Similarities of Oedipus Rex and the Death of a Salesman

Similarities of Oedipus Rex and the Death of a Salesman

    Oedipus Rex, the king, and Willy Loman, the salesman share similar characteristics that bring them together despite their stories being written at different times in history. The Death of a salesman is about a salesman who is vulnerable to committing suicide. At the same time, Oedipus Rex gives a story about a king who killed his father, and later, he engages in a sexual relationship with his mother. When reading these two stories, it’s difficult for one to find similar characteristics. Even though, after long consideration, they are discovered to have the same theme and source. They indicate that each character was suffering from the internal conflict, which was affecting them. It leads them to commit death actions as the stories explain.  In both stories, they show the characters’ tragic flaw. Therefore, this essay will be examining the similarities between Oedipus Rex and Willy Loman, the salesman. The piece will be explaining the following similar characteristics: confusion and disturbed, mental and physical states, which leads to the characters’ compromising, and lastly, the heroic quality.

Firstly, in the two plays, the main characters confused and disturbed by their current conditions. In Oedipus Rex, he is born from a royal family and reign as the king of Thebes. Despite being taken from a royal family and having the kingship status, some things happened in his life that affects his experience as well as the citizens of Thebes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018 p.34). In the story of the death of the salesman Willy Loman he is disturbed, confused, and discouraged by his declining business despite all his efforts. Willy Loman loses control of his job; he decides to take action due to his uncontrollable condition of life.

Mental and physical state is another similarity that is depicted in the plays where each protagonist begins and ends within their respective films.  In Oedipus Rex’s story at first, he is confused because of what was going on in the city of Thebes. He was afraid because he did not understand why Thebes was in chaos. Despite the knowledge that Thebes was facing some troubles because of its fate, he did not understand it. Due to these conditions, he decides to kill his father. In the end, we can see he is full of shame and embarrassment after he recognizes his foolish action. His action causes distress in the whole country of Thebes, and he was frustrated. Similarly, this still happens in the play of the Death of the salesman. In the beginning, Willy is disturbed by the current condition of his business (Rodopi, 2008, p. 67). He explains to his wife Linda how he is unable to control the current business environment, and it was worrying him. Therefore, he decides to kill himself. As in the story of Oedipus, this ends with shame, where he killed himself, leaving his wife and son suffering. Willy Loman did it with the aim of his family to benefit from the compensation by the insurance cover, which led to frustration and shame to the family.

In both plays, there is the theme of heroic quality. Oedipus is not comfortable seeing the people of Thebes suffering in any way. Because of his loyalty to his country, that is why he takes action to ensure that the people of Thebes are in peace. While in the other play, Willy Loman still is not comfortable seeing his family suffering because of the declined economy. Hence, both of them expressing their heroic quality and standing to suffer on behalf of the others.

In conclusion, Oedipus Rex and Willy Loman have three similar characteristics that link them together. They are heroes who are ready to take any action for the peace of the others. They suffered from internal conflict, which leads them to take steps that frustrate them at the end. Despite the characters’ differences in their background set up, they are all confused and disturbed, have a mental and physical problem, and they are heroes.

Works Cited

Glazer, Kenneth. Searching for Oedipus: How I Found Meaning in an Ancient Masterpiece. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

Sterling, Eric. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Rodopi, 2008.