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Analysis plot drama death of a salesman
Analysis of the death of a salesman
Death of a salesman analysis setting
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Why does Arthur Miller use time lapses in his play “Death of a Salesman”?
What was the playwright trying to tell us about Willy Loman?
In this essay I will be exploring and analysing “Death of a Salesman”
by Arthur Miller. I will be looking the use of flash backs in the play
that aim to emphasise that the past is always with us. Looking at the
flashbacks will also help understand the character of Willy Loman. The
action takes place in Willy Loman’s house and yard also in various
places he visits in New York and Boston of 1949.
The play was set in post war America. This is after the great
Depression, when people had a different point of view and wanted to
achieve the “American Dream”. The American Dream is the longings of
people who wanted to develop the country, to amass money and enjoy a
comfortable, not to be at the beck and call of the employer. The
figure of a salesman was at the cutting edge of the American Dream, a
self made person that did not sell his products but his personality.
The play shows a series of chronological events which take place
during one evening and the next day. At intervals throughout the play
we see scenes from Willy’s past enacted on the same stage at the same
time. On first impression this would seem more likely to confuse the
audience rather than reveal, but Miller had strong reasons for staging
the play in this way.
It is my belief that playwright tells us the past is not something
which is now behind us. The past is always with us informing and
influencing our actions. To understand the character of Willy Loman,
we must be aware of the emotional burdens he carries with him from the
past.
To show an example of these recollections I have selected a scene in
Act Two. Willy is sitting in a restaurant where he has been invited by
the boys, in anticipation of the fact that Biff will be able to secure
a loan from Bill Oliver. Willy has just been laid off from his old
job, and is hoping that Biff has some good news for him so that Linda
can be happy as he knows she has always been loyal to him and made
many sacrifices. Willy said “she has waited and she has suffered”.
This shows how loyal and hard working Linda has been to the family,
sacrificing to save money. Evidence of this is shown by the stockings
that she sits down with and mends so money can be saved.
Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398.
This whole play by Arthur Miller shows how our community will turn on each other to save ourselves no matter if it’s right or wrong and it’s true in our society today. It also shows how a good man regained his happiness and holiness by standing up for what’s right against the lies and sacrificed himself for the truth.
The play is set two years before World War I, in 1912, and in the year
The play was written in the 1945 but is set in 1912. The 1910's was a
short summary of what the play is about. The chorus is in the form of
The play is set in the 1950’s, and it has two narrators, called Voice 1 and Voice 2, which act as dramatic devices and move the play along in space and time.
The book is titled the death of the salesmen written in 1949 by Arthur Miller explores the impact which social forces exert on the individual into what society shapes individual identity, also about the dangers of idealism. This book introduced us to the Lomans family(Willy Loman, Linda Loman- Willy’s wife ,and two sons-(Biff and Happy)) who live in America where the cost of living is too much high.Willy head of the family who works as a salesmen was the victim of capitalist ,he was obsessed in his two boys Biff and Happy in their futures success ,Biff was living on the present now no longer at school where he used to be an expert in soccer he is older enough to become much more successful on his own ,but he is a drifter who has fallen into life of crime and his brother Happy is womanizer who is unable to establish a stable life for himself.Willy was an old man who thought he might still do his job but fortunate his sales was decreasing even his boss saw that ,Willy knew that in life you have to be successful especially when you live in America it was a place of wealthy people. Good business and successes like his brother Ben.It is when Willy started to lean on Biff’s past where he was still at school playing football and bringing home some prizes that he had won at school .that was the past but Willy kept on reminding Biff of what he would have become the most popular son.
This paper will be an analytical, interpretive essay about Death of a Salesman (1949), the most profound work by author and playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005). Death of a Salesman received the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the year of its creation and has been reproduced over seven-hundred times. This analysis will concentrate on Willy Loman the central character of the play but also on the play as a whole. It will show that Arthur Miller’s critiques of American society still hold true to this day. That he was not just making a statement about the corporate social structure failing those that served it, or about how the American Dream in which those agencies perpetuate was dying. He was stating that the American Dream had never existed at all.
Willy just thinks that no matter what Biff does he is doing it right. He can’t escape his dream world.
story and lasting throughout the play with the constant themes of deception and doing evil in the
Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398.
The function of flashbacks in Death of a Salesman. Throughout Death of a Salesman flashbacks are used continuously, typically to present the audience with the Loman family's background and show deterioration. In act one we see the first flashback at the beginning of the play. As the play starts to go into flashback the backdrop changes from the present 'Apartment houses' and the 'surroundings become covered in leaves.' The first sign of the Loman's happy past.
Shakespeare, William, and Russ McDonald. A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York, NY: Penguin, 2000. Print.
though he cares for her a lot as even though she is quite grown up she
with him and he wants her to sleep with him now. He is being seen as