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"How do you feel?" ". . . Stupid. . ."
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CAROL: No. No. There are people out there. People who
came here. |
|
To know something they didn't know.
Who came here. To be helped. To be helped. So someone would help
them. To do something. To know something. To get, what do they say? "To
get on in the world." How can I do that if I don't, if I fail? But I don't
understand. I don't understand. I don't understand what anything
means. . . and I walk around, from morning 'til night with this one thought in
my head. I'm stupid. |
JOHN: No one thinks you're stupid.
CAROL: No? what am I . . . ?
JOHN: I . . .
CAROL: . . . what am I, then?
|
JOHN: I think you're angry. Many people are. I have a
telephone call that I have to make. |
|
And an appointment, which is rather
pressing; though I sympathize with your concerns and though I wish I had
the time, this was not a previously scheduled meeting and I . . . |
CAROL: . . . you think I'm nothing. . .
JOHN: . . . have an appointment with a realtor, and with
my wife and...
CAROL: You think I'm stupid.
JOHN: No, I certainly don't.
CAROL: You said it.
JOHN: No. I did not.
CAROL: You did.
JOHN: When?
CAROL: . . . you. . .
JOHN: No. I never did, nor never would say that to a student,
and. . .
CAROL: You said, "What can that mean?" (Pause) "What can that
mean? . . .(Pause)
JOHN: . . . and what did that mean to you. . .?
CAROL: That meant I'm stupid. And I'll never learn. That's what
that meant. And you're right.
JOHN: . . . I . . .
CAROL: But then. But then, what am I doing here. . .?
JOHN: . . . if you thought that I . . .
CAROL: . . . when nobody wants me, and. . .
JOHN: . . . if you interpreted. . .
|
CAROL: Nobody tells me anything. And I sit here. .
. in the corner. In the back. |
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And everybody's talking about "this" all the
time. And "concepts: and "percepts" and, and, and, and, and, WHAT IN THE WORLD
ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? And I read your book. And they said, "Fine, go in that
class." Because you talked about responsibility to the young. I DON'T KNOW WHAT
IT MEANS AND I'M FAILING. . . |
From Oleanna: A Play by David Mamet.
Copyright © 1992 by David Mamet. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon
Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
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