Death of a Salesman is a play written by Miller, Arthur in 1949
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Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman is a play written by Miller, Arthur in 1949. Its story revolves around the life of Willy Loman’s family. His wife is Linda and their two son’s Biff and Happy. Willy Loman proves to be a protagonist all along this play. He starts with worrying about their son Biff even being as tired as he is. This is evident when he complains to his wife that Biff needs to make a good in his life even after he failed in senior year math exam and did not proceed to college. He is devoted to his job that is why he attends business trips far away from his home town. This portrays his attitude towards his work. In the play, Willy also gets angry because his sons, Biff and Happy, did not become what he wanted them to be. Even with Biffs’ promise to succeed in athletics/agons, he did not amount to any of that. The two sons and Willy a meet up at a dinner restaurant and he is left alone when Biff and Happy walk out on him after he refuses to listen to Biffs’ business proposal. Later on at home, Biff goes outside to clear the conflict with his father and the conversation ends with the two of them hugging after Biff asks Willy to accept him for who he is not who he failed to become and tells him that he loves him. On realizing that his son has forgiven him and wants to pursue a business career, the play hits climax when Willy commits suicide through an accident so that Biff can use his insurance money to set up his businesses and start off in his career. This shows to what extent Willy was willing to go to for his sons to succeed.
Biff on the other hand shows his protagonist nature by persisting in becoming an athlete earlier on in the play. He makes a promise to succeed and this shows how optimistic he was about it. Later on in the play after failing in his finals, his father gets an attitude towards him in the manner that he does not even want to listen to his business proposal when they meet in the restaurant. Willy still thinks of him as a failure to this moment because of his performance in his finals. Willy goes to his past employer to try and get his job back but unfortunately does not succeed. He does not give up but he later confronts Willy outside the house on a plot to reconcile with his father. Though it turns to an argument at the beginning, it ends well after he tells him to let go of the dream he still has for him because it does wait for him to this day. They hug and clear off the air and Biff tells his father Willy that he loves him.
Getrude was wife and queen to the deceased King Hamlet in the play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. She got married to the succeeding King, King Claudius, who is said to have murdered King Hamlet. She shows sympathy in the play to her son and also sarcastically foreshadows to Ophelia in her burial when she says that she had hoped for her to get married to her son. Later on in the play she get’s poisoned in place of her son through a drink meant for Hamlet during his fight with Laertes. She dies shouting in agony and calling out to her son.
I would take us to Host International since being an international hotel it would be suitable. First and foremost I would ask her why she chose or rather decided to marry the deceased King’s brother right after his death. In the play this left so much curiosity in me that I would like to be settled. In normal sense, this should have been a demoralizing act especially in the setting it was placed in. Then I would want to know from her directly why she was not as affected by her husband’s death as she should have been. This should have been a hard time in her life as she tried to recollect the pieces of her life after the incident. Even under the suspension of disbelief, I still would have asked this question. “If you happened to have been aware of King Claudius’ plan towards your son, would you still have taken the drink meant to kill him?”
Personally basing this on the knowledge of Getrude and the exposition in the play, I think the reason she would give as to the subsequent marriage to King Claudius was so that she had always envied the King’s brother even in her marriage with King Hamlet. This would have been the more convincing reason that dint demoralize her, having a hubris personality. To the question on why she did not get as affected by King Hamlet’s death, I think she would say that everyone has their own different ways catharsis and hers was the way that she did. Last but not least, she would say that she would have done it as a mother for the love of her son and so that he would live on his fathers’ life and dream and honor his name by regaining the throne to its rightful leader. Personally, I think the real not said reason would be a straight no.
Tragedy plays are mainly plays that have males as the main protagonists or whose major characters die or plays with shuttered hopes or null promises through trickery. So as to change Tartuffe to a tragedy play, first I would reverse the script that instead of Tartuffe being a friend to Orgon, he is an old friend to Elmire who she insists to his husband to let stay with them for some time. This breaks the obviousness of plays that the male is always the lead character. Tragedy would also be brought in the play Tartuffe by creating a relationship between Tartuffe and Damis. I would have it that Damis was old enough but his father had not yet given him his share of wealth and for this reason he grew to hate his father. So for this reason he befriends Tartuffe in a quest to the destruction of his father and the sharing of the property on Orgon’s downfall. Later on after Tartuffe has been arrested and truth is in the light about his plot with Tartuffe, he is arrested too and faces the same judgment
Looking at the plays Death of a Salesman and Tragedy of Hamlet, they have their differences and similarities despite being written by different authors. For instance the major similarity between the two is vivid as both Biff and Hamlet are in a conquest to meet certain expectations in their lives. Other than one of their parents being involved in an act that is greatly unpleasant to them they still look at the greater picture which is achieving what they have their minds set to. Biff catches his father Willy cheating while he was in a business trip and Hamlet’s mother, Getrude, marries the succeeding King who happens to be a brother to his deceased husband. Beef tries to explain to his father the new business idea he had but gets turned down whereas Hamlet engages in many fights in the quest to avenge his father and reclaim his place in the throne.
The setting itself raises the curtains for the differences between them. Whereas Death of a Salesman is set in a town and developed kind of setting, Tragedy of Hamlet is placed in a setting showing the ancient days when the rules of king’s existed and there was the hierarchical shift of power and thrones.
The play Death of a Salesman is meant to show how a father worked so hard in his lifetime so that his sons would grow up to be who he always thought of them to be except they grew up to be different people, who like different things and had different perceptions of their future. On realizing this after so many years, he does what the situation would only allow him to, so that he could be of assistance to his son’s success. He kills himself so that the son would use the life insurance money to start up the career he wanted.
In comparison to delusion, Willy and Linda Loman were really under the want that their sons make in life through education. This is shown when Willy complains to Linda about Biff not having made anything of him. We are then reminded him of how he had failed on his final math exam and failed to join college and his father changed his perception on his success.
In Tartuffe, women have been treated in a diminishing manner. In that Elmire is unable to change her husband’s mind about the son’s banishment after they tried to give reason to their father that Tartuffe had other bad motives to his stay. Normally as lady of the hose and mother to Damis she had a say in Orgon’s decision. This is also clear because roles of women in the play are fewer than those of men.
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, women have been given a vital role. They are present before King Hamlet dies and also after his succession. For example Getrude is wife to King Hamlet and also to King Claudius. However much she dies out of poisoning at the end, she is a lead character throughout the play being the queen to both kings.
