Reality vs. Illusion in The Glass Menagerie, The Death of a Salesman, and A Raisin in the Sun
All three stories are centered on lower income families in urban settings. Each story has one main dreamer with other characters being in various states of reality. Amanda Wingfield, Willy Loman, and Walter Lee Younger are all living on pipe dreams. Amanda dreams of her days on the front porch surrounded by her gentleman callers. Willy is the all time king of pipe dreams bouncing from past to future with imagining how everything would have been different if he had gone to Alaska (or Africa) with his brother Ben or will be different when Howard makes him showroom salesman at the home office or Biff gets ten (fifteen) thousand dollars for his new business idea. Walter Lee is a smart hard working man but he is so eager to be financially successful that his common sense is blurred and he allows con man Willie Harris to take him for the families ten thousand dollars.
Amanda's reality check comes from another dreamer, her son, Tom who is totally annoyed by Amanda's nagging and domineering, he thinks that everything will be better if he can just get away. Amanda and her family go on living their fantasy lives.
Willy gets it from all sides; primarily his conflict is with Biff but also Charley, Howard, and Bernard. He is an average man who truly believes he is better than those around him, and that his sons, especially Biff, are greater still, but people, he has very little respect for, are all more successful than he is. Biff starts out like Willy perhaps but comes to the realization that being an average man is okay. Willy never comes to that conclusion; in fact he decides he is more valuable dead than alive.
Walter Lee probably has the best grasp on reality and the highest hill to climb of all the dreamers in these stories. This story could probably only take place in a northern city in the United States at that time. His reality check comes from Lena Younger, his mother, a highly spiritual woman with a strong sense of what right and wrong is. Lena has raised Walter Lee to be a good man but he is eager to find a shortcut out of the ghetto and be treated with respect.
Compare and contrast the ways in which Miller and Steinbeck present the idea of Illusion vs. Reality in Death of a Salesman and Of Mice and Men
the recurring theme of night and darkness is used to symbolize guilt and conscience such
In Williams, Tennessee’s play The Glass Menagerie, Amanda’s image of the southern lady is a very impressive. Facing the cruel reality, she depends on ever memories of the past as a powerful spiritual to look forward to the future, although her glory and beautiful time had become the past, she was the victim of the social change and the Great Depression, but she was a faithful of wife and a great mother’s image cannot be denied.
At the beginning of the play it is evident that he cannot determine the realities of life, and so he repeatedly contradicts himself to establish that his conclusion is correct and opinion accepted. These numerous contradictions demonstrate that Willy is perturbed of the possibility that negative judgements may come from others. Willy strongly believes that “personality always wins” and tells his sons that they should “be liked and (they) will never want”. In one of Willy’s flashbacks he recalls the time when his sons and him were outside cleaning their Chevy. Willy informs Biff and Happy the success of his business trips and how everyone residing in Boston adores him. He mentions that due to the admiration of people he does not even have to wait in lines. He ultimately teaches his sons that being liked by others is the way to fulfilling one’s life and removing your worries. These ideals, that one does not need to work for success, demonstrate Willy’s deluded belief of achieving a prosperous life from the admiration and acceptance of others. This ultimately proves to be a false ideology during his funeral, when an insufficient amount of people arrive. Willy constantly attempts to obtain other’s acceptance through his false tales that depict him as a strong, successful man. In the past, he attempts to lie to his wife, Linda, about the amount of wealth he has attained during his
The vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady Macbeth, all come in night scenes. The Witches dance in the thick air of a storm or, 'black and midnight hags', receive Macbeth in a cavern. The blackness of night is to the hero a thing of fear, even of horror; and that which he feels becomes the spirit of the play. The faint glimmerings of the western sky at twilight are here menacing: it is the hour when the traveller hastens to reach safety in his inn, and when Banquo rides homeward t meet his assassins; the hour when 'light thickens', when 'night's black agents to their prey do rouse', when the wolf begins to howl, and the owl to scream, and withered murder steals forth to his work. (307)
Shakespeare uses symbolism throughout Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy to convey different emotions, or to express the character’s personality. An example of this is when Lady Macbeth asserts, “The raven himself is hoarse/That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan/Under my battlements.” The raven is often portrayed as a symbol of death, and croaks when someone dies. In this instance the raven is hoarse, meaning it has no reason to make noise now, but when her plan to kill Duncan is executed It will croak. He also uses night as a tool ot only to set the scene but to show their actions are frowned upon. Because night is dark, it can cover your sins, so when Macbeth and his Lady are murdering Duncan, “the blanket of the dark” (1.5.60) can cover their sins. Another symbol that is used both in this excerpt and throughout the
Willy also has very poor parenting skills. He has two children Biff and Happy. Willy excuses Biff for a lot of events when he was younger. If Biff stole something, Willy just brushes it off and says that is was no big deal. He didn’t even care when Biff failed math and did not graduate from high school. He measured success in how many people you knew not what your grades are. In one breath Willy would say that Biff is lazy and then in the next say he’s not.
