King Lear and Death of a Salesman Essay - 672 Words

Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the â€Å"golden era† of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in†¦show more content†¦Willy chooses to exaggerate his success in front of his family and even his boss in Act 2, but when he is contradicted â€Å"Now, Willy, you never averag ed...† he still continues on with his faà §ade thus further emphasizing his delusional nature. He teaches his children that they should be â€Å"liked and you will never want,† which implies that for Willy popularity is more important as it is this that will deem how prosperous one is in business as that man â€Å"is the man who gets ahead.† This contradicts the initial ideals of the American dream where you work hard in order to achieve success, and hence could be used by Miller to indicate how futile the concept was as well as how it lead to people conceiving inconceivable dreams - â€Å"He had the wrong dreams† as mentioned by Biff in the requiem. Moreover, throughout the play the upbringing of Biff and Happy can be seen mirroring the childhood of Willy and his older brother Ben. During the requiem, Happy feels it is his duty to avenge his father in a way so â€Å"Willy Loman did not die in vain.† â€Å"Did not† provokes a strong feeling of confidence that he will be the one to make his father proud after his death. Through the play Happy is undermined by his father and seen to be â€Å"second best† to Biff; therefore him claiming to be the one to â€Å"win it for him† could suggest that he’s never overcome this feeling of neglect from his father,Show MoreRelatedShakespeares King Lear and Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman1063 Words   |  4 Pagesproven in looking at both the tragedies of King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller. If the proverbs quote was assumed to be true, those who do good and are loving beings would prosper in good fortune, but this is unfortunately almost never the case. 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