Comparing The American Dream In Netherland And Death Of A Salesman

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Both, ‘Netherland’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ employ male characters who are enamoured by the American Dream. Both Chuck and Willy try to attain their dreams, they are both not content with their lives at present time. Willy seeks the refuge of his past to guide him on how to become a successful businessman and so repetitively reminisces about his successful brother. Whereas, Chuck is driven by passion and determination which is why he dreams vividly of what he can achieve in the future. . Miller is depicting the ‘Everyman’ who has been oppressed by the society he is in; he portrays the false consciousness of a working class man in capitalist society. Eleanor Clarke states that, “it is of course the brutal capitalist system that has done Willy.” …show more content…

He said that, “Manny was living in two places at the same time. Wouldn’t it be marvellous to be able to do a play where somebody is in two or three different place concurrently?” Willy is similar to traditional tragic figures such as Hamlet as they both have the tragic flaw of being overly ambitious, Willy wants to be well-liked and Hamlet wants to become King. Therefore, when he is talking to Biff and Happy, he imagines them as teenagers, “Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but he when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him. That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re going to be five times ahead of him.” The repetition of phrases almost depicts that these phrases have been repeated in Willy’s head multiple times before symbolising the tragedy of Willy and his flaws because he wanted to be successful as well as his sons, but they weren’t able to because the business climate after the Great Depression was still recovering from the Wall street Crash

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