Compare And Contrast Oedipus And Death Of A Salesman

While the play primarily focuses on Willy’s dream, Death of a Salesman also observes Biff and his American Dream, which may be construed as the “right” one. Compared to his father’s, Biff’s dream is a simple one: own a ranch and labor in the countryside close to nature, happy and content. And yet as his father increasingly pressures him to pursue a dream more aligned to his own, Biff experiences an identity crisis of sorts, desperately seeking to please Willy by taking a job in business but always failing in his efforts. Eventually, he realizes that he cannot be his father, and, at Willy’s funeral, contrasts his earlier statement regarding Willy’s state of mind with one regarding his own person: “I know who I am, kid” (Miller 111). Though at the start of the play it was Willy who thought Biff lost, it is now the reverse. Willy, with his aspirations for renown and major success, found himself perpetually adrift in the world, struggling to make ends meet and maintain his family ties. And yet while Willy suffered at the hands of his American Dream, Biff prospered (although not monetarily) in his “proper” American Dream, experiencing true contentment in his craft. While Willy faced constant confusion and an almost bipolar personality disorder owing to his erroneous endeavors, Biff’s main insecurities and difficulties were those brought on by his father’s notion of success. In other words, Willy’s American Dream caused nothing but suffering for him and those he loved, while Biff’s American Dream would have allowed him peace of mind had it not been for his

Biff Loman is portrayed as the root of Willy’s mental illness and instability. He is also the only member of his family who acknowledges his own failures in life. On the whole, Biff Loman stands out as the most intriguing and strong character in “Death of a Salesman. He is not a successful man and never will be, he is however able to admit this, even in a harsh society as the one of the 1960s America. Biff knows he is a “nothing” and tries to make his father see that he is “no good. I am a dime a dozen, Pop, and so are you.” He begs for Willy to communicate with him and accept him for who he is. Although Willy is forced by Biff to see some of his own failures, he never

In order to gain a proper perspective on the concept of what a tragic hero is, we must synthesize information from the following play’s, “The Death Of A Salesman”, and “Oedipus The King”. Both plays takes the stance on the idea that validates the ultimate notion,  “tragic hero. From Willy’s hubris personality to his questionable and mysterious death, to Oedipus dynamic and complex choices and kingly personality that determines his fate. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement that leads to his/her downfall. In other words, even though both characters made incredible contributions and left a very noble legacy, their choices and decisions determined their ultimate fate. In today’s world tragic heroes are commonly present,

Similar to Gatsby, Willy Loman from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, bases his "American Dream" on the idea that public acceptance would bring him wealth.  Willy believes that appearing well liked makes him successful.  Willy has based his life on the idea that if you are "well liked, you will never want" (Miller 33).  Moreover, he believes his sons' appearance will make them successful because they are "both built like Adonises" (33).  Furthermore, Willy's obsession with money leads him to equate the value of an individual with their financial worth.  Willy idealized his older brother Ben because "he is rich" (41).  Willy, reflecting on his own worth, concludes "you end up worth more dead than alive" (98).  Finally, Willy thinks that being a popular and successful businessman will win him the love of his wife and children.  Willy lies to his family, by telling his sons "[if there is] one thing boys: I have friends"(31).  He also exaggerates terribly by telling his wife he sold "five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston" (35).  In his final imagined discussion with his brother Ben, Willy concludes that by taking his own life he will finance his son's business venture, and "[Biff will] worship me for it" (135).

      Since the beginning of time epic tales have been passed on from generation to generation as a form of entertainment.  Even though each epic is different in its plot, every epic has certain features in common.  The prime example of their similarities is their main character, the hero of the epic.   The hero's behavior changes from the beginning to the end of the tale.  Since the plot revolves around the epic hero, in most cases, they are made to seem God-like, or larger then life, in their capabilities and strengths.  The hero constantly has to conquer major obstacles to achieve their initial and final goal.  Usually the hero is tremendously suspicious of other characters intensions.

Oedipus and Pentheus are both tragic Greek characters who help create their own endings. Through their character's flaws and blindness to what is going on around each of them, the story develops. The only consistent character in both plays who is able to understand past and present dangers is Teiresias, the blind prophet.

Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend

Willy is offered help by his friend Charley, a successful Business man, Willies all time friend and only friends he has left, when Charley offers Willy a job, yet willy full of pride and envious of Charley rejects it yet does not rejects it but continues to borrow money from him. This is due to Willies flaw in his desire of being higher in society than anyone else.Willy cannot let go of the past and continuously refers to 1928, when his career was at its peak. His withdrawal into the past is a defense mechanism as he refuses to come to terms with his failure as a salesman. His illusions of grandeur lead to fierce exaggerations of himself. He tells Biff to "Go to Filene's go to the Hub, go to Slattery's, Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!" (Miller, 62). He refuses to realize his personal failures and falsely believes that he is successful. Memories of a happier past Willy losing a grip on reality and on time escapes into the past. Despite his desperate searching through his past, The deep probing of dreams and memories in Death of A Salesman where quite important in illustrating Miller's point. Willy is a man stuck in the past reminiscing about times when things where good fabrication of those times really were as good as he imagines them to be? Like his inflated dreams of the future, the past may well be embellished by Willy's wild imagination. It seems

Compare and contrast Oedipus and Hamlet. Is Oedipus more a man of action? Or is he more a man driven by whim and sudden, rash decisions? Which character is more selfless? Does Hamlet show any signs of selfish motives in his actions or inactions? Which protagonist seems more learned? wiser? more religious? more loving? more incestuous? Which seems to be a better murder investigator? Does Oedipus have any of Claudius' motives when he kills the king, Laius? Then which murderer is more blameworthy--Oedipus or Claudius?

One thing that continues to come up in "A Death of a Salesman" is the fact that Willy has this huge desire to be "well liked." This is more important to him than being accomplished or having a good job. He constantly tells Linda and his kids that it is more important to be "well liked" than to be successful at work or in school. He lies to his kids about the fact that he is "well liked" which eventually leads to his two kids growing up as failures. Seeing how his lies have hurt, not only himself, but his children too, Willy decides to do what in his mind, is the only thing he can do to save help his family. He decides to kill himself and then maybe he will have a lot of people show up to his funeral which would mean that he is well liked. Of course no one shows up to the funeral but Willy 's

This is what Willy has been trying to emulate his entire life. Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often makes up lies about his popularity and success. At times, Willy even believes these lies himself. At one point in the play, Willy tells his family of how well-liked he is in all of his towns and how vital he is to New England. Later, however, he tells Linda that no one remembers him and that the people laugh at him behind his back. As this demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes him to become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for example, is trying to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he had the wrong dreams."

Oedipus the King opens in a Greek amphitheatre depicting the front of a Theban palace. Throughout the play, the setting remains constant. This changes to a more fast-paced play with different settings in different places in Death of a Salesman.

After reading the play Oedipus the King, I had various expectations related to how the movie should be performed. The stage presentation of the story fulfilled some of my expectations but failed to satisfy others. Most importantly, the performance was an accurate rendering of the play. The characters in the movie were developed effectively and were portrayed precisely as I had perceived them. I thought that the movie lacked qualities including stage design, clothing, and background music. However, these facets of the performance are insignificant because the story is so powerful that it does not need attractive costumes or ostentatious props to support it.

I watched the 1984 movie version of “Death of a salesman” which is set in New York City. The main character is Willy, followed by his wife Linda, and their two sons Bill and Happy. The main theme of the play shows how he tries to justify his existence to the cruel and unappreciative society, and the fact that he has misinterpreted the American Dream. The nature of the American Dream is a belief that through hard work and perseverance one might find happiness through wealth. The play is full of memories, dreams and confrontations. For Willy the success is based on appearance rather than on substance, and this is what combined with a lack of knowledge leads him to a downfall. What is the nature of success and how do we attain it?

Plays can be compared despite being composed in different historical times, tragedy plays started progressing from traditional to modern by focusing on self-discovery and less on tragic mystery and destiny. Today, we will be comparing two tragic plays: Oedipus The King was a Greek tragedy by Sophocles was written in 429 BC, whereas The Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 by Arthur Miller. The two plays compare and differ in ways even though they were written at different times. Ancient Greek Drama honored the history of Athens, and-as Athens was in a protected war with Sparta-also honored the power of the gods and goddesses who might be prevailed upon for protection.