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Loading... Death of a Salesman (1948)by Arthur Miller
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» 43 more 1940s (13) Jewish Books (11) Sonlight Books (59) Favourite Books (450) Books Read in 2016 (1,312) Best family sagas (98) Books Read in 2017 (2,185) Books Read in 2010 (122) Books Read in 2009 (139) AP Lit (34) SHOULD Read Books! (58) Well-Educated Mind (65) Books I've Read (27) Books Read in 2012 (123) Books Read in 2005 (99) Nifty Fifties (56) Plays I Like (97) Five star books (1,609) No current Talk conversations about this book. It’s weird sometimes how in life media can appear at the right time. The day I finished Death of a Salesman I also watched Synecdoche, New York, a movie that features Death of a Salesman heavily in its first half. Understanding Death of a Salesman’s themes helps to understand where Synecdoche, New York is going before it gets there. Do these appearances mean anything? Probably not. It’s likely just a frequency illusion: a cognitive bias where a term or book (or play) someone has become aware of recently seems to appear with an unlikely frequency. Or maybe it does mean something. Anyway, Death of a Salesman: I’m impressed with playwright Arthur Miller’s ability to write about a salesman, yet never condemn (and barely touch on) the societal pressures of the American Dream expressed in capitalism. Willy Loman is a family man in his sixties with a long-suffering wife, Linda, and two grown sons, Biff and Happy. Willy and Linda have typical American Dream debts: the mortgage, the car, the fridge. The play shifts between present day and Willy’s deluded memories of happier times or things that led to his current situation. Willy will be happy only when he’s rich or his sons are successful, not realizing that he has succeeded in the American Dream of family. Linda’s dream is for Willy to recognize his success in her and their sons, who do love their father. Biff wants to make his father proud by being a salesman also, but his heart truly lies in the West and working outdoors. He’s torn between these two pillars of his life. Happy lives only in the moment and tries to keep a peace between his family, yet doesn’t want to acknowledge their real family problems. The majority of the play is concerned with Willy’s memories and flights of fancy. Willy’s consciousness streams in and out of reality as he holds conversations with characters both in his house and in his head at the same time. He remembers his sons as young with their whole lives ahead of them, he imagines his uncle Ben (who wandered into Africa and got rich on the Gold Coast) giving him empty advice, he recalls his failures as a father that led to the downfall of his promising sons. This isn’t a failure of the American Dream so much as it is the failure of a man to understand when he’s won and that comparison to others is not a mark of success. Lines I liked: - “It’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. Devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire to be outdoors, with your shirt off.” - “Sometimes I sit in my apartment — alone. I think of the rent I’m paying. It's crazy. But then, it’s what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of men. And still, goddammit, I’m lonely.” 4,1 stars I first read this play in university as part of a lit class and analyzed it to smithereens. I remembered next to nothing about it now, on my second read, and enjoyed it much more for it. This isn't a happy play and it managed to put me in a pretty depressive mood, but it does have a good point about living the life that makes you happy in stead of the life you think you should want in order to succeed. And now, I need something much more uplifting to read. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas the adaptationIs abridged inHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room. "By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times "So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Time No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)812.52Literature English (North America) American drama 20th Century 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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What a play! Such power, profundity and emotion. Truly great. (