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John, a professor at an unnamed American university, is one of the two dual protagonists and antagonists in Oleanna. Pompous, self-absorbed, cavalier, and contrarian to a fault, John is an already-powerful man on the verge of amassing even more power: he is up for tenure, and only a few pieces of paperwork stand between him and the security he’s been searching for all his life. As John meets with his student Carol to discuss the struggles she’s having in his class, he talks at length—and without a filter—about the deep flaws in higher education, and the arbitrary, idiotic nature of the entire concept of academia. John claims to have struggled intensely throughout his own schooling, resulting in a contempt for the trappings of higher education, but also a desire to remake and reform the very institutions that once made him feel inadequate. John seems well-intentioned if a bit self-obsessed and out of touch throughout his conversation with Carol, and it is only in the second act, once she files a harassment claim against him (citing his putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her and his offer to give Carol an A for the semester should she attend private tutorials with John for the rest of the term), that his actions are seen in a new light. John may have had the best intentions in the world as far as helping Carol, but in a changing social environment, John’s old-school masculinity, pretentious pontificating, and casual dismissal of the very institutions which stand to give individuals like Carol a sense of community and purpose draw her ire and propel her towards revenge and retribution. Ultimately, John turns into an even more violent version of the person Carol has believed him to be all along. He threatens her physically at the end of the second act, and beats her violently at the end of the third, confirming his contempt for and anger towards the consequences of his behavior, which was once but is no longer part of the status quo.
John Quotes in Oleanna
The Oleanna quotes below are all either spoken by John or refer to John. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
JOHN: What is a “term of art”? It seems to mean a term, which has come, through its use, to mean something more specific than the words would, to someone not acquainted with them … indicate. That, I believe, is what a “term of art,” would mean. (Pause)
CAROL: You don’t know what it means…?
JOHN: I’m not sure that I know what it means. It’s one of those things, perhaps you’ve had them, that, you look them up, or have someone explain them to you, and you say “aha,” and you immediately forget what…
CARO: You don’t do that.
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CAROL: I did what you told me. I did, I did everything that, I read your book, you told me to buy your book and read it. Everything you say I … (She gestures to her notebook.) (The phone rings.) I do…. Ev…
JOHN:… look:
CAROL: …everything I’m told…
JOHN: Look. Look. I’m not your father. (Pause.)
CAROL: What?
JOHN: I’m.
CAROL: Did I say you were my father?
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JOHN: I’ll tell you a story about myself. (Pause) Do you mind? (Pause) I was raised to think myself stupid. That’s what I want to tell you. (Pause.)
CAROL: What do you mean?
JOHN: Just what I said. I was brought up, and my earliest, and most persistent memories are of being told that I was stupid. “You have such intelligence. Why must you behave so stupidly?” Or, “Can’t you understand? Can’t you understand?” And I could not understand. I could not understand.
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JOHN: If I fail all the time, it must be that I think of myself as a failure. If I do not want to think of myself as a failure, perhaps I should begin by succeeding now and again. Look. The tests you see, which you encounter, in school, in college, in life, were designed, in the most part, for idiots. By idiots. There is no need to fail at them. They are not a test of your worth. They are a test of your ability to retain and spout back misinformation. Of course you fail them. They’re nonsense.
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CAROL: There are rules.
JOHN: Well. We’ll break them.
CAROL: How can we?
JOHN: We won’t tell anybody.
CAROL: Is that all right?
JOHN: I say that’s fine.
CAROL: Why would you do this for me?
JOHN: I like you.
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CAROL: I was saying … I was saying … (She checks her notes.) How can you say in a class. Say in a college class, that college education is prejudice?
[…]
JOHN: … that’s my job, don’t you know.
CAROL: What is?
JOHN: To provoke you.
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CAROL: But how do they feel? Being told they are wasting their time?
JOHN: I don’t think I’m telling them that.
CAROL: You said that education was “prolonged and systematic hazing.”
JOHN: Yes. It can be so.
CAROL: …if education is so bad, why do you do it?
JOHN: I do it because I love it.
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Act 2 Quotes
JOHN: You see, (pause) I love to teach. And flatter myself I am skilled at it. And I love the, the aspect of performance. I think I must confess that. When I found I loved to teach I swore that I would not become that cold, rigid automaton of an instructor which I had encountered as a child. Now, I was not unconscious that it was given me to err upon the other side. And, so, I asked and ask myself if I engaged in heterodoxy, I will not say “gratuitously” for I do not care to posit orthodoxy as a given good—but, “to the detriment of, of my students.”
