How To Write An Essay On Death Of A Salesman
ENGLISH ESSAY – DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller
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 for as long as possible, while others face up to the problem immediately to get it out of the way. Arthur Miller grew up during the American Depression of the 1930s and is therefore aware that the American dream did not come true for everyone, but was everyone depressed or could people’s identities make the difference in a jaded life?
“I tell ya, Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know – what I’m supposed to want.”
-Biff
The setting of the scene …show more content…
takes place in Happy and Biff’s old bedroom. The atmosphere in the scene changes very radically from two nostalgic brothers joking about the past, to a very dramatic atmosphere surrounded by father-son issues and depressing thoughts. The sudden change of atmosphere reveals that something has lured beneath the surface all along, and it is very obvious that Biff is the source of the unhappiness.
“Biff: Why does Dad mock me all the time? - Happy: He’s not mocking you, he… - Biff: Everything I say there’s a twist of mockery on his face. I can’t get near him.”[L26]
It is very unusual to see the big brother, being comforted by his little brother; this could very well describe the relationship between the two outside of this setting.
All way through the scene the two brothers remain in the same location, but their conversation makes us imagine of completely different locations.
“In Nebraska when I herded cattle, and the Dakotas, and Arizona, and now in Texas.” [L.60]
These locations are the places Biff has been working, which makes it very obvious that he has a problem with settling down.
Biff and Happy are the only actual participants in this specific scene, but their father has a big influence on the scene even though he is absent. As quoted earlier there are some very distinct problems between Biff and his father. Biff is rather reckless and has a problem facing his identity. Biff admits to Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know—what I’m supposed to want”. This confession is not surprising to the reader by the end of the scene because Biff is so indecisive in his words and deeds, because of what seems like a constant battle with his father inside of his head. Biff’s character seems headstrong, but he lost his way because of the problems with his dad.
“He had been a bright student and a gifted athlete, but when he found out that out that his father had a mistress, he gave up his studies, lost interest in a business career and left New York” [“the story” line 5 side 157] He does not trust his father, and he does not believe in himself. Biff’s identity is weak, as he does not know who he is or what he wants out of his life, both his constant moving around and the fact that he is never satisfied with his current profession indicate that. Biff is rejecting to be part of the normal society including traditional values and assumptions. Biff’s character is very complex, which is normal in a modern text. He is described with a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. There is chaos inside of Biff, which correlates with the emerging inner characterization trends seen in modern literature.
Happy, the youngest son of Willy, seems as an assertive character with a strong sense of accomplishment and identity. He holds down a good job and attracts the ladies; he is self-assured in his professional and personal life. He is the complete opposite of his brother. He has everything he thought his brother Biff had when he was a child and looked up to Biff.
“I just control it, that’s all. I think I got less bashful, and you got more. What happened Biff? Where’s the old humor, the old confidence?”[L22]
In the eyes of Happy, Biff has gone through a massive change over the years, but concluding, whether Biff was actually once a confident young man, or it was merely Happy’s perception of him, seems hard. Perhaps Happy overestimated his older brother when they were children, which would be quite normal in a brotherhood. Overestimating a person you look up to is very ordinary, which leaves the possibility of Biff actually naturally being born with a weak identity wide open.
The narrator of the story is a non-omniscient third person narrator, which means that the characters are described by what they say and/or do. We are not aware of Biff and Happy’s thoughts, and we can only read their emotions from what they physically show, for example:
“BIFF gets up and moves restlessly about the room”[L.24]
From these facts, it is obvious that something was bothering Biff. When linking all the information together, that we discovered from their earlier conversation, we come to understand that was is acting restless and started to feel restless when they talked about their past. It is interesting how the first thing that came to his mind after he started acting restless was his father, because then his father might be the source of his restlessness.
With the emergence of new knowledge, especially in the field of psychology, culture began to look at things in an entirely original way. Therefore, human character hadn’t actually changed but how people perceived and wrote about it did. The major contribution Freudian psychoanalysis made to literature was the idea of an individual’s conscious and subconscious thought. Writers up until this point had mainly focused their descriptions, plots, and themes on the tangibles, opposite to what we experience in “the death of a salesman”.
Ultimately, the central theme of “death of a salesman” is identity.
Biff and Happy grew up in the same house with the same father, but they turned out as polar opposites. Happy had the skills to succeed in rough times whereas Biff never stood a chance. This text is a perfect example of how the American dream did not always come true for everyone; it is a flawless illustration of how a man with the right abilities overshines a man who lack those certain abilities. No one has a perfect life, neither has Happy nor Biff, but they deal with their conflicts in complete different ways, Biff runs away where Happy stands his ground. Whether or not your future is predetermined by your identity will remain a mistery. Ultimately, the central theme of “death of a salesman” is identity. Biff and Happy grew up in the same house with the same father, but they turned out as polar opposites. Happy had the skills to succeed in rough times whereas Biff never stood a chance. This text is a perfect example of how the American dream did not always come true for everybody; it is a flawless illustration of how a man with the right abilities over shines those who lack those abilities. No one has a perfect life, neither has Happy nor Biff, but they deal with their conflicts in complete different ways, Biff runs away where Happy stands his ground, but whether or not your future is predetermined by your identity will remain a
mystery.
