http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335#awesm=~oErg8SN49Mb56o
Era
I.Author
A.Arthur Miller
1.Early Life
a.Born in Harlem, New York on October 17, 1915
b.University of Michigan
c.wrote prolifically through college and young adulthood
2.Achievements
a.Won a Tony for All my Sons
b.Death of a Salesman wins Pulitzer, Tony, and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award
c.Death of a Salesman instant hit and Arthur Miller a famous playwright
3.Personal Life
B.Was married to Mary Slattery, Marilyn Monroe, and Inge Morath
a.Situation with HUAC because of The Crucible’s allegory to McCarthyism
b.Two children with Morath, boy was estranged because of Down Syndrome
c.Died on February 10, 2005 (56th anniversary of Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman)
II.Book
A.Achievements
1.Published and performed 1949
2.Pulitzer Prize in 1949, Tony and NY Drama Critics Circle Award
B.New Tragedy
1.Differs from traditional Shakespearean tragedy
2.Common man just as liable to tragic events
3.Hamartia (fatal flaw): lying/ deceit, illusionment
C.Techniques
1.Flashbacks
2.Within 48 hours
3.Visions
4.Symbols
5.Confusion with order of events
6.Parallel characters and
a.Charlie and Willy
b.Biff and Bernard
7.Places and travelling
a.Ben in Africa justified as reason for suicide
b.Biff happiest when travelling
c.Went to Africa when in search of Alaska
D.Symbols
1.Seeds: hope or dreams
a.no sun and poor soil
b.obsessively tries to plant
2.Diamonds: riches or the American Dream
a.Ben’s story and riches seem unlikely and unattainable
b.“the jungle is dark but there are riches”
3.Stockings: infidelity
a.Foreshadows discovery of the woman
4.Rubber hose and car: suic...
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....Biff and Happy as teens
d.like beloved- circling around why Biff and Willy are estranged
Characters
II.Willy Loman
A.Father
1.Own father abandoned him
2.Is the father of Biff and Happy
3.Unsatisfied with his sons
4.Young Biff and Happy idolized him
B.Salesman
1.Has become unsuccessful
2.Father sold flutes
3.Saw how successful salesman was loved
C.Illusions
1.Willy refuses to see reality
a.Sons will strike it rich
b.Ben is dead
2.Illusions harm him and people around him
a.Linda and his sons
b.Willy himself is disappointed
D.Proud
1.Refuses help from Charley
2.Doesn’t want Biff to see him with the Woman
I.Biff Loman
A.Son of Willy
1.Strained relationship
2.Doesn’t want to be a salesman
B.Magnetic
1.Kids like him
2.Great football player
3.Lots of charm
C.Future fell apart
1.Saw Willy with the Woman
Foster, Richard J.Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller's `Salesman', in Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar NamedDesire, Edited by John D. Hurrell, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961, Pp. 828.
Both sons live with the same concern for Willy as Linda, especially after she explains to them that Willy’s crashes were not accidents. Biff is particularly affected by Willy’s actions as Biff discovered Willy’s affair with one of his coworkers, an action which enraged Biff and caused Biff to refuse to fix his math grade and finish high school. Additionally, Willy’s affair also caused Biff to grow distant from his father, setting the two up for many future arguments such as one in which Willy tells Biff, “stops him with: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” (129). Not to forget that Willy’s suicide was originally meant to spite Biff as Willy believed his funeral would be grand, claiming “He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!” (126)--this being a tragic twist of dramatic irony. This trauma and strife brought upon Biff leads him into a great deal of hardship, never having had a job or settled down. Willy causes Biff to believe himself a failure, and Biff is dragged into Willy’s world of suffering where Biff cannot attain success in the face of his father’s high
As a young lad Happy was the younger of the sons, just like his father. His older brother Biff Loman, was prototype of today’s ignorant jock; he was handsome, well built and athletic, exceptionally popular with both sexes, yet he had no intelligence, book smart or wit, what so ever, in essence he was the epitome of today’s high school athletes. Their father had increasingly more affection for Biff, and Happy was always thrown into his shadow. Like Willy, Happy was the neglected by his father as well. From Happy’s beginning he tries to draw the attention from Biff towards himself. When Willy is talking to Biff, congratulating him on his asinine efforts, Happy buts in multiple times with, “look dad I’m losing weight…” (17). Then near his father’s demise, after Willy and Biff get in a fight and then Willy condoles Biff, he tries to make his father notice him again with an ‘out of the blue’ comment, “I’m getting married, Pop, don’t forget it…” (107). The...
Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York on October 17, 1915 (“Blooms Notes” 8). Miller and his family lived in upscale Harlem for the first fourteen years of his life (8). Then after a terrible stock market crash that affected the family heavily, they moved to Brooklyn, New York (8). He attended the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting (8). Besides writing plays he wrote radio scripts, and worked as a steamfitter in World War II (Gioia and Kennedy 1763). He began writing plays around 1936, but “It was the next play that secured his
Willy doesn’t want to accept that he is not successful anymore, he still recognize his son as handsome heroes. Biff as the football star when he was at high school and Happy an...
"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...
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949. Print.
This motif of abandonment and betrayal is carried through to Willy’s son, Biff. Biff feels betrayed whe...
Most critics can agree that Biff idolizes his father and enjoys working alongside him. However, Biff finally comes to terms that he has been living a lie his entire life. Even though some critics may or may not believe that Biff Loman is the reason that Willy ends his life, one can assume that Biff plays a significant role in the life of Willy Loman.
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.
English Coursework A view From the Bridge-Arthur Miller -Discuss the ways in which Alferi’s opening speech prepares the audience for what is to come in the play A View from The Bridge. Arthur Miller was born on October 17th,1915 in new York city with both of his parents being immigrants into the united States. His father’s success with his clothing manufacturing business made the family live well untill the American economy collasped and Arthur Miller had to be employed as a warehouseman in order to pay his school feel at Michigan university in 1934 where he studied Economics and history. In university playwriting became his primary ambition which led him to earn his living from journalism and writing radio scripts in 1938 after graduating. During World War Two he also worked as a shipfitter for two years in the Brooklyn Navy Shipyard, where a near majority of workers were Italian and where Miller made connections with their family centered concerns.
The most detrimental relationships in the play are that of Willy and his two sons, Biff and Happy. Not only does he confuse them by forcing his beliefs and half-truths on them, but he also spawns their lives into the same unhappiness that his own life has ended up in. Then by his own making, when their lives do not turn out as glamorous and wonderful as he has hoped, he blames and resents them for their failure. Biff seems to have lost the American dream when he caught his father in the Boston hotel room with his mistress. He has not given up on hard work anymore than Willy has given up on life. They are almost one in the same, they have both lost their dreams and illusions, just at different times in their lives. The three men have created a cycle of unhappiness and resentment, each of them failing the others. In contrast to this, the peak of success lives next door.
Avery, Joe. "Arthur Miller Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
The play centers on Willy Loman, an aging salesman who is beginning to lose his grip on reality. Willy places great emphasis on his supposed native charm and ability to make friends; stating that once he was known throughout New England, driving long hours but making unparalleled sales (something true only because of his philandering with secretaries), his sons Biff and Happy were the pride and joy of the neighborhood, and his wife Linda went smiling throughout the day. Unfortunately, time has passed, and now his life seems to be slipping out of control.
Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller takes place in New York and Boston. The play kicks off in the home of Willy Loman, an aging salesman who has just recently returned from a road trip. Mr. Loman is married to Linda and they both have two sons Biff and Happy. Throughout the play, the family breathes' and exists in denial as they face a challenge to keep up with reality to reach their goal of obtaining the American dream. By all means, “Death of a Salesman” reflects on our society.