Conflict
The leading character in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman wanted to attain the American Dream, success, love and respect from everyone. In King Lear, the King himself wanted the love of all three of his daughters.
The main obstacle for both characters was his own tragic personality flaw; flattery in King Lear’s case and a misconstrued vision of how to attain wealth and respect in the case of Willy Loman. There were, however, secondary obstacles such as their families and companions. The environment played hardly any hindrance in King Lear, whilst in Death of a Salesman it seemed to negatively affect Willy’s frame of mind when he was constantly met each day with the reminder of his dismal circumstances. Willy’s family, comprising of his wife Linda and two sons, Biff and Happy indirectly helped to send Willy over the edge completely. While he was teetering they didn’t realize the importance of their pulling him back, Linda more so than the sons. For King Lear, his eldest daughters and their allies (along with his own folly) set the stage for his ultimate demise. These two drama texts are tragic in that they illustrate the tragic flaws of their main characters as the cause of their deaths thus ending the plays.
The high point in the Shakespearean play, King Lear is when both of Lear’s elder daughters showed their true colours and their covetousness and attempted to destroy their father. In the American play, Death of a Salesman the events leading up to Willy’s untimely demise created suspence until it reached a climax.
Character Analysis
The characters of both plays are “true to life”; the protagonists especially. In the American play Willy can be seen as a static character –unchanging; whilst in Shakespeare’s play Lear is dynamic, he changes due to various conflict and circumstance that he encounters.
The character of Willy Loman is revealed mainly throughout his flashbacks and how he speaks to his counterparts. King Lear’s character is revealed earlier than Willy’s when he has gathered his children together to divide the kingdom amongst them.
The driving force behind of Willy Loman is his misconception of the ‘American Dream’ and even his wife, Linda. For King Lear it is a mixture of the passion within his personality and the anger and hurt that he feels because of his children’s behaviour towards him.
Only King Lear’s character changed. How it came about and the results are very convincing thus making it “true to life”. His realization and then change from one stage to the other is genuine and happens in reality, it is not an unrealistic or impossible.
Setting
Yes, the sets are appropriate as they capture the era of the plot and emphasize what is occurring at the time.
Many of these sets are unattractive, however, they fulfill their purpose to illustrate what is occurring throughout the plot.
No, not all of the settings are authentic. Some of them look very phony as they aim to replicate the original.
Critical standards useful for drama, novel, motion pictures
The chief emphasis is on the characters; the atmosphere and environment play a secondary part to both plays.
The purpose is to entertain the audience.
These two plays capture real life in most aspects and so can be deemed as realistic, there is no romance found anywhere within the two.
Life is registered in both its real sense and in a distorted manner throughout the Shakespearean play and the American play.
In both plays there are many problems with human relationships present. In Death of a Salesman, for instance, there is conflict between the protagonist, Willy and his family, neighbour, employer. These actually occur in life, nothing is perfect, however, it is possible that these perspectives were a bit over-exaggerated. In King Lear Lear had relationship problems with his eldest daughters, those daughters had problems with their little sister and their husbands; Gloucester's sons had issues among themselves. Yet there were characters who did have optimistic relationships, which could still be called realistic.
Neither of the two plays present a glamorized life or a happy ending that can be called artificial, for there is no happy ending.
