Compare And Contrast Oedipus And Willy Loman
Jon Solis
Professor Mullins
EWRT1B
15 February, 2014
Compare and Contrast Separated by almost 3000 years of literature, two plays can still contain similar elements and characteristics that tie the two together. This is the case between the two plays, Oedipus The King and its counterpart Death of a Salesman, one written approximately 430 BC and the other written in 1949. When first reading this book, one might question, what could these stories possibly have in common; one is about a king who discovers he has killed his father and copulated with his mother and the other about a salesman with suicidal tendencies and unattainable dreams. As the reader further analysis the story, the underlying similarities become more apparent even as one might say that there are no relations between the two stories. Looking into the main protagonist of both …show more content…
Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through! ( Death of a Salesman 1435. Act I)
Willy gives seemingly sound advice but he also takes it as an opportunity to puff out his chest in bravado and say that he himself is well liked by everyone “never hav[ing] to wait in line to see a buyer” (1435. Act I) . This is all for show, priding himself as a man who has succeeded in the world of business, in truth it is nothing more there mere false confidence. When addressing his wife about his trips up north to New England and his sales he contradicts himself when he say that he is “very well liked in Hartford… the trouble is… people don’t seem to take to me” (1437. Act I). All this false confidence and pride comes to light when he makes such statements even though he knows otherwise. Both Oedipus and Willy have this prideful personality that allows the play to propel of it, eventually leading to their own self demise in one way or
Professor Mullins
EWRT1B
15 February, 2014
Compare and Contrast Separated by almost 3000 years of literature, two plays can still contain similar elements and characteristics that tie the two together. This is the case between the two plays, Oedipus The King and its counterpart Death of a Salesman, one written approximately 430 BC and the other written in 1949. When first reading this book, one might question, what could these stories possibly have in common; one is about a king who discovers he has killed his father and copulated with his mother and the other about a salesman with suicidal tendencies and unattainable dreams. As the reader further analysis the story, the underlying similarities become more apparent even as one might say that there are no relations between the two stories. Looking into the main protagonist of both …show more content…
Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through! ( Death of a Salesman 1435. Act I)
Willy gives seemingly sound advice but he also takes it as an opportunity to puff out his chest in bravado and say that he himself is well liked by everyone “never hav[ing] to wait in line to see a buyer” (1435. Act I) . This is all for show, priding himself as a man who has succeeded in the world of business, in truth it is nothing more there mere false confidence. When addressing his wife about his trips up north to New England and his sales he contradicts himself when he say that he is “very well liked in Hartford… the trouble is… people don’t seem to take to me” (1437. Act I). All this false confidence and pride comes to light when he makes such statements even though he knows otherwise. Both Oedipus and Willy have this prideful personality that allows the play to propel of it, eventually leading to their own self demise in one way or