Final Exam Essays 1) Superobjective is thought to be a character’s main goal in which he or she is working towards throughout the play. Objectives are all of the smaller steps, or baby goals a character must achieve while in route of their superobjective. Obstacles are thought to be detours or brick walls. They can slow down and try to prevent the character from reaching their objectives and superobjective. Lastly, tactics are what the character may use to get to their objective. They are considered the hidden emotion in a character’s line. In the play, “The Glass Menagerie,” Amanda’s superobjective is for her daughter, Laura, to be successful so that she is able to support herself, as well as her mother. In this particular scene, (Act One, Scene Two) Amanda’s objective changes slightly. At first she wants to get her daughter through business school, so she can become a successful businesswoman: however, when she gains the knowledge that her daughter dropped out of Rubicam’s Business College, she changes her objective to finding a suited man for her daughter to marry. In the process of doing this, Amanda must overcome many obstacles. Her daughter refuses to go back to business school, she is socially impaired, she is “crippled,” and the one man her daughter is even remotely interested in is thought to be engaged or married. In order to get past these obstacles, Amanda must use numerous tactics. In the beginning of the scene Amanda tries to guilt Laura into going back to Business College. Then she uses persuasion to get Laura to consider marriage. When neither of those work right away, Amanda takes a more forceful approach and has Laura’s brother, Tom, invite Laura’s high school crush over for dinner. At the beginning of this scene, Amanda is very upset and disappointed with Laura, and wants to try to make her feel bad or guilty about dropping out of school and embarrassing her mother. As the scene progresses, Amanda’s anger ceases and changes to hope. Amanda forgets about her daughter getting an education, and begins thinking of her daughter getting married. Laura tries to explain to her mother that no one would be interested in a shy, crippled girl. Amanda consoles her daughter and has Tom set up a visit from a suitable man. Amanda’s attitude shifts from Laura’s success in Business College to Laura becoming a successful wife.

2. Arthur Miller believed that tragedies could and should be about people just you and me. I believe this statement is backed by his play “Death of a Salesman.” In this play, the antagonist, Willy Loman, is willing to try anything to keep his dignity, even if it means hurting his family in the process. His job is on the rocks and his salary has been changed to a set commission. Instead of Willy going out and looking for another job and informing his wife about what is going on, he continues working as a salesman in hope that eventually things will take a turn for the better. He also begins borrowing money from his neighbor and friend, Charley. So instead of this all taking a turn for the better, it just makes his situation even more complicated. Willy ends up getting fired from his job, which results in him having to borrow more money from Charley. What gives this play a tragic feeling is that Willy has failed at reaching his superobjective. He has this idea of the “American Dream,” of him being this successful businessman. However, Willy knows that he is failing, so he pushes this “American Dream” onto his son, Biff. He pushes Biff to meet with Bill Oliver to strike a business deal so Biff could start his own business in sports equipment. When Biff tells Willy that the meeting with Oliver did not go well, the play truly takes the most tragic turn. We learn the true reason for the hostility between Biff and his father. Willy believes Biff doesn’t want to follow the American Dream out of spite. He thinks that Biff is still