The Significance of Music in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Human emotions are something that we seldom find a way to express clearly: from simple hand gestures, to a disgusted face. To understand his novel more thoroughly, Arthur Miller uses the most understandable method of comprehension, music, to express the emotions of the characters in his play, "Death of a Salesman". The characters, Willy, Linda, Biff, Happy, and Ben, have a certain style of music and instruments portraying them to show the reader what type of emotional person they are.
The beginning of the play starts with a soft, sweet, flute medley that announces Willy’s gradual trek home from Yonkers. This slow tune of confusion ends abruptly as Willy comes home and tells of his troubles in Yonkers. This sentimental sound is heard once more during Ben’s first visit to Willy’s house. His story of father and his flute-making business sets a warm tone only to be wrecked by Ben’s action of throwing Biff, a young, curious boy, to the ground, helplessly. The final performance of this tune is heard at Willy’s sad funeral, where Linda pays her respects to her well-liked husband. Ending on a sad note, the flute appears in time of odd emotions. In the beginning of the play, a state of confu...
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...illy’s funeral. Starting out a bit cheerful, the tune fades from a major key to a minor key, hence going from a merry sound to one of sadness and desperation, yet a good sound for a well-deserved tribute.
Willy was a mislead salesman. He wanted the best for his boys. Joyous songs always backed up these times. But when his craving for the best turned into the worst, an unpleasant song backed it up. When Willy was confused, a medley of the two was heard. Human emotions are something we all take for granted because they are not properly understood. Music is just one of the many ways that will make these emotions understandable.
Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 in the period of literary realism (Na). In this play, Miller also integrated naturalism and expressionism. Expressionism is seen in the work because Willy sees not only reality, but also his past and he sees his brother Ben who is dead (Hoeveler). Willy imagines that his death will cause his son to praise him because through the insurance policy, the family would receive a sum of money to provide for themselves, but in reality, Linda, Biff, and Happy, wish that he wouldn’t have done that. Miller wanted Death of a Salesman to imitate a Greek Tragedy. In most Greek and Shakespearean Tragedies, the tragedy begins because of a flaw of the protagonist and in the end, the protagonist either
In 15-20 sentences, identify the overarching theme in Miller’s play and why you feel this is the most important of all the themes present in “Death of a Salesman.”
Question: One thing I would like to know is if Happy is genuinely satisfied with his life and job. He fulfilled his dad’s dream, by becoming a salesman, but I think this caused him to stop chasing the dream he truly wanted. Through the first act, he carries himself in a very joyous manner, but I definitely feel like Happy has a more dismal side that he hides from everyone.
See “Death of Salesman” introduction of Arthur Miller.] In“Death of a Salesman,” Miller used a short period of time of main character’s life to reflect his whole tragedy life. He borrowed some expressionist approach, broke the imagination and reality, past and present boundaries, and reflected the broad social life through these characters’ mental activity. For many years, those comments about the play mostly stay in the story’s twists and turns, the tragic fate of the male characters, the cold reality of society, especially the hard-working of the Willy's "American dream" had shattered. However, the image of the female character, Willy’s wife-- Linda, failed to do a more in-depth research. Even with about Linda's research, mostly viewer were held the attitude of perspective of feminism to blame Linda’s fault instead of sympathy for her. In this paper, it is going to start with female trauma perspective, with the "American Dream" as the background, to do the interpretation of the tragic fate of the female character Linda in the play to show why she is the most tragedy character than Willy.
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
Mae-Wan, Ho. Genetic engineering : dream or nightmare? : turning the tide on the brave new world of bad science and big business. New York : Continuum, 2000.
"When they are finally attempted…genetic manipulations will…be done to change a death sentence into a life verdict." In agreeing with this quote by James D. Watson, director of the Human Genome Project, I affirm today’s resolution, "Human genetic engineering is morally justified." I will now present a few definitions. Human genetic engineering is the altering, removal, or addition of genes through genetic processes. Moral is "pertaining to right conduct; ethical." Justified is to be "proper; well-deserved." Therefore, something that is morally justified is ethically beneficial. My value today will be cost-benefit justice. When we examine the benefits that human genetic engineering provides to society, these benefits will outweigh any costs and will thus affirming the resolution will provide for justice. I will now present one observation—the existence of human genetic engineering will not be without limits. Patrick Ferreira, the director of medical genetics at the University of Alabama Hospitals, notes that a "technological imperative [states] that the development of extraordinary powers does not automatically authorize their use." In other words, the point of technology is to be careful, and as with any technology, a society will be meticulous in its understanding of human genetic engineering. I will now present 3 contentions that uphold my value of cost benefit justice.
