Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller Book Analysis

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room. "By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." —Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times "So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." —Time

Unlock the more straightforward side of Death of a Salesman with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, a tragic drama centred on the character of Willy Loman and his turbulent relationship with his eldest son, Biff. Over the course of the play, flashbacks or dream sequences are used to reveal the reasons why their bond has disintegrated to such a degree, focusing on Willy’s obsession with material success and Biff’s rejection of the narrative of the American Dream to illustrate the stark contrasts between their personalities and attitudes towards life. Arthur Miller is considered one of the most influential dramatists of the 20th century, and Death of a Salesman is one of his best-known plays. It remains popular today, and new productions of the play are frequently performed. Find out everything you need to know about Death of a Salesman in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

"I think this book is kind of malleable. I've never really wanted to put it away and be done with it forever -- the second I first 'finished' it, I wanted to dig back in and change everything around. So I'm looking forward to getting back into the text, and straightening and focusing and deleting. Most of all, I'm thrilled that Vintage will be letting me include all the cool chase scenes, previously censored." -- Dave Eggers The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his seven-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. PAPERBACK EDITION -- 15% MORE STAGGERING - Eggers has written 15,000 additional words for the Vintage Canada edition, including an entirely new appendix.

Every day, in some part of the world, an Arthur Miller play is performed.In the nearly 60 years since its first production, the Pulitzer Prizewinning Death of a Salesman has been become a classic, a staple of school anthologies of American literature and of acting companies' repertoires. It has received worldwide productions, whether as a study of parent-child relationships, as in its landmark 1976 production directed by Miller in Beijing, or as a critique of Western capitalism and has been filmed once for television and twice for movies.

This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer Payatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila’s Quezon City, is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of preteen boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf. In the rainy summer of 1997, two Jesuit priests take the matter of protecting their flock into their own hands. Father Gus Saenz is a respected forensic anthropologist, one of the few in the Philippines, and has been tapped by the Director of the National Bureau of Investigations as a backup for police efforts. Together with his protégé, Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, Saenz dedicates himself to tracking down the monster preying on these impoverished boys. Smaller and Smaller Circles, widely regarded as the first Filipino crime novel, is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and a fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees’ lives.

Arthur Miller was one of the most important American playwrights and political and cultural figures of the 20th century. Both Death of a Salesman and The Crucible stand out as his major works: the former is always in performance somewhere in the world and the latter is Miller's most produced play. As major modern American dramas, they are the subject of a huge amount of criticism which can be daunting for students approaching the plays for the first time. This Reader's Guide introduces the major critical debates surrounding the plays and discusses their unique production histories, initial theatre reviews and later adaptations. The main trends of critical inquiry and scholars who have purported them are examined, as are the views of Miller himself, a prolific self-critic.

ABOUT THE BOOK “A diamond is hard and rough to the touch.” - Ben Loman, Death of a Salesman Why is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman still relevant today? Perhaps this simple question begs the question “IS it still relevant?” To any who ask this, the simple answer is an admonition to read the play. Or see it staged. Or watch any of the myriad cinematic adaptations. (Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Willy Loman is arguably a gold standard performance. There are many fine renditions of the role, but the best is surely the one conjured in a careful reader’s mind.) Before we delve too deeply into the lasting meaning of this play and the still poignant struggles of its characters, let us discuss something held so directly before our faces that we may well look through it and never recognize its paramount importance: the play’s name. Arthur Miller titled his play -- his first real success -- not simply Death of a Salesman but added the sub-title Certain private conversations in two acts and a requiem. Indeed, death hangs heavy here. The title makes it clear and the word requiem makes it tangible. But let us look, briefly, at the title in surgical detail. Why not “The” Death of a Salesman? Or why not Death of THE salesman? These simple words, these direct object identifiers, would change Willy Loman from the everyman to the man. The genius of Arthur Miller is that Loman manages to be both an everyman and a “real” person -- a character we believe existed, with all his faults, his ticks, his occasional smiles, and his undeniable, unbearable descent. This is the story of one man and his family as his life circles the drain, the lives of all those who touch his -- an ever smaller circle of people -- following not far behind. It is a story of neurosis and denial, of failure and suffering and of a falsified, gilded past in which the broken characters try to find happiness and solace. Well, that sounds rather bleak. So why is this such a resonant, potent, and beloved play? Perhaps because it tells a story we all know, and tells it so well. Perhaps it is because as we watch the ever descending arc that is the lives of Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy Loman, we are made to whisper under our breath “Yes... and there but for the grace of god go I.” Or maybe it is simply because Arthur Miller was such a fine playwright that he could likely have made a three act about pipe fitting enthralling to all. We shall see as we head deeper into the meat of the play; farther down into the minds -- and psychoses -- of the players. But first, who wrought this jewel? “And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK The curtain opens on a small house, several of its walls “removed” so we can see inside it. The lights gradually change to reveal that the house, once quaint and on a lovely spread of land, is now falling apart and is surrounded by tall, drab apartment buildings. The home’s decline mimics that of the head of household, Willy Loman, a man in his 60s and very, very tired. Loman enters late at night, carrying his heavy valises -- the tools of the trade of a salesman in the 1940s -- and shuffling his tired feet. He is greeted by his wife Linda, a kind, patient but sad woman. The couple talk at length and Willy reveals that he could not complete his trip, intended to take him from their home in New York up to Boston, and has sold nothing that day. He could not complete the trip because his tired mind kept wandering into memories of the past and he found the car drifting about the road, following his meandering thoughts. Loman even thinks he was driving a car the family has not owned for years. He is a man whose best years are past; whose very mind is fading... ...buy the book to continue reading!