Compare and contrast the ways that the pursuit of wealth is Presented in ‘Top Girls’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’
Compare and contrast the ways that the pursuit of wealth is Presented in ‘Top Girls’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’
‘Top Girls’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ are plays that both exemplify the importance of money and what it means to people. The plays however differ in how the protagonists, Marlene and Willy, use and make use of the money they have earned. Furthermore the protagonists juxtapose each other as they both come from different walks of life which illustrate to the audience why the pursuit of wealth is important to them.
In the plays the playwrights display how the characters use the money they earn. In act two of ‘Top Girls’ Win and Louise talk about their weekend at work: “Work hard play hard” This shows the audience that during the week the women believe that they “work hard” within the workplace. Another interpretation is that the women are competing whilst they work to get a promotion which would lead to a pay rise; therefore they work hard as more money will be their ambition. ‘Play hard’ evokes the impression that they are very relaxed after work and it is of importance to them to enjoy themselves. However this may be seen as complacency and laziness as after work finishes they do nothing extra to help themselves. Therefore they believe that they will be promoted without doing much more work. The quote also suggests that they use the money earned on luxuries rather than investments. This implies that although money is a key component of their lives, they do not use it to enhance themselves to get a higher paid job meaning that they are not fully committed to get more wealth. In comparison in ‘Death of a Salesman’ Willy talks to Linda about his remaining payments “Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken!” This shows the audience that Willy buys products that are not of a high quality which break once they are paid for. This suggests that Willy struggles to pay for his goods and only manages to break
‘Top Girls’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’ are plays that both exemplify the importance of money and what it means to people. The plays however differ in how the protagonists, Marlene and Willy, use and make use of the money they have earned. Furthermore the protagonists juxtapose each other as they both come from different walks of life which illustrate to the audience why the pursuit of wealth is important to them.
In the plays the playwrights display how the characters use the money they earn. In act two of ‘Top Girls’ Win and Louise talk about their weekend at work: “Work hard play hard” This shows the audience that during the week the women believe that they “work hard” within the workplace. Another interpretation is that the women are competing whilst they work to get a promotion which would lead to a pay rise; therefore they work hard as more money will be their ambition. ‘Play hard’ evokes the impression that they are very relaxed after work and it is of importance to them to enjoy themselves. However this may be seen as complacency and laziness as after work finishes they do nothing extra to help themselves. Therefore they believe that they will be promoted without doing much more work. The quote also suggests that they use the money earned on luxuries rather than investments. This implies that although money is a key component of their lives, they do not use it to enhance themselves to get a higher paid job meaning that they are not fully committed to get more wealth. In comparison in ‘Death of a Salesman’ Willy talks to Linda about his remaining payments “Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken!” This shows the audience that Willy buys products that are not of a high quality which break once they are paid for. This suggests that Willy struggles to pay for his goods and only manages to break