Analyzing Climate Of Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

“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,

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