Emily Gong

AP English Notes: Comparison of Three Plays

(Oedipus Rex, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons)

☼Beginnings: All three characters live at a time of crisis

• All My Sons: Chris wishes to claim Ann Deever as his wife, a girl that Kate
sees as the deceased Larry’s girl; also the feud between Steve Deever & Joe
Keller
• Death of A Salesman: Willy enters the story as a confusing, weary man who
is fixed in his hallucinations and reminiscences, and alarms the family,
including Biff, with his illogical ranting
• Oedipus Rex: Oedipus acquires for a solution to the plights and sorrows of his
Theban people while being king
☼Characteristics:
Incapability to Accept Reality:
Unable to bear the truths of their situation, often using excuses or
delusions to harbor oneself from harm
• Keller: frequently dismisses himself from his own guilt over his crime with his
reason that he must protect his business, his reputation for the sake of his
family---particularly his son, Chris
o he is obsessive over his son and his future--- his inner guilt plagues him,
as he is persistent in Chris inheriting his father’s fortune and
accomplishment- an show that his son is not ashamed of his father
o he desperately reasons with Chris when Chris finds out the truth, saying
that all men in America do things for the sake of “business”---for survival
during a turbulent decade (Great Depression)
• Willy: becomes trapped in replays of the past in his mind as he recalls the
seemingly flawless moments of happiness in his career and family life
o Illusions: garnishes his son with overbearing confidence that he will be
successful; his business is booming with boundless potential; he is
admired and respected by famous and important people
o Truth: he is a struggling salesman who highly exaggerates his
achievements and glides past his failures; he is not a renounced man he
claims; ensnares himself in the American Dream
• Oedipus: is, at first, instilled in the shameful life by fate, but he later
deliberately circumvents the linkage between the prophecies, Jocasta’s report
to his own physical injuries (swollen feet) and life events
o Unwilling to match the prophecies from both oracles to his life: the
relevance of bonded ankles—his swollen feet; the spot where three roads
meet---the sight of Laius’s murder & Oedipus’s entry
A Life of Abandonment:
All there were deserted by their loved ones; all groped for some security
and hope from solitude
• Keller: is disowned by Chris as a disqualified father and is disgraced by the
loss of trust and credibility
 o Keller grabs frantically for some evidence and justification of what he has
done---he values his own interests and family above anything else---the
reason of Larry’s death and Chris’s threat of leaving
o Larry commits suicide due to his shame over his father’s crime; Chris
refuses to accept anything belonging to Keller—he cannot excuse what
his father has done
• Willy: grew up without father, his brother cares little about him; Biff, his oldest
son and of utmost importance to him, declares that he must leave Keller
because they contradict so much of each other’s ideals
o Is fired by Howard, son of his long-time employer and friend; his brother
hurries to Alaska without giving him any words of affection or sense of
concern
o Biff sees his father’s commitment to the American Dream as arbitrary &
foolish; he also deserts his father by affronting his life goal and rebutting
all chances of being the incarnation of the American Dream
o Happy is conceited and selfish; also “abandons” his father by simply
disregarding his feelings & treats Willy cruelly; is embarrassed by his
father’s mental instability
• Oedipus: left to die on King Laius’s orders as a child & later banished alone
for incest; he in vain seek to find some evidence of denial
o his mother & wife has abandoned him by committing suicide
o Abdicates his throne, his wealtha hero who once saved the city of
Thebes from one catastrophe is now outlawed by the very ones he
saved, though on his own accords
o King Laius, fearful of the prophecy becoming true, demands his son’s
death; Jocasta went along with itan orphan unwanted due to
trepidation of the gods

Disillusionment of Dreams & Fortune:

All three had seen themselves as some form of heroic figure whose
conquest for happiness was fulfilled
• Keller: sees to it that his family has money & fortune; that he has maintained
a family at the expense of destroying the Deever family and other families who
lost their sons in the airplane crashes
o Believed he has saved his family from possibly bankruptcy &
starvation--- his prospering business factory, Joe Keller Co.
o He sacrifices his morality and conscience for more concrete things---
money & business
o Yet, he suffers from his very attempts to benefit himself from--- he loses
Larry from a suicide flight; he loses Chris’s respect & the heir to his
business---he loses all the factions of a puzzle to his pretentious life
• Willy: embellishes himself with gratuitous claims of status & authority; of how
he has charisma & influence over people; & that he has affluence & wealth in
his palms---everything necessary for the American Dream
o He boasts exceedingly of his sales vs. he barely makes enough money to
pay off his debts
 o He is familiar with all the famous people in the cities vs. he feels that he
is laughed at when entering a room
o His family is happy vs. Linda secretly wishes more from him; Biff shuns
his father after finding out his affair with The Woman & Happy is
completely contemptible airhead
o The Young Biff is bright & born to success vs. The Old Biff has stolen
himself out of jobs & served time in jail, since he had been assured by
his father he was destined to succeed
• Oedipus: was hailed as the stranger who saved Thebes from the ineffable
riddles of the Sphinx and enthroned as king
o he firmly believes that he can only be the hero of Thebes & rejects any
possible comments that might stain his glorified reputation
o he even contemplates that Creon has allied with the oracle to overthrow
him
o cannot easily accept a possible relationship between his life and the
predictions
Affinity to Cast Blame on Others:
• Keller: before admitting to his crime, he placed all the blame onto Deever, his
accomplice; after Chris finds out, he accuses of the inevitability of his actions
on the capitalist system--- how a businessman would have a second chance
after failing his job---he is averse to face the consequences
• Willy: is in denial for practically the entire play, unable to believe that he is
the reason to Biff’s failures (his affair, his breeding young Biff’s arrogance); he
instead castigates Charley & Bernard for not being well-liked; blames Howard
for being heartless to a dear old colleague and family friend; provokes Biff for
being lazy and underachieved
• Oedipus: after hearing Teiresias, he automatically assumes that Creon craves
to be king; he cannot believe in something that he must---he immediately is an
skeptic of Teiresias’s name & prestige, even knowing that Teiresias is the
prophet closest in rank to Apollo; he rejoices at justification for his suspicions
as he recalls that Teiresias gave no help when the Sphinx rampaged Thebes
☼Downfalls:
All three cannot behold truth as it is; they compensate for their lies by
death or self-inflicted punishment
• Keller kills himself with a gun at the end of the play b/c he realizes that there
are higher obligations to society that he must owe up to than just responsibility
over himself and his family---he commits suicide as the ultimate price he pays
for killing twenty-one sons in expense for business and becoming the reasons
of why Larry dies
• Willy finally sacrifices his life for insurance money that may help Biff achieve
his dreams; he finally gives up his life in realizing that he is an ordinary man
who has failed to live up to the American Dream standards & can only give his
sons a possibility at such a chance by selling his life for something solid,
permanent, and reliable: life insurance money
• Oedipus wishes to die but instead of killing himself, he brutally mutilated his
eyes with Jocasta’s pins; he has condemned himself blind for the rest of his
life, as he will no longer see the signs of his disgrace: his daughters & sons
☼Generalization: All three men were oblivious to the truth by situation and by
choice & they paid for their ignorance.