THE CRITICAL FORTUNES OF ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN ____________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University‚ Chico ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English ____________ by Angela M. Metzger Summer 2009 THE CRITICAL FORTUNES OF ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN A Thesis by Angela M. Metzger Summer 2009 APPROVED BY THE INTERIM DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE‚ INTERNATIONAL‚ AND INTERDISCIPLINARY
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Willy’s issues with repression are consistently displayed in "Death of a Salesman". Willy represses recollections of poor times to when he was more delighted with his family. Moreover‚ Willy represses past choices and decisions that could have made his family more jubilant such as when he passed up a venture to Alaska with his brother to visit a diamond mine in which his brother gained a vast amount of riches from. Furthermore‚ Willy says many times that he had done well with his sales deals‚ however
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‘The pursuit of individuality and distinctiveness ultimately leads to conformity and deep feelings of failure.’ Good Morning/Afternoon‚ and welcome to this literary seminar at Hunters Hill High. My name is Obi Williams and I have prepared a speech on the Human Condition‚ its relevance in Post WW2‚ and how it is presented through Post WW2 literature. This time was a period of immense social transformation‚ as during the war‚ unemployment had ended and the economy had greatly expanded which meant
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Death of a Salesman as a modern tragedy Death of a Salesman as a modern tragedy Death of a Salesman is typically classified as a modern tragedy. This implies that it follows the example of the classic Greek tragedies‚ Roman tragedies and Shakespearian and Jacobean tragedy. There are‚ however‚ subtle but vital differences between these forms. Aristotle’s classic view of tragedy saw the form as one which only properly deals with the fate of gods‚ kings and heroes. In the twentieth century‚ such
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based on annual income figures. This means that 36.5 million people just in America either were unemployed or lived off food stamps or were unable to get a full time job. It is very difficult to live like this‚ as the nation saw illustrated in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller. Willy Loman‚ the protagonist‚ struggled with finances and couldn’t live a standard life. Without money‚ he couldn’t pay his household necessities like the refrigerator and this caused him great stress‚ which then led to bad
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Arthur Miller’s drama Death of a Salesman is highly regarded as one of the best examples of a modern American play. Following the “certain private conversations” of the Loman family in New York‚ Death of a Salesman analyzes the detrimental aspects of pursuing the American dream while still retaining enough sentimental emotion to deliver a strong‚ heartfelt message on redemption. These and many other aspects of Miller’s play all culminate inside the main character‚ Willy Loman‚ in a way that makes
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Death Of a Salesman Arthur Miller does manage to engage our sympathies with Willy in the first act of the play to a certain extent. He does this in many ways such as using Willy’s speech‚ his troubled mind‚ the way other characters treat him and by using themes like the past. To begin with‚ Willy Loman seems like a normal‚ yet exhausted businessman. This is until he starts to contradict himself by saying of Biff that he’s “a lazy bum!” A few seconds later in the scene‚ his line is “There’s
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What would it be like to have no personal identity? Human nature is fundamentally oriented toward self-acceptatance and self-understanding. Without these‚ one feels inadequate and lost. This is certainly the case for poor Biff Loman in “Death of a Salesman‚” because Biff’s father Willy simply cannot accept him. Biff is forced to be someone he is not for so long that he loses his true self altogether. As a result‚ he falls into a despair he cannot understand the genesis of. Additionally‚ Willy
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Hope of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman The American Dream is something every American family strives to achieve some families push too hard to get to the place where they feel that they have achieved this dream; this is the case in the life of the Lomen family. The Lomen’s are the typical American family in the 1940’s. Willy and his wife Linda are a middle class family with two sons named Biff and Happy. Willy is an ageing traveling salesman that is struggling to accept
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opposite reaction. By use of logic and metaphorical value one might argue that this could be transposed to the basic concept of the American Dream. Therefore for every American Dream there is also an American Nightmare. However Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is in no way‚ shape or form such a thing. Miller is meeting us halfway and describes the life of a man who is unconsciously disillusioned and who lives in denial‚ nurturing the wounds society has inflicted upon him with the memories of better
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