Glengarry Glen Ross

:This article is about the play by David Mamet. For the movie adaption, see Glengarry Glen Ross (film).

Language

The play is noteworthy for the flow of persuasive patter of the salesmen characters, who spend much time trying to convince customers, the oily office manager, and even each other to give them what they want: down payments for real estate, access to valuable sales leads, and even co-operation in conspiracies. The play also shocked audiences with its (for the time) raw language, with its roughly 150 uses of the word "fuck" or variations, as in this early scene, when desperate salesman Shelley Levene tries to persuade the office manager, Williamson, to give Levene prospects (or "leads") to sell to:

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:LEVENE: I need the leads. I need them now. Or I'm gone, and you're going to miss me, John, I swear to you.

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:WILLIAMSON: Murray...

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:LEVENE: ...you talk to Murray...

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:WILLIAMSON: I have. And my job is to marshal those leads...

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:LEVENE: Marshal the leads...marshal the leads? What the fuck, what bus did you get off of, we're here to fucking sell. Fuck marshaling the leads. What the fuck talk is that? What the fuck talk is that? Where did you learn that? In school?

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:::(pause)

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:That's "talk," my friend, that's "talk." Our job is to sell. I'm the man to sell. I'm getting garbage.

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:::(pause)

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:You're giving it to me, and what I'm saying is it's fucked.

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