There are likely as many similarities between these two plays as
there are dramatic differences. And yet, both are extremely well-
written, both allow the audience to peek into the living rooms and
lives of interesting people, and both also put a microscope on society
and allow the audience to examine the real characters that make
America what it is. In this paper, plays will be compared and
Fences, which depicts the African-American family experience of
the late 1950s, just prior to the social and civil rights explosions
of the 1960s, is in a way the balancing act on the other side of the
American teeter-totter from Salesman, a story of the middle class
American Caucasian experience of the late 1940s. Characters in both
fictional families are seen in their realistic settings, and are
believable. Death of a Salesman of course is a far more well-known
play, indeed an internationally renowned play, having initially run on
Broadway for 742 performances, opening in February, 1949, and winning
the Pulitzer Prize, plus the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for
best play of the season. Miller's play (directed by the playwright
himself) has also been presented in France, Germany, Australia,
Russia, England, China - and 17 million viewers tuned in to its TV
production by CBS in 1966 (starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy); topping
that were the 25 million in the TV audience in CBS's 1985 production
starring Dustin Hoffman (as Willy), Kate Reid, and John Malkovich.
And beyond the fame that Miller achieved for his play from the
hugely successful public and critical response, thematically Miller
launched an original, innovative dramatic style which was called
"subjective realism." What subjective realism did was allow the
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