Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Willy Loman finally realized, to an extent, that he had been living a life of illusion and self-deception. Towards the end of the play he concludes that would be worth more to the family dead then alive, "After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive." His son Biff has seen the truth about his father's self delusions much earlier then Willy. This causes clash between the two as Willy still believes that Biff will amount to something and Biff finally confronts his father about his low station in life and the fact that the two of them will always be nobodys.
Willy developed the theory that if a person is well liked and is very good looking then doors, i.e. opportunity, will automatically be opened for him. In essence Willy believes in style over…...

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References

Bissessar Kevin "A Professor's Lecture on Death of a Salesman" Jun 19, 1997 accessed on 17-March-2003 at http://www.lionking.org/~bornfree/library/kvsp2.txt

Abbotson, Susan "Understanding Death of a Salesman: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents," Greenwood Press, 1999

Phelps, Heldref Miller's Death of a Salesman,

Journal article, H. C Publications, 1995

Willy's "psychopathy," he explained, is a manifestation of his being "other-directed" -- or possessing a value system entirely determined by external norms…evidence that goes beyond normal human inconsistency into the realm of severe internal division" (3). The author's analysis illustrates that Willy's "psychopathy" is an inevitable and consistent result of his constant dreaming about success and wealth using the wrong approach. Knowing that he has failed himself and his family, Willy tried to compensate for this by holding strong to the belief that he will eventually prevail, that personality and charisma would save him and his family from poverty. As a result, Willy isolated himself from his family, simply by not sharing the realities that his wife and sons are experiencing, being poor and in constant conflict with Willy's ideals.
Indeed, the psychological trauma that plagued Willy upon realizing that he has grown old and did not succeed in the…...

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References

Cardullo, B. (2007). "Death of a Salesman, Life of a Jew: Ethnicity, Business and the Character of Willy Loman." Southwest Review, Vol. 92, Issue 4.

Kushner, T. (2005). "Kushner on Miller." Nation, Vol. 280, Issue 23.

Miller, a. (1998). Death of a Salesman. NY: Penguin.

Death of a Salesman
Linda: Are they any worse than his sons? When he brought them business, when he was young, they were glad to see him. But now his old friends, the old buyers that loved him so and always found some order to hand him in a pinch - they're all dead, retired. He used to be able to make six, seven calls a day in Boston. Now he takes his valises out of the car and puts them back and takes them out again and he's exhausted. Instead of walking he talks now. He drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no one knows him anymore, no one welcomes him. And what goes through a man's mind, driving seven hundred miles home without having earned a cent? Why shouldn't he talk to himself? Why? When he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a…...

Death of a Salesman
In all of twentieth-century American drama, it is Arthur Miller's 1949 masterwork Death of a Salesman that has been lauded as the best American play. The play deals with important aspects of American life, discovering and exploring the idea of the American dream. Since its first appearance in New York in 1949 to its numerous worldwide performances since, Death of a Salesman has spoken to the apprehensions of middle-class workers internationally and their great effort for continuation in capitalist society. The play and its preliminary production set the tone for American drama for the rest of the century through its sociopolitical themes, its lyrical pragmatism, and its focus on the ordinary man.

In Death of a Salesman, illy Loman has to face the truth that he no longer has his sales employment and therefore no longer has his indispensable uniqueness. He can't grip it. Miller lets us know…...

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Works Cited

Porter, Thomas E. Myth Miller, Arthur (1915) Death of a Salesman and Modern American Drama. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1969, pp. 154

Jacobson, Irving Miller, Arthur (1915) Death of a Salesman. A Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman American Literature, XLVII (May 1975), pp. 288

Griffin, Alice. Understanding Arthur Miller. Columbia: U. Of South Carolina Press, 1996.

Weales, Gerald C. AM: Death of a Salesman; Text and Criticism. NY, Viking P, 1977.

hen the past no longer serves as an adequate escape, illy resorts to complete fantasy in the form of Ben.
For illy, his long lost brother represents the ultimate realization of the American Dream. Ben left his family to find fortune in Alaska. He represents the adventurer who makes a success through entrepreneurialism and audacity (Krasner 46). Miller however indicates that this success is decidedly uncertain; pointing out the wishful fantasy that has completely overridden illy's ability to handle reality. Throughout the play, this juxtaposition of fantasy and reality serves as symbol of illy's inner turmoil. illy's fantasy is his own material success as a salesman, and the hope represented by his family. The fantasy culminates in the success of his brother Ben, and in illy's regular references to himself as being "well liked" (Miller 30).

This illusion of being "well liked" is the contact point between illy's true past and…...

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Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin, 1996.

Krasner, David. American Drama 1945-2000. Wiley-Blacwell, 2006.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. Routledge, 2006.

