Analysis of Willy's character to King Lear

The character Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and the character King Lear in the book King Lear may be said to poses both similar and different qualities when looked at in a critical manner.

Firstly, when it comes to similarities, it may be said that both King Lear and Willy seem to be arrogant and pride themselves quite a bit. King Lear seemed to think very highly of himself and felt that he should be flattered a lot by people which is made evident in Act 1 scene 1 when he asks his three daughters to profess their love for him in the best way that they could. He also never seemed like he wanted to be told that he was wrong or making the wrong decisions. This was made evident in Act 1 scene 1 when Kent was trying to let King Lear realise that he was making some wrong choices and maybe he should reconsider his decision and Lear instead of taking what Kent said into consideration, banished him from the kingdom instead. Similarly, Willy seemed to believe that he was well liked by many and had too much pride in himself that he did not even want to take the job his friend and neighbour, Charley, had offered him. He felt as though he was not suppose to ask his friend for a job or work for his friend because he had a job of his own. Even if that present job was not giving him money for him to fairly live.

Secondly,it may also be said that Willy and King Lear were slowly going crazy in their old age. King Lear was getting older and was also being tormented by his daughters Goneril and Regan which added to him slowly getting crazy. With his old age and all the overwhelming situations and changes to deal with, he slowly lost his mind. Willy Loman was also slowly going crazy since he continuous had delusions about the past and tended to hear things that he wanted to hear, and not what was really being said. Among other things, he kept trying to kill himself, which is made evident in numerous parts of the book, until he actually does kill himself in the end.

In addition, Willy and King Lear seemed to be mentally blind. King Lear was mentally blinded by the flattering words he craved and received from his daughters Goneril and Regan. Because of these flattering words, he was unable to see their true personalities clearly and ended up doing something he regretted in the end. Willy Loman was also mentally blind. He was blinded by the reality of what achieving true success was, and failed to realise that he had to work hard for what he hoped for and wanted. The idea of the American Dream- that you have to be well liked with a good job and easy success- clouded him from realising that he had to work towards getting where he wanted to be, and yes it had to do with knowing people, but it deals more with helping yourself to move forward the best way you can with effort.

Lastly, it may be said that both King Lear and Willy Loman died as a result of their own faults. Lear's tragic flaw can be considered to play a part in his death. For since his flaw was being arrogant and seemingly conceited since he liked to be flattered, that resulted in him being gullible and prevented him from growing mentally. His want for flattery led him to believe the sweet but false words of his daughters Goneril and Regan and caused him to gradually get into a crazy state, leading to death. Willy let his delusions and the American Dream get to him which combined put too much strain on him and resulted in him losing his reasonable mental state and eventually led to him killing himself.

On the other hand, even though there were quite a few similarities, a few differences maybe also be found. Firstly, in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman's character had a wife named Linda who was mentioned in the book and also played a significant role within the drama. In King Lear, Lear did not seem to have a wife, since knowledge of him having a wife was never mentioned, so it was assumed that a wife was not present.

Furthermore, another difference was that Willy Loman was quite poor, which was made evident several times in the book. For example, when Willy was unable to pay his bills and had to ask Charley for $50 a week just so that he could get the essentials for his family, and when he was not getting any money in the job that he had and eventually lost his job. Even the name Lo-man, hints that Willy was of low class standards. King Lear on the other hand was rich and because he was in the upper class, held a high status in the kingdom because he was "King". King Lear was by far more well off and better equipped when it came to wealth, riches and status than Willy Loman was.

In conclusion, it may be respectfully submitted that King Lear and Willy Loman's Characters have similar traits, such as them being arrogant and having too much pride and well as both of them slowly going crazy and being mentally blind. On the other hand, they did have a few differences which involved King Lear being very rich and Willy Loman being poor and King Lear not having a known wife and Willy having a loving wife named Linda. These two characters are crucial people within their various books and help to make the drama just a little bit more interesting.