Commentaries on Act 4 and 5 of Shakespeares Othello, in relation to the theme of LOVE and VENGEANCE, with examples from the acts.
This has to be informal in the sense that it can be small bullet points and may be very short. Below is a sample of what is required.
Commentaries on Act 4 and 5 of Shakespeares Othello
” In the final acts of Othello, we see Iago’s plan running its course. Everything goes according to plan, with a couple of interventions from Iago
himself. These acts show how dangerous jealousy and vengeance can truly be, especially when someone like Iago is causing these undertakings from behind the
curtain. He is the perfect example of a person that is incapable of caring about anyone but himself. However, this lack of emotion, in my opinion, wasn’t
developed by itself, but rather through the lack of respect and recognition that scarred him throughout his previous years. During the play, we notice that
Iago was never really needed unless ordered to fetch something or someone for Othello, or one of his companions, for he was a knave. Furthermore, in the play
it is suggested that Emilia, was not a faithful wife, but rather one that his “friends” had shared with him as well. Thus, he was trapped with no one to be
able to rely on or share his emotions with, while all that goes through his mind is hate, anger, and desperation. The outcome of this isolation was the
twisted immoral hidden personality that Iago displays.
I extracted two themes from my reading of Othello. The first is that through jealousy, even the wisest men can become blinded through hate and commit the
most irrational acts, a perfect example of that would be Othello choking Desdemona to death, which was the effect of rumors and easily misleading evidence
that cannot stand as proof of her unfaithfulness. Another is that nothing good can happen through secrecy and slyness; that being reflected by all
characters. I say this because without all of this secrecy none of these events would have taken place, then again, Othello wouldn’t have been an
interesting play to begin with.”
Evaluating The New American Century by Arundhati Roy
Evaluating The New American Century by Arundhati Roy
A clear explanation of those criteria and reasoning for why applying such criteria is useful when evaluating Roy’s essay.
Specific explanations of how the text meets or fails to meet your criteria. You will need to refer to specific passages and quote from Roy’s text to do
this effectively.
It will be useful to consult Anne Applebaum’s review in The New York Review of Books of Sheryl Sandburg’s Lean In for an example of effective evaluation. In addition, refer to Chapter Ten, “Evaluating Arguments,” in Faigley and Selzer.
Some criteria to consider that might work for this text: Is Roy’s depiction of the U.S. as a market-driven Empire compelling and well-supported? Is the point
of view—the “we” Roy refers to throughout—an effective one for her argument? Does she successfully define what she means by “New Empire”? And finally, is the essay likely to change your thinking?
Your paper should adhere to APA formatting guidelines (you do not need a title page, however). Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, and the page set to ‘margins. APA recommends a 12 pt. Times New Roman font. At the top of every page, page numbers should appear in a header on the right and your title, in caps, on the left.
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Write a 3000 – 4000 word essay that focuses on “adaptations of Othello from 1908 to 2012, including Orson Welles’ 1952 and Oliver Parker’s 1995 versions
but also the films that are built on the Shakespearean plot but prefer not to use Shakespeare’s text, such as O, directed by Tim Blake Nelson in 2001. (You
may) also focus on less full-fledged versions of Othello… (and) references to the play on all kinds of screens (TV, cinema, computer).”
This description comes from Shakespeare on Screen: Othello, a conference of scholars that met in France in 2012, and your task is to write a paper that might be accepted to that conference. The conference announcement goes on to suggest several possible approaches:
how the play is (textually, aesthetically, ideologically, etc.) transformed when directed for the screen;
what each adaptation reveals about the culture in which it is set;
how Shakespeare’s playscript (or plot) interacts with national ideologies and representations
how the screen versions have been influenced and shaped by previous theatre productions;
how gender and racial issues are treated on screen.
Follow your own interests; there’s no one right way to write your paper as long as it includes an introduction, a review of literature, an argument that
supports your thesis, a conclusion, and a works cited page in MLA format. Just keep in mind that you’re writing to participate in a scholarly conversation;
your paper should address claims made by other scholars and make an attempt to contribute your own perspective to our conversation on Othello.
We watch some films about Othello, here is the list
Othello (1952 film) Orson Welles
A Double Life (1947) George Cukor
Othello (1995 film) Oliver Parker
O (2001 film) Tim Blake Nelson
I will upload my class packages, there are some essays talk about these films, my instructor let me according to these essasy and other scholars source u can find on website, library and so on.
