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Analyzing Climate Of Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

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Recommended: The plot analysis of the play Death Of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

“Death of a Salesman,” the brainchild of the American playwright Arthur Miller, has long been controversially acclaimed as a modern American tragedy despite seemingly “‘pointless academic quibbles’” (Weales, 1962 as cited in Otten, 1999, p. 280+). Receiving the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “Death of a Salesman” simultaneously manages to win over audiences’ hearts while entertaining critics’ debates from the amalgamation of intertwined and conflicting contentions. While these debates rage over “the viability of tragedy in the modern age,” one theme becomes prevalent on both sides – that of a “severely flawed society” (Otten, 1999, p. 280+). This ultimately begets questioning and analyzing the interactions between the assorted pressures in the environment and the protagonist, Willy Loman, …show more content…

This essay intends to resolve the inquiry through analogizing the climate of “Death of a Salesman” to that of chemistry’s phase diagram. A phase diagram depicts certain conditions including pressure, temperature, and volume at which thermodynamically distinct phases occur (see Figure 1 that relates pressure and temperature). Moreover, it is especially important to consider the coexistence of states. Observing the line between points A and B, we notice that any given material will both transition between a solid and gaseous phase as well as exist as both a solid and a gas state at the infinite set of distinct pressure and temperature pairs. A similar phenomenon occurs along the line between points B and D for the solid and liquid phases as well as points B and C for the liquid and solid states. For demonstrational purposes, imagine a pot of water – the

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Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, is about the dysfunctional Lowman family. The family consists of salesman father Willy, homemaker mother Linda, son and sports star Biff, and youngest son and daddy’s boy Happy. It became apparent through the course of the story, that the “Men” of the story were actually boys. By analyzing the males of this story the reasons for their immaturities become clear.

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Julia Baird’s article Redefining Failure touches on the topic of failure by discussing how people’s perception and grasp on the meaning of failure can and has changed over time. Julia Baird constructs her argument by introducing a character known as Willy Loman whom she constantly uses throughout the text as a symbol of failure in the past. Baird throughout the text makes numerous appeals to authority and to the reader’s, which unfortunately fell short of its potential. To introduce her argument, Baird describes a character known as Willy Loman from Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, “We’ve spent more than 60 years dissecting Willy Loman, the character artfully sketched by…”(par.1).

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In the iconic film Glengarry Glen Ross, screenwriter David Mamet portrays a controversial and yet satirical message of survival through competition and dishonesty. The competitiveness of the masculine world calls for such methods, as is illustrated throughout the film. Through his message, he provides a nineties cult classic representing the crisis of manhood and its definition. We follow four highly stressed and over-pressured real estate salesman who are forced to turn on each other for survival in a capitalist system. When their corporate office announces that within a week, the company will downsize the sales department down to only two surviving salesman.

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The play is a scathing critique of the American Dream and of the competitive, materialistic American society of the late 1940s. The story line features Willy Lomnan, an average guy who attempts to hide his averageness and failures behind increasingly delusional hallucinations as he strives to be a "success". The idea for the play first manifested itself as a short story, which the author initially abandoned. His interest was renewed later on however, by an uncle who was a salesman. When the play version appeared on Broadway, however, with Death of a Salesman, Miller's career was launched into a whole new level.

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“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his children producing even more failures. ¬¬¬¬Both Charley and Willy work as salesmen, however Charley represents what Willy desired to become – successful.

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Theoretical Background The interaction of molecules via random collisions creates an ideal gas where the temperature, T, volume, V, and pressure, P, relate according to equation [1]. For a rigid container, the volume is assumed to be constant, where equation [1] can be rewritten as shown in equation [2]. In this case, P varies linearly with T, such that T = 00 when P = 0.