Amanda also pressures Laura to get married so that she can fulfill her past life through Laura by her having a man that can care...
Since the beginning of time there has been an ever present divide between the male and female genders in every way. From politics all the way down to expectations, the common denominator in categorizing who takes care of what has always been decided by gender. In earlier times this divide led to the strict and often harsh treatment of women, but as time continued and the emergence of equal rights and feminist movements arose, the divide between the two genders has since begun to close, and has led to better relations between men and women.
... did not have tyrannous men overlooking them as men did to women in Athens. Although these two ancient societies were in the same country, the value of women and their freedom were very different. By comparing and contrasting we are able to better understand the concept of gender, how gender inequalities have changed from the past, and what we have learned about the history of women and gender. In analysis, the value of women in these two societies was greatly influenced by their role and contribution to society. Women in Sparta were valued more because they gave birth to potential warriors and since Sparta was a militarized state more warriors were needed. Spartan women hired lower class women for the chores. In Athens, women were less valued because household role such as taking care of the house, chores, and cooking were not equally important to society as men.
A major part of the reader's animosity towards Willy stems from his responsibility for the ruin of his sons. Willy's affair ends up being the reason that Biff ends up a high-school failure and a football has-been. This blunder both disheartens and destroys his eldest son. It becomes the reason Biff refuses to go to summer school; it becomes the reason that Biff leaves home. Yet, this is all a result of Willy's need to be likeable. He cheats on his doting wife simply because it makes him feel special, because it gives him proof that women other that Linda are interested in him, because it makes him feel well liked. A woman "picked [him]"; a woman laughs when he makes jokes about keeping pores open; a woman pays him some attention (38).
Lille is right by the border of Belgium. Which means many people can travel from Belgium to Lille for work. There are no more borders gates now. The E.U took them away so more people can travel to the city.
Willy is fairly likeable however, he is also equally irritable due to the choices and egotistical confidence he seems to tie himself to in order to cover his deep insecurities. Throughout the play I continuously felt remorse for Willy as a character. He seemed as if he was going insane and trying to relive the ‘good ‘ole days’, when he was a successful man, at the same time. However, his actions with both his prior affair and with the way he spoke about his children not living up to his ‘dream’, perhaps lead up to his suicide. Constantly, Willy would bash Biff due to the way he carried on after flunking. Willy didn’t like Biff’s occupation or the lack of confidence that he once had. Personally, it’s difficult for myself to relate, or even like,
In Macbeth there are many examples of light verses dark imagery. In Macbeth light is represents peace. Darkness represents horrible events or death. In the beginning of the play Macbeth started out as a friendly guy that would not kill someone who does not deserve it. He started out in light by killing the traitors to the king. Later on in the play he becomes greedy and kills King Duncan to take his place. Once he kills Duncan he turns into this killing machine. Lady Macbeth started out the play on in the dark side, she wanted to have no feeling for anything that she did, and she just wanted power. Later on she became guilty and started sleep walking; she became insane and committed suicide. In the beginning of the play all of the murders were committed in darkness. This changes once the three murders kill Banquo, he is killed in torch light.
Perhaps all of our pleasure, comes from the anticipation of memories that will be developed while taking part in said activities. Our bodies give us memory aids, i.e. Epinephrine (adrenaline), endorphins. Our bodies come to recognize these chemicals as a point in time which we will later look back on. Different peoples bodies release these memory aids in different quantities, in very different activities. Some people's bodies release epinephrine when they partake in a physical activity such as bungee jumping, yet others release it when they take the life of another. Our bodies releasing these memory aids, is the reason that we enjoy different activities, to different...