Failure in The Great Gatsby vs The Death of a Salesman
With life comes failure, it is expected for humans to makes mistakes and be unsuccessful. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman there are several characters that face failure. Their failures are based on their actions and it is the response of the characters that create a tragic story. The characters fail at facing reality and accepting change which affect their way of thinking. One could understand that the final outcome of the two novels is due to the way the characters face his or her own failures.
Failure
The Great Gatsby
Death of a Salesman
The characters rely on others for happiness, because they did not deal with their failures properly.
Gatsby relies on Daisy and his perfect image of her to make him happy.
He believes she is the only thing that can make him happy since she is his first love, but losing her was his failure.
When Gatsby briefly achieves his dreams of being with Daisy it vanishes because his expectations were too high and she could not meet them.
In the hotel Daisy admits she loves both Gatsby and Tom, but once she discovers Gatsby has become successful through illegal activities she stays with Tom because he is well established.
In the end Gatsby finally accepts reality where he cannot have Daisy for himself.
Willy relies on additional mental affairs to make him happy because in his past memories he was somewhat successful.
In the past Willy has two sons that have the potential to become successful, which gave him hope for his American Dream of success and notoriety.
The past is also where his sons respected and looked up to him
Willy often retreats to the past, because he does not want to deal with his failures in the present. Once Willy finally owns up to his mistakes he fixes the problem by committing suicide, because his family can get insurance money from his death.
Their reliability on others for happiness, contributes to them creating a false reality.
Lives with
Failure
The Great Gatsby
Death of a Salesman
The characters rely on others for happiness, because they did not deal with their failures properly.
Gatsby relies on Daisy and his perfect image of her to make him happy.
He believes she is the only thing that can make him happy since she is his first love, but losing her was his failure.
When Gatsby briefly achieves his dreams of being with Daisy it vanishes because his expectations were too high and she could not meet them.
In the hotel Daisy admits she loves both Gatsby and Tom, but once she discovers Gatsby has become successful through illegal activities she stays with Tom because he is well established.
In the end Gatsby finally accepts reality where he cannot have Daisy for himself.
Willy relies on additional mental affairs to make him happy because in his past memories he was somewhat successful.
In the past Willy has two sons that have the potential to become successful, which gave him hope for his American Dream of success and notoriety.
The past is also where his sons respected and looked up to him
Willy often retreats to the past, because he does not want to deal with his failures in the present. Once Willy finally owns up to his mistakes he fixes the problem by committing suicide, because his family can get insurance money from his death.
Their reliability on others for happiness, contributes to them creating a false reality.
Lives with