The characters Willy Loman of the play Death of Salesman, and Amada Wingfield of The Glass Menagerie share many comparable traits, but at the same time they are different in some ways.
Both Willy and Amanda live in fantasy worlds. They both wish they could revel in the past and what used to be. Amanda dreams back to when she was the pampered southern belle and was called on by many gentlemen callers. She remembers being a socialite and part of the elite society in the south. Amanda has this notion that she has to build a dowry for her daughter to make her more eligible for marriage. She also has this idea that her son is on the fast track on his job, and will one day bring them into the world of social and financial success she dreams of. She even dresses in some of her old gowns when they have company for dinner.
Actor Dustin Hoffman with Lee J. Cobb, who origina...
1st edition cover (Viking Press)
Death of a Salesman (1951 film)Willy has a habit of daydreaming back to the days when his sons were still in high school and Biff was the captain of the football team. He also imagines his older brother Ben talking to him about business and how successful he is, and asks him to come with him. He also daydreams about The Woman, and his days on the road as a traveling salesman. His inability to deal with the present is what eventually was his demise. They both had trouble with accepting reality. The reality Willy needed to accept is that he was not a successful salesman, his brother Ben was dead, and that Biff was not the success he wanted him to be. Amanda's reality is that Laura is crippled, she is no longer a southern belle, and her son is not interested in climbing the corporate ladder at...