Oleanna and Prologue

Oleanna, the song is a Norwegian folk song about someone wanting to escape to a better place, namely Oleanna. The song is alluded to in the title of the play and obviously has significance to the play. Through out the play both the characters, John and Carol fight for the power over each other. Carol wants to ruin him so that she can pass the class and do what she wants in her future with out the class stopping her. John wants his freedom to do what he want as a teacher. In a way this is them trying to escape to a better place which allows them to do as they please. This song is also reflected in Johns life inside and outside of the college. John is constantly trying to get something better as we are constantly reminded through the phone calls that he get during their conversations. His Tenure and house as well as his relationship with his wife all seem to be out of reach while he is at the college trapped by the battle between Carol and him; as in the song he is trapped in a place he does not want to be while thinking about better places/things. After reading Alice's blog post on this topic I understood some of the more metaphorical representations of the song in the play. One of these is that Carol came to the school in search of success and has (during the play) not done so but is failing a class; this is seen in the song as the man wishes to go to Oleanna but unfortunately Oleanna is really a fairytale that in reality failed.The prologue quotation by Samuel Butler is very pertinent to the play. As it talks about deluding themselves to survive. This is important to the play as Carol is going to completely ruin John in order to pass the course and survive college.In a way John also deludes himself into thinking that he can take care of the problem on his own to preserve his pride and ego. The second prologue quote is from the song alluded to in the title.