Masculinity in Glengarry Glen Ross

Each character in this play is living through strife and frustration in their own lives, with themselves and in their own efforts to get by in society. Everything in this play appears to be a competition. It is a competition of manly hood. Whoever sells the most, gets the most respect, drives the fanciest car, and gets better sales in the future. Blake (Alec Baldwin’s character) even goes so far as to hold up a set of brass balls in the meeting so as to emphasize the amount of testosterone it takes to be a good salesman. He compares his annual earnings to the other men in the room in order to emasculate them. He belittles them, puts them down, and basically tells them that he could do their job better than any of them any day. The constant profanity throughout the movie is the male expression of frustration and attempted intimidation. Characters in the play are constantly putting one another down in order to build themselves up. Insults such as fairy are thrown around to question other’s manly hoods. Levine tells Williamson that a man is his job. If this is the case, then all of the men working at this sales organization are in a constant struggle not only with their positions of work but with their positions as men. The ability to provide also seems to be a major component of manly hood. Levine ultimately resorts to criminal activity to be able to support his daughter. When Lingk is unable to provide Roma with his compliance with the final sale, he admits that he has let him down. As the saying goes “money is power” and in this play that idea is fully illustrated. Each of these men are struggling with the lack of authority they have over their own lives. They blame their inability to sell on their placement on the board. As a former sales associate, I have heard the saying “there are no bad sales, only bad salespeople”. The characters in this play have a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that their poor placement on the board is a result of any fault of their own. They are in such denial, it seems, because their placement on the board is symbolic of their placement as a man.

In the beginning of the play, King Lear has developed all the same symptoms of an only child. He has been spoiled beyond belief materialistically as well as egotistically. As King he has never been denied anything he desires or wants and has the full respect of all of his followers. It is no wonder then that he does not see the danger in giving up his estate as King. He has come to trust those (Regan and Goneril) who have entertained his need for superfluous praise and failed to appreciate the simplicity of his daughter Cordelia’s affection for him. King Lear’s pride, his ego, and his power are the things that he holds most dear, not unlike many men. It could seem that when King Lear disowns Cordelia that it is because he is sensitive to his daughter’s remarks as a father. In actuality, his pride and ego are hurt as a king and as a man, which is something he is unaccustomed to and not willing to tolerate. It is because of this that I tend to believe that King Lear views his roles as King and as father as one and the same, at least in the beginning of the play. He has not learned to differentiate between those who are milking him for all he is worth and those who truly respect and love him as a person.
After seeing and living life as a truly poor man, King Lear begins to experience emotions such as empathy, sympathy, understanding and humility (possibly for the first time in his life). In turn, his pride and ego seem to fade away. I find it interesting, especially since this play is from a time when women had little importance in society that he needs to feel as a woman might have frequently in the society of that day: undermined, disrespected, and humiliated before he can find the strength to reveal his more emotional self and in turn further empower himself as a person and as a father. It is unknown where the mother of his three daughters is but none-the-less she is absent. This leaves King Lear with the responsibility of acting not only as father but as mother as well. He has not acted as such or even realized this necessity on his part to fulfill these two roles until he feels the same emotions that a mother might feel in his situation. He begins to go into a state of hysteria that he refers to as “the mother” where he feels remorse for banning his daughter Cordelia, feels betrayed by his other two daughters, and feels exposed for this first time in his life. He begins to not only feel, but admit to what he feels, which is a big step for a man of such high standing and power.