Arthur Schopenhauer is german philosopher who stated “All truth passes through three stages, first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed and third it is accepted as being self-evident” (Arthur Schopenhauer). This quote gives a better understanding of how society faces truths when they are first revealed and how they influence everyone. The play “ Death of a salesman” by Arthur Miller and the film “The Matrix” directed by Lana Wachowski and Lily wachowski both reveal truths that give a better understanding of both works. The three truths revealed in both works include betrayal, control/freedom, and illusion versus reality. These truths are revealed by the characters in both works and essentially show how life can be impacted in many …show more content…
ways. The first truth that is shared between both works is betrayal.
In the play “Death of a salesman” betrayal is evident as when Willy Loman see’s that his wife Linda is mending her stockings and he says “ I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out! ( Miller, Act 1)”. This quote shows how Willy lashes out at Linda about her mending stockings because it reminds him of his affair and betrayal of her. This betrayal of Linda has planted this seed of guilt in Willy that will never go away and it eats away at him. Not only does this guilt eat away at Willy it leads him to believe that his son Biff has betrayed him. The conversation where Willy believes Biff has betrayed him occurs when he says “You don’t want to be anything, is that what’s behind it?...Are you spiting me? You rotten little louse! Are you spiting me? (Miller, Act 2)” This quote explains how Willy perceives Biff's business failure as a personal betrayal, and Willy believes that Biff’s failures are an attempt to punish him for his earlier affair. Willy's guilt over his affair leads him to make lots irrational and damaging decisions that eventually lead to Willy committing suicide at the end of the play, as a result of betraying Linda and living in a state of denial. Likewise in the film “The Matrix” betrayal is apparent as Cypher betrays Morpheus who he was previously working with. Cypher explains why he betrays Morpheus when he says “ All I do is what he tells me to do, If I had to choose
between that and the matrix, I choose the matrix. ( Cypher)” This quote describes the reasoning of Cypher to betray Morpheus as he ultimately chooses to live in the matrix because all he wants is to eat,drink and have no stress which shows how he is essentially a moral coward. Essentially the similarity between the revealed truth of betrayal in both works is how betrayal of family and friends shows the human nature of certain people who are weak and how they decide to face such a thing as betrayal. For Willy the betrayal towards Linda produced guilt inside of him and being in a state of denial lead him to believe that he was being betrayed by his son Biff. As for Cypher the weakness in him leads him to betray his friends. The second truth that is shared between both works is control/freedom. To start of with the play “Death of a salesman” freedom is evident as Willy goes on a rant saying “The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don’t grow anymore, you can’t raise a carrot in the backyard. They should’ve had a law against apartment houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?” (Miller, Act 1). In this quote Willy and Linda’s reflections on their neighbourhood reveal their craving for escape. They pray for the days when the neighborhood was more green and throughout the play, commercialism and urbanization are linked to ideas of confinement. This craving for freedom is not only desired by Willy and Linda as both their son’s Biff and Happy want freedom for the city life as well. This can be seen when Biff says “Sure, maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles. Men built like we are should be working out in the open” (Miller, Act 1). The quote exemplifies how Biff and Happy are imagining an escape from the city and their lives in the business world as the opportunity of more hand on labour is a welcome change to the rat race of city life. Similarly, in the film “The Matrix” Neo says to Morpheus that “ I don’t like the ideas that i'm not in control of my life” (Neo). Neo expresses in this quote how control and freedom are powerful things and how he does not want to be controlled and that he wants freedom. Moreover, having control and freedom of one’s actions and life are things that society all wants. Although it is not necessarily easy to have freedom as society is under pressure of accomplishing the “American Dream” which does not allow people to have complete freedom and do what they want.
support is a pathetic effort to protect his identity. Linda will never admit to herself,
Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" reflects the numerous issues post-war United States was dealing with during the late 1940's when it was written. Death of a Salesman was written and published in 1949, when the United States was booming with new economic capabilities and new found power, resulting in a golden age regardless of the growing tensions of the threat of communist invasion. Racial violence and the escalating issues regarding the deluded American dream that was turning out to be quite different than that which our founding fathers had originally idealized. During the time "Death of a Salesman" was created, Post-War United States was undergoing a metamorphosis into a new era of prosperity, communist paranoia, and social/philosophical change.
BANG! Your father is dead. Within a few seconds, although he attempted many times, your father dies. He gave up. All the fights, all the disrespect, and all the struggles are behind you. However, all the hope, all the passion, and all the love is still there. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the main conflict is between Willy Lowman and his son Biff. Most of their struggles are based on disrespect; however, much of the tension throughout the play is also caused by the act of giving up.
Every one of us has a lens through which he perceives himself. These lenses are also unique to each person. Arthur Miller, in his play The Death of a Salesman, portrays a main character, Willy, who holds values that places the appearance of all things before their actual benefit to him and his family. This is shown by his often contradicting statements about his property, his attempt to appear greater than he is, and his obsession with his son. Willy often brags about how good he is at his job and how others are not as good as him; however, when faced with the reality of paying bills and counting sales with his wife, Linda, one can see his unfortunate financial situation.
As time grows, a spouse becomes a soul mate, best friend, and lover all in one. No one will ever show their dedication and love for you like your significant other and that’s what Arthur Miller addresses in the play Death of a Salesman. Linda Loman is the wife of Willy Loman, a man that treats her wrong but she still stands by his side. Linda is a vital character because she never has a low personality, she chooses her husband over her children she’s strong when her husband passes away and she the voice of the playwright.
