The works you are analyzing and comparing, a body including the analyses of the works, and a conclusion.

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Miller’s American masterpiece illustrates the evolution of modern tragedy.  The play  introduces the concept of the common man as tragic hero, and the critique of the American Dream that parallels the fall of Willy Loman. Death of a Salesman, like Oedipus the King and A Dollhouse, embodies the end of a much longer story. Here, however, this longer story is brought into the present through dramatized fragments of memory.

These scenes of past action come out of Willy’s head; they are consequently subjective and distorted visions of the past rather than accurate recreations. Psychologically, they suggest that the past is always a part of the present, shaping our thoughts, actions, fears, and dreams. We are made up from everything we have lived through.

There are two crises in the play. Both occur on stage and within Willy’s mind. The first is the discovery of Willy’s adultery (Act 2). This single incident shapes the future of both Willy and Biff (i.e., the present action of the play). It also accounts for the ongoing alienation between father and son, Biff’s self-destructiveness, and Willy’s guilt. The second crisis is Willy’s decision, while in conversation with Ben, to commit suicide; it shapes the catastrophe, which follows closely when Willy drives off to his death (Act 2), and the resolution of the play (the “Requiem”).

Willy and Biff each experience a partial recognition. Willy realizes that he has run out of lies, dreams, and illusions (Act 2) but that Biff loves him (Act 2). Biff clearly realizes that he does not want Willy’s version of the American Dream (Act 2).