Oleanna and Equus: A Comparison

Oleanna (1992) begins with an exchange between a college professor, John, and one of his students, Carol. He has given her a failing grade, and she is reluctant to accept his decision. He is constantly interrupted by phone calls about the pending purchase of a house, made possible by the pending decision of the tenure committee to award him the security and recognition for which he has worked so hard and to which he feels entitled. He defends himself breezily to the naive, inexperienced student, even offering to allow her to start over under his personal instruction. He obviously considers himself to be hip, knowledgeable, accomplished, and witty. He is gracious enough to concede that his student=s failure is actually his own but does not reall

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aining) to recognize the danger he is in. John is so unaware of himself that he may actually be more likely to succumb to any one of a number of personality disorders. Yet John=s fall from grace is not as tragic from a dramatic standpoint, if merely because he is such a pathetic figure to begin with. This patronizing, self-important figure almost begs to be brought down from his pedestal, while Dysart=s questioning and willingness to see himself as flawed makes him more sympathetic and therefore more moving in his pain. Oldham and Morris (1990) chronicle the impact of personal and professional success on the different stages of life. They observe that success in middle adulthood, the period both men are in, results in feelings of being @productive and creative,@ while failure in the same period makes the individual Aegocentric, nonproductive, [experiencing] early invalidism, excessive self-love, personal impoverishment, [and] self-indulgence@ (p. 393). Both men present many of these symptoms of stagnation. Dysart is actually professionally successful, though he is having difficulty feeling like a success. During the course of the play, however, he comes of recognize that his personal life is stale and flawed. His childless
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)