Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby Literary Essay

911 Words2 Pages

Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby Literary Essay Tragedies always have a character that changes through the course of the play or the novel. The characters that are transformed in the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott. Fitzgerald are Biff Loman and Nick Carraway respectively. The protagonists of the play Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby do not change and still follow their flawed American Dream. Though Biff Loman and Nick Carraway are not the protagonists of the play they change themselves and boast a recognition scene. Though Biff and Nick are very different characters they undergo very similar process in changing themselves. Biff and Nick realize what is right and transform their lives by discarding their initial moral beliefs, redeeming their integrity and changing the direction of their lives. Firstly both the characters, Biff and Nick discard their initial moral beliefs. Looking at Biff first, we find that his initial moral values were not of a very high standard. In Act 1 we see him stealing a ball (Miller 30) and lumber (Miller 50) which show low moral values. He wanted to find easy ways to success. But he realizes all these values as wrong and false and discards them. He realizes that he is nothing but a lazy bum, as can be seen from the line "You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like all the rest of them! I'm one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn't raise it. A buck an hour! Do you gather my meaning? I'm not bringing home any prizes any more," (Miller 132). This is the part of the realization scene where he realizes what he really is and accepts it. At the end we find him that he had changed his old corrupted moral beliefs to transform him into a new character. Nick in comparison also undergoes some change. Though it is hard to see how he changed since

Open Document