"death of a salesman" analysis

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Pathos What: Appeal to the value of family 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. Why: He creates the appeal in order to get the audience to realize this could be, or is, their own family situation, thus appealing to the value of a family relationship. By forcing the realization, the audience would then hopefully change their values from money or fame, to a well-established family. Ethos What: Appeal to Ethos How: Miller portrays a character similar to himself. Biff is a shipping clerk making very little money. That is how Miller started out, by being a shipping clerk. He also was married several times, thus showing himself in Willy and Linda’s disloyal marriage. His family also lost nearly everything they owned. He knows the hardships because he lived through them. Why: He creates this appeal in order to establish his credibility...

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    Death of a Salesman Within the drama, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the Lowman family is presented within the post war economy trying to achieve the American Dream. The father, Willy Lowman, represents a well-off salesman that demonstrates a persistent husband and father figure throughout the late 1940s and early 1950’s. Throughout this piece, Willy desires for his two sons, Biff and Happy, to follow in his footsteps as a salesman and to represent themselves throughout the economic decline. Throughout the storyline, Miller demonstrates the theme of success and failure, the representation of a tragic hero and the symbolism of seeds.

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  • An Analysis Of Willy Loman's Death Of A Salesman

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    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.

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  • Death Of A Salesman And Oedipus Analysis

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    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.

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  • Analysis Of The Death Of The Salesman

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    The book is titled the death of the salesmen written in 1949 by Arthur Miller explores the impact which social forces exert on the individual into what society shapes individual identity, also about the dangers of idealism. This book introduced us to the Lomans family(Willy Loman, Linda Loman- Willy’s wife ,and two sons-(Biff and Happy)) who live in America where the cost of living is too much high.Willy head of the family who works as a salesmen was the victim of capitalist ,he was obsessed in his two boys Biff and Happy in their futures success ,Biff was living on the present now no longer at school where he used to be an expert in soccer he is older enough to become much more successful on his own ,but he is a drifter who has fallen into life of crime and his brother Happy is womanizer who is unable to establish a stable life for himself.Willy was an old man who thought he might still do his job but fortunate his sales was decreasing even his boss saw that ,Willy knew that in life you have to be successful especially when you live in America it was a place of wealthy people. Good business and successes like his brother Ben.It is when Willy started to lean on Biff’s past where he was still at school playing football and bringing home some prizes that he had won at school .that was the past but Willy kept on reminding Biff of what he would have become the most popular son.

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  • Analysis Of Salesman In Death Of A Salesman

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  • Literary Analysis: Death of a Salesman

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    "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...

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    Miller’s Willy shows many times that his idea of success goes no deeper than the superficial by teaching his sons the wrong path to a successful life. When Biff was in high school, Willy had already started to teach his son the false values in which he believed. When Willy found out Biff had stolen a football and was caught by his coach, who did not get angry, Willy responded by using the incident as an example of the importance of his philosophy.

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  • Inner Conflict in Death of a Salesman

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    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

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    Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a play that follows the troubles of a salesman named William “Willy” Loman, whose overzealous definition of true success inevitably leads to his suicide. I feel that a few of Willy’s unique characteristics contribute to his downfall, but that his unstable point of view and completely misconstrued concept of reality make the greatest contributions.

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  • Failure of the American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

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    Miller uses the misapplication and failure of the "American Dream" to captivate the audience and make them feel sorrow for both Willy and Biff Loman.  It is heart breaking to see this sixty-year-old man finally come to the realization that he is really not who he thought he was.  In addition to that, the fact is pointed out by his own son, who turns out to be wiser than him.  Unlike Willy, Biff finds out who he is, and that the American Dream is not for everyone.

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  • The Plot in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

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    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.

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