is using his power as a teacher to change topic, and the topics he is changing has nothing to with school. As an example for that you can see on page 5 when Carol has her 5 line that starts like this: “I did what you told me…” and after she says the line he turns it over to that he wasn’t her father, and with that statement became Carol very confused.
Because John is the authority he can’t understand why Carol is so upset on not getting the course, he even tries to go down on a more personal level, and that is not very professional of him. But Carol doesn’t stop him while he is changing subject, she asks into it like she really is interested in what he has to say. Generally in act 1, when she chooses to ask him for advice, asking him to help to pass this profession, she gives him "power over her." The power either to give her help, or as he chooses in the play to be a little indifferent. It's like he uses her to talk to him about anything not school related to make her more desperate to say personal things about herself. For example, on page 19 to the beginning of page 20, when he asks: why she is feeling bad and then interrupts her constantly, and just to prove that he controls the conversation. In act 1 he uses negative face threatening acts in page 10 when he says that he likes her, and just in generally when he changes topic that isn’t school related. He is also using negative politeness when he uses plural pronouns like on page 10 the last line: perhaps we’re similar.
The difference between reading and watching the play is very different. I would say when I read the piece, I had many troubles understanding it and getting my head into it because it started in media res. You doesn’t really get an idea of how much time the play is striving over that after every act there has been a while in between they have talked together last. So you actually have no idea how long the play is over. When I saw the play I felt that everything I had read suddenly made more sense. To hear them talk and see their facial expressions and their body language made it that easier to understand.