"Fences" and "Death of a Salesman"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how there are likely as many similarities between these two plays as there are dramatic differences. It explains that both are extremely well-written, both allow the audience to peek into the living rooms and lives of interesting people, and both also put a microscope on society and allow the audience to examine the real characters that make America what it is. This paper compares and contrasts these two plays.

From the Paper:

"Fences, which depicts the African-American family experience of the late 1950s, just prior to the social and civil rights explosions of the 1960s, is in a way the balancing act on the other side of the American teeter-totter from Salesman, a story of the middle class American Caucasian experience of the late 1940s. Characters in both fictional families are seen in their realistic settings, and are believable. Death of a Salesman of course is a far more well-known play, indeed an internationally renowned play, having initially run on Broadway for 742 performances, opening in February, 1949, and winning the Pulitzer Prize, plus the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play of the season. Miller's play (directed by the playwright himself) has also been presented in France, Germany, Australia, Russia, England, China and 17 million viewers tuned in to its TV production by CBS in 1966 (starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy); topping that were the 25 million in the TV audience in CBS's 1985 production starring Dustin Hoffman (as Willy), Kate Reid, and John Malkovich."

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• Essay # 42886 : "Realism and Comedy in Drama"

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