Glengarry Glen Ross Literary Elements

Drama

English

A Chinese Restaurant and a sales office in Chicago 1983

POV is that of Roma, Levene primarily

Serious, Dramatic

Protagonist if Levene. Antagonist is Williamson

Sales leads are stolen from Williamson's office and a Detective has been called in to interrogate everyone in the office.

Levene reveals unwittingly that he is the thief. He goes into meet with the Detective after Roma attempts to make a pact with him to help him sell real estate.

Moss and Aaronow's discussing stealing the leads at the opening of the play foreshadows that the leads will be taken later in the play.

Levene's daughter's difficult situation is understated.

The play is an allusion to the desperate means by which we operate in order to have success, identity and a place in the world. That we work and grub for money, rather than earning it.

The imagery of the sets, including a Chinese restaurant and the sales office, shows the limited world that these men exist in. It narrows their lives in that we don't see their families nor their personal existence, which points to the nature of how salesmen actually exist.

Moss and Aaronow are the obvious thieves who stole the leads as we hear them plot early in the play. Paradoxically, it is Levene who gets to them before they do.

Roma attempting to bring Levene under his wing by selling himself as partners, that he's going to do good with him parallels Roma selling Lingk earlier in the play.

Roma is the personification of manipulation of the highest degree. He creates an emotional connection with clients in order to make them believe they are doing this great thing by buying, when in truth he is playing on their weaknesses in order to get what he wants, the money.

Roma's monologue to Lingk shows the slick and penetrating nature of a salesman: someone who could make you believe anything and cause you to act out of your own nature.