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JOHN: Well, all right. (Pause) Let’s see. (He reads.) I find that I am sexist. That I am elitist. I’m not sure I know what that means, other than it’s a derogatory word, meaning “bad.” That I… That I insist on wasting time, in nonprescribed, in self-aggrandizing and theatrical diversions from the prescribed text … that these have taken both sexist and pornographic forms … here we find listed […] instances “…closeted with a student” … “Told a rambling, sexually explicit story […] moved to embrace said student and … all part of a pattern …”
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CAROL: I don’t care what you feel. Do you see? DO YOU SEE? You can’t do that anymore. You. Do. Not. Have. The. Power. Did you misuse it? Someone did. Are you part of that group? Yes. Yes. You Are. You’ve done these things.
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CAROL: How can you deny it. You did it to me. Here. You did… You confess. You love the Power. To deviate. To invent, to transgress […] whatever norms have been established for us. […] And you pick those things which you feel advance you: publication, tenure, and the steps to get them you call “harmless rituals.” And you perform those steps. Although you say it is hypocrisy. […] You call education “hazing,” and from your so-protected, so-elitist seat you hold our confusion as a joke, and our hopes and efforts with it. Then you sit there and say “what have I done?”
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Act 3 Quotes
JOHN: They’re going to discharge me.
CAROL: As full well they should. You don’t understand? You’re angry? What has led you to this place? Not your sex. Not your race. Not your class. YOUR OWN ACTIONS. And you’re angry. You ask me here. What do you want? You want to “charm” me. You want to “convince” me. You want me to recant. I will not recant.
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CAROL: Even if I were inclined, to what, forgive? Forget? What? Overlook your…
JOHN: …my behavior?
CAROL: …it would be wrong.
JOHN: Even if you were inclined to “forgive” me.
CAROL: It would be wrong.
JOHN: And what would transpire.
CAROL: Transpire?
JOHN: Yes.
CAROL: “Happen?”
JOHN: Yes.
CAROL: Then say it. For Christ’s sake. Who the hell do you think that you are? You want a post. You want unlimited power. To do and to say what you want. As it pleases you—Testing, Questioning, Flirting…
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CAROL: Do you hate me now? (Pause)
JOHN: Yes.
CAROL: Why do you hate me? Because you think me wrong? No. Because I have, you think, power over you. Listen to me. Listen to me, Professor. (Pause) It is the power that you hate. So deeply that, that any atmosphere of free discussion is impossible. It’s not “unlikely.” It’s impossible. Isn’t it?
JOHN: Yes.
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CAROL: Do you want our support? That is the only quest…
JOHN: …to ban my book…?
CAROL: …that is correct…
JOHN: …this…this is a university… we… […] No, no. It’s out of the question. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking of. I want to tell you something I’m a teacher. […] It’s my name on the door, and I teach the class, and that’s what I do. I’ve got a book with my name on it. And my son will see that book someday. And I have a respon… No, I’m sorry I have a responsibility… to myself, to my son, to my profession…
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CAROL (exiting):…and don’t call your wife “baby.”
JOHN: What?
CAROL: Don’t call your wife baby. You heard what I said.
(CAROL starts to leave the room. JOHN grabs her and begins to beat her.)
JOHN: You vicious little bitch. You think you can come in here with your political correctness and destroy my life? (He knocks her to the floor.) After how I treated you …? You should be… Rape you…? Are you kidding me? (He picks up a chair, raises it above his head, and advances on her.) I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. You little cunt…
(She cowers on the floor below him. Pause. He looks down at her. He lowers the chair.)
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CAROL: Yes. That’s right. (She looks away from [JOHN,] and lowers her head. To herself:) …yes. That’s right.
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John Character Timeline in Oleanna
The timeline below shows where the character John appears in Oleanna. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
In an office on an unnamed university campus, John, a professor, takes a phone call at his desk while his student Carol sits opposite...
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John scribbles some notes and apologizes to Carol for being distracted. She asks him what a...
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John apologizes again for being distracted, but Carol insists he doesn’t need to apologize to her....
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John says he has a hard time believing that Carol is struggling so profoundly, and remarks...
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John tells the person on the other end—Jerry—that he can’t talk, and will call him back....
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John asks Carol for an example of something she doesn’t understand. She opens her notebook from...
