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Comment on the play death of a salesman by Arthur Miller
Death of a salesman a modern tragedy
Plot of the play death of a salesman by arthur miller
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In the play “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller , there is a main character name Willy Loman who greatly wants to see his two sons be successful salesman , also be greatly love by his wife and two sons, but tragedy comes when he dies from suicide hoping his son Biff will use the insurance money of his death to start a business of his own. “What is Tragedy”? According to Aristotle “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also having magnitude complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language... ” Tragedy can be defined as a series of events leading up to great suffering. Which in the Play “Death of Salesman”, tragedy is shown twice. First being Willy Loman committing suicide, from the thought of thinking his death would be the only way for his son Biff to …show more content…
The greek word for the characteristic of recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions is “anagnorisis”meaning recognition. This characteristic was found in Willy Loman in act 2 — BIFF (his weeping breaking from him): Dad... WILLY (infected by it): Oh, my boy... BIFF: Dad... WILLY: She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terrible lonely. BIFF: You — you gave her Mama’s stockings! (His tears break through and he rises to go.) WILLY (grabbing for Biff): I gave you an order! BIFF: Don’t touch me, you — liar! WILLY: Apologize for that! BIFF: You fake! You phony little fake! You fake! (Overcome, he turns quickly and weeping fully. goes out with his suitcase. Willy is left on the floor on his knees.) WILLY: I gave you an order! Biff, come back here or I’ll beat you! Come back here! I’ll whip you. From Willy getting caught in the act of cheating by Biff, he realizes he's error of cheating, and possibly later known this as the reason for Biff’s
How: By portraying an average American family, Miller forces the audience to feel for the Lomans by showing their true faults. In doing so, it explains how not every American family is living the American Dream. They all argue, struggle, or have money issues, but they're a family nonetheless.
Found within the storyline, Willy implements features of a tragic hero as he shows the reversal of events in his life due to his own actions. Willy, through the downfall with his son, Biff, shows that his actions have caused a bridge between him and his son in which his son chooses to grow apart from his family. As seen at the beginning of the play, Willy represents a tragic hero as he is distressed and troubled as he comes home from another failed sales trip. Although Willy represents a tragic hero in many cases, there are also others found within Death of a Salesman that help implement the role of a profound hero. Willy’s wife, Linda, implements the heroine as she presents herself with many wise and understanding words for Willy has he faces his hardships. Throughout the story, it is seen that Linda represents herself as a put together woman for her husband but is often found distraught by her husband’s actions in which readers and audiences can empathize with
The tradition of the tragedy, the renowned form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis, has principally become a discontinued art. Plays that evoke the sense of tragedy-the creations of Sophocles, Euripides, and William Shakespeare-have not been recreated often, nor recently due to its complex nature. The complexity of the tragedy is due to the plot being the soul of the play, while the character is only secondary. While the soul of the play is the plot, according to Aristotle, the tragic hero is still immensely important because of the need to have a medium of suffering, who tries to reverse his situation once he discovers an important fact, and the sudden downturn in the hero’s fortunes. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is the modern tragedy of a common man named Willy Loman, who, like Oedipus from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, exhibits some qualities of a tragic hero. However, the character Willy Loman should not be considered a full-on tragic hero because, he although bears a comparable tragic flaw in his willingness to sacrifice everything to maintain his own personal dignity, he is unlike a true tragic hero, like Oedipus, because he was in full control of his fate where Oedipus was not.
Many times authors use symbolism to get their point across, and to further the readers understanding of the plot in many different lights so as to increase the intelligence of the reader. Symbolism is a major part of any story, however, whether or not this symbolism is a material object or actual phrase, dialogue, or anything else, does not matter, because every story has some sort of symbolism that increases the value of the play or story. Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman,” is one of Miller’s many works that holds much symbolism and power. Miller writes often to challenge the popular beliefs of a certain time. In “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller was referencing
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.
(Page 137) throughout the play we see Linda constantly follows what her husband says and believes anything that he says no matter how ridiculous what he says could be, Linda knows that she has to believe it or she will get yelled at and maybe even hit. Even when the reality of this whole story is so ridiculous this is what happened I don’t think any man should treat a woman and never mind a women your own wife like this. In the Lomans household there are many problems that occur Willy starts to face the facts that his family knows about what’s going and he refuses to be an honest man. This is right about the time that biff walks in and he hides his mistress in the bathroom Willy was more concerned with keeping her hidden in there than actually caring and listening to what biff is saying about how he flunked math and can only graduate if he goes to summer school and that’s all his day wants from him, but he saw the mistress come out of the bathroom “he goes dad who is she” and of course he lies saying she someone who she isn’t tells her she from next door and her bathroom is broken. After biffs sees this he does not care for his dad at all anymore and he wants nothing to do with him because he lies and lies to biff and the rest of the family. Then the family goes out to eat and Linda knows nothing at this point like she always does and acts like nothing is going wrong to impress her husband in front of his work colleges and biff gets up and leaves in
In Death of a Salesman and Oedipus Rex, pride plays an integral part to the development of the plot. In each play, the hamartia for both Willy and Oedipus is pride, along with other minor things. Willy’s and Oedipus’ sense of self-worth seems to come from their pride, however misguided it may seem. Pride is the hamarita which connects Willy and Oedipus, in which case pride causes them to live in their past and prevents them from seeing the present, resulting in their tragic ending. For Oedipus, pride causes him to search for the truth in his hidden past, inadvertently causing him to be the instrument of his own downfall. Willy’s pride causes him to live in an unrealistic past, preventing him from seeing what he currently has instead of what he doesn’t, leading to a vain death. Lastly, the sense of pride exhibited by Willy and Oedipus and how it affects their past extends on to the ones closest to them. For Willy, his pride and past is forced onto his sons, and to some extent their mother, while for Oedipus his search for truth in the past leads to the undoing of his own wife and mother. Pride deludes the way Oedipus and Willy see their past, affecting how their current life is, leading to their tragic end. C.S. Lewis stated “A proud man is always looking down on thing...as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you” (Lewis), and so for Oedipus and Willy they are unable to see what their life as it is for pride is always causing them to look down and in the past.
