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Dissimilar Words In Death Of A Salesman

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The American Dream was a simple idea yet it caused many problems throughout families as it was interpreted differently. In the beginning of the Great Depression, the optimistic view of everyone being equal no matter their economic status became heavily popular. Nonetheless, some people, such as Willy Loman, believed that popularity was more important than money. His contrasting beliefs called for hardships that ultimately led to a strain on himself and his family. Miller's use of dissimilar phrases provides the opportunity to show characters conquering adversity. In the play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller developed the characters Willy, Linda, and Biff Loman through word choice in the dialogue and stage directions.
Willy Loman developed …show more content…

Linda is a housewife who was always stepped on by her whole family including Willy and her sons. In one scene, Linda is seen to be sewing stockings, however, Willy gets angry and snatches them from her. Instead of saying anything back to him, the stage directions say “Linda puts the stockings in her pocket” (Miller 39). Rather than fighting back with him, she simply hides the stockings so Willy would not get more infuriated. Since Miller includes the stage directions of her actions instead of dialogue, it shows how she deals with his hot-headed actions frequently. Linda is constantly silenced and has no voice until she finally stands up for herself. While discussing Willy Loman and his issues, Biff says to Linda, “Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you” (Miller 55). Instead of Linda backing down, she snapped back at Biff saying “Then make Charley your father, Biff. You can’t do that, can you?” (Miller 56). Linda finds passion in her words and begins to stick up for her actions. Miller uses dialogue to show Linda developing and becoming more than just a housewife. She was cutting off Biff and Happy when they spoke symbolizing her power in the house. Through dialogue and stage directions, Miller was able to transform Linda’s character into a strong, independent

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Her children are also property of Dr. Flint, and despite Mr. Sands promises to free their children, he fails and destroys any sort of trust Linda can have with a slave owner. Mr. Sands is described as being relatively kind to Linda and her brother William, who is also a slave, but his betrayal of her and disinterest in his own children who are slaves shows that there is no real kindness from slave owners to slaves. Because of this betrayal, Linda still must remain autonomous and put matters into her own hands to free her children and

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1255 Words | 6 Pages

When arguing with her sons over the mental state of her husband and their father, Linda defends Willy saying, “And you tell me he has no character? The man who never worked a day but for your benefit? When will he get the medal for that? Is this his reward — to turn around at the age of sixty-three and find his sons, whom he loved better than his life, one a philandering bum... ” (Miller 40)

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389 Words | 2 Pages

She gave up the excitement of her youth to be part a lonely community on the plantation. Lennie and Curley’s wife both gave up parts of themselves in order to be accepted. Lennie has a mental disability and does everything he can to be a part of the group of farm hands. He tries to be like every other man in the world. He is one of those characters that knows that he is different, but he can’t

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927 Words | 4 Pages

Curley’s wife tells Lennie that she once met a guy “and he was in the pitchers”(88). This man promised her that he would write to her when he returned to Hollywood, but she never received the letter. Curly’s wife was so full of herself that she believed “her ol’ lady stole it”, and would not accept the possibility that this man was not an actor or that she was not good enough (88). She was determined to get away from her family, so she married almost the first man she met, without even getting to know him first. Now, she is the only woman living on a ranch and she has no one to talk to.

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1474 Words | 6 Pages

Linda concealed her identity from her children for the sake of aggression Dr. Flint had out for her. Linda’s love for her children causes her to make sacrifices, sacrifices that pay off in the end when she makes it to the north and her children are by her side. Towards the end, she says, “My story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free (Jacobs 164)!” She concludes that her life is like a roller coaster and had many ups and downs, especially very steep drops, but it comes to an end when her conscious is satisfied and freedom is flowing in through her

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1015 Words | 5 Pages

We learn that Willy is a salesman, who is has only had minor success. Willy blames this on the fact that he is not well liked. In the beginning of the play Willy has had a car accident and his wife Linda wants him to ask his boss if he can work only in New York instead of having to travel. When we see Willy in a flashback he appears to be happy and affectionate with his sons, who seem to return the affection.

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746 Words | 3 Pages

Curly wife is in a way very despreate for attention. That she is even willing to talk to Lennie and try and understand his his madness of talking. To show how she is at least approved by someone she goes to depreate measures. Steinback states, “But my ol’ lady wouldnt let me. She says i was only fifteen.

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

She knows that! (Act 1) Willy's disgust at Linda waxing the floors herself suggests his bad temper about their economic status. They clearly cannot afford to hire someone to wax their floor, yet he constantly wants to pretend that this isn't so. CHARLEY: You want a job?

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986 Words | 4 Pages

Lennie had done something after telling himself many times not to. As he runs away and comes to the river bank where George told him to be when he was in trouble, his mind creates his aunt. It was a short conversation, “And then from out of Lennie’s head there came a little fat old woman. She wore thick bull’s-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean. She stood in front of Lennie and put her hands on her hips, and she frowned disappointingly at him.

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

All Willy Loman ever desired was to be successful. He defined success by having money, prosperous children, and becoming well-liked; however, his interpretation of success led him to his own destruction.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

She is the only girl on the ranch, and because of this, she faces difficulties from the boys. Curley’s Wife was just trying to find someone to confide in, and Lennie was there, but because she could cause trouble, Lennie wasn’t allowed to talk to her. She says to Lennie, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’” (86).

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890 Words | 4 Pages

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller portrays the last 24 hours of the life of a common man, Willy Loman, as he reflects on the failures of his life. Loman’s success as a salesman has passed now that his old loyal boss, Howard, has died, and he now works as an unsuccessful traveling salesman, scraping by on commision from Howard’s son. Loman goes to the neighbor, Charley, often borrowing money for household payments, but refuses to take a job-offer from him. Willy Loman’s spouse is Linda and they have two boys, Happy and his older brother Biff, who are now middle aged men who live back at home and are trying to find where they belong in life. Bernard is a childhood friend of the Loman boys, and is Charley’s son.

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1326 Words | 6 Pages

My self respect was gone” (Jacobs 49). Linda attempts to reveal her pregnancy to her grandmother, but is interrupted by Mrs. Flint, who accuses Linda in regards to her husband. Her grandmother believes the mistress and says to her, “You are a disgrace to your dead mother” (Jacobs 50). Linda’s pregnancy led to assumptions, which resulted in repudiation from the one who once treated her the best. In a desperate attempt to protect her children from being sent to the field house

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1537 Words | 7 Pages

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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1581 Words | 7 Pages

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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