http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335#awesm=~oErg8SN49Mb56o
Era
I.Author
A.Arthur Miller
1.Early Life
a.Born in Harlem, New York on October 17, 1915
b.University of Michigan
c.wrote prolifically through college and young adulthood
2.Achievements
a.Won a Tony for All my Sons
b.Death of a Salesman wins Pulitzer, Tony, and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award
c.Death of a Salesman instant hit and Arthur Miller a famous playwright
3.Personal Life
B.Was married to Mary Slattery, Marilyn Monroe, and Inge Morath
a.Situation with HUAC because of The Crucible’s allegory to McCarthyism
b.Two children with Morath, boy was estranged because of Down Syndrome
c.Died on February 10, 2005 (56th anniversary of Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman)
II.Book
A.Achievements
1.Published and performed 1949
2.Pulitzer Prize in 1949, Tony and NY Drama Critics Circle Award
B.New Tragedy
1.Differs from traditional Shakespearean tragedy
2.Common man just as liable to tragic events
3.Hamartia (fatal flaw): lying/ deceit, illusionment
C.Techniques
1.Flashbacks
2.Within 48 hours
3.Visions
4.Symbols
5.Confusion with order of events
6.Parallel characters and
a.Charlie and Willy
b.Biff and Bernard
7.Places and travelling
a.Ben in Africa justified as reason for suicide
b.Biff happiest when travelling
c.Went to Africa when in search of Alaska
D.Symbols
1.Seeds: hope or dreams
a.no sun and poor soil
b.obsessively tries to plant
2.Diamonds: riches or the American Dream
a.Ben’s story and riches seem unlikely and unattainable
b.“the jungle is dark but there are riches”
3.Stockings: infidelity
a.Foreshadows discovery of the woman
4.Rubber hose and car: suic...
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....Biff and Happy as teens
d.like beloved- circling around why Biff and Willy are estranged
Characters
II.Willy Loman
A.Father
1.Own father abandoned him
2.Is the father of Biff and Happy
3.Unsatisfied with his sons
4.Young Biff and Happy idolized him
B.Salesman
1.Has become unsuccessful
2.Father sold flutes
3.Saw how successful salesman was loved
C.Illusions
1.Willy refuses to see reality
a.Sons will strike it rich
b.Ben is dead
2.Illusions harm him and people around him
a.Linda and his sons
b.Willy himself is disappointed
D.Proud
1.Refuses help from Charley
2.Doesn’t want Biff to see him with the Woman
I.Biff Loman
A.Son of Willy
1.Strained relationship
2.Doesn’t want to be a salesman
B.Magnetic
1.Kids like him
2.Great football player
3.Lots of charm
C.Future fell apart
1.Saw Willy with the Woman
Symbolized within the writing and drama is a representation of a seed that shows growth and development. Through analyzing the writing, growth can be best seen through Biffs character. As seen within the opening acts, Biffs character is very resilient towards his father due to the thought of being a salesman is pressed upon him. As the story progresses and Biff sees his fathers condition, he tries to show his love for his father while also learning to become himself rather than what others want or see him as. Within the article by Richard Martin, is expressed that “Biff, unlike Willy, gradually learns to be himself, instead of staying on as a compulsive victim” (Martin). Just as a seed germinates and grows, the same process can be shown among Biff as he shows love upon his father in which helps Willy regain faith in himself and among his family.
America is a country built on the idea of The American dream; an idea that any person, white, black, brown, or even purple can achieve economic freedom and upward social mobility through hard work and determination. There are few men who hold this idea more dear than Willy Loman. Mistakenly, Willy focuses more on the ideals of wealth than the laborious journey it takes to become a successful business man. The American capitalistic society is competitive and people like Willy, who do not understand the environment they are in, will habitually have problems climbing the economic totem pole. Death of Salesman admits to a flaw in the American system, not everybody will be successful, but through characters, flashbacks, and the resolution it is clear that Willy’s lack of success is result of his own choices, and not society.
Willy doesn’t want to accept that he is not successful anymore, he still recognize his son as handsome heroes. Biff as the football star when he was at high school and Happy an...
One reason that this play is well known is because many of the characters are identifiable with ourselves. Willy is a burnt-out businessman with no special talents or qualities. Linda is a kind and dedicated housewife, but she has not accomplished anything noteworthy. Biff has a habit of theft and a number of pent-up frustrations. Happy tries to smooth out the tensions in the family, but he is also unsatisfied. The only “successful” major character in the play is Bernard, but even he was considered “liked, but not well-liked” by the Lomans when he was young. There are not any heroes or bad guys in the play. The characters are all very human, and very flawed.
