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Character study of the crucible by Arthur Miller
American dream according to Arthur Miller
Character study of the crucible by Arthur Miller
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Provide detailed background on the playwright and his method of inquiry. Death of a Salesman is one of Arthur Miller’s most famous works. It talks about the painful encounters within one family. It also tackles larger problems about American values. The play shows the faith in the American Dream. Miller proves that America is selling false dreams and hopes. Contrast, compare, or contextualize this in relation to other works by Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller's work covers a collection of themes. The American working class played a huge part in his writing. An example is Joe, in All My Sons. They are often portrayed as being shallow and simple, but its society that makes them like that. The family’s poverty makes them …show more content…
Despite his hard work, the Loman family has always lived on the edge of poverty and Willy has always been an underling in his company. Yet Willy constantly tells himself and his family that the "big break" he deserves is just around the corner. He has raised his two sons, Biff and Happy, to also believe that somehow life has cheated them and insists that one day they will get their due. Linda is Willy's loyal wife, lives in denial that her husband has so long tried to keep from collapsing. Willy finds that because of changing economic conditions the company has no further need for his services. Willy is shocked and is unable to understand how his employer could just cast him aside after so many years of faithful service. Willy’s old boss died, leaving his son the company. The new owner sees Willy as having outlived his usefulness to the company. Willy gets fired and soon discovers that he is unable to find another similar job like his previous one. He begins to slowly kill himself by inhaling gas fumes from a hose in the garage. The gas also jumbles Willy's mind, past, present, and future. This shifting through time and space shows how much pressure there has been on Loman to be accepted only if he makes money and provide for his family. He desperately wanted to be "well liked," and without the status of being a manager who makes more money, the dream is impossible. Willy Loman dies as he has …show more content…
It takes place in what seems to be the New York City area. “Willy Loman’s, the main character, house is in Brooklyn surrounded by apartments. This makes Willy mad because I get the feeling his house used to be much more open without buildings surrounding it. The years during which the play takes place is roughly around the 1950′s. I’m assuming this because cars were present and things seem to be prospering, so it must have to have been after the great depression. Willy wants to live the ideal American life that was so sought after in the 1950′s. This included a white picket fence in the front yard, a big yard to plant a garden, and to have enough money to support his whole
Within Death of a Salesman, there are many themes, motifs and symbolism shown to help readers and audiences alike understand the writing. Arthur Miller implemented these developmental characteristics through showing the theme of success and failure, features of a tragic hero and the germination within characters. Through Millers writing, it is shown that the American Dream does not always end in a happy
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream.
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman”. The Compact to Bedford Introduction to Literature. Md. Michael Meyer.9th.Ed. Boston:Bedford/St.Martins.1395.1400
Willy Loman is a 60 year old senile salesman who desperately wants to be a successful salesman; however, his ideas about the ways in which one goes about achieving this are very much misguided, just as his morals are. He believes that popularity and good looks are the key to achieving the American dream, rather than hard work and dedication. He not only lives his entire life by this code, but instills his delusional beliefs in his two sons Biff and Happy. As a result, his sons experience similar failures in their adult lives. Willy led a life of illusion, lies and regret which not only ruined his life, but gad a negative impact on the lives of family as well.
Miller, Arthur and Gerald Clifford Weales. Death of a salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. Print.
“Every year, an average of 1.8 million people immigrate to the United States” (migrationpolicy.org). The reason behind someone leaving their native land so they can venture into uncharted territory is powerful and enchanting. It is the same reason why today there are people who possess elevators and bowling alleys in their homes, while others are faced with the burden of depending on food stamps and sleeping under park benches. Immigrants would agree that opportunity is the popular reason for these causes. The opportunity of a better life intrigues humans all around the globe. In their home land, they hear rumors that the United States can provide freedom, along with an outstanding future for their family. Although, most of them do not realize that opportunity, in general, can be as kind as a mother’s touch, but it can also be as cruel as Arizona’s summer weather. Consequently, they come to America full of confidence and ready to track down and seize the American Dream. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, Miller uses a variety of characters to express the successes and failures behind the American Dream.