There are two blog guides from my instructor can help u narrow the topics
Blog 8: Review of Literature
We’ve looked at hundreds of claims from eight different essays about film adaptations of Othello. Now it’s time to determine which critical conversation interests you. Identify a general discussion area that shows what several scholars have already said about an aspect of Othello that interests you. Write one or two paragraphs (at least 300 words) that lets us “listen” to that critical conversation. This is the first draft of a critical section of your research paper.
Hint: the Review of Literature in the sample research paper (“A Bogus Hero” by Nicholas Jones) is at the bottom of the second page.
Blog 7
Time to narrow your research project down to a topic! Look over the list of claims you posted for Blog 6, as well as the claims posted by others, and try to
identify three or four claims that speak to a topic that interests you. Write a few informal paragraphs today about that topic, the claims that relate to it,
and any additional claims relating to the topic that you can find through research. If you have an idea of what you’d like to say in response to these
claims, go ahead and include your thoughts. This is a rough draft for next week’s Review of Literature assignment; go ahead and do the hard, thinking work
now. Finally, make sure you include the MLA in-text citation for the sources you quote and paraphrase. (Note: If you find additional claims through research
and the sources aren’t yet posted on the site, post them. This is a good week to get caught up on your resource points.)
***Suggested comments: Look for other students who chose a similar topic as your own and challenge the assumptions they make or point out logical fallacy problems or questions raised by
their posts.
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Requirements:
In your review you need to critically:
situate the book in the existing literature
explain the novelty and development of the author’s argument
highlight the key points within their argument and
critically assess the coherence of their argument
assess the author’s evidence and argumentation by comparing and contrasting with the analyses of other authors
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
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1. Micaela Maftei remarks, Wagameses writing is carefully crafted, and the book moves like a river smoothly, often with no hint of the many layers operating beneath what we read, but swiftly enough that at times it cannot be put down. Wagamese does not shy away from including the more hideous aspects of
Canadas history of residential schools and racism, but neither does he resist bringing in the moments of intense, almost blinding beauty that punctuate
Sauls difficult road back into his past To what extent do you agree with Mafteis statement
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Assessment 1- Individual Assessment Book Review of a well-known entrepreneur. 1000 words – or + 10%
You should base your review on:
1. Gaining an understanding of the
nature of entrepreneur- ship and its role in business.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour including approaches to teamwork, communication, creativity, innovation, risk-taking and ethical responsibility.
Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of entrepreneur- ship and its role in business.
Demonstrate an understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour including approaches to teamwork, communication, creativity, innovation, risk-taking and ethical responsibility.
In the marking criteria you state we may not use direct quotes in the book review. Why cant we use say Steve Job’s direct words from the book to illustrate our points and to prove we have actually read the book.
1. Communication
2. Analysis and inquiry
3. Working independently and with others
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The Role and Treatment of Beauty in the Novel SOURCES: What is the role and treatment of beauty and/or aesthetics in the novel, and how might it reveal a particular theme?
The Role and Treatment of Beauty in the Novel
It is your decision whether or not to use secondary sources for this paper. (Keep in mind that one of the papers you include in your final portfolio
of writing must include research from secondary sources.) Many of the topics listed below do lend themselves well to research, and I encourage you to do it.
There is a wealth of excellent, authoritative, easily accessible critical sources on Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the literary movements with
which Wilde is associated. You will find some included in the Norton Critical Edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is the edition I required for
class. Also, I will be placing the following books on reserve in the library for your reference:
? The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde, edited by Richard Ellmann
? The Trials of Oscar Wilde, by H. Montgomery Hyde
? The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, by Walter Pater (Many of Wilde?s
ideas about the role of art come from Pater.)
WARNING: Reading-aid websites such as Sparknotes, Cliffnotes, etc., are NOT reliable, valid scholarly sources and therefore should not be used. I would
prefer you not consult these types of websites at all for this paper.
A NOTE ON WIKIPEDIA: Wikipedia can be a good starting point for general information on your topic, but it should never be used as an actual source for your
analysis. You might find some other helpful resources for your research by scrolling down to the bottom of the Wikipedia entry and looking at the
bibliography and links listed there.
FORMAT AND CONTENT: Direct quotations and paraphrases are required. You must use Chicago Manual of Style formatting and include footnotes/endnotes AND a
bibliography. This should be a thesis-driven paper in which you will present your own interpretation of some aspect of the novel. You will make your
interpretation convincing by providing evidence from the plot and characterization of the novel (and from your research, if you did any) and by analyzing
that evidence to show how it illustrates your thesis.