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.
"After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive," (Miller, 98). This quote was spoken by the main character of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman. This tragedy takes place in Connecticut during the late 1940s. It is the story of a salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s struggles with the American Dream, betrayal, and abandonment. Willy Loman is a failing salesman recently demoted to commission and unable to pay his bills. He is married to a woman by the name of Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Throughout this play Willy is plagued incessantly with his and his son’s inability to succeed in life. Willy believes that any “well-liked” and “personally attractive man” should be able to rise to the top of the business world. However, despite his strong attempts at raising perfect sons and being the perfect salesman, his attempts were futile. Willy’s only consistent supporter has been his wife Linda. Although Willy continually treats her unfairly and does not pay attention to her, she displays an unceasing almost obsessive loyalty towards her husband: Even when that loyalty was not returned. This family’s discord is centered on the broken relationship between Biff and Willy. This rift began after Biff failed math class senior year and found his father cheating on Linda. This confrontation marks the start of Biff’s “failures” in Willy’s eyes and Biff’s estrangement of Willy’s lofty goals for him. This estrangement is just one of many abandonments Willy suffered throughout his tragic life. These abandonments only made Willy cling faster to his desire to mold his family into the American Dream. They began with the departure of his father leaving him and...
Biff loses respect for his father and soon realizes what lie he has been living. Willy is in denial about his involvement with Biff’s failure in life, and when he is confronted about it by Bernard asking, “What happened in Boston, Willy? (141), Willy quickly becomes defensive, saying, “What are you trying to do, blame it on me? Don’t talk to me that way!” (141). After finding out about Biff’s reaction of burning his favorite University of Virginia shoes that symbolize Biff’s hopes and dreams for the future, Willy realizes what impact the affair had on his son. Willy’s lack of acceptance of reality affects his relationship because he never owned up or admitted he had an affair. This weighs heavy on Willy because the hate from his son will always be there. Biff loses all respect for his father and sees not only a failed business man, but in general a failed man. Throughout it all, Willy’s wife still remains supportive of him and constantly reminds him of her love for him. Despite this, Willy still yearns to have what he does not and pursues “the other woman.” It is bright as day that Willy finds some sort of comfort and validation for his affair with a woman who makes him feel wanted, yet his wife does the same thing. This guilt is always carried around with Willy which is just another contributor to the death of Willy
Foster, Richard J.Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller's `Salesman', in Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar NamedDesire, Edited by John D. Hurrell, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961, Pp. 828.
Willy Loman’s false pride leads him to believe that he has been successful as a father. He remembers how he was once looked up by his children, especially by his son Biff. However, Willy fails to realize that the relationship he once had with his son Biff has been broken, due to the fact that Biff caught Willy in an affair he was having with another girl; Biff was heartbroken to fin...
In the year 1949, Arthur Miller created the play, Death of a Salesman. This is the play that made him most famous (Gioia and Kennedy 1763). “…This work is unquestionably the pinnacle of his achievement” (Gioia and Kennedy 1763). Miller wrote many additional plays, but is best known for Death of a Salesman.
A person’s attitude is mostly what everyone around him or her will view them as. From this they can tell many things. Whether it is if the person is funny or down to earth or even irresponsible. Many times people change personalities often and they would be classified as being a dynamic type of person. A person who is doesn’t change is classified as being a static character. Willy, from Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, is a static character for his inability to grasp reality, his poor parenting and his constant lying to his wife.
His first proffessionally produced stage play, The ManWho Had All The Luck failed on Broadway in 1944. In 1947 his play All My Sons became successful and won the Pultizer prize in 1949 for Death of a Salesman. He also wrote plays on social events happening in USA such as The Crucible which he wrote about the reaction to witch-hunt of left sympathizers. He first produced a one-act play in verse of A View from the Bridge in 1955, followed by a two-act play in 1956which was produced in the Comedy Theatre in London.
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.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949. Print.
Most critics can agree that Biff idolizes his father and enjoys working alongside him. However, Biff finally comes to terms that he has been living a lie his entire life. Even though some critics may or may not believe that Biff Loman is the reason that Willy ends his life, one can assume that Biff plays a significant role in the life of Willy Loman.