Rites of passage in the plays of David Mamet

The variety of rites of passage dramatized in David Mamet\u27s plays reflect his belief in theatre\u27s quasi-spiritual, healing function. For Mamet, his dramatized passage rites--in which his characters struggle to achieve permanence and connection in moments of profound crises--are a powerful means of transformation, offering both audience and reader unconscious solutions to psychic problems. Although the customary function of the rite of passage is to create an effective experiential bridge between one role or social status and another, this study finds most of Mamet\u27s dramatized rites failures. That is, his characters are unable or unwilling to take part in a social enterprise that demands communality, selflessness, and a momentary suspension of cynical disbelief. These failed rites, however, do not indicate Mamet\u27s rejection of ritual\u27s transformative function but his desire to combat the onslaught of cultural practices that denigrate its continued power to heal. Using a theoretical framework derived from van Gennep\u27s tripartite formulation coupled with Victor Turner\u27s and Mircea Eliade\u27s notions of ritual, ten of Mamet\u27s adapted and invented dramatized rites are examined in depth. Chapter One examines the appropriated initiatory rites of passage found in dramatic worlds that are exclusively male. The discussion first focuses on the failed initiations of the young neophytes in Lakeboat and American Buffalo, followed by the equally unsuccessful passage rites of pilgrimage and initiation for Mamet\u27s mid-lifers in Disappearance of the Jews and Glengarry Glen Ross. The chapter concludes that Mamet\u27s ritual failures result from the maleficence of our society\u27s business ethos, which poisons community and undermines true passage to manhood. In Chapter Two rites shared between the sexes are considered. The discussion begins with an examination of invented rites of father-daughter bonding in Reunion and courtship in The Woods. These two passage rites, together with the adapted divination ritual in The Shawl, are deemed successful. The ritual failures of Speed-the-Plow\u27s rite of status elevation and Oleanna\u27s paired rites of initiation and status degradation conclude the chapter. The failed rituals in these last two plays, it is argued, represent Mamet\u27s condemnation of America\u27s failure to accommodate the increasing stature of women. The concluding chapter contains an analysis of shamanic initiation in The Cryptogram and a rite of sibling bonding in Jolly. The fact that Mamet uses his own experiences of childhood abuse to construct these passage rites supports the study\u27s final assertion that all of Mamet\u27s dramatized rites of passage are best viewed as shamanic rituals of healing