POSSIBLE TOPICS:
NOTE: Some of these topics are rather broad or vague. They are meant to get
your thinking started….Your actual thesis should be specific and narrow enough for a paper of at least four pages.
1) What does The Picture of Dorian Gray suggest about the connection(s) between art and life?
2) Choose one of the aphorisms in the preface and show how the novel either proves or disproves it.
3) How does knowledge come into play in the novel? What does each character know? What is kept secret, and from whom? What do you as a reader know? Are you
?in? on any secrets that the characters aren?t aware of? How does a character?s level of knowledge affect his or her personality, motivations, actions, etc.?
How does knowledge affect the plot events that unfold?
4) What message or impression does the novel give about the artist (his identity, his role in society, his relation to others, etc.), and how does Oscar
Wilde convey this message through the novel?s plot, characterization, theme, or style? (You might want to refer to Wilde?s ?Lecture to Art Students? or his
aphorisms in the Preface.)
5) What is the role and treatment of beauty and/or aesthetics in the novel, and how might it reveal a particular theme?
6) How is the concept of accountability treated in the novel, and how might it reveal a particular theme?
7) Might we read The Picture of Dorian Gray as another version of the Faust legend? How so? How does Dorian?s experience compare to Doctor Faustus? in
Christopher Marlowe?s version of the tale?
8) Consider the novel from a psychological or psychosocial perspective. What does Wilde reveal or convey about the nature and development of the self in The
Picture of Dorian Gray?
9) How does the form or style of Wilde?s novel help convey a particular theme? (For this topic, you might discuss a literary device such as diction,
foreshadowing, figurative language, description, point- of-view, the epigram, etc.)
10) Is there a moral message for the reader in The Picture of Dorian Gray? If so, what is it, and how does Wilde convey it through the content and form of
the novel? If you think there is not a moral message, consider how the novel treats issues or situations that are commonly referred to as moral concerns. Is
the novel amoral? Immoral? Or do you see it as an illustration of Wilde?s claim in the Preface that ?[t]here is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.?? Explain. (If you want to include research in this essay, you might want to read about the
controversy surrounding the novel by its first critics, and Wilde?s defense of it (and perhaps Wilde?s own legal situation surrounding his conviction for ?
gross indecency?).
11) Is The Picture of Dorian Gray a novel of its time and place (Victorian England)? Why or why not? Use both the novel and your own research to support your
argument.
12) Research Hedonism, Epicureanism, or the Aesthetic movement. How does The Picture of Dorian Gray show or comment on one of these movements?
13) Critics have called The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde?s most autobiographical work. Research Wilde?s life in depth (using scholarly sources such as
journal articles or books and possibly, in addition, authoritative Internet sources), and in your essay discuss what the novel reveals about Wilde himself.
Write three answers to the questions below. Each answer should be between 250-500 words
*Choose one of the tales from Boccaccio’s work and highlight what you see as the “moral” of the story.
-What does the Wife of Bath say about marriage? How does her philosophy hold up today?
-How does the knight in the Wife’s tale “learn” to respect women?
-How does the Renaissance interest in the achievements of man interact with religion and the Catholic Church? Where do you see obvious problems arising?
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
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1.Give an overview of the book – Describe the key points of the book; Explain the message(s) of the book.
2.What is your take away from the book? How does the book resonate with you? Explain what you learned from the book; How will this help your strengths/weaknesses in order to develop your own career?
3.What next? – What next steps can you take to realize the benefits of the book?
SAMPLE ANSWER
Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner
Introduction
In the book minds of the future, Howard Gardner has put together a list of thoughtful ideas. These plans outline mentalities that will help people cope with a dynamic world. The current states of affairs are characterized by ever changing circumstances. It is hard to predict the future due to increasing amounts of information from different quarters. Gardner puts forward five minds. The minds have little to do with natural competencies of a person but much to do with mental capacities people can train on to improve their ways of thinking (Gardner, 2009). The book makes us to seek to know the manner in which we can put our minds to the best use. Gardner gives various explanations ranging from personal growth to adaptive mechanisms. He describes their use as not for personal growth but for the purposes of accomplishing success. The essay discusses the messages in the book, my take on his writing, and also how I can use the words to realize advantages the author explains.
Overview and Messages
The mind indeed matters a lot. In the book, the author holds that the mind is the most valuable tool we can use to accomplish great things. We only have to realize the best ways of thinking. The ways of processing information need not be inflexible but should change to accommodate new thoughts for the purposes of attaining important goals in commercial endeavors as well as our career paths. In the book, Gardner outlines the mental acuity that will enable us to become competitive in the present and future. They include a disciplined mind, the processing mind, the innovative mind, the reverent mind, and the ethical sound mind (Gardner, 2009). All of these minds ought to work together so as to derive their full benefits.
