Death Of A Salesman Compare And Contrast Essay

In the search for the American dream many things can be lost, this is reflected in the novel The Great Gatsby and the movie Death of a Salesman. Both of these works demonstrate the lengths that some people will go to in order to achieve the stereotypical life of a rich, successful and powerful American, which is often referred to as the American dream. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller illustrates how the character Willy will stop at nothing to achieve the American dream, despite the tremendous costs. Willy is unable to achieve his goal, however, due to his stubbornness. The aspects of the novel The Great Gatsby about the pursuit of the American dream parallel Death of a Salesman, Jay

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.

How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, in the Act I, the author emphasizes the relationship between Willy and Linda in different ways by showing the love of Linda towards Willy and how she admires him. And also, she always shows her patient when Willy gets angry easily. The relationship between Willy and Biff is different from the past. Willy’s relationship with Biff is complicated. Biff is everything for Willy and Biff believed that Willy is the greatest father in the world, but in the present Biff doesn’t think like that anymore.

‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ are two texts that vary in several different ways but are fundamentally similarly themed, as they both centre on individuals who undergo several catastrophes which lead to their untimely deaths. Whilst it is clear that Miller has made death and suffering inevitable from just the ominous opening of the play - evident by the Loman’s kitchen having ‘three chairs’, in which the number 3 is often associated with bad luck, as opposed to four (the number of people living in the household) which foreshadows the death of a single character later on in the play – Keats also gives an impression of death being inevitable in the poem from the setting of the poem, which is implied to be autumn – the season

The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.

Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I

"Death of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, is a play that tells the story of a traveling salesman, Willy Loman, who encounters frustration and failure as he reflects on and experiences his own life. Willy's quest for the American Dream leads to his failure because throughout his life, he pursues the illusion of the American Dream and not the reality of it. His mindset on perfection, his obsession with success, and his constant reminiscence of the past and foretelling of the future, all contribute to his defeat in the end.

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.

The lives of the Loman’s from beginning to end seems troubling, the play is centered on trying to be successful or trying to be happy, and the sacrifice which must be made of one to achieve the other. The environment that these characters live in encourages them to pursue the American dream, which can be said to devalue happiness through the pursuit of material success. Death of A Salesman written by Arthur Miller has several themes that run through the play, one of the most obvious is the constant striving for success. Willy Loman put his family through endless torture because of his search for a successful life. Willy, Biff, and Happy are chasing the American dream instead of examining themselves

In the play Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman serves as the family's destroyer. Linda realizes, throughout the play, that her family is caught up in a bunch of lies. Linda is the only person that can fix the problem and she doesn't.

Willy is also fired from his long time job. He feels abandoned by his boss and snubbed after all his long years of hard work. Perhaps the most damaging abandonment in Willy’s life is from that of his sons. All these factors combined attribute to Willy’s feelings that a he is worth more dead than alive. Consequently Willy makes many failed attempts at committing suicide. Ironically he does so many times by inhaling gas through a rubber tube. This is ironic being that gas is used to provide an essential element of comfort he struggles to provide his family. Willy is metaphorically and literally being killed by the gas particles. In the end Willy is successful in his last suicide attempt. He has reached bottom low and feels he is truly worth more to his family dead than alive. Throughout this play, Miller uses Willy’s failed goal of reaching the American Dream to show the effects of abandonment on the ability of Willy to decipher reality from fiction, the toll on his family, and his fragile emotional state.

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,

Many works of literature have the theme of a failed American Dream, which is the basic idea that no matter what social class an individual may be, they still have an equal ability to achieve prosperity and a good life for their family; however, there has been much debate over whether or not the American dream is still obtainable in modern society. One piece of American literature that substantiates the fact that the American Dream can not be gotten is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman which describes the tragedy of the average person in America. A number of other writers also draw the inability to capture the American Dream. John Steinbeck demonstrates in his highly acclaimed novel The Grapes of Wrath how hard economic times can