We covered tragedies, which was
helpful because I was able to see the differences in how tragedies were written
throughout time. In the modern form of
tragedy society is seen as the problem, and I was able to connect this back to
“Death of a Salesman”. Willy cannot
succeed in life because he was not born into the right family. Capitalism rules society and dictates who is
in the elite class.
Although some may feel sympathetic
toward Willy, I do not. This may seem
harsh but I honestly just don’t like Willy; he is very annoying. His principles of being well liked frustrated
me even more because it is false and cannot help you succeed in life. I felt as if his teaching hinders his
children’s’ development into strong men who can earn their way in life. On the contrary Charley and Bernard were less
bothersome to me because they have values that demonstrate that they understand
hard work and the benefits of it.
While reading I wondered why is it
that Willy’s values show signs of laziness while Charley’s demonstrate a
typical attitude for the American dream?
Upon reflection I see Charley, as being more in line with traditional
values while Willy is more modern. Willy
just wants to become rich quickly and not work for it. I think that this can apply to America today
because some people don’t understand what it means to work hard anymore. Perhaps this is another point Miller was
trying to make through “Death of a Salesmen”.
I cannot say that I am sorry that
we have finished “Death of a Salesman” and from what little we have read in
“Hamlet” I have been enjoying it.
“Hamlet” is a tragedy so I am looking forward to comparing it with the
more modern tragedy of “Death of a Salesman”.
So far I have noticed that instead of following characters of lower social
status and blaming society for one’s problems, Shakespeare focuses more on the nobility,
and the interactions among these characters, as well as supernatural forces. However, both bring real life into their
plays. Miller critiques the world of
capitalism, while Shakespeare focuses on the history of England’s kings, queens
and their affairs.
Good point about tragedies throughout time. I thought it was cool to see how DoS was more subtle (at least, in comparison) than "Hamlet." "Hamlet" seemed more extravagant than DoS, especially in its symbols.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Willy -- I found him unsympathetic as well. The problem with Willy, however, is that you are almost forced to feel sympathetic in certain scenes, which clouds your judgement overall. For one example, I would look at Willy getting fired and his breakdown in the office.
The difference in class between DoS and "Hamlet" gives a unique experiences. DoS shows how lower classes are trodden upon, and "Hamlet" shows how being a part of the nobility does not necessarily result in a "noble" life. Of course there are many more points than these, but we can't exactly talk about them all in one blog post.
Good post!
Willy is such a hard person to understand. He's like that "friend" who is both charming and rude-- but then you don't know whether you should feel bad for that person or not. Willy treats the people around him very poorly which causes readers to dislike him, but his failing career makes readers pity him.
ReplyDeleteThat is another great point. Miller definitely wanted to show that any "get-rich-quick" philosophy had no place in the real world. But even more, I think the author wanted to stress that in order to succeed, you need to be more than "well-liked".
I know that DoS applies more to my life than Hamlet does, but I am definitely loving Hamlet more than DoS.
That's a really good point about Willy personifying the American Dream more than Charley. I hadn't thought of it that way- I always thought Willy was just some innocent man that was harmed by his environment, but it does make sense that he's the one buying into it completely. The way he expects to make money just by talking to people is unrealistic, and he only gets that idea after seeing one man- he clearly doesn't have a very good world view and draws conclusions way too quickly.
ReplyDeleteMoving on. Comparing the two tragedies will indeed be fun, as I think the idea of modern tragedies is to make the protagonist more relatable, but some of the older tragedy characters are even more relatable than the ones in DoS.