Comparing 'Death Of A Salesman And A Doll's House'

While Biff is in some ways desperate to impress his father, he is also conscious about the fact that Willy has failed his attempt to be successful in his career. He considers his dad’s dreams materialistic and unreachable. As a matter of fact, in the Requiem, even after his father’s death, Biff says: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.” Unlike Happy and Willy, Biff is self-aware and values facts; Willy never was a successful salesman and he never wanted to face the truth. On the other hand, Biff is conscious about his failures and the weaknesses of his personality. During an argument with his father, Biff admits that his dad made him “so arrogant as a boy” that now he just can’t handle taking

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

The father-son conflict between Willy and Biff is complex. First of all, there is a strong personal attachment. He wants Biff to love him. He remembers the fondness shown for him by Biff as a boy, and he still craves this. At this point, however, relations are strained. Although Willy shies away from remembering so painful an episode, he knows in his heart that his affair with the Boston woman left the boy bitterly disillusioned. Feeling some sense of guilt, Willy fears that all of Biff’s later difficulties may have been really attempts to get revenge. In other words, Biff failed to spite Willy. Although outwardly resenting such alleged vindictiveness, Willy still wants to get back the old comradeship, even if he has to buy it dearly. For instance consider when he asked Ben, “Why can’t I give him something and not have him hate me?” and his final moment of joy and triumph occurs when he exclaims, “Isn’t that remarkable? Biff… he likes me!”

In Arthur Miller's, Death Of a Salesman, the growth and development of Biff are achieved as a result of the change in his relationship with Willy.Growing up Biff had received most of the attention from his father, mother and everyone around him thus building a sense of entitlement from a young age. As time passed Willy had always been there to encourage and mold Biff into what Willy thought of as an ideal American man. When this vision of Biff was unachieved Biff and Willy's relationship began to strain; causing them to fight and disagree on things such as career and the future.

Willy’s biggest issue with his son is that he let him down by not being any more successful than him. He feels like Biff is failing on purpose just to make him look bad. Although, he has no decent job and is single; Biff has become disoriented about life. Earlier in the play Biff tells Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don't know what the future is. I don't know - what I'm supposed to want” (Miller266). Biff once looked up to his father as a role model, but lost all faith in him once finding out that he was having an affair. Ever since he has rejected Willy’s commitment of being a husband and also a father. To add to his ruins are Willy’s ideas of how Biff should get ahead in life. Willy taught Biff that popularity was the right way to get to the top, rather than hard-work and dedication. Trying to live by his dad’s standards caused Biff to fail high school and become unable to put forth the effort to become

The father-son arguments that occurred between Biff and Willy were detrimental to both men; but happenings like these are very common in similar forms. Willy’s inability to be thankful for what he had led to his dramatic downfall that isn’t too out of the ordinary for one to observe. The realistic horror getting stuck in the past prevented him from being able to make substantial progress in bettering his life more than it already was. In general Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a work of fiction, but still managed to address realistic issues such as, father-son arguments, being satisfied with the life and the inability to move past the

Ever since Biff walked into the affair between Willy and “The Woman”, Biff hasn’t been able to speak and look at his father the same; this causes Willy to think that Biff hates him. Also, Willy could still be upset about how he may ruined Biff’s chance of going to summer school for his failing subject. From there, Biff could’ve gone to college and become more successful than his father. Willy becomes happier when Biff attempts to talk to Bill Oliver because he wants him to be the successful man that he could’ve been before.

Willy’s unreasonable expectations of Biff creates a hostile relationship between Biff and Willy. Ever since Biff was in highschool, Willy always expected Biff to be very successful without instilling the tools

People are capable of doing crazy things! Nora, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, loved her husband so much that she committed forgery just for the sake of his wellbeing. Susan Glaspell’s character in Trifles, Mrs. Wright, murders her husband after she discovers that he killed the one most precious thing to her, her pet bird. It was out of love that these women committed illegal crimes. Nora wanted her husband to be healthy because she loved him and knew that without his salary coming in, their home would fall apart. In contrast, Mrs. Wright wanted her husband dead. He was responsible for taking the life of the only company she had for many years. Mrs. Wright loved her pet bird more than she

