Arthur Miller Literature Reviews Samples For Students

Family, Identity and the “American Dream” in Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's 1949 play, Death of a Salesman tackles the issues of identity, family dynamics and the pursuit of the “American Dream” using the Loman family as a model to illustrate these concepts. The play starts with Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, returning from a botched business trip. Willy expresses disgust towards his oldest son, Biff, who has failed to do anything substantial with his life. Biff and his younger brother Happy take their father out to dinner where Biff has a flashback to the time he visited his father in Boston and discovered Willy was having an affair with a receptionist. He confronts his ...

Tragedy is among the common productions of drama. This means that some dramas take the form of tragedy, which basically means that they portray the downfall of a protagonist. Tragedy occurs as a result of some error in judgment or any other fatal error, leading to major suffering, but also important insights gained by the leading character. The main purpose of such tragedy is to elicit some emotions, fear or sympathy, in the audience. “Oedipus the King” and “Death of a Salesman” are among the most intriguing tragedies that have been produced. This paper is an analysis and comparison of the two ...

This essay aims at comparing and contrasting the theme of fantasy and wishful thinking as presented in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) and also in Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie (1945). Both playwrights have intensively used characters who resort into habits of escapism into fantasy and wishful thinking to free themselves from their miserable existence. The main sources of their predicaments are their consistent failures in achieving their dreams, little interaction and communication with family members coupled with personal insecurities. Due to these facts, they all have a common problem which is frustration and boredom. They resort ...

Question Selected: Gerald Weales, an expert in Arthur Miller’s work, writes this: “ [Willy] takes to the stage (takes flesh) as a man who just cannot keep his mouth shut and who never understands when he is condemning and when he is defending himself.” Explain your understanding of these words; then agree or disagree with Weales.

In the play Death of a Salesman that premiered in the year 1949, produced by Arthur Miller; it has been found that the Willy is always all over the place condemning and defending himself aimlessly. Gerald Weales, who is an expert in Arthur Miller’s ...

The American Dream lured wave after wave of immigration, primarily from Europe, in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. This dream taught that if you came to America and worked hard enough, you would succeed. There was enough room, enough of a market, enough hope, and enough freedom for everyone who came to the United States to do well. This dream enticed so many people to come to the country from overseas that the government decided to put quotas in place to limit the number of immigrants from each country in the years before World ...

Willy Loman and Amanda Wingfield are the main characters in to great American tragedies that both suffer from a tragic flaw. A tragic flaw is a misperception or a lack of insight due to one’s strengths. Both Willy and Amanda cannot see their worlds fully and understand those around them because of their own pride which blinds them. Amanda’s pride keeps her rooted in a past that she can never recreate for her daughter and results in her inability to see her children for who they really are. Willy’s pride in his work prevents him from truly seeing his sons ...

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Death of a Salesman
First response:I respectfully disagree with your view that Willy Loman should be considered a protagonist in the play “Death of a Salesman” just because he and his son Biff affect each other’s character. Aristotle made numerous remarks about the definitions of drama, and laid down specific parameters about what an ‘ideal’ protagonist should be in his work “Poetics”. However, underneath the fault of his character lie his greatness, ambitions, and dreams. His inability to fulfill those dreams, as well as his tragic flaw, and most especially his desire to manifest those dreams around him were the ...

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One of the most prolific plays of the 1950’s was The Crucible. Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials is a book that not only transcends time but also speaks to a wide audience. In the play the protagonist John Proctor is portrayed as a tragic hero, he makes mistakes in his comfortable life but by the end of it realizes his mistakes and dies on his path to self worth. He is his own worst enemy and is torn apart by his own guilt from the acts of lechery and adultery that ...