Essay on Comparing The Cats Table and Death of a Salesman

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.

When it comes to comparing and contrasting two different cultures and morals the differences can be night and day. In Death Of A Salesman and Fences, these stories follow two middle-class families around the same time period (late 1940-1950’s), who are both facing problems within their own household’s. From marital issues to failing father/son relationships, both of these stories paint a picture to the audience of what life in an urban family living in that time setting was like through the author’s eyes. And even yet with all the things between these two plays that make them alike, there are also many things that make them very different.

Death of a Salesman also reflects the dominant ideology, however, in this case the play is written from the point of view of the working class. It is evident that the dominant class influences the main characters in the text, but they are largely ignored in the play. Willy Loman, the protagonist in the play, is a worn out travelling salesman on the point of a breakdown. Willy Loman’s dreams consist and have always consisted entirely of being “well liked”. Being a salesman is Willy’s idea of the easiest way to becoming well-liked and remembered throughout the entire country. However, when he

Both Death of a Salesman, and The Glass Menagerie have many things in common. They are both great plays, and both concern dysfunctional families. But there is a deeper similarity to these great literary works. The similarity between the parents. Due to Willy Loman and Amanda Wingfield's lack of coping skills, as well as their inability to let go or accept their past, their children are ill-equipped to deal with the future.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a play of multiple tragedies. The word tragedy is defined as “a dreadful, or fatal event or affair; disaster”. The main character, Willy Loman, shows how one dream can become a disaster through his impractical dreams and failing at achieving these goals. Not only does he fail at his dreams, he participates in an affair that is against morals. The idea of a tragic hero is defined as “a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat”. Miller believes that the common man is the best tragic hero because it shows that the average, everyday man struggles to achieve goals in life. He thinks the common man fights to maintain self-worth and dignity. Willy

Arthur Miller, A play writer in the twentieth century, wrote a play entitled Death of a salesman that won him the Pulitzer Price just a year after its release. In the play Miller expresses the life of a 60 year old salesman that undergoes through lack of success in his life and sees the same thing happening ,to his two grown sons now in their mid-thirties, as the American dream faded away being replaced by capitalism in the late 1940s. The play starts of by introducing Willy Loman, the protagonist, and tells the story of the final twenty four hours in Willy’s life all the way to his death and funeral. Between that time laps the audience is able to see Willies past thanks to his constant daydreams, along with his sons past and wife and

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

A major theme and source of conflict throughout Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is the Loman family's inability to distinguish between reality and illusion.  This is particularly evident in the father, Willy Loman.  Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family.  In this world, he and his sons are men of greatness that "have what it takes" to make it in the business environment.  In reality, none of them can achieve greatness until they confront and deal with this illusion.

In Death of a Salesman the story is not told from a narrative point of view, there is no narrator whatsoever. But if a narrative role did occur from Willy Loman the story would have changed completely. Instead of Willy appearing to be a tragic hero, he would be taken as a narcissistic fool. WILLY: [with pity and resolve]: “I’ll see him in the morning; I’ll have a nice talk with him. I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up. When he walked down the street…” [He loses himself in reminiscences.] (Act 1) Willy is unrealistic and cocky; therefore he cannot provide a true representation of the play. “The Cats Table” the narrator is a young boy named Michael, who is sneaky and devious. The story is told from his point of view, capturing the reader’s attention because of course the child interprets everything to be captivating and thrilling. [INSERT QUOTE] If the story had been told from an outsider’s point of view, it would not have been so dynamic and interesting.

The play, Death of a Salesman, centers around Willie Loman and the effects of the choices he has made. The personality and characteristics that can describe the man are unemotional, self-deluded, and very insecure. These traits make the man who he is, however, brings troubles along with the man that are caused by such traits. For instance, the delusions of hearing advice from a hallucination that leads to his suicide in the story. This shows one of the major flaws that dwells inside the rich salesman.

Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ explores the theme of success through the technique of characterisation. 60 year old Willy Loman and Charley, his neighbour, have been lifelong friends who have experienced highs and lows together. Whilst Charley is a successful businessman, Willy is a failure who is slowly losing his grip on reality despite believing that he is “such a hard worker” (pg 11). Although having history on their side, in comparison, Willy and Charley lead very different lives. Charley runs a successful business whereas Willy struggles to live day-to-day as a salesman. Providing for his family is not Willy’s only problem as being a salesman is a very subjective job. To make door to door selling a lifelong career, it depends on

Arthur Miller begins his play with an excellent description of the setting of the play. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves actually watching the play and causes the reader to be able to better relate to the play. Because Death of a Salesman can be considered an emotional play, it qualifies as being a timeless work of literature, especially because it has the ability to touch the human heart. Willy Loman is a salesman, who lives in New York City with his wife Linda. From the beginning of the play, Miller makes it obvious that Willy struggles with many obstacles, such as anger and even confusion since there are many times throughout the play where Willy becomes severely confused. Many characters throughout the play,

  In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy is depicted as living in his own world. The play centers around the end of Willy’s life, when the real world comes crashing through, ruining the false reality he had created for himself and his family. Throughout the play, Willy Loman uses the concept of being well liked to build a false image of reality, as shown through his teachings to his son, what he considers successful, and his reasoning for committing suicide.

The Presentation of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Willy Loman is presented as both a tragic hero and an unconscious victim in "Death of a Salesman". "Death of a Salesman" is very much based upon the American Dream, and whether we are slaves or conquerors of this dream. This is an idea that the playwright Arthur Miller has very passionately pursued both through Willy's own eyes, and through his interaction with the different characters in the play. Firstly, the definitions of a hero and a victim very much influence the way that Willy is viewed by the audience.

Some literary works illustrate their characters to be representational of people from the time and place in which they were written. This is presented to audiences explicitly in both Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ (DOASM) and Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ (ADH), in which both were written during different time periods.