Comparing The Glass Menagerie with Death of a Salesman - Essay Example

As Dipa Janardanan observes “Indeed, the fact that it is a “memory” play based on Tom Wingfield’s recollection of a part of his life that he has never been able to reconcile or escape sets the stage for the “loss” that will serve as the driving force of the play”. The characters of the play are the victims of time, destiny, and dull and devastating reality. It is not only the tale of a destroyed family devastated by their inability to accept the reality but instead, it is a tale in which the vision of loss is a tool through which William reaches to the core of a general truth that physical space doesn’t effect an individual’s ability to get away from a loss of psychological space. This is what happens to Tom whose love and affection for his mother and sister is the basic reason for his remorse and guilt. Therefore, memory turns out to be his everlasting prison as he strives to bring together his present and past. Similarly, the theme of loss permeates Death of a salesman as well. Willy Loman is the image of the deficit of physiological, moral, and physical space like the ruined picture of the gone father that is hanged in the house of Wingfield symbolizing the image of loss, the failure of moral courage and trustworthiness. The difference is that where remorse and loss cause the return of Tom Wingfield, although in reminiscence of a sorrowful part of his life he tries to make up for his past deeds, Willy Loman surrenders to the desolation of loss that, results in the eventual demolition of character, body, soul, and mind.

According to Roudane “Death of Salesman transcends its borders, its American heritage, and claims to American essentialism . . .The play continues to engage audiences on an international level, not only because it traverses intercultural borders, but also because it brings audiences back to the edges of prehistory itself” Willy Loman’s unwavering belief in his underdeveloped version of the American dream leads to his quick psychological weakening as he is not able to comprehend the difference between his real life and the mythic dream. Undoubtedly, the troubles of the Lomans in their chase of the American dream are sated with the calculating traditions of “we must”, “we must keep up with joneses” and “if only”. The catastrophic element is that Lomans don’t understand that the satisfaction they wish for is things that cannot be paid for. He associates victory and cheerfulness with being “personally attractive”. As A.D Choudhuri states “Dreams of a better future slowly take the shape of wishful fantasies, so much so that the sharpness of the conflict between illusion and reality, between Loman’s little dreams and the impersonal forces of society, seem to be lost in comprehensive images of extraordinary poetic force” similarly in The Glass menagerie every character is incapable to face their problems and thus retire into a personal world of fantasy where they find their ease.   The Glass Menagerie recognizes the invasion of actuality by delusion as an enormous and increasing feature of the human state in its era.

The Glass Menagerie also corresponds to the destruction that can happen when normal people fail to develop a contact or affiliation. It is another attraction for the audience of America as William brings forward the vulnerability of family interaction and the agony an individual faces when torn between personal satisfaction and family responsibility. In the same way in the Death of a salesman Willy never cares for sincere love, warmth, and relations, and association with family and in fact, substitutes those with mythical traits like “appearances are everything” and “making connections”. This turns out to be an everlasting source of aggravation for his sons because they have also grown up with illusions.

According to Bigsby “Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, who dominated the American theater for nearly a decade and a half, both began their careers as political playwrights. Formed by the 1930s, they responded to the economic and social realities of the age”.