ABSTRACT
It is a critical given that David Marner is a playwright with a social conscience. From his personal statements in interviews and his own prose writings to the avalanche of theater reviews and critical evaluations, his social concerns repeatedly draw the largest share of attention. The written assessments of Glengarry Glen Ross, for example, which opened on March 24, 1984 at the John Golden Theater, as well as his own statements, typify the comments surrounding most of his works. The play was greeted by various reviewers as an "indictment of American materialism and ethics," as a "corrosive . .. indictment of corruption," as depicting "American spiritual malaise," as a "howl of protest" against "our contemptible consumer society," and as a dramatization of the fact that "envy and greed are the engines that drive North American capitalism. " 1 In a later scholarly opinion, Roudane writes that "avarice and greed form the nerve center of the play" and that the play shows that " public issues" and " business transactions" control "the individual 's private world . "2 Even Marner himself states that the play is about "how business corrupts" and about how "those in power in the business world .. . act unethically. ".l And assessments that acknowledge Marner's interest in the individual do so in the context of social and commercial interaction: his interest in male relationships (Rich labels them "duels for domination, power, and survival")4 the "individual's vocation," 1 as Roudane -::a ils it, as well as "the enervating influence selling exerts on the spirit of the individual"6 which Harvey defines as the toll that the " rat's maze" 7 takes on human beings.