“The American dream is, in part, responsible for a great deal of crime and violence because people feel that the country owes them not only a living but a good living.” Said David Abrahansen. This is true and appropriate in the case of Willy Loman, and his son Biff Loman. Both are eager to obtain their American dream, even though both have completely different views of what that dream should be. The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller shows the typical lives of typical Americans in the 1940’s. Miller’s choice of a salesman to be the main character in this play was not a coincidence, since it represents the typical middle-class working American, some of which have no technical skills what so ever. Miller’s play gives us insides on the daily lives of many Americans, this through the eyes of Willy and Biff Loman, he also shows what kind of personalities, what dreams they have, and their different points of view of what the American dream means.
The playwright Arthur Miller once insisted that any great play must deal with the question, "How may a man make of the outside world, a home." It was his belief that the most tragic issue which one could document was the embittered battle between society and the individuals which it was supposed to protect and nourish. Contrasting forms of this topic are well evidenced through his works, especially the plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Both of these plays archive a day or so in the lives of the Keller and Loman families’ respectively. While the climax of both these plays lies in the present, invariably most of the major action takes place in the past. Events are revealed throughout the course of the play that further complicate a seemingly straightforward issue. However, Miller attempts to answer his essential question of, "How does a man adapt to the society in which he lives" in two very different ways, both of which represented in each play by the fathers of both families. In All my Sons we are introduced to the seemingly kind-hearted Joe Keller, a man who has refused society’s dominion over him, and has attempted to put his own family’s well being above all else. In contrast, Death of a Salesman portryas Willy Loman as quite the opposite; Willy has completely succumbed to society’s will, and is trying to forge a life for him and his family in the way he believes society preaches success. Disturbingly enough, even though both men are sundry to the core and would never be friends had they met, their divergent strategies towards living within society deals them parallel fates.
"After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive," (Miller, 98). This quote was spoken by the main character of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman. This tragedy takes place in Connecticut during the late 1940s. It is the story of a salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s struggles with the American Dream, betrayal, and abandonment. Willy Loman is a failing salesman recently demoted to commission and unable to pay his bills. He is married to a woman by the name of Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Throughout this play Willy is plagued incessantly with his and his son’s inability to succeed in life. Willy believes that any “well-liked” and “personally attractive man” should be able to rise to the top of the business world. However, despite his strong attempts at raising perfect sons and being the perfect salesman, his attempts were futile. Willy’s only consistent supporter has been his wife Linda. Although Willy continually treats her unfairly and does not pay attention to her, she displays an unceasing almost obsessive loyalty towards her husband: Even when that loyalty was not returned. This family’s discord is centered on the broken relationship between Biff and Willy. This rift began after Biff failed math class senior year and found his father cheating on Linda. This confrontation marks the start of Biff’s “failures” in Willy’s eyes and Biff’s estrangement of Willy’s lofty goals for him. This estrangement is just one of many abandonments Willy suffered throughout his tragic life. These abandonments only made Willy cling faster to his desire to mold his family into the American Dream. They began with the departure of his father leaving him and...
Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, proves that the lifestyle that a person grows up in is incredibly difficult to break free from. Often, people are afraid to change their life based on the animal instinct that change can bring about harsh - if not fatal - outcomes. In the play, Willy Loman, the main character, brought up his sons with the mindset that if one says a lie enough times and to enough people, it will eventually become the truth. Obviously, this is not true, but for the Lomans, this became their way of life.
Of course the tragedy of “Death of a Salesman” still moves to its ordained conclusion. Willy’s discovery of his son’s unshakeable love, the love that kept him wandering the country, fitfully attempting to fulfill his father’s dreams even as he knew they had poisoned his very soul, cannot release him from the grip of a life spent chasing after the only goal he recognized as worthy of a man’s laying down his life: financial success.
Death of a Salesman: Tragic but Not a Tragedy. Though a more modern version of tragedy in its’ classical sense, Death of a Salesman in many ways is very much like an ancient Greek play. In his ‘Poetics’ Aristotle tries to set out the common ideas throughout tragedy, attempting to demystify the necessary elements for such plays. One of his main ideas was that of the ‘Three Unities’ - that of Space, that of Time and that of Action.
Death of a Salesman deals with many timeless issues. Though these issues are portrayed through the story of Willy Loman in the nineteen forties or fifties, their presence in today's world is still very prominent. The relationships in Death of a Salesman are riddled with jealousy, hope, love, dreams, hate, disappointment, and many other very human emotions.
Willy Loman is one of the most tragic heroes in American drama today. He has a problem differentiating reality from fantasy. No one has a perfect life. Everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these personal conflicts can differ as much as the people themselves. Some insist on ignoring the problem as long as possible, while some attack the problem to get it out of the way. In the case of Willy in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, the way he deals with his life as a general failure leads to very severe consequences. Willy never really faced his problems in fact in stead of confronting them he just escapes into the past, whether intentionally or not, to those happier childhood times where problems were scarce. He uses this escape as if it were a narcotic, and as the play progresses, we learns that it can be as dangerous as a drug, because of its ability to addict Willy, and it’s deadliness.
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller, his most famous and commonly revived work. Viewed by many as a caustic attack on the American Dream of success through economic enterprise, it made both Arthur Miller and lead character Willy Loman household names. It was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949, the 1949 Tony Award for Best Play, and turned Miller into a national sensation as a playwright.
A Modern Tragedy A form of drama in which a person of superior intelligence and character is overcome by the very obstacles he/ she is struggling to remove defines a tragedy as most people know it. However, tragedy can reflect another aspect of life: the tragedies of the common people. Heroic behavior in these instances may, at times, be impossible. We expect, from reading the first tragedies, that only kings or nobility can be tragic heroes.