Gender Stereotypes In Glengerry Glen Ross

Men and women have been subject to certain stereotypes throughout the ages. The gender roles of different societies transcend age, race, and location and affect us all. The Odyssey by Homer, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson explore the phenomenon of gender biases that many, if not all, societies deal with. At one point or another, it may become true that when men or women cross the threshold of prescribed gender roles, they are often belittled or ridiculed.

Tall, dark, and handsome has long been the standard of a desirable man. There is undoubtedly something about a “man’s man” that is intriguing and beguiling. However, there must be a point where too much masculinity becomes a problem. As society continues to praise men with the biggest muscles, the nicest cars, and the most women, it is becoming increasingly hard to draw the line between healthy masculinity and toxic masculinity. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, toxic ideas about what it means to be masculine ultimately ruins several characters, but most overtly Stanley, Stella, and Blanche, showing that toxic masculinity is a threat to everyone’s well-being, both male and

Have you ever felt that men always screw things up? Perhaps it is not men themselves that cause destruction; maybe it is merely the result of the presence of a masculine character. The role of masculinity is an essential aspect in both Bobbie Ann Mason's short story entitled, Shiloh, and in Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, although it functions very differently in each story. In Shiloh, we see the detrimental effects that the male role has even in its absence through the interactions that Leroy has with his with wife, Norma Jean. Contrasting this particular perspective, in A Streetcar Named Desire the destructive manner of the

One’s duty is something they must do as part of their job or something that is the “right” thing to do. Men, in general, tend to stick to a straight and narrow scope of things, whereas women think with emotion and more along the lines of what is right and what is wrong morally. During this time a woman’s duty was to her family, and as portrayed in this story, her friends and her gender. Furthermore, as seen in the play, the women feel a bond with one and other and tend to stick together to protect themselves. In this story, the men are there doing their jobs, and the women are only there to gather a few things for Mrs. Wright. Unfortunately, with arrogance, the men insult Mrs. Wright’s

Being a salesman has always carried a negative stigma since the early 1900s. Being seen as pushy, high pressure, deceitful people; the dreaded activity of purchasing some car or new appliance has haunted everyone at some point or another. Many words have come to describe salesman such as “sharks”, “cons”, “thieves” etc., and these words have stuck with the profession throughout the century. Two very realistic depictions of such phonies can be seen in Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet. They depict the styles of two salesmen who have very similar selling techniques, but at the same time can be contrastingly

to be prepared to stab others in the back and step on their faces in

With the idea of the American culture in a unique time during the 1940s, the plays Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun contain some similarities. These two classic works revolve around the idea that in the American culture around this era there was a feeling of pride among men that they could be the top dog around. In both stories, the fathers, Willie Loman and Walter Lee Younger, fulfilled the role of the main and tragic characters since they both have an obsessions of being their own boss and essentially not having their family depend on another man’s dollar to make a living. Both characters go to the extreme to solve their family’s money problem. For example, Walter takes all of his father’s life insurance money to invest in a not promising liquor business, while on the other hand Willie goes to the extreme and kills himself so his family’s debt could be resolved with his life insurance money. Even though in their eyes they believed they solved their family’s issues, they tore their families apart.

Glengarry Glen Ross gave an unforgiving, yet comedic examination of American identity in the 1980’s, when capitalism was an all powerful force under Reagan’, and America was experiencing a new upsurge of consumerism. Still under the threat of the Cold War, American patriotism was loyal to the capitalist model and glorified American ideal of hard work, and individual success of man. The second wave of feminism which flowed through the seventies was ebbing, as waves do, and the newly invigorated desire to achieve success sharpened the gender binary of American culture.

The patriarchy has been the thorn in every woman’s side since its influence began. It entails that men have the power to control society and leave women very few roles in it. To keep its influence, the patriarchy must not only have men participating. Women must also aid in its continuation by allowing it to control them. When women become empowered, they becomes outliers to the system, and it creates an imbalance between them and the men and women who do benefit from it. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts a power struggle between an outlier who needs influence, an individual who benefits from the power given him, and a loved one who follows the conventions laid out for her.

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) critiques society’s idea of strictly categorizing men and women into roles based upon gender. Williams starkly highlights the vast difference between these assigned gender roles and the resulting consequences of placing these unobtainable expectations on people. The main difference between the two socially conceived genders correlates with the amount of power each gender holds and, therefore, how each gender reacts to the opposite. The female gender should submit all power to males resulting in men being in complete control over women. Masculinity becomes associated with manipulation and control, implying and encouraging female frailty and weakness. Williams exhibits this balance between masculinity and

She is implying that Willy Louman did this such thing in the play Death of a Salesman by working so hard to become rich and successful that most men worked for during that time period. Most also says that to be theatrical in America at the same time is to be free and be able to choose a role which is what Willy Louman was trying to accomplish during his lifetime.

Often, the patriarchy is viewed as something enforced by men in order to retain their own power and sense of supremacy. However, many social scientists acknowledge the female elders in communities serve frequently as some of the most stringent enforcers of the patriarchy. In The House of Bernarda Alba and Death of a Salesman, the playwrights explore how their female characters use gender stereotypes to hold onto power or achieve stability. In both plays, Bernarda Alba and Linda Loman utilize patriarchal notions of gender performativity and roles tactically in order to achieve their objectives. Yet, at the same time, in both of these plays, moments of challenge to the traditional structures do occur. In House of Bernarda Alba, Lorca utilizes Adela’s challenges to patriarchal ideas to create the central conflict, whereas, in Death of Salesman, Linda

David Mamet wrote the play “Glengarry Glen Ross” as a look into the world of sales. As with most of his work, capitalism and its effect on the actors is a major theme. Stories as they are written have characters that have different roles based on their personalities and behaviors. This assignment of roles is something that has spanned the history of literary works. Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology explained these roles people assume and their meaning. The term he used to refer to these character descriptions is called archetypes. All of the characters in the play have problems. Most of these are based in personality flaws and a lack of moral character. When

Question #3 In the movie Philadelphia, Andy’s dismissal from the law firm was primarily based on fear. The members of the firm held several assumptions, the first being that all homosexual men are attracted to every man they come into contact with. The members of the firm realized in retrospect that they spent a lot of personal time with Andy, including moments in the steam room, in which members even exchanged homophobic jokes. This issue was aggressively addressed during Andy’s trial.

From a young age we are encouraged to work hard and put our best effort into anything we do. All our lives we are told to strive for high paying jobs and are sometimes even pushed into pursuing a career in which we have no passion for. In David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross”, salesmen are pushed to the edge in hopes of reaching their highest potential. At the end of the play Ricky Roma, the top salesman, expressed “ I swear… it’s not a world of men… it’s a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders… there’s no adventure in it… We are members of a dying breed” (Mamet, 1983). In these lines, Roma raises a valid point and criticizes the downfall of our society.