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 for as long as possible, while others face up to the problem immediately to get it out of the way. Arthur Miller grew up during the American Depression of the 1930s and is therefore aware that the American dream did not come true for everyone, but was everyone depressed or could people’s identities make the difference in a jaded life?
“I tell ya, Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know – what I’m supposed to want.”
-Biff
The setting of the scene …show more content…
takes place in Happy and Biff’s old bedroom. The atmosphere in the scene changes very radically from two nostalgic brothers joking about the past, to a very dramatic atmosphere surrounded by father-son issues and depressing thoughts. The sudden change of atmosphere reveals that something has lured beneath the surface all along, and it is very obvious that Biff is the source of the unhappiness.
“Biff: Why does Dad mock me all the time? - Happy: He’s not mocking you, he… - Biff: Everything I say there’s a twist of mockery on his face. I can’t get near him.”[L26]
It is very unusual to see the big brother, being comforted by his little brother; this could very well describe the relationship between the two outside of this setting.
All way through the scene the two brothers remain in the same location, but their conversation makes us imagine of completely different locations.
“In Nebraska when I herded cattle, and the Dakotas, and Arizona, and now in Texas.” [L.60]
These locations are the places Biff has been working, which makes it very obvious that he has a problem with settling down.
Biff and Happy are the only actual participants in this specific scene, but their father has a big influence on the scene even though he is absent. As quoted earlier there are some very distinct problems between Biff and his father. Biff is rather reckless and has a problem facing his identity. Biff admits to Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know—what I’m supposed to want”. This confession is not surprising to the reader by the end of the scene because Biff is so indecisive in his words and deeds, because of what seems like a constant battle with his father inside of his head. Biff’s character seems headstrong, but he lost his way because of the problems with his dad.
“He had been a bright student and a gifted athlete, but when he found out that out that his father had a mistress, he gave up his studies, lost interest in a business career and left New York” [“the story” line 5 side 157] He does not trust his father, and he does not believe in himself. Biff’s identity is weak, as he does not know who he is or what he wants out of his life, both his constant moving around and the fact that he is never satisfied with his current profession indicate that. Biff is rejecting to be part of the normal society including traditional values and assumptions. Biff’s character is very complex, which is normal in a modern text. He is described with a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. There is chaos inside of Biff, which correlates with the emerging inner characterization trends seen in modern literature.
Happy, the youngest son of Willy, seems as an assertive character with a strong sense of accomplishment and identity. He holds down a good job and attracts the ladies; he is self-assured in his professional and personal life. He is the complete opposite of his brother. He has everything he thought his brother Biff had when he was a child and looked up to Biff.
“I just control it, that’s all. I think I got less bashful, and you got more. What happened Biff? Where’s the old humor, the old confidence?”[L22]
In the eyes of Happy, Biff has gone through a massive change over the years, but concluding, whether Biff was actually once a confident young man, or it was merely Happy’s perception of him, seems hard. Perhaps Happy overestimated his older brother when they were children, which would be quite normal in a brotherhood. Overestimating a person you look up to is very ordinary, which leaves the possibility of Biff actually naturally being born with a weak identity wide open.
The narrator of the story is a non-omniscient third person narrator, which means that the characters are described by what they say and/or do. We are not aware of Biff and Happy’s thoughts, and we can only read their emotions from what they physically show, for example:
“BIFF gets up and moves restlessly about the room”[L.24]
From these facts, it is obvious that something was bothering Biff. When linking all the information together, that we discovered from their earlier conversation, we come to understand that was is acting restless and started to feel restless when they talked about their past. It is interesting how the first thing that came to his mind after he started acting restless was his father, because then his father might be the source of his restlessness.
With the emergence of new knowledge, especially in the field of psychology, culture began to look at things in an entirely original way. Therefore, human character hadn’t actually changed but how people perceived and wrote about it did. The major contribution Freudian psychoanalysis made to literature was the idea of an individual’s conscious and subconscious thought. Writers up until this point had mainly focused their descriptions, plots, and themes on the tangibles, opposite to what we experience in “the death of a salesman”.
Ultimately, the central theme of “death of a salesman” is identity.
Biff and Happy grew up in the same house with the same father, but they turned out as polar opposites. Happy had the skills to succeed in rough times whereas Biff never stood a chance. This text is a perfect example of how the American dream did not always come true for everyone; it is a flawless illustration of how a man with the right abilities overshines a man who lack those certain abilities. No one has a perfect life, neither has Happy nor Biff, but they deal with their conflicts in complete different ways, Biff runs away where Happy stands his ground. Whether or not your future is predetermined by your identity will remain a mistery. Ultimately, the central theme of “death of a salesman” is identity. Biff and Happy grew up in the same house with the same father, but they turned out as polar opposites. Happy had the skills to succeed in rough times whereas Biff never stood a chance. This text is a perfect example of how the American dream did not always come true for everybody; it is a flawless illustration of how a man with the right abilities over shines those who lack those abilities. No one has a perfect life, neither has Happy nor Biff, but they deal with their conflicts in complete different ways, Biff runs away where Happy stands his ground, but whether or not your future is predetermined by your identity will remain a
mystery.