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Comment on Arthur Miller's play death of Salesman
Comment on Arthur Miller's play death of Salesman
Characteristics of willy loman in death of salesman
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Happiness is an emotion, which makes it subjective, so it is difficult to have a definite meaning for the word. Is happiness just the absence of a negative feeling or is it the feeling of fulfillment and joy? Depending on the person, the answer varies and different activities make different types of people happy. Furthermore, each individual is willing to sacrifice certain materials to bring them joy. Nevertheless, in general, as a society, people sacrifice certain things, like money and time, in order to “make them happy.”
Willy Loman is a resilient character for “his idea” of what the American dream looks like. Resilience is defined by the
“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.
Pride Shown in Death of a Salesman In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, there is a constant theme of pride shown throughout. Pride is constantly brought up in various ways in the play and impacts the plotline greatly. Pride is a main point in two scenes in Act One; when Willy borrows money from Charley and won’t tell Linda and when Willy tells Biff to loan $15,000 instead of $10,000. One common idea shown throughout Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is Willy having pride.
Not many achieve happiness in their lifetime. Either they do not live long enough to witness it or they are not prepared for what their happiness is. Happiness is very subjective. Each person’s version of happiness is different. This version of happiness is universal.
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.
Willy’s desire to grasp wealth by the hands led to his downfall and immediate failure which he failed to run from. He stopped caring about what he could achieve and only focused on what he wanted to achieve. In Death of a Salesman, Willy grudgingly accepted his situation by contemplating, “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up more worth than alive” (Miller 98). Surprisingly, Willy managed to stay on top of his insurance premiums even though he worked a no-paying job. The money of the insurance premiums would go directly to his family in the case of his death.
In the novel “Death of a Salesman” by, Arthur Miller, the character of Willy Loman develops a grim understanding of the possibilities and shortcomings of the American dream. Frequently discussed in the book, is the aspirations for parents to set the bar higher for their children. Willy Loman, is the father in the book and is the sole provider for his wife and two children and carries the burden to remove his family from an oppressed working class. With this in mind, Miller's constructive perspective into an anti-capitalistic character Willy Loman who is despised by the majority of readers. He is a victim of groupthink.
In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller utilizes the theme of betrayal as a way to draw a parallel to the downfall of how the Loman family perceives “The American Dream". Arthur Miller provides us with a clear analysis of how Betrayal has a domino effect throughout "Death of a Salesman". We are shown this theme by Willy Loman's betrayal to his wife. Just as Willy has betrayed his wife the American dream has betrayed Willy. With Biff learning of his father's betrayal, this leads him to think of his father differently.
Miller depicts Willy as a tragic character in his willingness to preserve his dignity. Additionally, Willy’s dignity is tainted in the story because of his flawed philosophy of the American Dream. This along with unjust comparisons leads to Willy’s death. Based on how Willy Loman evaluates himself unjustly, he is a tragic hero because he must do anything to preserve his dignity, and his false impression of the American Dream, which leads to his downfall.
Willy finds out his dream of being an popular, well respected salesman is impossible and takes his own life. Linda supports Willy despite the abuse and confusion he puts her through with his various attempts to take his own life, with his delirious ramblings and hallucinations, and with his constant deception. Happy still sees his father as a hero and Biff finally begins to grasp the truth of the “American Dream”. When Willy kills himself, all of the Loman family, including Willy, break free from the web of false dreams he spun and begin to understand Willy’s failings. They also realize their own flaws.
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.
From an outsider perspective, Willy Loman lives a normal life. He is a traveling salesman with two grown up sons, and a beautiful marriage. But is that really the life he has? No, it is not. One of the first disappointments Willy experiences is with his son.
This written task connects to Part 4 of the course which looks at the critical study of literature. The specific work that was used for this written piece is by Arthur Miller and is entitled “Death of a Salesman” which is a play showing the life of a man who lives in an eluded American dream. I have decided to write a letter for this written task to show the perspective and opinion on a character’s life before committing suicide in the play “Death of a Salesman.” Within the play “Death of a Salesman,” a resonating theme is that being a likeable character is all that is necessary to make it in the workforce. To debunk this theme, this written task presents arguments that do not support this theme.
"…I absolutely forget I was driving. If I `d `ve gone the other way over the white line I might `ve killed somebody. So I went on again- and five minutes later I `m dreamin` again, and I nearly-He prosses two fingers against his eyes. I have such thoughts, I have such strange thought"(I 14).
