Personality and Achievement in the Plays Death of a Salesman and Fences

The relationship between a father and son is supposed to be a bond that is unbreakable. However, in some circumstances that is sadly not always the case. A father should be a man who wants their child to succeed regardless of the costs. In the play Fences, by August Wilson, uses hubris and the metaphor “Fence” to reflect the negative, jealousy and prideful relationship between Troy as a father and his son, Cory who was a go-getter.

While social injustice and oppression are rooted in Troy’s life, he tries to regain a sense of power and control. In the essay “Developing Character: Fences,” Sandra Shannon says, “These feelings of being passed over change Troy into a man obsessed with extorting from life an equal measure of what was robbed from him” (95). Since Troy had a cruel and cold relationship with his father and was never able to fulfill his dream as a baseball player, he attempts to control those around him. Yet, Troy’s efforts to control his family ends up bringing them down with him. By attempting to make up for and fill the void that was left in his life, Troy only ends up oppressing others.

In the books Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fences by August Wilson, there are common themes that run throughout the entire stories. Among these similarities there are two, hard working men who are trying to live the American dream but instead end up becoming frustrated by life. The main character of each book, Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are similar in many ways. They both try hard to be good men and fathers, but unfortunately, they both fail in certain aspects. Troy isolates himself from his youngest son, and many could say that he is too harsh and unnaturally cold towards him. Willy in a way believes that his grown sons could not have done any

In the beginning of the play, Troy is portrayed as crude, bitter, and stern. His past experiences, such as being incarcerated and running away from home at such an early age, shaped his mindset and his relationship with his sons and his wife, Rose. Not wanting his son Cory to make the same mistakes as he did, chasing a sports career, Troy is harsh to Cory. Troy's belief in the importance of providing for his family outweighed the common belief of expressing love and compassion toward his son. Although Cory longed for that love from his father, Troy believed as a father he was approaching his responsibility of providing for Cory and Rose accordingly and that was his

In August Wilson’s play, Fences, the main character is Troy Maxson. In Arthur Miller, Death Of A Salesman, the main character is Willy Loman. Troy Maxson had a loving wife, two sons and one daughter by the end of the book, a brother named Gabriel, who was in a accident, Troy used Gabriel’s compensation money to pay for the house, and was a garbage man. Willy Loman had a loving wife, two sons, a dead brother, and was a salesman. Troy Maxson and Willy Loman, despite their similarities, had different life issues, dreams, and treat their kids differently.

When most people think of the term “hero” they think of comic book characters with superpowers or role models who have estimable traits. For some, the thought of a “tragic hero” could seem remotely contradicting and perplexing. However, the Greek philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero as a character who, for the most part, is a benevolent person, but suffers from his or her hamartia and hubris, which ultimately leads to their downfall and recognition of their poor choices, as well as the reversal of their situation. The play Fences written by August Wilson describes the struggles and hardships of an African-American family endeavoring to live the American Dream in the 1950s. Although some may argue that the main character, Troy, is not a tragic hero, evidence in the play fortifies that he is due to his essentially good nature, his hubris and his hamartia of obstinacy, which ultimately lead to the reversal of his fortune and his tragic downfall.

Through Troy’s perspective, he sees the fence as a barrier between his enemy known as; death. If death gets through the fence, it would have to come through Troy himself, since he believes that instead of loving his family; protecting them has more worth. It is clear Troy starts to build the fence to keep those who are mistreating his family out; although he himself grows distant. We can infer that Rose and Troy’s perspective of the fence had started to collide. Rose had viewed the fence to keep those she values and cherishes within the fence; while after Troy confesses he is cheating on her with Alberta a division with his family is shown. Division with their family occured due to Troy mistreating Rose and not realizing his mistake sooner. This is to show that Troy’s trait of responsibility reinforces the main symbol. Troy had acknowledged his mistakes resulting in a mental and emotional separation between the couple. “[...] A motherless child had got a hard time…. From right now this child got a mother. But you a womanless man. [...]” (Wilson,122) This confirms that even with the presence of Raynell; Rose will not acknowledge Troy for what he used to mean to her. Further into the play it is revealed that even with this rift, Rose continues to communicate with him to keep order within the house, although emotionally her ties have been severed with Troy.

There are many moments in Fences when conflict through love and anger is shown between Rose and Troy. Rose has been a loving and caring wife to Troy for the past eighteen years, but when Troy disrespects that and goes off with another woman. Rose feels betrayed and replaced. “Maybe you ought to go on and stay down there with her...if she a better woman than me” (Wilson, 69). This represents her frustration with Troy, and how she feels hurt after continuous years of a healthy marriage. Although, after Rose cools down from hearing the frightening news, she wants to stay involved in Troy’s life because she still loves and cares for him deeply no matter what.

Like many tragic stories “the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his "rightful" position in his society” (Miller). Fences is full of struggles starting for Troy as soon as he comes into this world. Troy is born in 1904 into a less than perfect world and by the time he is fourteen years old he leaves Alabama to escape his abusive father. He runs away to Pittsburgh, following the promise that there are good jobs there. Wilson sets the scene in ‘Steel City’, a place of great importance to him. He was born there and sets “nine out of the ten plays in the neighborhood of the Hill District” (Wardi 1). His relationship with his father is lacking, something that he is determined to improve upon with his own children, but as time progresses, it becomes apparent that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. As a father Troy doesn’t have much to go off of, the only love he has ever know has come from his father. His mother left when he was young, as did all of the women his father courted: “He wasn’t good for nobody” (Wilson 556). So in addition to his absent father figure

In "Fences," Troy struggles to fulfill his role as a father. The relationship between Troy and his son Cory is not as normal and

In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted in an insensitive and uncaring manner towards his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel and his son, Cory. At the beginning of the story, Troy feels he has done right by them. He feels this throughout the story. He doesn’t realize how much he has hurt them.

            As we can see from Willy's ideas of personal attractiveness, he doesn't seem to rely on hard work very much, particularly when it comes down to achieving the American Dream.  In actuality, it is the lack of hard work that attracted Willy to become a salesman in the first place.  In a conversation with Howard, his boss, Willy speaks of an eighty-four year old man he'd met when he was

Both Rose and Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Play Fences make the most of family life despite numerous obstacles both internally and externally. Rose knew that Troy was damaged yet loved him and made sacrifices to build a family. In contrast, Troy is emotionally unavailable due to past and present conflicts and is a resentful husband and father who provided the bare essentials to his family in the forms of money, shelter, food, and clothing. Although, both Rose and Troy think of escaping to an alternate idealized life; Troy acts on his thoughts and does turn to another woman for what he believe is freedom from his current life.

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, the contrast between expectation and reality has a crucial role throughout the play. One day, before going to work, Willy expresses a desire to his wife to retire to the countryside and start a farm. However, in doing so, Willy creates the unrealistic expectation of retiring to start a farm when his current circumstances wouldn’t allow him to do so. This moment is emblematic of the play as a whole because it exemplifies the recurring theme of reality falling short of unrealistic expectations.

Wilson titles the play ‘Fences’ because it reflects the life of African Americans in the 1950s and how they struggle to overcome the barriers they encounter. Fences symbolize different things for the characters in the play. Fence to Troy means keeping something /someone out of his life. After Alberta died, he completed the fence; his way of keeping death away from him. He also created a fence unknowingly between himself and Cory by not letting him pursue his football ambition. To Rose, the fence keeps her family together and secured in their home.