Death of a Salesman
The new millennium has brought with it new and interesting challenges. Our values and ideals have evolved along with the changing times. This is also true of business and the things that constitute success. For these reasons, many have questioned the relevance of literature created during the previous century to the world as it appears today. Such questions have also been raised about Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, which appeared in the period after World War II, during which the United States as superpower attempted to sell the benefits of capitalism as such to its citizens (Siegel, 2012). In a New York Times review, Siegel makes the claim that the only meaning the play has for today's audiences is to give them a sense of superiority over rather than identification with Willy Loman. However, perhaps the play still has more depth to offer, even to…...

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References

Cassel, S. (2006, Jan.) Willy Loman's Demise as Caused by his Ego and the Return of his Son. Retrieved from:  http://www.flamingnet.com/bookreviews/resources/essays_bookreviews/salesman.cfm 

Siegel, L. (2012, May 2). Death of a Salesman's Dreams. New York Times. Retrieved from:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/opinion/death-of-a-salesmans-dreams.html?_r=0

Death of a Salesman: Tragedy in Prose
Tragedy, can easily lure us into talking nonsense."

Eric Bentley

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, we are introduced to illy Loman, who believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream -- that a "well liked" and "personally attractive" man in business will unquestionably acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. illy's obsession with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability are at odds with a more granular and beneficial understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. (Bloom) illy's interpretation of likeability is perfunctory -- he childishly hates Bernard because he thinks Bernard does not embody the qualities that he admires. illy's faith in his warped version of the American Dream leads to his psychological decline when he is unable to accept the incongruity between the Dream and his own…...

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Works Cited

Abbotson, Susan C.W., et al. Understanding Death of a Salesman: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: The Greenwood P, 1999.

Bloom, Harold. Arthur Miller. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.

Bloom, Harold. Willy Loman. New York: Chelsea House, 1991.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

Death of a Salesman
Cultue and Gende in Death of a Salesman

Ameican cultue is clealy changing. Yet, many within it ae efusing to adapt, and ae continuing to hold on to outdated middle class values that don't wok within today's social context. This is Willy Loman. Athu Mille pesents a sad but ealistic look at the destuction of the Ameican Deam and middle class values within his wok Death of a Salesman, which also upholds the antiquated gende steeotypes which seem to only quicken Willy Loman's fall into dismay.

Thee ae a numbe of cultual conflicts pesent within the wok. Essentially it shows the dismembement and destuction of the middle class values of woking had that wee ceated hundeds of yeas ago in a much diffeent social space. Willy Loman is essentially a "salesman with delusions of gandeu, and was witten moe than 60 yeas ago, but it seems equally fesh today,"…...

"
Though critics such as Sheila Huftel characterize illy Loman's "fall" as only a fall from "an imagined height," it is nevertheless still a fall, which makes illy Loman, like Oedipus, a tragic figure. illy has created very powerful ideas about what he wants his life to be and what he wants his sons lives to be. But these ideas are part of what make illy who he is. He cannot help but persist with these ideas and that is what sends him on a path headed for failure inevitably. Just like Oedipus was doomed by fate, illy is too doomed because of his inherent desire to achieve things that society puts out of his reach. No matter how far away his dreams go, illy always strives to reach them, and it puts a rift between himself and others in his life.

illy's idea of "success" goes way beyond any kind of…...

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Works Cited

Jacobson, Irving. "Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman." American Literature,47(2),

pp. 247-258.

McManus, Barbara F. "Outlines of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics." 1999.

Accessed on 11 Dec 2010: http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html

Willy relives the painful memory, but does not accord it the same weight as Biff. The inability of Willy to understand Biff is one of the central conflicts of the play. Even after the father and son have their show-down, when Biff insists to Willy that he is "nothing," and that it doesn't matter to him, Willy can only marvel that Biff likes him. Unlike in a Greek play, no deus ex-machina comes from above to explain to both father and son why they have suffered so much for so many years, and why their relationship is so problematic. The scene goes on, and Happy is just as much an 'enabler' of his father's delusional view of the world even after the climatic confrontation of Biff and Willy.
Willy falls back and forth from past to present, from memories of life in the office to the actual moment in time…...

Death of a Salesman
Expressionism is an artistic movement created in the early 20th century which sought to express human emotion through artistic media. hile it may have began with painting, it quickly spread to other forms of artistic expression including poetry and literature. In the form of literature, expressionist plays were a very popular form of expressing the struggle of the protagonist against difficulties of life and cultural expectations. These plays often dramatized the emotional, or psychological, sufferings and eventual enlightenment of the main character. Expressionist dramaturgy also makes use of rapid scene changes, tremendous stage and lighting action, as well as a non-regular storyline which jumps around and often confuses the audience. However, all these elements are brought together in order to allow the audience to "ride an emotional rollercoaster" while viewing the play. One time-honored example of this type of literature is Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.…...

