Comparison between characters Willy Loman and King Lear

The character Willy Loman is the protagonist of the American play, Death of a Salesman and the character King Lear is the protagonist of the Shakespearean play King Lear. Both characters have flaws that they suffer from and others around them are affected by. In Death of a Salesman, Willy's tragic flaw of ignorance and stubbornness leads to his end and his wife's heartbreak and misunderstanding. Whilst, in King Lear Lear's tragic flaw of a love for flattery results primarily, in the death of his favourite child. There are many similarities between the two books. First and foremost they are both characters who have false ideals and perspectives on life. Secondly, they both have a favourite child, who loves them equally if not more. Finally, they both died leaving behind great wealth, but how each died is different to the other. One,(Willy) gave up on life and committed suicide, and the other King Lear died because life gave up on him, (he had finished his fight).

Willy Loman's perspective on life was to live the "American Dream", which he perceived as getting rich quick and easy to become successful. Lear, on the other hand had the false perspective that more flattery meant more love. Both of these characters suffered great consequences because of their misconstrued beliefs. Those they loved also had to suffer either by poverty, death or guilt.

The second similarity would be that Willy and Lear both had favourite children, who loved them a great deal, and both were blinded by how much that child loved and cherished them. As a result of both parents ignorance and deceptive ideologies they drove their children from them, but because of the children's great love they returned to help them.

Finally, the deaths of these tragic characters may have been different but they both left great fortunes behind. Willy, in Death of a Salesman kept repeating twenty thousand dollars as he went on his way to commit suicide. The ghost of Ben had told Willy that Biff would go far and become successful if he had that kind of money behind him and that spurred Willy on to kill himself so that his son could get his insurance money. In King Lear, Lear died after the tragic loss of his beloved daughter, Cordelia. He was overwhelmed to the point of actually dying.