Death of a Salesman [critical edition]
by Arthur Miller, Gerald Weales (Editor)
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning play centering on the despair of a traveling salesman who is forced to face the truth he has evaded all his life.Tags
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Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, captures the ongoing hope to reach the American Dream. I thought this play was well written in a way that all men could relate. Willy loman, the main character, is an elderly salesman who is not making enough money to support his family. His whole life he lived by the motto, "if you are well liked, you will succeed". But this motto never served to be true in the eyes of the Loman family. Willy's two sons Biff and Happy are home throughout the play. Biff was once an all-star quarterback at high school who was headed for the University of Virginia to play football, but after failing his math regents his whole life turns upside down. Happy, on the other hand, is the neglected child. He spends much of show more the novel trying to get his parents attention. He has somewhat of an inferiority complex, but tries to be good. Willy and Biff are constantly fighting about what could have been and what has happened. After a violent dinner that was supposed to be fantastic, Willy storms off away from his "ungrateful,spiteful" sons. Willy wants to live in this fantasy world in which he is a greatly respected salesman and people form all over the country know who he is. In reality, he is a nobody. A nobody who can do nothing right. After many suicide attempts, Willy finally succeeds. Miller creates a tragic drama that shows what happens to people living a money-oriented life. show less
A truly sad story, but one that appealed to me. Well-written and heartwrenching, it is very easy to see why Death of a Salesman is considered a classic. It is about the premature death that comes about when oen deludes oneself into believing something that simply isn't true.
This play seemed quite revolutionary and interesting when I read it in my Intro to Drama class in undergrad studies, but now it seems overdone. I am probably just jaded, though. :) If you are looking for deep thoughts, this play might not be it. However, I think I read it (and watched it) in the perfect spot--as an introduction to drama. No more, no less.
What a thoroughly depressing book. I liked the message it was trying to send about being true to ones dreams but at the same time I think there are better ways of doing it than such a depressing way.
I read this in my HS English class.
Door en door tragisch verhaal van een kleine man die opging in de American Dream, zichzelf en zijn omgeving bedroog en eraan ten onder gaat. Knappe dialoogwisseling, ingenieus gebruik van filmische technieken voor flashbacks.
Eerste keer gelezen op 18 jaar, als verplichte schoollectuur. Toen al erg onder de indruk
Eerste keer gelezen op 18 jaar, als verplichte schoollectuur. Toen al erg onder de indruk
Jul 8, 2010Dutch
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Author Information
194+ Works 43,229 Members
The son of a well-to-do New York Jewish family, Miller graduated from high school and then went to work in a warehouse. He was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, New York City. His plays have been called "political," but he considers the areas of literature and politics to be quite separate and has said, "The only sure and valid aim---speaking show more of art as a weapon---is the humanizing of man." The recurring theme of all his plays is the relationship between a man's identity and the image that society demands of him. After two years, he entered the University of Michigan, where he soon started writing plays. All My Sons (1947), a Broadway success that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1947, tells the story of a son, home from the war, who learns that his brother's death was due to defective airplane parts turned out by their profiteering father. Death of a Salesman (1949), Miller's experimental yet classical American tragedy, received both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1949. It is a poignant statement of a man facing himself and his failure. In The Crucible (1953), a play about bigotry in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, Miller brings into focus the social tragedy of a society gone mad, as well as the agony of a heroic individual. The play was generally considered to be a comment on the McCarthyism of its time. Miller himself appeared before the Congressional Un-American Activities Committee and steadfastly refused to involve his friends and associates when questioned about them. His screenplay for The Misfits (1961), from his short story, was written for his second wife, actress Marilyn Monroe (see Vol. 3); After the Fall (1964) has clear autobiographical overtones and involves the story of this ill-fated marriage as well as further dealing with Miller's experiences with McCarthyism. In the one-act Incident at Vichy (1964), a group of men are picked off the streets one morning during the Nazi occupation of France. The Price (1968) is a psychological drama concerning two brothers, one a police officer, one a wealthy surgeon, whose long-standing conflict is explored over the disposal of their father's furniture. The Creation of the World and Other Business (1973) is a retelling of the story of Genesis, attempted as a comedy. The American Clock (1980) explores the impact of the Depression on the nation and its individual citizens. Among Miller's most recent works is Danger: Memory! (1987), a study of two elderly friends. During the 1980s, almost all of Miller's plays were given major British revivals, and the playwright's work has been more popular in Britain than in the United States of late. Miller died of heart failure after a battle against cancer, pneumonia and congestive heart disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 89 years old. (Bowker Author Biography) Arthur Miller, American playwright, was born on October 17, 1915, in New York City. He earned an AB from the University of Michigan and began to write plays while still a student. He won the first of his many awards, the Avery Hopwood Prize of the University of Michigan, for his first play, Honors at Dawn. This was followed by many other award-winning plays. One of the best-known of these, Death of a Salesman, won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1949 as well as a Drama Critics Circle Award; it continues to be one of the most frequently performed and adapted plays of this century. Some of his other titles include The Crucible, A View From the Bridge, The Misfits, After the Fall, and Vichy. Miller also wrote several travel pieces, including In Russia and Chinese Encounters (both in collaboration with his third wife, Ingeborg Morath); a novel, Focus; and the autobiography, Timebends: A Life. Arthur Miller was married to Mary Grace Slattery in 1940. They had two children and were divorced in 1952. In 1956, he married actress Marilyn Monroe and they divorced in 1961. He married Morath in 1962 and they have two children together. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Death of a Salesman [critical edition]
- Original publication date
- 1967
- People/Characters
- Willy Loman; Biff Loman; Happy Loman
- Disambiguation notice
- This is a critical edition with 286 pages of additional material. Please do not combine with the main edition.
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- Reviews
- 6
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- (3.71)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 7
