Marxist Analysis of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross

Abstract

Capitalism gives high value to success and detests failure as it thrives on and

promotes cut-throat competition between the working class people which is exemplified

in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. Because of facing the unjustly imposed

challenge of succeed or get fired, which also is like saying ‘succeed or you will perish,’

the characters are bound to use dishonest means for gaining quick success that is

demanded by the brutal system. But the using of the wrong ways does not leave them

spared and they themselves have to suffer from that. The material-oriented system of

capitalism that demands success and only ‘success,’ is the main culprit and responsible

factor behind the characters’ becoming immoral and their victimization from that. Mamet

through this play shows the hardships faced by the working class in a capitalist society

claiming that all their behaviors, good or bad, are guided by the ethics of the same as they

are the product of the society and its system.