An American dream is a dream that can only be achieved by passion and hard work towards your goals. People are chasing their dreams of better future for themselves and their children. The author Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman has displayed a struggle of a common man to achieve the American dream. Willy Loman the protagonist of the play has spent his whole life in chasing the American dream. He was a successful salesman who has got old and unable to travel for his work, and no one at work gives him importance anymore. He is unhappy with his sons Happy and Biff because both of them are not successful in their lives. Moreover, Biff and Happy are also not happy with their father Willy because they don’t want to live a life that Willy wants them to live. The heated discussions of Willy and his older son Biff affect the family and the family starts to fall apart. However, Willy is unable to achieve the American dream and does not want to face the reality that his decisions for himself and his family have lead him to be a failure in the society. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the protagonist Willy Loman spends his whole life to achieve the American Dream by his own perception and denies facing the reality, just like nowadays people are selling themselves and attempting to find success in life.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller concerns itself with the fall of a simple man perpetually in a steadfast state regarding his own failure in a success-driven society. The protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, will follow a tragic trajectory that will eventually lead to his suicide. Arthur Miller's tragic play is an accurate portrayal of the typical American myth that sustains an extreme craving for success and a belief in the illusion of the American dream, a dream attainable only by a handful of people. Having chosen a career in sales Willy Loman constantly aspires to become 'great'. Nevertheless, Willy is a poor aging salesman that considers himself to be a failure when comparing himself to his successful father and brother, but he is incapable of consciously admitting it. Consequently, Willy will measure his level of success with the level of success attained by his offspring, particularly his eldest son Biff. Their difficult relationship contribute to the play's main plot. Willy unfolds his deluded perception and recollection of the events as the audience gradually witnesses the tragic downfall of a man shadowed by a mental illness that has already began to take it's toll on his mind and personality.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949. Print.
The sweet smell of success has been replaced by the stench of failure. The rubber hose represents both success and failure. It is attached to the gas main in Willy’s house and provides him with the opportunity to commit suicide. Willy sees this as a way to finally do something for his family to make up for years of disappointment. He will no longer be a burden to them when he is gone, and they will remember him in a positive light.... ...
...y he is so obsessed with trying to attain it. He is the product of his own illusions and of a society that believe that with hard work everything is possible. The reader can understand that Willy’s skewed perspective of the “American Dream” is due to his distortion of his life and the dream that he thinks he lives in everyday.
Miller, Arthur “Death of a Salesman” Literature: Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 205-13. Print.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream". Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
One major theme in Death of a Salesman is the pursuit of the American dream. Playwright Arthur Miller details main character Willy Loman’s misguided quest of this dream. Death of a Salesman was written in postwar America, when the idea of the American Dream was a way of life. The United States was flourishing economically, and the idea of wealth was the base of the American Dream. Capitalism was alive and well, and by living in a capitalist society, everyone in America was supposed to have a chance to become rich and successful. Miller makes the reader realize this dream is a falsehood, because it doesn’t always work for everyone as planned. In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a prime example of someone trying desperately, yet unsuccessfully, to pursue the false hope of the American Dream, directly resulting from capitalism’s effects.
Willy’s hubris makes him feel extremely proud of what he has, when in reality he has no satisfaction with anything in his life. Willy Loman’s sons did not reach his expectations, as a father, but he still continued to brag about Biff and Happy in front of Bernard. Willy Loman caused the reader to empathize with him because before his tragic death he did everything he could for his family. Empathy, Hubris, and Willy Loman’s tragic flow all lead him to his death that distends from the beginning. He is unable to face reality and realize that he’s not successful in life or at his job; he remains living in a world where he thinks he’s greater than everybody else because he’s a salesman.