Death of a Salesman

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Death of a Salesman

• Introduction

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ARTHUR MILLER The Playwright

• Arthur Miller was born in New
• York City on October 17, 1915.
• He wrote Death of a Salesman
• which won the Pulitzer Prize
• and transformed Miller into a
• national sensation. Many critics
• described Death of a Salesman
• as the first great American
• tragedy, and Miller gained
• eminence as a man who
• understood the deep essence of the United States.

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Miller continued

• He published The Crucible in 1952, a searing
  indictment of the anti-Communist hysteria that
  pervaded 1950s America, which is set during the
  Salem Witch Trials of 1690. Miller is also
  famous for having been one of Marilyn Monroes
  husbands! He died in 2005.

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The Play

• Death of a Salesman,
• Millers most famous work,
• addresses the painful
• conflicts within one family,
• but it also tackles larger
• issues regarding American
• national values. The play
• examines the cost of blind
• faith in the American
• Dream, that success and
• status are rights, not
• earned privileges.

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The Play continued

• It is a play viewed by many as a scathing attack
  on the American Dream of achieving wealth and
  success without regard for principle or morals.

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The American Dream

• The American Dream is a belief that in the United
  States of America, hard work and determination
  can lead to a better life, usually through the
  earning of money. These were values held by many
  early European settlers, and have been passed on
  to the newer generations.

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The American Dream contd

• Traditionally, Americans have sought to realize
  the American dream of success, fame and wealth
  through thrift and hard work. However, the
  industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries
  began to erode the dream, replacing it with a
  philosophy of "get rich quick". A variety of
  seductive but elusive strategies have evolved,
  and today the three leading ways to instant
  wealth are large-prize television game shows,
  big-jackpot state lotteries and compensation
  lawsuits. In this article,  Matthew Warshauer,
  Professor of History at Central Connecticut State
  University, examines why so many Americans are
  persuaded to seek these easy ways to their dream.
  

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The Lomans.

• The play centers on Willy Loman, an aging
  salesman who is beginning to lose his grip on
  reality. Willy places great emphasis on his
  supposed native charm and ability to make
  friends

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The Lomans

• Willy has worked hard his entire life and ought
  to be retiring by now, living a life of luxury
  and closing deals with contractors on the
  phoneespecially since increasing episodes of
  depersonalization and flashback are impairing his
  ability to drive. Instead, all of Willy's
  aspirations seem to have failed he is fired from
  his jobwhich barely paid enough anywayby a man
  young enough to be his son and who, in fact,
  Willy claims to have named.

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The Lomans

• Willy is now forced to rely
• on loans from his only real
• friend (and the word is
• used loosely at that),
• Charley, to make ends
• meet. None of Willy's old
• friends or previous
• customers remember him.

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The Lomans

• Biff, his 34-year-old son,
• has been unable to 'find
• himself' as a result of his
• inability to settle down
• (caused by Willy
• drumming into him the
• need to 'make it big within
• two weeks'), and Happy,
• the younger son, lies
• shamelessly to make it
• look like he is a perfect
• Loman son.

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The Lomans

• In contrast, Charley (who, Willy tells his boys
  conspiratorially, is not well-liked), is now a
  successful businessman, and his son, Bernard, a
  former bookworm, is now a brilliant lawyer. We
  are told how Willy had at least one affair while
  out on business trips one in particular was
  discovered by Biff, and broke his faith in his
  father.

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• Finally, Willy is haunted by memories of his
  now-dead older brother, Ben, who has constantly
  overshadowed Willy, and he is in many ways the
  man that Willy wanted to be.
• Willy's emphasis on being well-liked stems from
  a belief that it will bring him to perfect
  successnot a harmful dream in itself, except
  that he clings to this idea as if it is a
  life-preserver, refusing to give it up. His boys
  are not only well-liked but quite handsome, and
  as far as Willy is concerned, that's all anyone
  needs. He pitches this idea to his sons so
  effectively that they believe opportunity will
  fall into their laps.

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The Tragic Flaw

• Willy witnesses his and his sons'
• failures and clings ever more
• tightly to his master plan, now
• placing his hopes vicariously on
• them he may not succeed, but
• they might. His tragic flaw is in
• failing to question whether the
• dream is valid.
• Tragic Flaw a flaw in character that brings
  about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy e.g.
  hubris (or excessive pride) or avarice (financial
  greed).

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