Death of a Salesman Class Notes II

Arthur Miller, one of the prolific writers in America. He received the Pulitzer Prize for the play Death of a Salesman in 1949. This play represents a successful attempt to blend the themes of social, personal and psychological tragedy within the some dramatic framework. It is also represents the theme of American tragedy. This play explores protagonist downfall and final defeat illustrate not only the failure of man but also the failure of way of life. It gives the clear picture of psychological tragedy of American lower middle class man. This article attempts focus on the psychological tragedy of salesman

This study aims to broaden and sharpen the critical thinking in understanding and analyzing the text of the play or in any literary works through Given Circumstances approach. The given circumstance approach has never been the limelight in the school of literary criticism but the sheer of relatedness to the Russian formalism has been very apparent. The data of this study is mainly sourced from the text of Death of a Salesman. This winning Pulitzer play written by a renowned playwright whose works are much more celebrated to be the overlooking of American's plight in the post war and American great depression, he is Arthur miller. This study finds out that there are certain circumstances that can be utilized for readers, actors or anyone interested to delve and comprehend more into the play. The Circumstances are (A) environmental facts which include: 1.

The concept of tragedy has escaped its traditional notion and through the years it has gained new philosophical meaning. Different scholars have conducted studies on the depth and the changes this term has undergone, the elements that have influenced or dictated these changes. This paper revises the scholars' attitude toward the concept of tragedy; establishes the new features that this term has gained and based on these findings it analyses Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. The paper focuses on the hero, on the concept of tragedy, what makes it a modern drama and why is has always arisen debates about its genre.

Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 2018

This paper explores the manifestations of nihilism and self-delusion in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The paper argues that the feelings of hopelessness and despair experienced by the lead character Willy Loman are as a result of the piling pressures of modernity and the emasculating effects of American capitalism engendered by the two World wars. A direct consequence of these nihilistic feelings in the play manifest in the inability of the Loman family to face the harsh realities of everyday affairs, thereby rendering their lives meaningless. The paper concludes that the suicide of Loman at the end of the play is inevitable because it is the natural outcome of existential nihilism, especially the kind induced by industrial capitalism. In this respect, death, as seen at the end of the play, becomes a natural relief to existential suffering.

2013

When technical revolution in Death of a Salesman formed the transformist task in American society, certain changes cropped up and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman failed to cope with them. A vigorous understanding of Millers creation involves the task of stretching beyond the boundaries of individual, to the extent of fathoming out the labyrinthine complicacy of social phenomena. Death of a Salesman holds a philosophy called the “American Dreams” ‘a misfit idea’ in a decade of unprecedented consumerism and technological advances. It gave the wrong ideology and deceived the human mind of the new middle class after the war until they were lost in a maize ready to be attacked by the lurking capitalist spider. This paper sets out to prove that Willy Loman, the every middle class man could not survive in the capitalist turmoil because he was a human being, he was not a salesman, he was a romantic, he believed in life, loved nature like Shelly, Keats and Rabinthdrath Tagore. There was n...

Undergraduate Research Thesis for Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba- Akoko, 2012

Freewill is a blessing and its a curse. the strive to chase the illusory American dream in a capitalist society has become a destructive metaphor in this existence.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a well recognized work for its anticapitalistic inclination. This popular reading arises out of the tendency to put forth the notion that the play is a propagandistic piece of writing. Through this paper an attempt has been made to reveal the ambivalence of the text due to the origin of the work in America. Even though some of the characters other than titular hero, Willy Loman , superficially pretends to be idealistic, they are no longer like that as they also are trapped, and hence victims of Capitalism, who perceives man without capital in Capitalistic society is a tragic figure rather than conveying the idea that Capitalism is bad. The objective of the paper is to reveal how this idea is conveyed through the textual frame work: the character formation, dialogues and plot structure. In this way the paper tries to explore the indirect working of discourse with its strategy of taming the individual.

Faculty of Letters, 2011

In every short story, novel, or drama, there are characters. Characters have very important role in developing the plot of the story and also learn more on how people act they do, and sometimes, by what others say about them. The aims of this research are to finds ...

Psychology is the systematic study of human beings and their activities with the object of understanding why living beings act as they do. The term 'psychology' is derived from a Latin word, which means the study of the soul or mind. Psychology is a science based on the study of human psyche, behavior, and mental health. Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian Freud is best known for being the founder of psychoanalysis. He is also known for working with Id, Ego, and Superego. Arthur Miller's insight into the psychology of extreme anxiety and his capability to create stories that communicate the deepest meanings of struggle, have made him one of the most extremely regarded and broadly performed American playwrights. He wrote about the pressures of society and family pressures also that were put onto human being. In the materialistic society, there is no humanity. People are selfcentered or self-interested. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, we recognize the condition of human mind and their behavior in the modern society. People want to know with their status and we can say they want name and fame but they are not conscious to listen to the voice of their conscience. Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" could not follow the change of time and became obsessed with the old values of success dream in the past. Arthur Miller talks about the self-realization or self-knowledge. Miller, who is a Humanitarian at heart, has carved his technique to the vortex of brutality and inequality pervading contemporary society.