The author gives illustrations of the disciplined mind through an account of a famous piano expert from Poland. He talks of the entertainer as spending his life from childhood to adulthood training on how to play the piano. His efforts to train the mind bear fruit as the piano player becomes one of the best in his generation (Gardner, 2009). However, the artist reaches a point where he stops practicing and later relinquishes expertise in the field. Gardner uses this example to portray his idea that daily practice helps individuals to stand out from others who ply the same trade.
The author goes ahead to give the message that it is easy for people to discover experts. He uses the same pianist who states that the moment a day passes without doing some practice; it comes to his attention that he loses some ability. In case he goes for a couple of days without practice, the band he worked with noticed. Finally, whenever he stayed for more than two days without practice, everyone noticed a decrease in ability to play the piano well (Gardner, 2009). The writer simply reinforces his idea that practice is necessary to sustain expertise.
The author takes a turn on the merits of practice and gives a harsh reality that the world sometimes punishes outstanding minds. He explains that when a person becomes excellent there are people who nurture hostility (Gardner, 2009). The same people tend to work against growing expertise. The writer uses the famous Galilee Galileo who was jailed for introducing the noble idea that the world is round. The message is relevant as many people, who fail to accomplish certain milestones, tend to hate those who easily achieve them as they cannot live with an inferiority complex.
The author also gives an important message under the road ahead of people seeking to become experts. He explains that people ought to incorporate information from different fields, try to partake their duties to humanity, and develop reverent way of processing ideas (Gardner, 2009). I agree with this idea because we have to expect all sorts of future outcomes and prepare for them so as to tackle them effectively.
Critique of the Messages
The Disciplined Mind
Under the disciplined mind, Gardner (2009) holds that concentrating in one field and practicing is required to improve future competence. Ideas on the disciplined mind are partly untrue. As we move into the future, the information overload forces us to learn different disciplines to become more competent. For example, an actuarial Science student will find it necessary to learn IT because of the merits of combining the courses.
The Synthesizing Mind
According to Gardner (2009) the synthesizing mind draws information from different quarters to come up with new ideas. These are ideas are for personal use and can also be passed on to other people. However, the manner through which a person links one idea to another is based on personal judgment. The more a person invades more spheres, the more a synthesized idea becomes accurate. The synthesizing mind, therefore, negates the disciplined mind in that aspect.
The creative mind
According to Gardner (2009) the creative mind is able to use current knowledge to come up with novel ideas. Many would agree with him for admitting that the creative mind is not always admired by giving the example of Galilee Galileo. However, he should have also pointed out that creativity encourages people to work alone. As education becomes increasingly globalized, creativity works against similar ways of thinking.
The respectful Mind
The respectful mind is one that attempts to entitle people to their own opinions (Gardner, 2009). It is more concerned with relationships and ideally support that people in all disciplines should be considered equal. Many, however, disagree as it creates a situation where cognitive functions no longer dictate affairs. Instead, beliefs and preexisting social paradigms dictate progress in various disciplines.
The Ethical Mind
The Ethical Mind, according to Gardner (2009) encourages people to fulfill their responsibilities to humanity. However, just like the respectful mind, the ethical mind is too much reliant on relationships between people. People have more than one responsibility. The ethical mind is an abstract concept and the society expects people to apply it in entirety.
My Take from the Book
I believe that people must concentrate in one area and practice to do all that pertains to it in the best way possible. On the message about a mind which is disciplined, the author states that it must have trained on more than a single method of processing thoughts, a unique way that distinguishes people’s expertise in a particular field (Gardner, 2009). I agree because it is common knowledge that a person who chooses to concentrate in one area finally gains greater understanding that will separate them from other people in the same profession. Whether a person is a chef or a lecturer, I understand that everyone must train regularly to become the best professional. I fully embrace the idea of a mind that is disciplined as studies have found out that it takes a decade of concentrate efforts to become a full expert. If people have an understanding of what they intend to accomplish, they have to create time to practice.
