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Social Commentary Of Arther Miller's Death Of A Salesman

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Death of a Salesman is an American play written by author, Arther Miller. Debuting on Broadway in 1949, the play is a recipient of numerous awards. It is also widely regarded as one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century. Death of a Salesman is not simply a play. Death of a Salesman is a brilliant, thoughtful piece of social commentary meant to convey the consequences of pursuing the American dream. Millers play explores a forever changing America and the trials of adapting to the times. His critique of working class life based on the corrupt, immoral pursuit of capitalism is conveyed using symbolism, character, and structure. Miller picked a precarious time to release Death of a Salesman. It is somewhat evident that the Great Depression …show more content…

This was not an uncommon occurrence when Miller released this play. When Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway (1949), America was on the cusp of a consumer bubble where materialism was championed. By 1950 Americas first credit card the, “Diners Club” card was introduced. Millers critique of materialistic capitalism blended with celebrity is ever-present in Willy’s psych. It is in this scope of poisonous prosperity that Willy views he and his family. To him, the ability to achieve in society is by having charisma. Having personality is paramount and being liked is the way to succeed. I believe this is where Miller is attempting to warn the public about conflating their “American” ideals with a cult of personality and celebrity status. Death of a Salesman is not simply a play, it is a guide of caution. It asks us take stock of our lives and be cautious of what success under the banner of exploitation may bring. Miller understood that the stereotypical American Dream is to be successful, but in pursuit of a dream, the people that seem to achieve it are often left unfulfilled. This is because the sacrifice that we find ourselves having to make, can end up producing conditional casualties in the pursuit of a “pinnacle”. This paired with an existence defined by material possessions often leave life feeling like it is

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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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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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Death of a Salesman Analysis In the play by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy Loman is a man in his 60’s. He is dressed in a drab coloured, ill-fitting suit. Willy shows early signs of dementia, as he spends much of the play having flashbacks or incorporating the past into present day situations. Through this the viewer learns much about Willy and his past.

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“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,

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Death of a Salesman was written in the year 1949, this was the period when World War II ended and it was when Americans started a period of unparalleled national prosperity. This was the period when American businesses invested a lot of money in new business materials and revolutionized old equipment with new equipment. The number of independent nonfarm businesses grew by about a third. Housing and construction of buildings expanded rapidly. This all created high inflation and prices of everything went high.

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Antigone is the play by Sophocles. It opens with the deaths of Antigone’s two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, doesn’t allow Polynices to be buried on the ground because Polynices attacks his own city. Antigone thinks burying her brother is her duty, so she violates Creon’s decree and throws some dusts on her brother’s corpse. Creon is offended by her behavior and gives an order that is locking Antigone into a cave with a little food.

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Ana Oceguera 12. 19. 16 AP English Death of a Salesman Character Compare and Contrast     In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the audience follows the dynamic between the members of the Loman family. The father of the family, Willy Loman is a self-deluded traveling salesman whose dreams of success do not match his reality. Prompted by his frustration due to the discrepancy between his unrealistically ambitious expectations and his reality, we watch as his mental health takes a turn for the worse,  and his story eventually ends in suicide.

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The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a story about a salesman, Willy Loman, dealing with immense stress due to his job and his sons’ futures. As he starts to experience hallucinations due to the stress, but he soons to become hopeful of his family’s future. But once he attempts to get a promotion and gets denied, he gets fired from his job and ends up committing suicide, leaving his wife and his two sons to fend for themselves, but not before paying off his house payments. Though this story takes place during the late 1940s, I believe that this story is not only inspired by a failing salesman from the Great Depression, but also inspired by Miller’s own uncle.

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Hitting the American Stage in the late 1940’s was a play that would start changing people's mind on an important social issue; Death of a Salesman by playwright Arthur Miller focused on the idea of the American dream. This play exposed the issues behind the commonly possessed idea that the United States was home to success and fortune. Not only did this play expand the minds of people in the late 1940’s in the United States, it’s message spread overseas to different countries too. Death of a Salesman also contained other topics commonly seen in the daily lives of Americans, such as the faults in family relations.

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I think the message that Arthur Miller wanted to tell us with the story of “Death of a Salesman” is that in order to succeed there is no manual or step-by-step guide in order to achieve it. Because if that were the case Willy will be very successful man, but as we all know in the story that did not happen, he failed miserably to achieve the American dream. In addition, I noticed that most of the time the persons that achieved success in the story they found it in the least expected places or were the oddest people that would achieve it. For example, his brother Ben, he found wealth in Africa and Alaska places very far and exotic. In comparison, Willy stays in New York in his comfort zone, he realizes that becoming rich can happen to anyone

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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.

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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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Willy’s American Dream The tragic play of Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller tells a story about an old man of 84 years old named Willy. Willy was captured by the American dream. He believed that hard work and ambitions could take him to a life of fame and popularity like the american dream was supposed to be. In Death of a salesman, the american dream reveals disappointment, failure and loss of hope. Thus showing that the american dream is not a great dream after all.

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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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