Betrayal in Death of a Slaesman and Stone Angel

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s character, Willy Loman, is desperately trying to achieve the unattainable American Dream. Throughout the play, Willy encounters many challenges that have derailed his course and his perseverance drives him and his family insane.

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

Willy Loman believes in the “American Dream,” which is the belief that anyone can be lifted from humble beginnings to greatness. His belief on this idea is that a man can reach success by selling his

It’s not even day back in Hagar times that a slave decided to liberate herself from her family. Hagar was just an inmost virgin slave that was oppressed by her owner Sarai. The owner used Hagar for her benefits but did not think about the repercussions. If a woman was unable to provide children for her husband, she was seen as worthless. Therefore, since Sarai had fertility problems she decided to give her slave to her

He travels several miles for his job to support his family, and they still are not grateful for him. Willy is merely a saddened, forlorn, and misinterpreted man. He causes the “audience to sympathize” with him because before his tragic death, he “carried out” all that he was able to for his wife and kids (Heims 67). Despite everything from what is right from what is wrong, Willy Loman went after what he thought was best and “endeavored to contribute the foremost patrimony” not solely for himself, but for his family (Cardullo 586). The qualities that Willy show convinces the audience to feel compassion for him. When Willy Loman dies, this is why he can be seen as a tragic character. Given Polonius’ headstrong advise, awful tendency of spying on mostly everyone, and his brown-nosing ways with the King, it is not startling to the audience when he dies the way he

Besides the children of Macon Dead, there are other biblical allusions in the names of people. One of these is Hagar, Pilate's son and Milkman's cousin. Though the biblical Hagar is not well known, her character in the Bible reflects, in some ways, the character in Morrison's novel. In the bible, Hagar is Sarah's handmaiden. When she bares the son

When Milkman ponders if Hagar will not try to kill him on the thirteenth night, Guitar reminds him that she “ain’t missed in six months” (118). Hagar returns again and again on a specific day, determined to achieve a specific goal. Her need for him drives her to repeat the same action. Everything she does to try to win Milkman back is obsessive. Later on, when she looks into a compact that Pilate shows her, she repeats the phrases “no wonder” and “I look awful” (308).

She expresses herself in ways that are more destructive. Violence is the outlet Hagar sees in expressing herself. Her “graveyard love” for Milkman initially mutes her voice (148). His goodbye letter “sent Hagar spinning into a bright blue place where the air was thin and it was silent all the time, and where people spoke in whispers or did not make sounds at all, and where everything was frozen except for an occasional burst of fire inside her chest” (116). Hagar is hardly aware of her own emotions and finds it impossible for her to tell Milkman how she feels because she has no identity. Instead, Hagar turns to physical violence. She was a “doormat wom[a]n” that “wanted to kill for love, die for love” (336). When she tries to kill Milkman, she finds herself “paralyzed” by her obsessive love for him (150). Like Ryna, her love left her. When Milkman left and “dreamt of flying, Hagar was dying” (363). Hagar’s extreme obsession ultimately turns self-destructive and assists to the cause of her death. She spends her last hours in a frantic search for clothes and cosmetics that will make Milkman love her again. She dies convinced that “he loves silky hair . . . penny-colored hair . . . and lemon-colored skin . . . and gray-blue eyes” unlike her own (346). To Hagar, her African-American race and body are worthless if they do not attract Milkman; she was trying to create “this ideal of beauty” that she could never have (Pereira). Hagar’s dependence on Milkman and

As Hagar’s love for Milkman grows more and more obsessive, Morrison reveals the bitter consequences of life as a woman seeking intimacy in a strictly patriarchal world. In the beginning of the novel, Hagar is associated primarily with her female relatives, Reba and Pilate. Even then, well-fed Hagar declares, “Some of my days were hungry

Willy Loman is an old salesman (63 years old) who is no longer able to earn a living. He receives only a small commission as he ages, and he slowly loses his mind and attempts to kill himself by inhaling gas from the water heater or from crashing his Studebaker. Dave Singleman is his role model, he wants to become well liked and rich. He spends most of his time dreaming instead of doing anything to improve his life. He is obsessed with the post-war interpretation of the American Dream. In the end, he kills himself by crashing his car, hoping to get the life insurance money for his family.

She isolates herself, deceives herself, and being metaphorically blind. Throughout her long life, she made choices like these, which makes her unhappy. 1: Throughout the book, Hagar isolates in In these many years, she encountered a variety problems, many of which she does to herself, causing pain through isolating herself; from her family, from Bram, and finally isolating herself from the world.

Hazle Grace knew she was "head over heals" for his the second she saw him but he then buts a ciggaret in his mouth during a conversation they were having, and she tells him he ruined the moment. His response was "It's a metaphor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing". They then begin talking more and he starts to really like Hazle and let her meet his mom. She gets him to do different things like, read different books, other than comics, and be more open to learning things. Gus teaches Hazle, that even though she is dying she still has time to live a little.

Hagar must bear many things. Her memory, although razor-sharp when she recalls the events of her youth and middle age, falters when it comes to the immediate past. Her dignity also takes a strike due to old age as she depicts, ““How it irks me to have to take her hand, allow her to pull my dress over my head, undo my corsets and strip them off my, and have her see my blue veined swollen flesh and the hairy triangle that still proclaims with lunatic insistence a non-existent womanhood”” (…) As the narrator exposes her weakness to her peers, she felt humiliated and week. In comparison with my volunteering, I also encountered similar states of minds. Throughout the conversations, seniors convey their concerns of becoming a problem to society and some without family or friends, are being submerged by the care of others. They exposed their utmost intimacy, revealing the point where they could be defeat. Once a prideful and independent person, they are being defeated by old age and its isolation state. Some of them still move on and no matter if their body is aging, they are just like us spiritually and even

Willy even convinced himself that being well liked was the key to a successful life, and chose to believe that he was well liked. "Like the legendary Dave Singleman, he wants to be well liked" (Dukore 21). "Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer" (Miller 33). Even when he doubts his charisma, Linda is right there to tell him otherwise. "Willy Loman never acknowledges or learns the error of his way. To the very end he is a devout believer in the ideology that destroys him. He believes that life’s problems are all solved by making oneself well liked and by a little cash. His wife knows only that he is a good man and that she must continue to love him" (Hurrell 66).

Hagar admits the fact that the fear of death has inhibited her life from her childhood itself. The theme of death occupies a predominant place from the beginning of the novel itself. The beginning is marked by its peculiar setting, that is, in the cemetery which refers to the death of Hagar’s mother, who died as a consequence of her birth. The novel demonstrates each of Hagar’s steps along the difficult journey of death which is at the same time frightening and terrifying. When Hagar first faced the truth that she is getting old and not going to be around much longer, her first reaction is of denial. Hagar becomes angry with herself and with the world. She rejects everything that would shatter her belief that is strong enough to face life. She rejects others idea that she is getting old. At one point she says, “Doris believes that age increases natural piety, like a kind of insurance policy falling due…” From Hagar’s self-centered view, Marvin and Doris function as her executers, trying to deprive her identity by symbolically taking away her home. Thus in The Stone Angel the theme of freedom is linked with the question of human