The synthesizing and creating minds resonate with me the most. The author states that the synthesizing mind draws data from different fields, comprehends and analyses it rationally, and incorporates all the data for it and other people to draw sense from its output (Gardner, 2009). I am always aware that we live in an age where access to information is necessary for people seeking to advance their careers. Due to the presence of so much information, I always seek to increase my processing ability so as to make the best use of all relevant knowledge. The mind that creates is also another idea that resonates with me. The author states that the mind creates novel outcomes that are not conceivable by simplistic thinking. The same mind seeks to question why things are the way they are and in the process gets to know new things (Gardner, 2009). I resonate with these ideas because I always try to create new ideas from the ones that I already know.
From the book I learnt two important things that I think will help me accomplish the best in my profession. I summarize them under the respectful and Ethical minds. First the author talks of the respectful mind as one that perceives and accepts variations in different people and strives to cope with things that are not normal (Gardner, 2009). Just like Galileo’s case, I understand that people will not value you just by your expertise but how you interact with them. Many careers have been shattered due to failure of potential experts to revere important people. The same goes for an ethical mind. We need people to support us. Failure to perform our responsibilities to humanity could prove detrimental to career advancements.
Steps That I Can Take To Realize the Benefits of the Book
I think the best way to realize the best out of the book is to use the information to first improve myself. Just as (Gardner) 2009 propose I will use the book to accomplish my career. The next step will be to transform the world around me. I will try to discover what I really want to accomplish in my lifetime. I will conceive the ultimate goal in my life. I will then create a plan through which I will seek to improve my capabilities. Next, I will identify sources of information and evaluate the ones that are important to me. Not all information is useful and I will train my mind to filter the good information from other superfluous ones. I will then try at all times to be as rational as possible in the way I handle the information. Even though I already know that I have creativity in me, I will try to concentrate in creativity that has a positive impact on my career.
In addition, I will analyze the world around me as I interact with it to understand what people need from me and how they perceive me. I will seek to entitle people to their opinions in as much as I might think that mine are valid. Finally, pertaining to self improvement, I will seek to use a different me to try and help improve humanity. Just like Gardner (2009) puts it, as an expert, I find that it will be selfish to go for my goals only while ignoring that there people who need me. It will be only fair if I help people achieve their dreams. The ethical and respectful mind leads me to the idea of helping other people, especially children, to make the best of their minds. I will try to introduce the ideas through learning centers so as to help nurture individuals who will grow up with a purpose in life.
I will always to try to seek a mind that is discipline through the use of ideas put forward by Gardner. I will discover substantial and important areas of study or ideas under a particular discipline. An example of particular topics I will choose could be the deduction of meanings in historical events I learn or a look at the forces of nature such as gravity. I will allow myself enough time to study particular concepts. Reading with a single mindset might stifle my creativity and it is for this reason that I will reread the topic so as to comprehend ideas from a different perspective.
Conclusion
The ideas in 5 minds for the future are well applicable in everyday life. The book is a valuable source for people who struggle to find a purpose in life. The author tries to tell us that we can get lost in the information world easily but mental concentration and practice in a particular field is indispensable. The five mental abilities are indeed form a manual to future survival.
References
Gardner, H. (2009). 5 Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
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Death of a Salesman and David Glengarry Glen Ross Sample Answer
Death of a Salesman and David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross
This paper thoroughly discusses how Miller’s play is a modern play according to the essay by Klage, and how Mamet’s play is a postmodern answer to Arthur Miller’s play.
Death of a Salesman and David Glengarry Glen Ross
Thesis statement: Miller gives emphasis to the character Willy Loman as a modern-day tragic hero who quests for self-identity as a result of the harsh outcome of the commercialized world. He creates a hero of modernism with an influence from the social movements during his era. As such, Arthur Miller revises the classical tragedy and the tragic hero in creating his subject of modern-day tragedy. Mamet and Miller in their plays both rely on much of the same thematic elements considering.
Death of a Salesman and David Glengarry Glen Ross by Arthur Miller is a modern play
The modernist views of Arthur Miller are apparent in the play’s characters as well as plot and are also underscored in the essay of Miller with regard to tragedy, wherein he supports the concept of a modern tragic hero. Miller’s play is a story of an average salesperson who has a dream of being well-liked and wealthy. It is a tragic story of Willy Loman, a salesperson, whose present and past are combined with expressionistic scenes. Even as tragedy is a classical notion, Arthur Miller reworks this notion and converts it into a modern concept. According to Klages, an important way which illustrates that Miller’s play is modern has to do with the notion that modern writers seek to maintain the concept that artworks can offer the coherence, unity, and meaning that has been lost in the majority of modern life – art would do that which other human institutions cannot do.
