Death of a Salesman Oedipus the King - 1782 Words

An overwhelming desire for personal contentment and unprecedented reputation can often result in a sickly twisted distortion of reality. In Sophocles Oedipus the King, a man well-known for his intellect and wisdom finds himself blind to the truth of h life and his parentage. Arthur Millers play, The Death of a Salesman, tells of a tragic character so wrapped up in his delusional world that reality and illusion fuse causing an internal explosion that leads to his undoing. Each play enacts the strugg of a man attempting to come to grips with his harsh reality and leaving behind his comfortable fantasy world. In the end, no man can escape the truth no matter how hard he may fight. In choosing the fragility of illusion over the stability†¦show more content†¦The extreme to which Willy takes this illusion causes him to create his own reality where he, knock[s] em cold in Providence, and slaughter[s] em in Boston and where five hundred gross in Providence becomes r ghly two hundre d gross on the whole trip (33). Willy, it seems, lives to please other people, especially his sons Biff and Happy, by way of his successes in numerous areas. Willy constantly brags about his successes in his business, his family life, an his finances, to anyone that will take a moment to listen. Willy wholeheartedly maintains this fantasy life until the company he works for tells him that they no longer want him to represent them (83). Only at this time does Willy begin to see the tru of his overwhelming failure in life. Willy searches for happiness not only through his illusions but through having an affair with a young woman who tells him, you do make me laugh...youre such a wonderful man (38). This woman tells Willy everything e wants to hear but nobody will say about him. When Biff discovers Willy with this woman in a hotel, he realizes the truth about him and his family, that they have lived their entire lives hiding from reality and shielding one another in their fight to asp illusion. Despite Willy andShow MoreRelatedThe Death Of A Salesman And Oedipus The King797 Words   |  4 Pagesorder to gain a proper perspective on the concept of what a tragic hero is, we must synthesize information from the following play’s, â€Å"The Death Of A Salesman†, and â€Å"Oedipus The King†. Both plays takes the stance on the idea that validates the ultimate notion,   Ã¢â‚¬Å"tragic hero. From Willy’s hubris personality to his questionable and mysterious death, to Oedipus dynamic and complex choices and kingly personality that determines his fate. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement thatRead MoreComparison of Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman Essay1025 Words   |  5 Pages which will be discussed in the essay. Oedipus the King opens in a Greek amphitheatre depicting the front of a Theban palace. Throughout the play, the setting remains constant. This changes to a more fast-paced play with different settings in different places in Death of a Salesman. Dramatic irony in Oedipus the King is evident throughout, which is similar to the latter play, but in a different form. In here, the irony is evident. Oedipus the King revolves around characters attempts to changeRead MoreOedipus The King, Death Of A Salesman, And The Glass Menagerie1555 Words   |  7 PagesIn unit two of the semester, the class focused our attention on drama. As a class we read three very good play’s Oedipus the King, Death of a Salesman, and The Glass Menagerie. While all three of these plays were well written and had their share of both dynamic and static characters, the reader can’t help but notice that the mothers in all three plays were secondary to their male counterparts. The question posed is whether or not the mothers were nurturing, the answer was not easy to come by sinceRead More Comparing the Tragedies of Hamlet, Oedipus the King, and Death of a Salesman1023 Words   |  5 PagesComparing the Tragedies of Hamlet, Oedipus the King, and D eath of a Salesman The tragedies Hamlet, Oedipus the King, and Death of a Salesman have strikingly different plots and characters; however, each play shares common elements in its resolution. The events in the plays’ closings derive from a tragic flaw possessed by the protagonist in each play. The downfall of each protagonist is caused by his inability to effectively cope with his tragic flaw. The various similarities in the closingRead MoreComparing Shakespeare s Oedipus The King And Death Of A Salesman 1738 Words   |  7 Pagesdrama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force, such as destiny, and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror. Two such examples of literary tragedies are â€Å"Oedipus the King† by Sophocles and â€Å"Death of a Salesman† by Arthur Miller. Although written over 2000 years apart, there are many similarities between the two literary works, but with varying degrees of differences as well. Some of the key areas to be examined when making thisRead MoreComparison Essay Between Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman1402 Words   |  6 Pagesgoes an old saying, â€Å"All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.† Well, it seems that some people work with almost too much pride. In order to consider the extent to which pride applies to Sophocles Oedipus The King and Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman, consider the following: Oedipus and Willy both take extreme pride in their professions, their pride blinds them from seeing the truth of their situations, and their pride ultimately leads to their own demise/downfall, all of these invokingRead MoreA Survey of Tragedy984 Words   |  4 Pagessense of personal dignity.† I feel Arthur Miller upheld his ideal in â€Å"Death of a Salesman†, where the protagonist Willie Loman commits suicide. Interestingly Willie Loman also meets a portion Aristotle’s description of a tragic hero, since he is not perfectly good, nor is he utterly depraved. Willie Loman’s misfortune is brought upon him by his wife’s refusal to allow him to seek out his dream and continuing to work as a salesman. Aristotle’s requirement that the ideal tragic hero must be one whoRead MoreComparing Oedipus Rex And Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller1255 Words   |  6 Pagestwo works such as Oedipus Rex, which is a playwright written by the great Sophocles and another playwright named Death Of A Salesman written by Arthur Miller. c. Through out the years, there has been a lot of controversy on whether or not Death Of A Salesman is considered to be a tragedy, unlike Oedipus Rex which clearly is. d. I feel these two plays can compare in a multitude of ways despite being written in different historical times. II. Body Paragraphs a. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is the protagonistRead MoreArthur Miller s Death Of A Salesman1039 Words   |  5 Pagesplay Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, is about an old salesperson who returns early from a business trip. After crashing multiple times, he realizes he should stop driving. The other book, Oedipus the King narrates the story of Oedipus. He was a man who became the king of Thebes, while unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would murder his father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jocasta. The above characteristics of tragedy are well highlighted. In the play Death of a Salesman, one flow hat contributesRead MoreComparing Aristotle and Miller ´s View on Tragedy1230 Words   |  5 Pagesis plot driven, and if the plot is set then there is no way around it. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is paying for the sins of his father King Laios. Laios was given horrible future by the Gods for angering them when he rapes another man. He was given a prediction that his son would murder him, and would marry his mother, Queen Jocaste. To prevent the prediction from happening Laios sent his shepherd to kill Oedipus, but gave him to a messenger from a different kingdom for another royal family