"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...
In the play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is a salesman that is known as depressed and angry. The play was made into a movie, one play filmed in 1951, the other in 1985. The lifestyles of these times were very different, for example the 1950’s had strict morals and values, was also known for conformity, and was the time of segregation. While the 1980’s were more about hip hop, being upbeat, “go-go”, also the time of credit, so you can have everything that you need and even what you don’t need. In the two films there were major similarities and differences. Although the 51 version was dark and dull, the 85 version was colorful and made the message of the movie come out more happy.
When tragedy as a genre was first being put to the stage in ancient Greece, it was thought to be the exclusive domain of the rich or powerful. Characters who were able to have a loftier fall from grace were thought of as being more truly “tragic” in the ancient world. Oedipus, one of the most famous tragic figures of that period, was a king by both birth and marriage, which led to his tragic end. This tradition was continued through the works of William Shakespeare, the great playwright and tragedian. Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth were all members of their respective countries’ ruling families (this is not to mention the obviously royal King Lear). Playwright and author Arthur Miller challenged this necessity of nobility in his essay “Tragedy and the Common Man,” in which he argues that normal people are just as engaging in a tragic setting as kings were (and are, in modern performances of classic works). He argues that “in the tragic view the need of man to wholly realize himself is the only fixed star, and whatever it is that hedges his nature and lowers it is ripe for attack and examination” (Miller). In his play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses the main character, Willy Loman, as
A tragedy in a play is created by a series of misfortunes, and unfortunate events, such as a death. The point of a tragedy in a play, novel, book, movie, or any form of literature is to bring out certain aspects, traits, flaws, or characteristics of the character most affected by the tragedy. These types of stories or plays attract the reader’s attention because they keep the readers interest in the ever changing characteristics of the characters, the possibility for revenge, or interest in seeing how it turns into a tragedy. A tragedy in a play usually leads to one death, usually more. It sometimes begins with a character wanting revenge, or just because they are greedy.
Aristotle analyzed drama to form a definition of tragedy. Aristotle considered “Oedipus the King” the perfect tragedy, so he modeled his definition after the play. He decided that there were some factors that made a tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, melody. The character had to have a tragic flaw that would ultimately lead to his downfall. The traits of tragedy's character defines Willy Loman as a tragic man. Also, a tragedy must have catharsis at the end, and the end of Death of a Salesman cleanses the audience.
In Death of a Salesman, written by American playwright Arthur Miller, focuses on Biff’s relationship towards his father Willy Loman. He plays the role that drives most of Willy’s thoughts and actions, specifically his memories. Whenever Willy is not able to accept the present, he reverts to the past where Biff is usually nearby. Before Willy’s trip to Boston, Biff admired his father. He trusted and believed his philosophy that any person can be successful, provided that he is “well-liked”. Biff never questions his father even though at times it is obvious that Willy is not following the rules himself. This results in Biff growing up believing that rules do not apply to him because Willy does not follow them nor does he expect
To conclude, “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller satisfies the criteria for a tragic play because Willy’s pride is a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. Ultimately, Willy gains enlightenment of his false perception of life and realizes how he inhibits the success of his family. This epiphany leads him to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his family. During his lifetime, Willy’s pride caused him to have an overinflated ego, a bizarre idealistic view on life, and a false value system. These negative traits eventually lead to his downfall in which he sacrifices himself, proving to be a modern tragic hero. Willy Loman is a common man brought down to his demise because of the one tragic flaw of pride that he possesses.
Plot, characterization, and dialogue are the elements of drama that I’ve chosen to analyze for Death of a Salesmen. Willy seems to be in conflict with himself and everyone else in his life. Conflict is what drives the plot and will be the main element of drama that’s analyzed in this essay. In Death of a Salesman Willy is the protagonist and his son Biff is the antagonist, he provokes Willy’s anger by not holding a steady job and measuring up to what his father feels he should be. The plot in Death of a Salesman is dialogue driven and the theme of the play is the death of Willy’s career and his inability to become successful in life. He also has hopes of Biff doing something more with his life other than working as a farmhand.