Miller’s play is a modern tragedy meaning that it follows the example of the classic Roman and Greek tragedies and Jacobean and Shakespearean tragedy. The play is modern in scope given that it actually frees itself from the need of providing a harmonizing end. In Death of a Salesman, the author redefines the tragic form. He implies that the natural hero of the tragedy is actually the man in the street, me and you – it is the person who is trying to gain his rightful place within the society (Miller 21). The life of a tragic hero should have an intensity. Arthur Miller noted that in Willy Lowman, the viewers can recognize the human passion to surpass his given limits, a fanatical insistence on his self-conceived role. According to Miller, a modern drama is capable of exploring just as profoundly the issues and themes that Shakespeare or Marlowe could explore but with the added punch of doing so by the use of the lives of ordinary citizens (Miller 27).
The suicide of Willy Loman serves to provide the unhappy ending that is necessary for classical tragedy. The nomadic childhood of Willy Lowman has left him feeling rather temporary regarding himself. He has never known a secure home, yet he is really fixated with providing one for his sons and Linda, and gradually more aware of his weaknesses as a father and as Linda’s husband. An entrenched need for reassurance and affection causes Willy Lowman to look for the companionship of other women while he is away on business. Willy Lowman also has the tendency of inflating his accomplishments so that he can gain approval from his sons and Linda, and Ben, father-substitute and older brother. In turn, this results in the self-deception that is, in fact, his fatal flaw (Miller 28). Miller’s Death of a Salesman basically exemplifies a modern tragedy in how it comprises people who are ordinary. Willy Loman has an everyman attribute about him considering that he just a regular person – not a ruler or a king – and members of the audience can identify with him. Loman finds himself placed in the circumstances of measuring up to an impracticable standard. Loman is cursed by the situation in which he lives. This way, the play is a modern tragedy due to its applicability and the way in which Loman is actually every person in the society. It is worth mentioning that modern tragedy is universal in terms of its applicability, and Loman is without doubt applicable to every person and any person who dreams.
Death of a Salesman and David Glengarry Glen Ross as a postmodern answer to Miller’s play
Mamet and Miller in their plays both rely on much of the same thematic elements considering that the two plays examine the effect of capitalism on the family, communication, the disparagement of women, as well as how the system bolters some men to an alpha position and weakens others. As a result of its treatment of the lives of salesmen, Glengarry Glen Ross drew a lot of comparisons to Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. David Mamet’s play builds on Miller’s play and argues the same overarching message: that capitalism serves to destroy the ability of people to function naturally as decent humans. They instead become mere working components wherein humanity has to learn to operate under circumstances that are not natural. While Miller in Deathof a Salesman uses the unrewarding hard work of the sales career as fodder for tragedy, David Mamet’s take on the subject is far more savage. Miller in his play essentially lauds the death of the American Dream. On the other hand, Mamet’s play takes this death of the American Dream and utilizes it as a basis for deeper social criticism.
Shelly Levene is highly popular once his company, Glengarry Glen Ross, nicknames him The Machine because he sold very well. Levene was able to sell so much previously in the good old days. However, since the company is currently undergoing significant risks in sales to step up its game, Shelly Levene falls back so behind in his luck that is unable to even have enough money to pay for gas. He is now a man without any money to afford anything. As a result of his desperation, he steals leads from his own company and gets imprisoned for this theft. Therefore, Shelly Levene, just like Willy Loman in Miller’s play, loses his American Dream the moment times start to change, the American economy becomes harsher, and considerable social transformations bring extreme pressure. Similarly, just like Loman, Levene represents the average, ordinary American citizen – the individual who actually does his/her best to achieve certain services and goods, but who eventually gives them up as a result of the change in the tides of a highly unpredictable capitalist world.
Some people do well within a capitalist system, a lot of people get by and a lot of people thrive, but there are still other people who are not able to survive, people who lack the personal capacities to succeed in a capitalist world. These individuals are the Levens, Lingks, and the Lomans of society. In Miller’s play, Linda explains best who these people are by describing Loman as not the best character that has ever lived. Rather, Linda states that Willy Loman is a human being and a terrible thing is actually occurring to him (Miller 31). That is really what David Mamet and Arthur Miller want people to know. There are individuals who are really finding it not easy to function as humans since they are living lives for a moneymaking system. These people have to navigate between attempting to act like human beings and striving to act like components to a machine, and as illustrated in Miller’s play and later on in Mamet’s play, the capitalist system actually takes its toll on their humanity.
Death of a Salesman and David Glengarry Glen Ross Work Cited
