Hamlet And Death Of A Salesman Comparison Analysis

Throughout time, humans have displayed many positive and negative life experiences. These experiences can be categorized under various themes, ranging from; love even onto betrayal, and through these themes human emotions and experiences can be studied. “Hamlet,” by William Shakespeare, and “Death of a Salesman,” by Arthur Miller, are two well written plays, displaying a both very tragic and thematic approach. Although, they take place in two very different time periods, under two very different circumstances they share a common effect. Hamlet’s tragic story takes place in a royal castle Elsinore, Denmark, while the Loman’s story takes place in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Boston in the late 1940s. These tragic stories have common themes such …show more content…
In this case though Willy Loman is lying to his sons, leading them to believe that he is well liked and has influence over the police force. “I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and cops protect it like their own”(Arthur Miller19). Unfortunately, for Willy, this is not the case, and in reality: he is just an ordinary salesman, suffering from slow business and trying to make an image for his not so well liked self. He deceives his sons and makes them believe that he is successful man, who has his life together and is able to get benefits that no normal person would be able to obtain, ‘cops protect it like their own’. What is more, Willy is shown to be contradicting what he said to his sons, when he is talking to Linda about how slow business has been. “I don’t no the reason for it, but they just pass me by. I’m not noticed”(23). Willy claims he has friends and connections at one moment and in the next he is admitting that nobody notices him and passes by him like a normal person. This proves Willy guilty of the crime of deception, because he cannot even support his own words. In addition, to Willy’s self proclaimed lies, he mentions how he does not wait for his buyers, that they call on him to sell them merchandise. ‘“I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through”(20). With Willy’s arrogant bragging about his …show more content…
Willy is talking with Linda and they are discussing their difficult situation with Biff, and how he has not gotten anywhere in the 34 years of his life. “Not finding yourself at age thirty-four is a disgrace! ”(5). Willy feels betrayed because Biff has disgraced the family through his many unsuccessful job attempts. Since Biff continues to fail the family, Willy thinks of it as a disgrace, and since Willy had such high hopes for Biff he feels he has personally been betrayed. Likewise, Biff feels that Willy has betrayed the whole family because of the other woman he has been having an affair with. Biff looks up to Willy as a father figure, while growing up his greatest influence was Willy, and he thought that Willy could do anything. His father established a good image for himself, but when Biff found out the truth, he knew that his father has betrayed the family and has lied to him. Since Biff and Willy are always getting into confrontations, Biff expresses to his mother what he really thinks of his father. “Because I know he’s a fake and he doesn’t like anybody around who knows!”(42). At the time Linda had no idea about the affair, that taken place years earlier. But to digress back to the topic, Willy cheated on his wife, lied to his sons and never told the truth, similar to how Claudius comitted incset with his brothers wife, lied to Hamlet and kept his own dark secret. In