Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet Essay

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller are two of the twentieth century’s best-known plays. The differences and similarities between both of the plays are hidden in their historical and social contexts. The characters of The Glass Menagerie and the Death of a Salesman are trapped by the constraints of their everyday lives, unable to communicate with their loved ones and being fearful for their future. There are a lot of comparisons that exist, especially between the settings, symbolism and characterization drawn between the two plays. The contrast comes form the ways that the characters choose to deal or not with the harsh circumstances of life.

At first, Jay Gatsby loved every part of Daisy, but what was love soon turned into an obsessive illusion of himself and Daisy living in a perfect world. At first Gatsby did love Daisy and spoke of her like no other girl he had ever met, but once he bought his house as close as he did to Daisy it could be seen as more of an obsessive state, after admitting that he thinks Daisy could have never loved anyone besides himself and fought for it to be true, it had fully turned into obsession.

Glengarry Glen Ross and Death of a Sales man were two extraordinary plays that were released decades ago and are still the basis of many conversations and debates today. The main protagonists in these plays are Shelley Levene; a middle aged sales man who was once very successful in his line of work, and Willy Lowman; a 62-year-old salesman who has been chasing after the American Dream his whole life. These two shared a lot of similarities, the main one being that they are not tragic heroes. Many writers have debated over the past decades whether or not Shelley and Willy are meant to be tragic heroes. From the views of Aristotle and Miller, they are not tragic heroes.

In 1949, Arthur Miller wrote a play called “The Death Of a Salesman”. This play is known for its compelling view on the mind of the middle class working man. The characters in “The Death of a Salesman” all have various dimensions of development throughout the story. These characters can all be seen as components one collective mind using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory; the Oedipal, Id, Ego, and Superego. These characters all strive for success by way of the American Dream and all of it’s inconsistent factors and betrayal that personify it so well.

The 1920s is the decade in American history known as the “roaring twenties.” Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of life in the 1920s. Booming parties, prominence, fresh fashion trends, and the excess of alcohol are all aspects of life in the “roaring twenties.”

     In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, Miller reflects the theme that every man needs to be honest with him self and act in accordance with his nature by displaying success and failure in different lights. Miller embodies the theme through characters in the play by explaining how their success and failures in being true to themselves help shapes their fates. Strongest evidence of Miller’s theme is reflected in the characteristics of Biff Loman, Benard, and Willy Loman. Through out the play, these three characters never give way to other’s influence and what other’s view of being successful is.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about half of the main characters present themselves as something they are not. Throughout the novel, the theme of passing is apparent in Nick, Jay Gatsby, Daisy, and Myrtle Wilson, although they are all passing, each does it for a very different reason. Many scholars have touched on the idea that these characters are not who they appear to be and that their passing is associated with social class issues of the 1920s. Fitzgerald’s characters are built around the idea of passing and social class restrictions.

1. The management of the real estate office in Glengarry Glen Ross" engages in several to arguably, many unethical practices as part of their business. The threat that agents will be fired if they do not make sales is unethical, but not necessarily illegal. It is unethical to put that undue stress on the agents, but more than that, it is unethical to passive aggressively disguise being fired as a prize, as Alex Baldwin's characters says that first prize is a Cadillac, second prize is a set of steak knives and third prize is to get fired.

During the early part of the twentieth century, the American culture fantasized about achieving a successful future with financial stability and the opportunity to thrive in a world that it only dreamed about in the past. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the main character Gatsby, is not worried about money, which he has accumulated through the years, but instead has created an intense attachment to a woman whom he had once loved, and never has stopped loving. His “American Dream” does not involve monetary stability; instead the only thing that he wishes to attain is the love and control over Daisy. His fantasy has developed into an unreachable love that destroys his life at the end. In the case of Tom, his attachment to Daisy has also became a way to prove his male dominance, he might love Daisy, but he only needs her to feel secure. This attachment to the past and the love that both Tom and Gatsby is completely contrary to what the “American Dream” many times signifies. Although The Great Gatsby was written during this time, the “American Dream” for both Tom and Gatsby, is not involved with financial stability, instead it is focused on a love fantasy and attachment to Daisy, a fantasy which has been used to prove their male dominance and superiority.

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).

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.

How came people did not respect Fitzgerald’s writing in the twentieth century, but why people are respecting and valuing Fitzgerald work in the twenty-first century? Fitzgerald had a hard time to profiting from his writing, but he was not successful after his first novel. There are three major point of this essay are: the background history of Fitzgerald life, the comparisons between Fitzgerald and the Gatsby from his number one book in America The Great Gatsby, and the Fitzgerald got influences of behind the writing and being a writer. From childhood to adulthood, Fitzgerald faced many good and bad experiences that inspired him to achieve his own American dream in a short amount of time.

Authors use irony in literature in order to give double meanings and make it more interesting to the reader. In the play “ The Death of a Salesman” Arthur Miller uses irony as a strong writing technique in order to express the character's behavior. In “The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller moments of situational and dramatic irony helps to illustrate the story's theme in which Willy is a man trying yo achieve the American dream, however he have created a world of illusion.

All throughout America, competition flows through the people’s blood like an epidemic there’s no cure for. From the age Americans are infants, it is bred into them. They are taught that there are winners and there are losers, and not to be a loser. Although some believe this kind of competition can lead to success and happiness, the outcomes are quite the opposite. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman when the main character, Willy Loman, not only lives his life by the myth of competition but also drives this myth into the minds of his family. This causes one of Willy’s sons to be led down a path of misguided aspirations, leads Willy to have very low self-esteem, and evokes poor relationships with others. Through this, Miller shows that competition is just a widely believed American myth which doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life.

Mamet explores how humans use language as it is an extremely intricate device as it is based on how we, as individuals, interpret it. For example, one person may have a good intention in saying something; however, the person on the receiving end of that good intention may believe that something negative is being said. Our words and actions are the sum of the past experiences in our lives. As a result, there are many misinterpretations in human language which makes it extremely complicated. Mamet also wrote this play after the Clarence Thomas – Anita Hill Case arose, a very controversial case in which misinterpretation of language may have been the issue.