�5/24/2006� THE FALL OF TWO GREAT MEN - KING LEAR AND DEATH OF A SALESMAN COMPARATIVE ESSAY In many stories‚ the role of protagonist is to endure hardship and losses but regardless‚ the resolution in these stories tends to be a happy ending. However‚ some writers such as William Shakespeare and Arthur Miller prefer more tragic endings for their protagonists. Although the protagonists enjoy a happy life in the beginning of both King Lear and Death of a Salesman‚ we quickly see their uprising hardship
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“King Lear” is one of the greatest dramas written by Shakespeare. It is a poetic tragedy in which the good as well as bad characters play their role. King Lear has three daughters; Goneril‚ Regan andCordelia. Cordelia is the youngest daughter. She is an important character of the play. In the last act‚ she is hanged and her death seems unjustified. But it is not true. Shakespeare changed his source material to give his “King Lear” a tragic ending. Thus there is the defeat of Cordelia’s army‚the imprisonment
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An overwhelming desire for personal contentment and unprecedented reputation can often result in a sickly twisted distortion of reality. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King‚ a man well-known for his intellect and wisdom finds himself blind to the truth of h life and his parentage. Arthur Miller’s play‚ The Death of a Salesman‚ tells of a tragic character so wrapped up in his delusional world that reality and illusion fuse causing an internal explosion that leads to his undoing. Each play enacts the
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Death of a Salesman‚ Miller’s most famous work‚ addresses the painful conflicts within one family‚ but it also tackles larger issues regarding American national values. The play examines the cost of blind faith in the American Dream. In this respect‚ it offers a postwar American reading of personal tragedy in the tradition of Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle. Miller charges America with selling a false myth constructed around a capitalist materialism nurtured by the postwar economy‚ a materialism that obscured
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How do the settings and sound portray the characters thoughts and feelings in ‘The Great Gatsby’‚ ‘King Lear’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’? Fitzgerald‚ Shakespeare and Miller explore both setting and sound within their writing to mirror the current thoughts and feelings of the character which then allows the audience to understand and sympathise the characters. It could be argued that through the use of setting and sound‚ the authors dramatically present the extent to which the protagonists have
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King Lear was written by Shakespeare which is the one of his great tragedies that portrays human suffering and redemption through the experiences of the play’s major characters ; King Lear and Gloucester. All tragedies that Shakespeare wrote have a tragic hero and each of them has a tragic flaw. The play focuses on the suffering emerged out of the circumstances where attempted to occur within the family‚ between father and daughter and also among siblings. The suffering is caused by the irresponsibility
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Mr. Schemmel A.P. Literature May 14‚2012 King Lear by Shakespeare and Candide by Voltaire Although King Lear by Shakespeare and Candide by Voltaire are very different on the outside they share internal values. King Lear is a play written by William Shakespeare‚ who was an English poet and playwright who was widely regards as the greatest writer in the English language and the world pre-eminent dramatist (Shakespear‚ 1998). Candide by Voltaire is a satire‚ Voltaire was born Francois-Marie
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William Shakespeare’s King Lear is a timeless play whose textual integrity lends itself to a variety of interpretations and in exploring the human condition the text remains relevant across a wide range of contexts. It is possible to present the text as exploring and affirming the human condition‚ where humanity is defined as the ability to love and empathise. However‚ in the same instance‚ a nihilist perspective‚ such as Peter Brooke’s 1971 production of King Lear‚ challenges this by outlining that
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In creating King Lear‚ William Shakespeare set the stage for one of the bleakest portrayals of our world ever to be written. Although this play was written in the early 1600s‚ its dark implications resonate all too easily in our modern world. In King Lear‚ Shakespeare explores many themes about the coldness of the world. But is the natural world unjustified in its cruelty to humankind? Or does humankind invite this torment upon itself with its selfish and unnatural behaviors? This question lies at
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Attempting to further his glory‚ King Lear actually destroys his reputation and authority and‚ upon realizing he has brought this devastation upon himself‚ inflicts punishment upon himself. However‚ the tragedy is truly established when the audience finds a reflection of themselves in King Lear and‚ despite the tragic downfall‚ Lear finds a victory in his defeat when he comes into a purer understanding of the world and his true self. Lear endures an extended storm that forces him to redefine himself
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