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Long's Journey Into Night

Decent Essays

In many novels and plays, one of the key components of the plot is family relationships. A family’s interactions with one another, helps the reader decipher the main conflicts and resolutions of the story. In the plays Long Days Journey into Night by Eugene O'neill and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, father-son relationships are perceived as a messy affair, full of unrealistic expectations, disappointment, resentment, and regret. These two plays portray the worst in the relationship between father and son. Both plays show how painful events can cause family members to harbor resentment and bad feeling towards one another. In both Death of a Salesman and Long Days Journey Into Night the unrealistic expectations, disappointment, and resentment …show more content…

This is a factor that causes discord between even the most harmonious families. At one point in Long Days Journey into Night, Tyrone angrily shouts, "You've both flouted the faith you were born and brought up in – the one true faith of the Catholic Church – and your denial has brought nothing but self destruction! (Act II. Scene II)" Tyrone displays his bitterness throughout the novel for the fact that his two sons didn't follow in his footsteps and believe in the Catholic faith as he does. This same type of argument occurs in Death of a Salesman when Willy Loman is angry at his son Biff for not wanting to became a salesman like him. The fathers, Willy and James, in these two plays have a strong notion of what their sons should become in life and what their beliefs should be, unfortunately, however, their sons don't agree with their ideas for them and if anything it pushes them farther away. The theme of conflicting ideas as to what the American dream is is also presented in Death of a Salesman. Willy sees selling and life on the road as the ultimate pathway to the American dream of comfort and success, Biff, however, sees manual labor and working outdoors as the greatest job a man could desire. These conflicting dreams cause Willy to lose respect for his son and Biff in turn to away from his father Willy and attempt to make his own way in

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