\n- I’ve been thinking about the final metaphor of the play, and went through a pretty strange process. \u00a0i at first began thinking about what keeps Willy from achieving his goals, because it seems as though this is the central conflict of the story. \u00a0His goal, we decided in our discussion, is to make it big in the bsiness world AND support and care for his family. \u00a0As we narrowed down his goals \u00a0to these two general statements, we realized that even these fit into a larger, more fully encompassing description if what Willy wants. \u00a0That is to say, he wants the American Dream. \u00a0The jungle, for willy, is the how of that dream. \u00a0He perceives the jungle story as a \u00a0coming of age story, where Ben stepped in a poor boy and stepped out a rich man. \u00a0Alejandro stated that Willy never really grasped the full idea of the jungle, only taking the object of wealth as the important factor in the jungle. \u00a0What Willy fails to see about this American Dream is the PROCESS. \u00a0He is too caught up in the “make it big easy” idea, for this is why he went into being a salesman in the first place. \u00a0Why work with your hands when you can make it big as a salesman! \u00a0But he realizes that he actually can’t make it big as a salesman because of his idea of the American Dream as something “magical,” an illusion that will sweep him up as long as he smiles and gets to know people. \u00a0As we see, these illusions manifest themselves as characters of Willy’s past, reaffirming his own strange beliefs. \u00a0When he begins to discover his inability to be a big shot salesman, he begins to create his own illusion for his children and family.<\/li>\n
- His relationship with The Woman, therefore, is the presentation of his inability to do honest work and make a living from it. \u00a0It is also the presentation of his strong desire to make money in the business world. \u00a0Because he needs to set up this illusion for his family, he fails them. \u00a0So when Biff finds Willy and the woman together, it reveals how Willy’s need for money has isolated him from his family. \u00a0Of his two goals, as he tries to reach one of them, the other slips out of his grasp.<\/li>\n
- And the same works in the reverse. \u00a0He had opportunities to get rich before, such as going out of the country with Ben. \u00a0If you remember, he does not do this because he had to stay home with his wife and children instead of walking “into the Jungle.” \u00a0From this point on, every venture that he goes on is subconsciously trying to make up for the fact that he missed his chance to go get rich with Ben. \u00a0So in the same way that his need for money isolates his family, his need for his family isolates him from money.<\/li>\n
- This is what I like to describe through the Tantalus metaphor. \u00a0Each attempt Tantalus makes to reach the food and water that are right next to him, they scurry out of his reach. \u00a0His thirst for these things is what stops him from getting them. \u00a0It is the same with Willy’s American Dream. \u00a0He strives for money, and loses his family. \u00a0He strives to love his family, and misses opportunities to make money.\u00a0<\/li>\n
- <\/li>\n
- Lastly, I think I’d just like to add in that bit that i threw out in the discussion about the beatles song. \u00a0I really can’t think of a better metaphor for the play than “Money can’t buy me love” and combined with the other posts from ALejandro and Eric i think we have the true ideas and metaphors of the play.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Sam Beaver\u00a0Alright, here’s my final piece..\u00a0 I’ve been thinking about the final metaphor of the play, and went through a pretty strange process. \u00a0i at first began thinking about what keeps Willy from achieving his goals, because it seems as though this is the central conflict of the story. \u00a0His goal, we decided in … Continue reading Tantalus & Willy: The Metaphor of the Man<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[779],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hodge-4-idea-and-metaphor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}