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John tells Carol that he wishes he could help her with her anger, but has a...
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...understand what anyone around her is talking about. She explains that she signed up for John’s course because she was intrigued by the class’s promise to discuss “responsibility to the young,”...
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John asks Carol, who has stood up during her tirade, to calm down and sit. She...
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Carol cannot believe that people once told John he was stupid, and asks him who told him such things. He says that people...
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John tells Carol that he’s talking to her the way he’d talk to his own son—in...
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John hangs up the phone and explains that there are some problems with the final agreements...
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Carol asks John if he has problems, too, and he says he does. Carol asks him what his...
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Carol asks John how he stopped feeling the “need to fail,” and John replies that he had to...
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John begins to elaborate, but Carol interrupts him, saying that she wants to know about her...
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John tells Carol, again, that he wants to make a deal with her. He says that...
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Carol says they can’t start over, but John says they can. Carol points out that there are rules. John says the two of...
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Carol tells John that she was confused, in class, when he referred to “hazing.” She looks through her...
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John asks what Carol thinks about what he’s just said. She says she doesn’t know what...
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Carol asks if John believes that higher education is “prejudice,” and he says he does. Carol, shocked, asks how...
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Carol tries to interject, but John keeps talking. Eventually she becomes frustrated and shouts that she is trying to speak. John...
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John talks about a joke his friend told him when he was younger: “The rich copulate...
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John continues ranting, talking to Carol about his own desire to buy a nice house “to...
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John and Carol continue debating the use of a college education. John states that young people...
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John suggests Carol take a look at some statistics about the demographics of college students from...
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John continues trying to calm Carol from a distance. He shushes her and tells her to...
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John continues encouraging Carol to share her thoughts with him. Carol begins speaking, and starts saying...
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As John gets more and more irate and heated, he suddenly pauses, reacting to what’s happening on...
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Act 2
John and Carol are seated in his office again, looking at one another across John’s desk....
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When the possibility of tenure, John says, presented itself, he found himself desiring it—but wanted to make sure that he was...
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John tells Carol that he was “shocked” and “hurt” when the committee informed him of her...
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Carol tells John that she thinks he’s trying to figure out what he can do “to force [her]...
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John looks down at a piece of paper on his desk—Carol’s report. He looks through it,...
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After a pause, John tells Carol that her report is “ludicrous.” He claims that it is going to do...
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John says he wants to help Carol now “before this escalates,” and she replies that she...
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Carol cuts John off. She tells him that she came to his office only as a favor, at...
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Carol begins ranting against John, accusing him of speaking inappropriately to a woman in the privacy of his office. She...
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John, though, comes back at Carol with a fiery rant of his own. He says he’s...
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John encourages Carol to tell him in her own words what she wants and how she...
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Carol tells John that she doesn’t want to talk to him about her complaint now—she wants to “stick...
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Act 3
John and Carol are seated in his office once again. John says that he has asked...
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Carol stands up to leave, but John asks her calmly to stay. He tells her that if she will just hear him...
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John hangs up the phone and regains his cool a bit. He tells Carol that he...
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John says that the university is going to discharge him. Carol says they should—his own actions...
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John asks Carol if she has any feelings at all. Carol accuses John of comparing her...
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John asks what would “transpire” if Carol overlooked his behavior and forgave him. Carol berates John...
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Carol pulls John’s book from her bag. She reads from it, pointing out how inane and deliberately confusing...
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Carol says that she came here not to listen to whatever John wanted to tell her, but to tell him something. He invites her to tell him...
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Carol explains that though John mocks higher education and calls its rituals “hazing,” she and many members of her group...
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John says he understands Carol’s point, and sees “much good” in her thinking. He asserts, though,...
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Carol, incensed that John still wants to talk about his job, gathers her things and heads for the door....
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Carol tells John that her group will consider withdrawing its complaint and even speaking to the committee if...
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John asks for the list. Carol hands it to him, and he reads it over. When...
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John confesses that he hasn’t been home in two days—he’s been living a hotel, “thinking [things]...
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John answers the phone. It is Jerry. He tells Jerry that things are all worked out,...
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John asks Carol what’s going on. Carol replies that “according to the law,” John tried to...
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John, in shock, sinks into his chair. He tells Carol to get out—he needs to talk...
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John resumes his phone conversation, assuring his wife—whom he again calls “baby”—that things are going to...
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After a moment, John calmly sets the chair down and goes back over to his desk. He begins arranging...
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