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Works Cited

Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Clifford Weales. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin,

1996. Print.

Olyaie, Donesh. "Traveling Salesman" Charles S. Dutton in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller." Yale Repertory Theatre. Web. 26 Aug. 2011.

 http://www.yalerep.org/about_rep/willpower/Salesman_Study_Guide.pdf

Death of a Salesman: Ethics in Business
Arthur Miller's play titled Death of a Salesman is classic example of the transition experienced by those involved in the business world during the middle part of the 20th Century. Business ethics and the economy are interwoven and tied to the theme of achieving the American dream in the play. Willy, the main character in the play is caught in between two popular but very different types of approaches to business ethics, one is known as character ethics and the other is known as personality ethics. William Covey the Author The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People explains that the twenty first century saw a social change in American culture which valued the individual. This social changed encouraged individuals to try to achieve their goals through the use of "human and public relation techniques and positive mental attitude" (Covey 19), this type of approach…...

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References

Covey, S.R. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people: restoring the character ethic. New York, NY: Free Press.

Murphy, B. (2010). Death of a salesman, by Arthur Miller. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.

Thompson, T.W. (2005). Miller's Death of A salesman. Explicator, 63(4), 244-247.

In conclusion, Death of a Salesman tells the tragic tale of illy Loman's life. e do feel pity for this man as we watch him fail and we do understand that he makes tragic mistakes throughout his life that have brought him to this point. Many critics want to make allowances for the play because it represents the world in which we live. In doing so, they seem to forget that we are surrounded by people of great stature every day. hile we do not operate in a world of nobility, we still have persons of great respect that speak for our groups and cultures. The modern argument wants to redefine Aristotle's definition but by doing so, it assumes that we are all only capable of the common life that illy experienced. hile illy is an excellent representation of the common man, he is not every man. His life was…...

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Works Cited

Aristotle. "The Poetics." Understanding Plays. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1990.

Foster, Richard. "Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller's 'Salesman.'" Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a Salesman and a Streetcar Named Desire. Hurrell John, ed. 1961. GALE Resource Database. Information Retrieved February 25, 2009.  http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com 

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. An Introduction to Literature. Sylvan Barnet, ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1985. pp. 1030-1114.

Jean-Claude Van Itallie, "Death of a Salesman: A Playwrights' Forum." Michigan Quarterly Review. 1998. GALE Resource Database. Information Retrieved February 25, 2009.

He cannot provide for his family financially, and emotionally he feels bankrupt. That is why the brief, transient sense that Biff likes him provides him with so much joy -- it is the proof, however small, that he has succeeded at something in life. However, even his language of 'liking' echoes the language he uses when speaking of being 'liked' at the office, and almost immediately after speaking to Biff, illy is dreaming once again of diamond mines, and easy money. illy is incapable, unlike his son, of truly deep self-awareness.
illy, Biff, and Happy seem ignorant of the American dream's demand that people work hard to move ahead. illy and Linda blame Biff's math teacher, not Biff, for their son's failure in school, while brainy, hard-working Bernard grows up to argue a case before the Supreme Court (Miller 111). Biff and Happy never concoct honest schemes to earn money,…...

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Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996.

That tragedies reflect life is one of Aristotle's requirements and this requires that dramas drift from the tales of great kings and princes. Arthur Miller writes, "Insistence upon the rank of the tragic hero, or the so-called nobility of his character, is really but a clinging to the outward form of tragedy" (Miller qtd. In ilson 132) and "I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (Miller qtd. In ilson 132). "The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity... Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly" (Miller qtd. In ilson 132). ilson supports this perspective by pointing out that we have…...

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Works Cited

Aristotle. "The Poetics." Understanding Plays. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1990

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. An Introduction to Literature. Sylvan Barnet, ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1985. pp. 1030-1114.

Theater: The Lively Art. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill. 1991.

Barranger, Milly. Understanding Plays. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1990.

Common Man as Tragic Hero: Challenging Traditional Notions of Heroism

Traditionally, heroes in literature have been depicted as extraordinary individuals, embodying exceptional qualities of strength, courage, and virtue. However, in contemporary literature, there has been a shift towards portraying the common man as a tragic hero, challenging the traditional notions of heroism. By giving voice to the struggles, vulnerabilities, and resilience of ordinary people, these titles subvert the established heroism archetype, offering a complex and nuanced exploration of human nature.

1. Subverting the Idealized Hero:

Titles such as "Death of a Salesman" (Arthur Miller) and "The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger) present....