Glass Menagerie and D.O.S

A detailed Summary of Glass Menagerie and D.O.S

Dreams and aspirations help to keep alive, a sense of hope, something to live for. Yet if one does not make their dreams flexible they may fall short and thereby feel their life is unfulfilled. Both Tom Wingfield and Willy Loman in The Glass Menagerie and Death of a Salesman, respectively, live every day with a hope that soon they will be able to achieve these goals that they have set forth for themselves. Yet due to obstinacy of Willy's dream it has become impalpable, while Tom has the ability to realize that a man can change his reveries based upon his current conditions.

The American Dream is a fabrication in which a man finds happiness with a house, a successful job, a nice car and a perfect family consisting of a wife and 2.5 children. Willy has geared his ambitions towards this dream. He can not accept the fact that he is just another salesman trying to convince his buyers of why his product is important. Willy feels that the only way to succeed in the business world is to be "well-liked," yet he can not even do that. He creates illusions of his prosperity in order to cater to his unobtainable dream. Willy convinces himself and his sons when he says, "Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I

Unfortunately Willy's dreams remain rigid and he bends reality in order to fit them. As the play concludes Willy's job is gone, his children are gone and his car is gone. A large portion of Willy's illusion has apparently, even to Willy, stripped from him. Since his dream was not ductile, Willy feels there is no reason to live anymore and makes his last attempt at providing a dream. Not for himself, but for his sons, who will hopefully live out the dream that he could not. Willy's suicide is a flagrant exertion to afford his family with adequate insurance compensation in order for Happy, his son, to finish what he hadn't even begun to; a life filled with sales, friends, a nuclear family and a house in the country. One must realize that it is an American "Dream" not a reality.

Willy Loman can not comprehend that not all dreams come to be and that if one sets their bar too high, they may have to lower it in order to be content in the future. Willy hopes and really believes that "someday (he'll) have (his) own business, and (he'll) never have to leave home anymore." Willy's disturbing avoidance of his neighbor Charley is a direct denial of his present state. Charley is living the American Dream. He has worked hard and earned every morsel of food put on his table, every penny out of his pocket. Willy will not accept this and always becomes insulted when Charley tries to lend him a hand financially. Charley and Willy's conversation in Act II shows Willy's reluctance to admit failure. Willy has lost his job and therefore any source of reputable income and he still manipulates himself into thinking he has a job. "Charley

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Dream, II Willy's, Unfortunately Willy's, Willy Loman, Amanda Tom's, VI I'm, Death Salesman, , Scene VI, Charley Willy's, american dream, willy loman, dream willy's, willy feels, dream sons, job' charley-, willy's illusion, willy's dream, live dream, two-by-four situation,

Approximate Word count = 1106
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels