The Death of a Contradictory Salesman by Arthur Miller is a realistic play that critiques modern society; Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party is an absurdist play that examines human existence and language through distorted realism. There is apparently nothing in common between the two pieces; however, there is one similarity: contradiction and ambiguity are shown in the language of both plays. In examining this question, I discover differences in the characteristics and purposes of contradiction and ambiguity. By contradiction and ambiguity, I mean that many details in the plays contradict each other depending on different conversations in different scenes. As a result, no real events can be obtained. In Death of a Salesman, we cannot determine whether Willy Loman was once a successful salesman or not. In Willy's imagined past, he portrayed himself as a popular salesman who opened the market in New England. Later, when talking with Howard, he says he averaged one hundred and seventy dollars a week in 1928, but Howard says he never achieved that. Both are unreliable since Willy lives in dreams while Howard just wants to follow the conversation, leaving an unclear answer to the question. Linda confirms Willy's words by telling her sons that when Willy was young, his buyers were happy to see him and that he was a pioneer of new territories for the company. Yet his words are also not to be trusted as Linda still supports Willy's fantasies. As she admits to Biff, she will do anything to keep Willy happy and bright. There are even more ambiguous points in The Birthday Party. As Dukore (1962) puts it, “every element of knowledge is half-knowledge” (p. 44). McBride (2012) also observes that "the only truth about The Birthday Party...... middle of paper ......n&folderAccountType=M&folderAccount=7422&folderID=102887&folderName=Death+of+a+Salesman&viewOption=NoIcon&moduleID=7422&fileID = 618616&fileName=Cardullo.pdf Koprince, S. (2012). The Secret Life of Willy Loman: A Miller-Thurber Connection. The Midwest Quarterly, 53(4), 317-328. Retrieved from https://iln.hksyu.edu.hk/ILN/DownloadFileAction.do?Flag=Module_File_Operation&folderAccountType=M&folderAccount=7422&folderID=102887&folderName=Death+of+a+Salesman&viewOption=NoIcon&moduleID=7422&fileID=618618&fileName=Koprince.pdf M cMarried, MR (2012). The Birthday Party Bibliography. Retrieved December 29, 2013 from http://www.gradesaver.com/the-birthday-party/study-guide/bibliography/Murphy, B. (1999). “Personality wins”: Death of a salesman and popular literature on sales advice. South Atlantic Review, 64(1), 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3201741