Glengarry Glen Ross & David Mamet

Throughout the first scene power appears to shift between the two characters. Trace this shifting power relationship and comment closely on the way this is borne out in the characters language. Throughout the first scene in the play "Glengarry Glen Ross", David Mamet is tremendous in portraying the shifting of power between the two characters - John Williamson and Shelly Levene. There are many examples in the first scene which prove this and throughout this essay I will give examples and discuss how the power shifts from character to character.

Before we know anything about who he is or what he wants, we can see that Shelly Levene is nervous and stammering and he is struggling to keep Williamson's attention. "John... John..

. John. Okay. John.

John. Look:(Pause. )". Levene is supposed to be this first-rate salesman, yet what he is saying in the opening of the play demonstrates his loss of persuasive speech. Levene goes on talking to Williamson for about a minute, and throughout his speech he seems to pause an awful lot and changes what he is saying.

"...I know they do, you get a certain mindset ..

. A guy gets a reputation. We know how this ..

. all I'm saying, put a... " Levene is trying to justify his actions here but he does not know what to say; he is lost for words, and as I said earlier he seems to have even lost the art of persuasive speaking. To the audience, all of this would seem as if Williamson is the more powerful of the two, as Levene is pleading to keep his job, while Williamson just sits there and listens to him.

Williamson and Levene also seem to interrupt each other a great deal.L: "... you put a closer on the .

.. " W: "Shelly, you blew the last...

" L: "No. John ...

one I closed ... " W: "...

you didn't close ... " L: "...

I, if you'd listen to me. " The audience may have different views on this, however I think, as well as being quite disrespectful towards each other, it also seems that whenever Williamson interrupts Levene it is because he is correcting him, however whenever Levene interrupts Williamson he just keeps repeating himself and is just going round in circles.From this, the audience would probably get the impression that, although Levene is the louder of the two, and probably the ruder of the two as well, "cocksuckers", Williamson is actually the more powerful of the two as he is the sort of man who is just cool, calm and collected and he knows that Levene is just digging a hole for himself and he just leaves him to do that. Williamson seems to be the classic business man, and he seems to be just treating Levene lightly and not really listening to him, and we can see this whenever he answers Levene in short sentences and I think Williamson is almost condescending towards Levene.It seems to me as if Williamson is just thinking he has not got the time for Levene rambling on at him and he seems almost indifferent.

The classic father-son argument is resembled here, where the son just goes on and on and the father is just apathetic towards him. Although it may seem a very subtle point, I think it is paramount in demonstrating how Williamson is clearly the more powerful of the two, whether Levene is shouting and swearing or not. Another time when we see Levene go on and on while swearing and Williamson just answers calmly is a bit later in the scene. "Bullshit. John Bullshit. .

..It isn't fucking Moss... " Williamson then says "Not lately it isn't", and Levene answers with a fairly childish answer, "Lately kiss my ass lately" This would probably show the audience how calm Williamson is, while Levene is almost panicking and just talking without thinking.

Levene then goes on another one of his speeches and throughout it he swears a great deal and is not really respectful to Williamson and the audience may think that he is the more powerful, however he is only shouting like this because Williamson, his boss, is letting him and if it were any other boss I think Levene would be put in his place.I think a fairly significant moment in showing where the power lies is shown when Williamson says to Levene "You're saying that I'm fucked", and Levene replies "Yes. (Pause. ) I am. I'm sorry to antagonize you.

" Here, Levene replies instantly saying yes, and then the pause after is very significant as, I think, Levene backs up a little and thinks for once and realises that this is his boss who he is talking to. I think when he pauses, the audience would feel that he is maybe frightened of Williamson, however he then says "I am.I'm sorry to antagonize you", so this shows us that Levene is actually aware of how he is speaking towards his boss, who could have him fired at any time, yet he still continues to do so. Levene also does not really seem to have a wide range of vocabulary and we see this especially at one point. "Fuck him. Fuck Murray.

John? You know? You tell him I said so. What does he fucking know? " I think the audience might think that he is powerful in that he can talk to his boss like that, however I think that he is trying to seem all macho by using these words and he maybe trying to intimidate Williamson, however it is not working.Williamson later starts to get quite agitated with Levene as, before he speaks, it says "(snaps)". There is also a fantastic moment in the scene where Levene is asking rhetorical questions, "Do I want charity? Do I want pity? I want sits. " , and then three pages later we see Levene saying "I'm asking you. As a favor to me? (Pause.

) John. (Long Pause. ) John: my daughter... " So we can see here that he is actually contradicting himself.

The long pause is very significant, as I think Levene realises that he is not getting anywhere with Williamson, so he tries changing his approach by going for the sympathy vote, which still does not work.Again, although this is a fairly subtle point, it shows how dominant and powerful Williamson is over Levene as he makes Levene go round in circles and start to contradict himself just by letting Levene go on and on. So, I think it is fairly easy to see that Williamson is the more powerful of the two and although the audience may think that power is shifting throughout the scene, I think if we look more closely we can see how subtle things indicate that Williamson is the more powerful. The clearest example is when they are talking and Levene asks, "Why? ", and Williamson replies, "Because I say so. "