Literary Analysis Death of a Salesman Essay - 1705 Words

After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive, (Miller, 98). This quote was spoken by the main character of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman. This tragedy takes place in Connecticut during the late 1940s. It is the story of a salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s struggles with the American Dream, betrayal, and abandonment. Willy Loman is a failing salesman recently demoted to commission and unable to pay his bills. He is married to a woman by the name of Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Throughout this play Willy is plagued incessantly with his and his son’s inability to succeed in life. Willy believes that any â€Å"well-liked† and â€Å"personally attractive†¦show more content†¦Willy is also fired from his long time job. He feels abandoned by his boss and snubbed after all his long years of hard work. Perhaps the most damaging abandonment in Willy’s life i s from that of his sons. All these factors combined attribute to Willy’s feelings that a he is worth more dead than alive. Consequently Willy makes many failed attempts at committing suicide. Ironically he does so many times by inhaling gas through a rubber tube. This is ironic being that gas is used to provide an essential element of comfort he struggles to provide his family. Willy is metaphorically and literally being killed by the gas particles. In the end Willy is successful in his last suicide attempt. He has reached bottom low and feels he is truly worth more to his family dead than alive. Throughout this play, Miller uses Willy’s failed goal of reaching the American Dream to show the effects of abandonment on the ability of Willy to decipher reality from fiction, the toll on his family, and his fragile emotional state. Throughout this play Miller portrays his main character, Willy Loman, as senile, unsuccessful and slightly insane. Willy’s deran ged personality is in part because his father abandoned him at a young age. Willy also feels abandoned by his cherished brother Ben. Ben went off to become a big success and rich. Willy sees this and it helps lead him to feel inadequate as a manShow MoreRelatedDeath of a Salesman Literary Analysis Essay991 Words   |  4 PagesTrent Beebe Beebe 1 Mr. Arena 4th hour AP Lang Comp 12/17/09 Death of a Salesman Essay The story, Death of a Salesman, is a story that has many literary devices that help to make it the deep and riveting story that has become an American classic. The use of symbols in the story adds to the overall effect and theme and also creates a different mood that the reader must infer from it. The symbols not only represent something in the story as literally a symbol, but ofRead MoreLiterary Analysis: Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Death of a Salesman† – A Tragedy?1416 Words   |  6 PagesWhat is man’s focus in life? What is man’s purpose in life? 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However, Biff soon learns of Willy’s extra-marital betrayalRead MoreFailure Of The American Dream In The Writings Of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, And August Wilson1418 Words   |  6 PagesThis literary study will define the failure of the †American Dream† in the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Zora Neale Hurston, and August Wilson. Fitzgerald’s account of the Jay Gatsby s rise to fame in the 1920s defines the failure of financial success as part of the American Dream. Gatsby will eventually die due to his excessive greed, which is not unlike the emotional deat h of Willy Loman as he fails to become a successful salesman in Author Miller’s Death of a Salesman. MoreRead MoreWilly Loman, the Modern Hero in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman1739 Words   |  7 Pagesrelatable; therefore, the audience would become attached to the character, allowing them to feel the hero’s pain or joy. Most importantly, they were able to learn from the characters misjudgments and take something of moral fiber away from the play. A literary term that is similar to morality is known as the tragic flaw. As defined in the book, Literature, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing, on page G30, tragic flaw is the fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings himRead MoreHamartia in Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman834 Words   |  3 PagesHamartia in Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman Hamartia is defined as a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero. Aristotle defines a tragic hero to be a man â€Å"who is not completely good and just, whose misfortune is brought out not by vice or immorality, but by some error or weakness.† The three key requirements of Aristotle in regards to a tragic hero are; a high social standing, goodness or moral excellence, or error committed by the hero in unawareness or ignorance. Two quality examplesRead MoreDeath of a Salesman Analysis Essay2107 Words   |  9 Pagesfamily; however, there has been much debate over whether or not the American dream is still obtainable in modern society. One piece of American literature that substantiates the fact that the American Dream can not be gotten is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman which describes the tragedy of the average person in America. A number of other writers also draw the inability to capture the American Dream. John Steinbeck demonstrates in his highly a cclaimed novel The Grapes of Wrath how hard economic timesRead MoreQuest For Literary Form : The Greeks Believed That The Tragedy1742 Words   |  7 PagesQuest for literary form The Greeks believed that the tragedy was the greatest form of drama, and Aristotle’s concept of tragedy followed this belief. In the modern times, there has been a change in this view with various authors abandoning the classical form to follow more liberal forms of literacy. (Kennedy Gioia, Pp. 1203) Aristotle s Concept of Tragedy The analysis of Aristotle on tragedy formed the guideline for later poets in the Western civilizationRead MoreDeath Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller1470 Words   |  6 Pagesto American soil to try at a chance of a better life, and in doing so, they too venture on a path to achieving this so commonly understood â€Å"American Dream.† Arthur Miller, a well-known literary writer in America, seems to disagree with this national phenomena, offering a different view in his play Death of a Salesman. In this play, he demonstrates through the life of an average American family, how this so called â€Å"dream† is much more complicated than the world is lead to believe. By using the LomanRead MoreImportance Of Modernism In Modern Theatre1042 Words   |  5 Pagesworking in this style were no longer imitators; they became the real creators and innovators. When discussing modernism, it is important to understand that this philosophical movement had different ref lections in different types of arts. For example, literary modernism declined in the 1930-s, while theatrical modernism was only gaining popularity. Consequently, theatrical modernism is a separate phenomenon in the world of arts with its unique features, history of development, and timeline. Because the