• Khosrow Darabi

  Author

This study encompasses the theme of loneliness as one of the commonest features of
human beings in David Mamet’s masterpiece play, The Cryptogram, leading to one’s alienation
and death. Mamet depicts an American family of three bothering from devaluation of ethical
issues which cause an ultimate separation of John’s mother and father. In this essay John’s
loneliness as a societal and psychological phenomenon is analyzed based Robert S. Weiss’
interactive view of loneliness typology. Weiss conceptualizes loneliness as two different types:
social and emotional. John as the only child of the family suffers from being neglected and his
speech is full of secretive codes illustrating his loneliness. This paper studies the symptoms
indicating John’s loneliness and Mamet’s skills in depicting this loneliness by using Weiss’s
viewpoints regarding loneliness. John can be considered as the central character of the play,
someone whose loneliness is originated from the outsiders and it influences him in such a way
that death is something favorable in his eyes than living under such a heavy unbearable
conditions.

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