Death of a Salesman: Parallels with the Glass Menagerie

"Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?" p.1627

This quote from the story pretty much summarizes one of the key aspects of the play. Willy has good intentions for his son, Biff. He wants him to be the best he can be, however, his intentions are often misguided. He tries to convince Biff that in order to be successful, he has to be popular and loved by everyone. This irrational view distorts Biff's life as he grows up trying to be the best at everything. This quote from Willy shows that he never truly moved on from the idea that Biff has to be great in whatever he does. Willy goes on to kill himself just to give Biff a chance to start a business, something Biff doesn't even want to do. Willy has good intentions, however, they are just really misguided. This parallels with the character Amanda from the "Glass Menagerie". Like Willy, she wanted what was best for Laura but often went about in the wrong way of doing it. Both characters were stuck in their past and never really accepted their children for who they were, but rather what they expected them to be. I found these two plays to be very similar in the many parallels among characters.