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David Mamet's games in "Glengarry Glen Ross", "Homicide", and "House of Games"

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Date Issued:
1993
Summary:
David Mamet's use of play and games in his dramas illustrates the nature of play: its power to attract and hold players in its spell. Play and games fascinate and master the characters. Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, Bob Gold in Homicide, and Margaret Ford in House of Games are convinced that they know the rules of the game and thus believe they are in control. They assume roles that they believe make them major players in the game they think they are playing. But rather than being in control of the game and its rules, each of these characters is an unwitting player in a larger game where they are the pawns. In addition, these characters contribute to their own victimization by breaking the rules of their own games. The audience participates in these characters' games and adventures very much as the characters themselves do and are thus mesmerized, mastered, and ultimately set up by the game that Mamet plays with them.
Title: David Mamet's games in "Glengarry Glen Ross", "Homicide", and "House of Games".
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Name(s): Woods, Mary.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Pearce, Howard D., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1993
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 53 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: David Mamet's use of play and games in his dramas illustrates the nature of play: its power to attract and hold players in its spell. Play and games fascinate and master the characters. Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, Bob Gold in Homicide, and Margaret Ford in House of Games are convinced that they know the rules of the game and thus believe they are in control. They assume roles that they believe make them major players in the game they think they are playing. But rather than being in control of the game and its rules, each of these characters is an unwitting player in a larger game where they are the pawns. In addition, these characters contribute to their own victimization by breaking the rules of their own games. The audience participates in these characters' games and adventures very much as the characters themselves do and are thus mesmerized, mastered, and ultimately set up by the game that Mamet plays with them.
Identifier: 14906 (digitool), FADT14906 (IID), fau:11690 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1993.
Subject(s): Mamet, David--Criticism and interpretation
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14906
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.