Death of a Salesman
This play was written by Arthur Miller in 1949. Miller was born in New York City in 1915. He never did well in high school, even though his father was a teacher. He was all for the sports, much like Biff in Death of a Salesman. He worked in an automot-ive parts company to pay his way through the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1938, majoring in journalism and completed his first play, All My Sons, in 1947. Miller finished Death of a Salesman in 1949 and earned Miller a Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year as well as a New York Drama Critics Circle Award which received 742 Broadway shows. The play is set in the olden-day New York City. Like many of Miller's tragedies, this book illustrates the outcome of the dreamers world.The main character is Willy Loman, a sixty-year-old traveling salesman, who has been having trouble because he can't seem to keep his mind on the present. He keeps drifting back and forth between reality and old memories, as if looking for where exactly his life went wrong. He recently was demoted to commissions salesman, as he was at first in his career. Willy begins to wonder what missed opportunity or wrong turn led his life to a dismal state of being. Willy always believed t
Willy and Biff are always at odds because Biff can't, nor truly attempted to lived up to Willy's great expectations for him. Biff was never shown the proper direction to fulfill these expectations. Willy encouraged him when he was in high school only to be well liked and popular. Biff learned he never had to work for anything or take orders from anyone. As a result, he cannot keep a job in the business world. Willy even encouraged his boys to steal: another reason Biff couldn't hold a job because he kept getting into trouble for stealing. Integrity was never really emphasized in the Loman house. Biff has come to realize that he's just an ordinary guy who was meant for a life outside the business world. He is happy only when he is honest with himself. This realization prompts an entire overhaul of the values taught to him by his father. Eventually Biff will expose the lies, or fantasies Willy has been telling him for years. Biff decides it's best if he leaves for good since he will never fulfill his father's dreams, nor can he convince Willy to confront reality. Linda, Willy's wife, shames Biff for not respecting his father after all the hard working years he spent bringing up his sons. Due to Biff's empty-heartedness, she reveals her secret about Willy. For some time Willy has been trying to commit suicide. She explains to him about the rubber piping which she found hidden in the basement. Now Biff can confront his father about his failures. He uses the rubber piping as evidence to prove his lies and fantasies wrong. The characters of the story each represent a tragedy. Willy is the miserable failure who convinces his family and friends, as wel
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Approximate Word count = 1118
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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