Question

Compare Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” with Williams’ “Glass Menagerie” in terms of setting, staging, character analysis, themes, actions, language, etc. Which seems the most relevant and significant to you?

Answer 1

• Miller’s Death of A Salesman and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie share a similar theme in the pursuit of the renewed American Dream.
• In both of them the authors portray the American Dream as that where an individual could achieve financial success and material comfort.
• In both plays it is perceived that the characters have trouble with distinguishing what is a figment of their imagination and what is reality.
• The characters in both the plays become dependent and obsessed with memories of the past. As a result, both Miller and Williams’ characters have the incapability of living in the present time. The characters resort to the past to compensate for what they presently lack. It is evident that the characters yearn to escape from their unbearable lives. They try to escape their realities through various routes.
• In The Glass Menagerie, Tom’s only immediate escape is the fire escape, where he goes to have time away from his psychotic mother.But actually Tom’s only source of adventure from his boring home life are the movies he watches. He uses the power of his minds to leave. In Miller's play,Willy talks to himself to leave his life and create his own atmosphere in which he is more comfortable.
• Its difficult to to identify which is more significant because both are analogous to each other. Both plays focus around the difference between illusion and reality,the incapability of living in the present, and the desire for escape. Both characters use different ways of finding peace in life. We as individuals also use different ways. The act of watching movies by Tom in Miller's play is something which I connect as a way of moving away from the realities and insecurities of life and escaping into an unreal world even if it for a few hours. For one's sanity,we all need different ways of escaping and overcoming our insecurities and both these plays portray that. Tom's portrayal feels more significant and applicable to our real lives,involving the process of recovery by recognizing the dysfunctional familial roles and accepting responsibilities of one's own life and learning to move forward in life and leave the past.