Theme Of Fate In Death Of A Salesman And Oedipus

An Analysis of the Theme of Fate/Destiny in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

This drama study will analyze the theme of fate/destiny in the tragedies of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. In Oedipus Rex, the tragedy of Oedipus’ own downfall is based on the Oracle’s future prediction that he will have intercourse with his mother and kill his father, which defines the unalterable destiny of a fall from heroism. In Miller’s character, Wily Loman, a 20th century salesman must also come to terms with the failure of his life to achieve success and the American Dream. Tragically, Oedipus and Loman have good intentions in seeing their family/kingdoms rise to prosperity, yet they are

Goux (1993) defines the interactive aspects of fate that bind Oedipus to the community, but more importantly to obligations of the Oracle that cannot be reversed: “The meaning of the Oedipus myth is that of a deviant initiation” (Goux 76). This form of “initiation” defines the role of fate as the driving force in Oedipus’ life, which denounces any type of control over the doomed prophecy that he has been accused of by the oracle and

More so, Loman is very similar to Oedipus in the pride and vanity that make their efforts futile to achieve this imagined prosperity and fame. Similarly, Loman projects his anger and resentment on his sin, Biff, as a means of harming those that are close to him in the pursuit of a family legacy. Biff, like Oedipus mother and father, become the targets of his anger and rage, which define the tragedy of fallen men who cannot accept their destiny in life. For instance, Loman continually views his son as a source of financial wealth, since he was not able to gain the financial success he had dreamed when working as a salesman: “You’ll retire me for life on seventy goddamn dollars a week?” (Miller 28). In this manner, Loman refuses to accept his failure as a salesman, and he imposes his own shame onto his children. In this manner, Loman is very similar to Oedipus in the denial of his destiny, which results in the tragic downfall of man that continually suffers through the denial of his own feelings of shame: :” “It is the denial of such feelings [of shame] that cripples Willy and the rest of the Loman family” (Ribkoff 122). In this way, Biff can only respond to the self-will of his father’s madness through the apathy and victimization that his father has imposed on him: ““Biff: Yeah. Lotta dreams and plans” (9). In this manner,