Death Of A Salesman Essays (2163 words) - English-language Films

Death Of A Salesman Short Plot In the beginning of the play, the main character, Willy Lowman, has just returned home after finding himself unable to concentrate on driving. His wife, Linda, suggests that he ask for a job in New York so that he won't have to drive so much. Willy insists, however, that it is vital to his company that he work in New England. Willy asks Linda about his son, Biff, who has just come home after being away for several years. He can't understand why Biff is unable to get a good job. Soon Willy begins thinking about when Biff was a senior in high school. He remembers how Biff was the star of the football team and how he was offered scholarships from several colleges. After Willy's daydream ends, Charley comes in to play cards with him. While they are playing cards Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy refuses. As they are talking, Willy's brother, Ben, appears to him in an illusion. Willy tries to talk to both of them at once and Charley can't understand. Willy and Charley get into an argument and Charley leaves. Willy then turns his attention to Ben and asks him how he became so successful. Ben tells Willy that he went into the jungle when he was seventeen and when he came out at twenty-one he was rich. After Biff overhears Willy talking to himself, he asks Linda what's wrong with him. Linda explains that Willy is exhausted and has even tried to kill himself. When Willy enters the scene, Happy tries to cheer him up by announcing that he and Biff are going to start their own sporting goods company. He tells Willy that Biff is going to see Bill Oliver in the morning and ask for a loan. Willy is optimistic and reminds Biff that the most important things in life are to be well-liked and to have personal attractiveness. The next day Willy decides to ask his boss, Howard, if he can have a job in New York. Howard explains that there is no room for him in New York, and then tells Willy that he no longer wants him to represent the company. Now that Willy has no job, he must ask Charley for the money to pay his insurance premium. When Charley finds out that Willy has been fired, he offers him a good job in New York, but Willy refuses. Charley gives Willy the money and then Willy leaves to meet Biff and Happy at a restaurant. When Willy arrives at the restaurant, Biff tries to explain to him that he has been living an illusion and will never amount to anything extraordinary. Willy refuses to listen to him and pretends that Biff has another appointment for the next day. When Biff tries to make Willy face the truth, Willy becomes furious and goes off to the bathroom. Biff and Happy then leave the restaurant. While Willy is in the bathroom, he goes into another illusion. He finds himself in a hotel room with a woman. She is telling him how much she loves his sense of humor. Then knocking is heard at the door, and at first Willy refuses to answer it. As the knocking continues, Willy tells the woman to wait in the bathroom. He opens the door and finds Biff there. Biff tells Willy that he has flunked math and asks that Willy talk to his math teacher about it. Biff explains that his teacher doesn't like him because he once caught Biff imitating him in class. Biff shows Willy the imitation and they both start laughing. The woman hears them laughing and comes out of the bathroom. Willy hurries her out of the room, but not before the woman demands the stockings that Willy promised her. Willy tries to explain the situation, but Biff won't listen. He accuses Willy of giving away Linda's stockings and calls him a liar and a fake. Willy is then brought out of his illusion by the waiter at the restaurant. Willy asks if there is a seed store in the neighborhood and then leaves. Later that night Biff and Happy come home and find Willy planting seeds in the back yard. Biff

Hephaestus, the Greek God of Fire and Volcanoes

Hephaestus, the Greek God of Fire and Volcanoes Hephaestus is the name of the Greek god of volcanoes and a craftsman and blacksmith associated with metalworking and stone masonry. Of all the gods on Olympus, he is arguably the most human, having suffered abuse by the other gods, who by contrast are aloof, perfect, and remote from the frailties of men. Hephaestus is also connected to humanity by his chosen profession, sculptor, and blacksmith. Yet he is one of the children of the marriage of the powerful gods Zeus and Hera, also the most quarrelsome couple in the Olympian heaven. Some of the legends around Hephaestus suggest he was parthenogenic, the son of only Hera unaided by Zeus, an event caused by Hera in anger after Zeus produced Athena without the benefit of a female partner. Hephaestus is the god of fire, and the Roman version of Hephaestus is represented as Vulcan. Hephaestus Two Falls Hephaestus suffered two falls from Mount Olympus, both humiliating and painful- gods arent supposed to feel pain. The first was when Zeus and Hera were in the midst of one of their endless quarrels. Hephaestus took his mothers part, and in anger, Zeus threw Hephaestus off Mount Olympus. The fall took an entire day and when it ended in Lemnos, Hephaestus was nearly dead, his face and body permanently deformed. There he was tended by Lemnos human inhabitants; and when he finally as a wine steward to the Olympians, he was a figure of ridicule, particularly in comparison to the legendarily handsome wine steward Ganymede. The second fall from Olympus occurred when Hephaestus was still scarred by the first fall, and perhaps more humiliating, this one was caused by his mother. The legends say that Hera could not bear the sight of him and his deformed legs, and she wanted this reminder of a failed quarrel with Zeus to disappear, so she threw him off Mount Olympus once more. He stayed with the Neriads on earth for nine years, tended by Thetis and Eurynome. One myth reports that he only returned to Olympus by crafting a beautiful throne for his mother with a secret mechanism trapping her in it. Only Hephaestos could release her, but he refused to do so until he is made drunk enough to return to Olympus and set her free. Hephaestus and Thetis Hephaestus and Thetis Hephaestus is often associated with Thetis, another deity with human traits. Thetis was the mother of the doomed warrior Achilles, and she went to extraordinary lengths in numerous efforts to protect him from his foretold fate. Thetis tended Hephaestus after his first fall and later asked him to forge new weapons for her son. Thetis, the divine parent, begs Hephastus to craft a beuatiful shield for her son Achilles, a shield predestined to bring its bearer death. It was the last futile effort of Thetis; soon Achilles died. Hephaestus is said to have lusted after Athena, another crafts person; and in some versions of Mount Olympus, he was the husband of Aphrodite. Sources ​ Rinon Y. 2006. Tragic Hephaestus: The Humanized God in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Phoenix 60(1/2):1-20.