Glengarry Glen Ross

I did not even notice until I reflected upon the play and the movie that there were no female characters in either. I think that I was more focused on the cut-throat environment of real estate. The women that are mentioned however, play an interesting role, particularly Lingk's wife. Throughout the entire play/movie, the men are the ones who seem to be in control, with the exception of Levene. Roma seems to be the one that everyone listens to. He is extremely persuasive and good with his words and ends up easily manipulating Mr. Lingk. Further in the story, however, Lingk returns to the office and tells Roma that his wife is making him decline the deal. His wife even goes as far to saying that he cannot negotiate with Roma and that he must get his money back. It seems strange to me that the men in this play are represented as in control and domineering but Lingk is so easily told what to do by his wife. The other women that are mentioned in this play are almost looked down upon by the other men. For example, Mrs. Nyborg serves Levene crumb cake. When Roma asks Levene how it was he replies, “Oh, it was store bought.” It is as if the men have no respect for women especially because of the harsh words that they tend to call one another. They always seem to be questioning each other’s manhood. Everyone talks down to Williamson and Williamson takes it and fires right back at them. However, I find it interesting that with the case of Roma he seems to hold his tongue and not say anything at all; it is almost as if he respects him the most. Contrastingly, Levene's life seems to be out of control. He isn't getting the good leads and has not been high on the board for a month. It is Levene’s “big mouth” and inability to speak fluently that ultimately lead to his downfall. I think that the lack of women in this story make the men seem more powerful, even if they are weak themselves.

King Lear

I think that it is safe to say that King Lear definitely has his "womanly moments" in this play. I think that Kahn is pretty accurate when speaks of how the absence of a mother figure in the story represents her hidden presence in Lear. The beginning of the story particularly stands out to me as not only childish and immature but feminine. When Lear is asking his daughters to tell him how much they love him it reminds me of children and when they stretch their arms out and say, "I love you this much." To me, this seems like something that a young girl would say to her mother.
King Lear seems to be very emotional throughout most of the play as well which is definitely a trait that is more associated with women than men. He tends to have little temper tantrums and cries a lot more than what I would expect a king of such high standard to do. He even calls his tears "women's water drops" which suggests that he himself is aware of his femininity.
Another topic that I would like to talk about is about Lear and Cordelia’s relationship. In my opinion, from the beginning of the play as with the end it seemed to me that Cordelia almost represented a motherly figure to Lear. This role can also be reversed in that Lear is like Cordelia's mother since a true one is not established in the play. When Lear realizes that Cordelia is soon to marry I think he almost becomes jealous and enraged which may be another reason that he disowns her. He might also have been saddened by the fact that he will be losing his daughter to another man. Once disowned, I believe that Lear thinks that he has made Cordelia unfit to marry and so he still has his paternal/maternal control over her.
Towards the end of the play, I like how Kahn speaks about how King Lear has matured and accepted his human dependency. I completely agree with her. The reunion of Cordelia and Lear is such a short-lived one, however, a special one. I like how he finally accepts that he made the mistake of disowning Cordelia and has formed some sort of humility and humanity compared to the beginning. In one of the movie clips shown, the fact that he kneels when Cordelia kneels helps reiterate the fact that he has accepted the fact that he is simply just a man.