theater art class

Abdulla Alsuwaidi

TA 160

Play Death of a Salesman

The death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller has become a second chosen play to review. According to the tradition of the playwright in a classical way, Arthur Miller focuses on the relationship between society and the individual, in the play Death of a Salesman. Actually, Miller is the highly talented author of numerous plays. Due to his writing efforts, a majority of people are able to enjoy the great novel. In particular, investigations of the author range from the industrialist Keller’s portrait. As a consequence, Miller’s novels are a kind of masterpiece. IN addition, most of them are played in the theater or on the screen. Miller, a viewer of capitalistic society, clearly emphasizes different materialistic values. Certainly, he is obsessed with different impressions of important things and also well-liked by the other people.

In 1949, the play was held impressively on the Broadway for the first time. The play mixed a realistic style with different expressionistic techniques. In addition, the Death of a Salesman really distorts the exact time and space. By contrast, the novel in the movie version involves several adaptations. Firstly, the novel was filmed in 1951, thanks to László Benedek. Later versions were the same interesting and engaging. It is highly important to mention the well-known actors who made a furor of the movie on the screen. Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich have become the most impressive characters playing the roles in the film Death of a Salesman. Moreover, they have made the version of the film really outstanding.

The core idea of the novel, represented in a play or the film version, reflect the reality of the real man. By the way, Miller wanted to provide a deep analysis of the differences between the reality and dreams. Therefore, he clearly underlined the sharpest differences between both conditions. In seems obvious that the positive and successful illusion may ruin all of the hopes regarding the light present and also future. That means, that it is impossible to succeed in the real world, being stuck with illusion. For instance, the father, presented in the novel as Willy Loman, was unable to fulfill personal dreams because of the illusion of the American Dream. In particular, illusions are very powerful in the life of the person. The novel illustrates that father’s illusion affected his children and also family, as well. Viewing the novel Death of a Salesman, the reader may observe the lack of motivation to move on toward personal goals and succeed in the future from the father’s side to his children.

By contrast, this character was trying to move them toward cheating and stealing. The novel Death of a Salesman displays the clear disharmony between the concept of self and society. In fact, the novel compares the goal-oriented society with the illusion of the American father without clear plans. As a result, the individual with illusion but without real goals cannot be the main in the family. The main character of the novel, Willy Loman is the exact embodiment of such type of person. Possibly, an unhappy childhood of this character might cause his inability to become a proper father. In particular, Willy’s behavior seemed like anti-social, as he lived with his unrealized wishes, becoming more aggressive. The passive-aggressive behavior of the main character indicates the health problems. Generally, similar symptoms are related to the psychotic disorder. Moreover, Willy Loman maybe even a victim of schizophrenia, according to the actions and continual illusions in his life.

On the other hand, the son of the main character, named Biff, thought that his father teaches the best. Therefore, he continually tries to follow him, to learn all of the possible things from him, despite the illegality of father’s teachings. In this case, the failure of the main character was a logical consequence. The continual self-construction of the father even could not save him from such outcome, impacting the children, as well. Willy Loman did not see his father in the childhood. This fact may become quite disappointing in adult life of the Loman. However, Willy, being uncertain with his hopes and goals, provoked the same understanding and life realization to his child, a son Biff. In the progress, Biff has become quite a meaningfulness of his personal life. Following this point, the son finally realized that he has been a shipping clerk to his father for a long time. Moreover, he admitted his blindness to the ridiculous lie of the father, that took more than fifteen years of real life.

The play Death of a Salesman views the broad aspect of both American dream’s success and failure. Furthermore, it illustrated the comparison between the empty expectations and also reality. In particular, this play is an impressive representation of all complicated and truly hard moments that make it impossible to reach the goal for the average American. Moreover, the author highlights that American Dream does not always come true. The novel illustrates the existence of different exceptions and also rules in the American society. By the way, the author underscores, that such dream may also become a kind of additional motivation and aspiration for future self-development and personal victories. Nevertheless, the future success excludes wrong dreams, leading to the literal absurd. The use of the present and past ability to intermingle gives the opportunity to observe the distress as well as the confusion of the mind of Willy.

In the ending of the Death of a Salesman, the author illustrates Biff’s change of mind concerning the dream of his father. That was a clear fail of Willy’s perceptions regarding the successful future, so that the sun, finally, was able to regret that all of those dreams were really wrong. Moreover, the failure of all dreams was underlined several times. All things considered, the name of the novel, Death of a Salesman, may be compared with the exact sample of the dream. In addition, Willy Loman along with all of his family members had an illusion of the future success based on numerous unrealized dreams and also a big aspiration for their fulfillment. As a result, it is quite remarkable to say that some people use to create their own hells and live there, from time to time. The problem is the lack of desire and efforts to change the situation to the better one. The same situation happened to Willy Loman, who was not able to change something in his life but wanted to end the life up. Finally, the main character of the novel is a demonstration of the person, whom the reader should not follow and appreciate.