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Artan (2014) studies death of a salesman under the domain of American dream and the theme of narcissism because he believes that there is a connection between these two in character of Willy Loman. The purpose of his study is “to demonstrate that a close reading of the protagonist, Willy Loman suggests that his notion of success in relation to the American dream can be regarded as narcissistic” (Artan, 2014, p.2). According to Artan, American dream is the main theme of this play and Miller shows it through the characters’ wishes. He believes that Willy Loman is an unsuccessful salesman since he has misunderstood the notion of American dream and the fact that Willy sees success in working hard, the way of speaking, appearance and attractiveness that makes him a narcissist who wants to be superior and be liked by

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Death of a Salesman Free Response Essay Throughout the play Death of a Salesman, author Arthur Miller discusses the flaws of Willy Loman and the extent to which they bring about his own suffering and the suffering of others. As a tragic hero in the 1940’s, Willy exemplifies a typical man trying to achieve the very unrealistic American Dream. This dream not only solidified his fate but also threatened the success of every member in his household. Willy Loman first encounters the American Dream after his uncle Ben shares his successes and priorities with him, which in turn, become the basis of Willy’s dreams as well.

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Introduction When reading a play, it is fundamental to pay attention to details within the play for a script envisioned in more than one way. Moreover, discovering those critical items found in the play is important in helping one criticize the play correctly since; a critic is able to see the quality and mistakes found in the play. Likewise, the critic is also able to see valuable and critical things missed by the reader since as critics they looked at different functions within the play. With that said, this paper is going to explore two critical approaches seen in “Death of a Salesman” a play written by Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005). Those critical approaches are Reader-Response Criticism and Psychological (psychoanalytic) criticism.

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In 1949, the renowned play-write, Arthur Miller, published the iconic American play, Death of a Salesman (“Issue 35 Arthur Miller – Death of a Salesman”). Death of a Salesman was largely popular in the United States and won both a Tony and Pulitzer Prize (“Issue 35 Arthur Miller – Death of a Salesman”). After being so well received in the United States, the play was produced numerous times abroad. In Germany, specifically, Death of a Salesman was produced beginning in the year of 1950. With the country in ruins because of World War II, the reception of the play is highly intriguing, and therefore, will be the central focus of this paper.

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Arthur Miller’s “Death of a salesman” has more to do with levelheadedness than with state of mind. The production merriments the depth of the logical mentality of Arthur Miller as he is innovative in his request to describe the complexity of the characters. As Arthur Miller is way too truthful and documental they play “Death of salesman” to be extremely genuine with its profound symbolic meaning. Symbolism is without a doubt seen all through the play with the purchasing of the seeds and planting them to the setting of the play to the diamonds just to name a few things that represented symbolism. Willy Loman persist on buying and planting seeds which is an important symbol within the play.

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Tragedy can spread. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the protagonist, however he not the only person in the play who’s story ends tragically. His view on life spreads to those close to him. Primarily, Willy teaches it to his children who look up to him while his wife simply attaches herself to him, rooting for him in blind support while really she should be waking him up to the cold and dark reality that is their life. Throughout the play, the Loman family evolves differently.

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In his seminal work, Death of A Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays wretched conditions inflicting the lives of lower class people amid class-struggle in 1940s America. Miller sets the story during the great financial depression in the US , in between times after World War I and around World War II, though his characters hardly speak about the trauma of two World Wars. Miller earns an enormous success by putting an ordinary salesman as the protagonist in his play instead of putting a man of social nobility. In the play, Miller depicts his central character, Willy Loman as a destitute salesman struggling to rise up the social ladder in a capitalist society, who remains deluded by a 'dream of success ' and takes on a relentless pursuit of happiness that eventually brings his tragic demise. Though some critics speak in favor of the popular account of the cause of his death being his excessive obsession with so called the American dream and the 'capitalist oppression ' ; however, many still refuse to ascribe the cause of his death to capitalist oppression, which I will use synonymously with American dream here.

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People want to know their status and we can say they want name and fame but they are not conscious to listen to the voice of their conscience. Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” could not follow the change of time and became obsessed with the old values of success dream in the past. Arthur Miller talks about the self-realization or self-knowledge. Miller, who is a Humanitarian at heart, has carved his technique to the vortex of brutality and inequality pervading contemporary society.

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