The Great Gatsby / Death of a Salesman character comparison

Tim
Dan Cody from “The Great Gatsby” and the old salesman (who shall remain nameless throughout this paper on account of the fact I cannot remember his name) from “Death of a Salesman” are two very similar characters. As they both are the personification of the American dream as seen by the main characters of their respective plays. And as the Personification of said dream they both provide the main characters with a turning point in their lives;

Don Cody inspires the young and ambitious James Gatz to pursue his dream of leaving his home town and rural environment behind and going into the world to become incredibly rich.
‘The old Salesman’ from “Death of a salesman” inspires Willy Loman to become a salesman; to go into any town, check into a hotelroom and make your living at 80+ years by picking up the phone simply because everybody knows and likes you. This makes ‘the old salesman’ everything Willy wants to be; known and most importantly liked, but not just liked: well liked.

However Unlike James/Jay Willy never truly reaches his dreams. After a life on the road with only some minor success he starts to fall in love with this idea or illusion of him being a great and well liked salesman (much like Gatsby falls in love with his memories of Daisy) and over the years keep adding to this delusion until it seems to be bigger than life itself (once again much like Gatsby) and he can no longer distinguish it from the truth. Causing him to spiral down into the insanity that eventually leads to his death. Just like Gatsby Willy clings on to his dream until the very last.
Willies death is just another example of how different he is from his idol. His funeral is not attended by buyers and salesmen from allover the country, in fact only his family and his one single friend show up. (once again much like Gatsby)

The fact they both inspired the main character is just one of many things they have in common as they are basically the same character, play the same role and they are even introduced in practically the same way in both ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’.

They unexpectedly came into the main characters lives whilst these where still young and instill them with the inspiration to reach their wildest dreams. And leave a mark on the actions of the main characters long after they have passes away. Not only are they in a way the same person, they are in fact: Sir Alec Guinness. With the obvious exception that they are not cleaved in half by the father of the young men they inspired to do great things.