Comparing Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller And Fences By August Wilson

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson both follow two middle-class families in the 1940-1950’s. In many ways, these two plays are very similar. The plots are the same, the characters struggles are the same, and the theme is the same. Both of these plays revolve around families that are far from the American Dream. From matrimonial issues to imperfect father/son relationships, both of these stories paint a major picture to the onlookers of what life in a citified family living in the time setting was like through the author’s eyes. With all the major things that make these plays alike, there aren’t many things that make them different.
Trying to figure out a way to overcome poverty without any income, Death of a Salesman,

was mainly about Willy, a salesman with self-deception and misguided life goals. With little family time, driving to different states every day to make sales, and being antisocial when he came home from work, made Willy family break apart. As a result to that, Willy was fired because he complained it was making his family too distant. This play follows Willy as he struggles to chase the American Dream.
Fences explores the development of African Americans and examines race relations. In this play, it is shown why people build barriers to protect their inner selves. Fences made a clear view of how a career was put away for a major league baseball player. Troy, in Fences life turned upside down after he was banned from the major league for being colored. He has gone through life facing many obstacles and pressure that crushed himself as a person and his family.
Death of a Salesman and Fences both portray a family trying to survive on a firm income. The two plays have similar themes such as achieving the American dream. These tales tell of two men with unclear views of attaining the American dream. The two main characters, Troy and Willy both had affairs that sabotaged their families and lives.
Both protagonists, Willy and Troy, are unsuccessful, dissatisfied with their life, and ordinary men. Willy in Death of a Salesman failed to meet his own expectations to be a salesman. In this statement, “Funny, y'know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive. (Act 2)”, Willy explains how he has nothing and can never get it back with the lack of other job experiences. Troy in Fences failed to be a Major League Baseball player. Both characters are dissatisfied with their life because of the fact that they can’t take care of their families the proper way a man should because of their unsuccessfulness. Both men are equally unfortunate and want the best of their families but failed to attain the American Dream.
Both wives, Linda in Death of a Salesperson and Rose in Fences are both enablers, forgiving, and supportive.

They both made it possible for their family to be as a whole instead of distant. In both plays, the protagonists were and killed and they made it possible for their family to survive. Both wives were forgiving as they forgiven their husbands for having an affair. They didn’t let it get in between their family but to try to make it better because their children were betrayed. The wives were supportive in the way a mother and a wife should be. Having little but them self to give made it much harder for them to

live.

These plays both approached very similar subjects and three of the same literary devices such as symbolism, imagery, and allegory. In Death of a Salesman, the seeds that Willy insists on buying and planting are an important symbol in the play. The seeds represented the start of a possible “new life” for the Loman family, but the new life of the Loman family never happened. The symbol in Fences was the fence. It was a symbol of the things Troy wanted to keep out and things he wanted to separate himself from.
Betrayal plays a crucial role in both of these plays.

Willy, in Death of a Salesman, betrays his wife Linda’s love and his son Biff trust by having an affair. Willy says to Biff, “She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.” In response, Biff says “You—you gave her Mama’s stockings! [His tears break through and he rises to go” (Act 2). In this incitation, Willy is trying to explain that the woman didn’t mean anything to him and is trying to work things out between Biff before things get too worse. Giving the stockings to the woman he had an affair with destroys his role as a provider. In Fences, Troy, betrays his wife by having an affair too. Troy family breaks apart from the affair as well. As Troy says, “I'm trying to find a way to tell you...I'm gonna be a daddy. I'm gonna be somebody's daddy.” (Act 2, Scene 2), is where his wife, Rose found out about his affair. When Rose found out about the affair, things changed within the

household.
Death also plays a major role. In Death of a Salesman, Willy sees those who are dead. Willy ends commits suicide at the end of the play having a belief that it’ll help his family succeed. Upon his death, the insurance will pay his family money which he hopes help his son, Biff better himself.