This links the two just as the more terse speaking style of Deborah and Dan link them. In the end, though, the characters in the play are linked largely on the basis of gender, with the two men seen more and more alike and the two women turning to one another in a world where men cannot relate to them. In spite of the way Joan talks about men, the play cannot help but depict the man as more at fault than women for the failure to connect, and the women see this as the case, while the men seem oblivious to the whole idea of their being at fault. That lack of awareness may indeed be the primary reason why the men are at fault. The women want to make a connection with the men, even if they find it difficult to do, while the men tend more toward sex without commitment and are more pleased to move from one woman to another so as...

They do not really make a strong connection with one another, either, for Bernie just likes to hear himself talk, while Dan listens but does not participate until th end of the play when his attitude has changed because of his experience with Deborah, or the way he views that experience.
The play embodies the sort of linguistic drama for which Mamet is known, but the play is not very profound and does not break new ground in the way it depicts or understands male-female relationships. The play had a shock value in 1976 because of the language, but much of that has dissipated since as such language is more and more common.

Works Cited

Mamet, David. Sexual Perversity in Chicago and the Duck Variations. New York:

Grove Press, 1974.