Since Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1949, Willy Loman has become one of the most iconic and over-analyzed characters in American literature. In the play, Willy is an aging New York salesman who is facing both personal and professional problems. In fact, Miller indicates in Act I that Willy is suicidal when he proclaims “I have such strange thoughts, I have such strange thoughts,” as he explains to his wife, Linda, that he –more than once- nearly ran his car off the road (964). On the surface, his suicidal tendencies are due to his failure to earn enough money to support his family in his old age. Yet, as the play progresses, the audience comes to understand that there are deep-seated issues in Willy’s past and in his psychological makeup that have contributed to his current station in life. Miller’s “Death of a Salesman" can
Genes are, basically, the blueprints of our body which are passed down from generation to generation. Through the exploration of these inherited materials, scientists have ventured into the recent, and rather controversial, field of genetic engineering. It is described as the "artificial modification of the genetic code of a living organism", and involves the "manipulation and alteration of inborn characteristics" by humans (Lanza). Like many other issues, genetic engineering has sparked a heated debate. Some people believe that it has the potential to become the new "miracle tool" of medicine. To others, this new technology borders on the realm of immorality, and is an omen of the danger to come, and are firmly convinced that this human intervention into nature is unethical, and will bring about the destruction of mankind (Lanza).
character in the novel “Death Of A Salesman’ and Mr.Loman was the type of person that would always focus on the simple things. Instead of looking for new opportunities and for a better change everything went downhill for Mr.Loman. For that reason, Arthur Miller utilizes the title “Death Of A Salesman” not just to predict Willy Loman’s death and failure, but also how Mr.Loman’s dreams died alongside with him. Showing that one little mistake can make a big change in your life.
Death of a Salesman is a play about a man named Willy Loman who is an aging sales man that has difficulty remembering events, as well as distinguishing the present from his memories. Willy has always tried to live up to the “American Dream,” but unfortunately has failed miserably as a salesman and a father. Willy still having high hopes of the dream tries to live his life through his oldest son Biff, who has turned out to be just as big as a failure. Biff uncovers the truth behind his father’s lies and Willy being tormented by his failures starts to spiral downward. The thoughts of having failed as a salesman and father finally lead Willy to take his own life. In order to understand a play like this one you need to use a strategy in approaching it. One valid approach to any type of literature is to experience, interpret, and evaluate it.
Authors write with a purpose, sometimes this purpose is hidden and political, while sometimes it challenges the norm, while yet other times they write just to tell a moving story. In the end, however, all writers have the same goal: to produce a work that causes their readers to think about the plot and use their own mind to decipher the meaning. Arthur Miller is an exceptional author who possesses talent that exceeds the traditional author. Miller is one of the authors who chooses to challenge political figures, the norm, and many other assumed things about society, at least for his time. Arthur was born in 1915 and died in 2005; this gives a relative idea of the time period in which
“Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic). In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman, suffers from a mental illness. The mental illness affects Willy and his family throughout the play leading to depression, an affair, a new version of the American Dream, suicide, and the connection to historical and formalist criticism.
Scientists and the general population favor genetic engineering because of the effects it has for the future generation; the advanced technology has helped our society to freely perform any improvements. Genetic engineering is currently an effective yet dangerous way to make this statement tangible. Though it may sound easy and harmless to change one’s genetic code, the conflicts do not only involve the scientific possibilities but also the human morals and ethics. When the scientists first used mice to practice this experiment, they “improved learning and memory” but showed an “increased sensitivity to pain.” The experiment has proven that while the result are favorable, there is a low percentage of success rate. Therefore, scientists have concluded that the resources they currently own will not allow an approval from the society to continually code new genes. While coding a new set of genes for people may be a benefitting idea, some people oppose this idea.
Varmus, Harold. "Genetics: The Ethical Problem With Knowledge." Vital Speeches of Our Time. February 5, 1996: 334-337.