Blog Post 5 - Brandon Arnold

I agree with Mark Silverstein’s “Were Just Human” which makes the claim that the play “Oleana” “stages the content of America’s collective unconscious and, through staging, translates those contents into consciousness suggesting that theater can demystify and perform a kind of ideology critique of the desires and values inhabiting our national unconscious that is a political unconscious”(Silverstein P 3). “Oleana” displays a series of interactions between a man and a woman that would be considered in America to be cultural norms, but when a society comes to accept these gestures as normal, instead of gestures of dominance, it ultimately creates a collective unconscious and a society that is oppressive to women. There is also language and symbolism in the play that broadens the critique of this hegemonic rule by the elite white man over all the people who have been historically oppressed by them. The play simultaneously illustrates how white men are losing their power. The professor’s views on education, and his willingness to teach his students whatever he wants, illustrates Marx’s claim that the elite use the superstructure to socially condition the working class to be submissive.

The professor symbolizes what Marx would label the elite class, and the student symbolizes the working class. Throughout the play, the way the man interacts with the women, and the things he says, reveals a man who believes that he is superior to her: which would therefore symbolize white men being superior to women and the working class. During their first meeting, Carol starts having a breakdown, and the professor “goes over to her and puts his arm around her shoulder”(Oleana). This is a cultural norm that most people in America would consider to be acceptable. However, this would be considered inappropriate for a man to do to another man he does not know. Since there is an inherent difference here, and that society would deem it inappropriate to do to man but not a women, this becomes a gesture of dominance because society says he can do that to her. The professor continuously picking up the phone while Carol is talking is symbolic of the elite white man believing that their interests, problems, and what they are trying to achieve is more important than those in the lower class. Lastly, the professor speaking of “the white man’s burden” is what extends this critique of the existence of a hegemonic rule over women to minorities who largely make up the working class.

The professor’s philosophy of, and teaching methods symbolize Marx’s theory of a superstructure that facilitates the elite’s rules over the working class. The professor says that education had become hazing, and that it is “a ritual that has become an article of faith”(Oleana). He uses the example of her getting angry when he told her that about education as example of how the elites have succeeded in convincing the middle class that education is a necessity when really it is “a fashionable necessity for those aspiring to the new vast middle class that we espouse it as a matter of right and have ceased to ask what is it good for?”(Oleana). He is admitting that higher education is part of the elites superstructure intended to socialize the working class to further their power and that it is a conscious effort.

The audience’s reaction to the play demonstrates the collective unconscious that exists in America. Sliverstein describes how the beating at the end of the play is “often accompanied by applause, cheers, and quite audible exclamations of encouragement to the professor”(Silverstein P.2) by both me and women. The man in the play sexually harasses and demeans Carol throughout the entire play, however,since he only does this in ways that would be considered cultural norms in America, the audience is unable to see past their social conditioning, so they perceive the professor’s actions as normal. As a result, the end ultimately results in two conflicting conclusions which simultaneously illustrates the power of perception. The intended meaning of the man beating a woman, who has acted completely within the law, and filed her complaints through all the proper channels, being beaten by the oppressor, who is no longer being subtle about his feelings of dominance over her, confirms that Carol was right. His true self, the man Carol knew he was all along (that the professor might not have even realized he was, because he is a product of the same social conditioning as the rest of America), finally comes out at the end, and we see him for what he really is: an elitist who thinks he is superior to women and members of the lower class. Carol says “yes, that is right”, because there is no hiding it anymore, and they both know she is and has been right. However, as a result of the audience being unable to see past their social conditioning, they see everything he has done as cultural norms and therefore acceptable. As a result, Carol becomes the villain, and they on cheer the man who is beating the woman who asks only for equality. They are so socially conditioned by the elites, they defend the man who is breaking the law and cheer as he violently defends their status quo instead of the woman legally seeking equality.