Glengarry Glen Ross: Analysis of Setting
"Glengarry Glen Ross: Analysis of Setting" explores the significant role of location in the play "Glengarry Glen Ross." The narrative unfolds primarily in two settings: a Chinese restaurant and a dilapidated real estate office. The Chinese restaurant serves as a casual meeting ground for the salesmen, depicted as a typical establishment in a large American city, equipped with booths and serving alcoholic drinks, which adds a layer of social interaction among the characters. Despite the ostensible wealth discussed, the salesmen's dietary habits suggest a stark contrast to their financial aspirations.
In contrast, the real estate office presents a stark image of desperation and decay. It is described as ransacked, with broken windows and stolen telephones, indicating the chaotic and cutthroat nature of the real estate business that the salesmen navigate. This setting emphasizes the tension and urgency within the sales environment. Additionally, the fictitious Glengarry Glen Ross subdivision in Florida serves as an ironic backdrop, promising an idyllic retirement paradise that starkly contrasts with the harsh realities of the land. This duality in settings reflects the themes of ambition, deception, and the harsh truth behind the facade of success in the world of high-pressure sales.
Glengarry Glen Ross: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1983
First produced: 1983, at the Cottlesloe Theatre (National Theatre), London
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of work: 1982
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
Chinese restaurant
Chinese restaurant. Act 1 takes place in what is understood to be a typical Chinese restaurant in any large American city. No description of the interior is provided except that it has booths. Unlike many Chinese restaurants, this establishment serves alcoholic beverages, as the reader learns when Roma buys a round of gimlets for himself and Lingk. The salesmen are always talking about big sums of money, but they give the impression that they subsist on dishes of rice or noodles and chopped up vegetables. The restaurant is not much more than a door or two away from their office.
Real estate office
Real estate office. This place looks like every other real estate office in a big city, except that it has been ransacked. A broken window has been boarded up, and there is broken glass all over the floor. Even the telephones have been stolen in a vain attempt to divert suspicion from the real purpose of the burglary, to steal the fabulous Glengarry Glen Ross leads. It is immediately obvious that there is little in such an office worth stealing because no merchandise or money is kept on the premises. There is an outer office for the salesmen and an inner office for the manager, where Baylen, the detective, questions the salesmen one by one.
*Glengarry Glen Ross
*Glengarry Glen Ross. Real estate subdivision in far-off Florida, parcels of which are sold sight unseen by the high-pressure salesmen. The outlandishly romantic Scottish name, designed to help attract mailed-in “leads,” suggests the ironic contrast to the likely reality—flat, barren, grossly overpriced land infested with mosquitos and alligators, totally unimproved except for a billboard promising a future retirement paradise.
Bibliography
Adler, Thomas P. Mirror on the Stage: The Pulitzer Plays as an Approach to American Drama, 1987.
Bigsby, C. W. E. David Mamet. New York: Methuen, 1985. A study of the life and work of David Mamet, with one chapter devoted to a detailed discussion of Glengarry Glen Ross. This first book-length study of Mamet presents an interesting portrait of Mamet that is based partly on personal interviews.
Carroll, Dennis. David Mamet. New York: Macmillan, 1987. An in-depth study of Mamet’s plays, grouping them thematically, with chapters on business, sex, learning, and communion. The chapter on “Business” compares Glengarry Glen Ross with another popular Mamet play, American Buffalo (1975).
Davis, J. Madison, and John Coleman. “David Mamet: A Classified Bibliography,” in Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present. Vol. 1, 1986.
Dean, Anne. David Mamet: Language as Dramatic Action. London: Associated University Presses, 1990. Focuses on Mamet’s poetic use of the American vernacular. Contains many quotes from five of Mamet’s plays and devotes a chapter to Glengarry Glen Ross.
Jones, Nesta, and Steven Dykes, comps. File on Mamet. London: Methuen, 1991. This small book is packed with useful information about David Mamet, including excerpts from reviews of various performances of Glengarry Glen Ross. Detailed chronology and a bibliography.
Mamet, David. Interview with Matthew C. Roudane, in Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present. Vol. 1, 1986.
Mamet, David. Writing in Restaurants. New York: Viking Penguin, 1986. A collection of thirty essays in which Mamet expresses his thoughts about a number of subjects, including the theater and film making in Hollywood.
Roudane, Matthew C. “Public Issues, Private Tensions: David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross,” in The South Carolina Review. XIX (1986), pp. 35-47.
Storey, Robert. “The Making of David Mamet,” in The Hollins Critic. XVI (October, 1979), pp. 1-11.