Comparing Shakespeare' Julius Caesar, Ibsen's A Doll's House, and Miller's Death of a Salesman

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Tragedy's Problem

From Shakespeare' Julius Caesar to Henrik Ibsen's A Dolls House, problem plays have taken form in character, plot, and even setting. It is not necessary for a problem play to be considered a problem play just because it was not written in the time period of when problem plays were formed. Arthur Miller disproves this theory and successfully wrote a problem play in the modern time period; his play was Death of a Salesman. The timely struggles that characters such as Willy Loman face, eventually lead to a major personal problem that, in this case, leads to death. Problem plays deal directly with social and professional issues. Death of a Salesman is a prime example of a character struggling with social and professional problems.

Problem Plays

Problem plays were first invented at the time of William Shakespeare. His plays, including All's Well, Measure for Measure, and Hamlet, are under the category of "problem plays" (Schanzer, ix). Many authors have written of Shakespeare and his "problem play." F.S. Boas was one of these men. He once wrote, "All these dramas introduce us into highly artificial societies, whose civilization is ripe unto rottenness...Thus throughout these plays we move along dim untrodden paths, and at the close our feeling is neither of simply joy nor pain" (Schanzer, 1). An artificial society is exactly what is created in Miller's Death of a Salesman. Problem plays suggest major personal, social, political or professional issues in which each problem is timely, realistic and a character experiences these situations in real places and the problems have real outcomes. The idea of "real-ness" opens the door to problem plays.

Eager Unhappiness

Miller deals with more than the simplicity of Willy Loman's eager unhappiness. It deals ultimately with the so-called American Dream. The extreme power of mankind to create an image of freedom and self-equality sets this play in motion. One critic of the play, Craig Garrison, stated in an essay "The play makes, finally, no judgment on America, although Miller seems always on the verge of one, of telling us that America is a nightmare, a cause of and a home for tragedy" (Garrison, "The System"). Making America the nightmare that is the home for tragedy ultimately puts the American Dream to shame and makes the lives of people like Willy Loman a dream in itself. Willy continually fantasizes about the farm in the west.

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