Characters and Themes in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Saleman" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"

Abstract

This dissertation explores “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett and “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller which are plays from different worlds that contribute to the development and the flourishing of 20th century drama. “Death of a Salesman”, Miller’s most famous work produced in 1949, marked an eye catching vestige in American drama. It casts a cold eye on the ‘American Dream’ and moral that is compromised to achieve it. Its hero, the dreamer salesman Willy Loman, is a man who struggles to get the ‘American Dream’ which is to make sense of his place in the society. “Waiting for Godot”, Beckett’s great play produced in 1953, had a big effect on British drama. It is known as the best play in list of Absurd drama. This tragic-comedy play centers on two tramps Vladimir and Estragon waiting for a personage called Godot. This play shows the meaningless of life. The study, however, looks into comparison between the two plays focusing on analysis of the main themes and main characters in each play to highlight the differences and similarities between them. We first examine the background of 20th British and American drama in order to know the grounds that helped in writing the two plays and to explore the characteristics of each play. Then, we analyze each play in terms of main characters and main themes by pointing out their similarities and differences. In the proposed study, the hypothesis is the following: may major characters and main themes in “Death of a Salesman” and in “Waiting for Godot” similar to each other or different from each other.