It would be exceedingly heart-breaking and sorrowful for the individual to sees his own father with another woman. With no one to share the secret with, Biff keeps the burden on himself, which ultimately breaks him apart. Biff however, learns to move on, by taking many unusual jobs. Biff nonetheless is greatly depressed by his father’s extra-marital relationship, resulting in him never completely finding his true passion in any of them. He attempts to reconcile himself by forgetting the past, but is never actually able to do so, because it is quite evident how badly WIlly affected Biff. This is not only due to the fact that his father had an affair, but also because the man Biff idolized and followed, turned out to do such a sickening deed. Willy had always motivated Biff and gave encouraging reasons when he did something wrong. When Biff comes to Boston, he argues that his math teacher did not give him enough marks. His father, instead of scolding him for not trying hard enough, assures him that he will talk to her. He does this because he wants Biff to succeed in life. Biff recognizes this and knows his father is the mentor he needs to become prosperous in life. Biff is devastated, when the one person he truly had faith in, betrays him to such an extent. Biff genuinely believed in his father, and wanted to become a man like him. Willy’s affair with The Woman came to Biff as a shock, one so great that the whole world slipped from beneath his legs. This caused Biff to never forget his father’s deeds, because it was that event that obstructed him from pursuing his

Next, the biggest problem in this family would have to be Willy. His own insanity is tearing the family apart. During the story, “Death of a Salesman”, Biff overhears Willy Talking to himself which causes an enormous fight between his mother Linda, himself, and eventually Willy. Biff is tired of how mad his father has become and wants a way to get him treatment but Linda believes there is nothing that can be done.

Arthur Miller and David Mamet both rely on many of the same topic elements. They both explore capitalism’s effect on communication. From this similarity, we see that Miller’s "Death of a Salesman" and Mamet’s "Glengarry Glen Ross" argue the same message: capitalism can destroy our ability to function naturally as humans. Instead, we become part of a system in which we must learn to operate under.

Everyone has been ashamed of something at one point, right? Throughout many literary works there are connections that can be drawn between characters, themes, settings, morals, and more. Three pieces of literature in which a connection can be made are Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen. The idea of proof of self-worthiness in a character is frequently portrayed throughout these works.

Willy’s perseverance to direct Biff into success has resulted to Biff’s desperate acts to earn praise from his father. However, Biff’s dishonest acts of stealing are often justified by Willy through disregard and excuse, even expressing that the “Coach will probably congratulate [Biff] for [his] initiative”. Instead of correcting his mistakes, Willy continuously expresses his belief of Biff’s predetermined success as a result of being attractive and well-liked. These acts effectively exemplifies Biff’s adherence to self-deception as he imagines himself as an important figure in other people’s lives. It can be seen that his belief of being destined for success prevents him from allowing himself recognize the destruction it brings. As a result, Biff has allowed how Willy views him become how he perceives himself. This self-deception has not only affected the actions in his childhood but as well as his decisions when finding his role in the workplace. As stated above, Willy’s consistent beliefs of his son’s predestined success results to Biff’s immense confidence in himself. However, this confidence have provided him a false perception of himself as he struggle to keep a stable job and even faces imprisonment. It can be seen that Biff’s lack of self-perception and compliance to ideals of Willy has only allowed him to restrain and prevent him from recognizing the difference between illusion and reality resulting in the lack of his

Biff is the apple of his father’s eye. Young, handsome, strong, intelligent, and full of ambition, Biff is going to take the world by storm, and Willy intends to living vicariously through him. This is not to be however. After Biff’s disastrous attempt to get his father to discuss grades with his math teacher, Biff gives up. Entirely. At one point, he wanted to work and to succeed in order to please his father, but after he discovers Willy cavorting with another woman, Biff does not want to give his father the satisfaction of a flourishing son. Suddenly, Willy is a liar in his eyes, and later in life, this causes Biff to have an almost violent relationship with him. (1268) What makes the strain worse is Willy’s guilt, because he knows whose fault the tension is, yet he cannot bring himself to admit it.