Glengarry Glen Ross

1) This question involves the women in the play--that is, the women mentioned in the play. Mamet has been accused of being anti-feminist at best and misogynist at worst. Yet certainly we can't say that he wants us to admire the "world of men" in this real estate office, or to agree with the characters' attitude toward women (or toward anyone outside their white male world). So what are we to make of the influence of women in the play? What of Mrs. Lingk, who ruins Roma's deal and indirectly brings about Levene's final fall? What of the "ex" Levene mentions early in the play, the one who "kicked out" of another deal? What of Levene's "daughter? And what of Harriet Nyborg, even, who serves Levene store-bought crumb cake and, along with her husband, agrees to sign a contract for land she has no intention or means of purchasing?

My question is, quite simply, how are we to deal with the presence/absence of women in Glengarry Glen Ross? How might you construct an interpretation of the play that takes these women into account?

David Mamet wrote a play, Glengarry Glen Ross, which is full of men. More specifically than just men, they are all white men in their forties and fifties. There are no real women characters in the play. However there are absent women – women that are merely mentioned in passing, women that have played roles in past story lines just out the time constraints of the writing. They are women that have bit parts, women that don’t speak and aren’t seen.

None of the women that are mentioned in the play are presented in a positive light with the possible exception of Levene’s daughter in the movie version. They seem to only service the misery of the men in the play. They cost them deals, they serve them crummy crumb cake, and cause them massive amounts of worry and pain. Harriet Nyborg strings Shelly Levene along for quite some time. Levene sits at the table with Harriet and Mr. Nyborg for “twenty-two minutes by the kitchen clock.” Not to mention the rest of the time spent on phone calls, high pressuring, and other general means to convert the “cocksucker.” Through all this Harriet Nyborg and her husband have no intention of buying any property. They just like talking to salesmen. Their money is no good.

The woman that seems to have the most important role, if you can call it that, and at least the biggest, is Mrs. Lingk. She completely ruins the Cadillac winner close that Richard Roma skillfully bags. She appears to have such control over her husband, James Lingk, that he is powerless to go against her will. He does not have the strength to tell her no and follow through with the deal. He does not even seem to possess the power to think for himself. He appears frightened of crossing Mrs. Lingk and has no courage, self-respect, or identity outside of his wife’s. She has made him into a pitiful shell of a man and has cost Roma a large sum of money.

Seeing as there are no women in the play other than the subtle nuances of feminine characters portrayed in overwhelmingly negative lights, I must assume that Mamet does this as a means of escape for his male characters, which are no moral lighthouses themselves. There are no females in the office or restaurant because of the strong distaste towards women the male characters have, excepting Levene and his daughter. However, while he loves and cares for his daughter, she is still a constant source of pain and worry for him just as with the other characters. So the absence of women is due to Mamet and his characters not wanting them around. They seem to believe that women make things more difficult.