Finding their way

One apparent theme present in both The Death of a Salesman and The Glass Menagerie is the struggle to find one own's way and to truly know your own purpose. In Glass Menagerie play, Tom has a job at the warehouse he is never satisfied with and wants to leave so he can travel on his own. But he still is left with a feeling of emptiness because of how he feels guilty for leaving Laura behind. The similar theme occur in The Death of a Salesman. However, in this play, it mainly occurs with both Biff and Willie. From the beginning, Biff has no idea what his purpose is and what he is supposed to do with himself in life. He struggles and tries to make his dad proud but never succeeds in that aspect as well. Willie, on the other hand, had certain talents and skills that he did not use in the right manner. As Biff says, "He had the wrong dreams." Willie was good at doing things with his hands like when he built on to various parts of the house like adding a garage. But Willie never realized this and chose to be a salesman. This shows that by finding out who we are early, we can set ourselves on the right direction in life.

Reality spiced up with imagination

In regards the play being either realistic or non realistic, this play was very peculiar. In many respects, the play had many realistic qualities to it. It consisted of the life of a hardworking American family trying to survive through external and internal struggles. All the characters go about in a very realistic way except for one. Willie is where the non realistic aspect of the play begins to form. While we are never told what exactly, Willie throughout the play seems to hallucinate people and events from the past. This happens quite frequently and the people from the past will appear onstage and act the past even that Willie is reminiscing. However, this is done with the other actors in the present time as well. This is where the non realistic portion of the play is portrayed. The actors from the present act like the hallucinations of Willie's are not there. By having the hallucinations and the present actors onstage at the same time is what lets the audience know that Willie is having the hallucinations randomly at the same time he is with the other characters. So the face that the characters from the different dimensions are together and act like the other is not in the same room is where the non realistic aspect is deployed.

Willie....a hero?

The question of whether or not this play is a tragedy is discussed in the study questions at the end of the play and also in the questions found on page 1119. In order for a play to be considered a tragedy, there needs to be a tragic hero. This tragic hero is then the one that dies at the end making the play a tragedy. But can Willie be considered a hero. This is a tough decision to make. On one hand, Willie has cheated on his wife, taught his children wrongly has they were growing up through their childhood years, and quite frankly treated Linda like crap. But while Willie did commit these sins, he also has one heroic trait that stick out more than anything else. He has devoted his life to travelling on the road and solely working on commission for over 30 years without break. Where he was once promised a position at the firm (which wouldn't require him to travel), he never received it and ended up spending his whole life having to leave his family for long lengths of time and go on the road and make sales. He did no do this for himself, but solely for his family. When looking at this, I think Willie is deserving of being called a tragic hero. We all have our faults, even the tragic heroes in other plays such as Romeo. While those heroes may not have their faults as emphasized as Willie's, they do have their faults. Willie made the mistakes he made because of the high demanding, low paying job he had just to barely support his family. He deserves to be called a tragic hero.

What's his problem!?

So this whole play seems to be situated around Laura and how she needs to find a husband. Even thought the two have their differences, Amanda and Tom work together to try and make this happen. Once Amanda realizes that Tom has invited Jim to have dinner with them so he can meet Laura, Amanda gets very excited and goes out of her way to fix up the apartment and make a good dinner. Well, Jim goes and has some alone time with Laura in which the two then seem to become intimate. For a moment, I really thought that the whole pairing up idea was going to work and Jim would want a relationship with her. So they then kiss and then.......he tells her how he has a girlfriend he is going to marry!! What the hell dude! Talk about messin' with her mind man! I mean, Jim did give her great advice and maybe was actually a positive influence on Laura, but he did not help the relationship between Tom and Amanda. In my opinion, he was actually the catalyst of Tom leaving for adventure. If he had only told people that he was engaged, then Tom would have never invited him and maybe someone else could have been invited by Tom. All in all.....I did not like Jim (and he thinks he is too awesome)

Physical Effects

This play does contain numerous physical effects in the play. First of all, the set is much different than a normal set. The main room in which the actors are in during the play is actually a 4 walled room. The wall facing the audience is kind of translucent so they audience and see them through their. This adds to the realistic aspect of the drama. Also, lighting is another major component to the play. For instance, during the play when Tom indirectly references his father, the portrait of his father lights up. This effect contributes to the nonrealistic aspect of the play. Also, it is said in the descriptions of the characters that the Laura's limp need not be more than suggested on the stage meaning that her limp is not visually emphasized. I took this as meaning that her limp is not really noticed by the people in her familly anymore. Tom even expresses this to Amanda by saying that they are so used to it they don't really realize it much anymore. Lastly, music is another effect used widely thoughout the play. When emotions are changing (or when an emotion is emphasized), a certain song is played to fit that emotion. All in all, physical effects were a big part of this play that contributed to both the realistic and nonrealistic aspects of the play.

Antagonist?

This play's scope of character's and setting is relatively small. The entire play is situated in the apartment by the fire escape and only 4 characters are involved. But when trying to think of who the protaganists and the antagonists are, it is a tough call. In the first 5 scenes, it almost seems like Amanda is the antagonist as she is always nagging on her children, especially Tom. Because of her he labels his own house a a coffin/grave. This would make Tom the protagonist during these scenes. However, as the play progresses, Tom tells Jim how he didn't pay the electric bill and instead put the money towards money for some other organization so that he could escape. He doesn't care about leaving his sister and mother without lights and this part really portrays his selfishness. I could be quick to label him the antagonist in this case, but maybe it was his own mother that made him this way. Maybe it was his mother that also drove her husband away as well. So after thinking about these factors as well, I would remain with my first opinion of Amanda being the protaganist. She really just nags and insults her children through the whole play and it would be so annoying to live with her!! Also, Laura and Jim are definitely foil characters because during their conversation, Jim is very outspoken and we know Laura to be very shy.