How Does Death Of A Salesman Impact On Human Behavior

On November 11th, 2005, Steven Avery was wrongfully accused and arrested for First-Degree Murder. He was accused of murdering Teresa Halbach, a 25 year old photographer. She was going to take pictures of Avery's car on October 31st, 2005 in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. This was the last time she was seen.

     In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, Miller reflects the theme that every man needs to be honest with him self and act in accordance with his nature by displaying success and failure in different lights. Miller embodies the theme through characters in the play by explaining how their success and failures in being true to themselves help shapes their fates. Strongest evidence of Miller’s theme is reflected in the characteristics of Biff Loman, Benard, and Willy Loman. Through out the play, these three characters never give way to other’s influence and what other’s view of being successful is.

A greek tragedy is a story that involves a character with a tragic flaw that eventually causes and leads to their downfall. A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is one who comes from a high background, with a high status and noble, valuable characteristics. The hero will eventually fall due to their tragic flaw, and will come to a tragic realization of the error of their ways during this process. Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller is indeed an American Tragedy, but the question is, is Willy Loman a tragic hero?

After reading this chapter I put my culture into perceptive and what I have experienced that can relate to cultural and historical trauma.

Over time the American Dream has been changed fundamentally with the introduction of new ideology and values. Death of a Salesman illustrates how Willy Loman has been shaped by society. It conveys the impact of this ideology on his children, raising them to believe in quantifiable values being benchmarks of success. Throughout the play his mental health takes a downward spiral as he encounters various failures in his life and his sons’. This can be attributed to the conflict between the shifting values of the time. The values of hard work and individualism are no longer important. Miller utilizes Willy Loman’s inability to succeed and address his own failures to convey the corruption of the American Dream with values such as capitalism, personal attractiveness, and entitlement to success.

How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).

The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.

Arthur Miller and David Mamet both rely on many of the same topic elements. They both explore capitalism’s effect on communication. From this similarity, we see that Miller’s "Death of a Salesman" and Mamet’s "Glengarry Glen Ross" argue the same message: capitalism can destroy our ability to function naturally as humans. Instead, we become part of a system in which we must learn to operate under.

From sudden death, to catching a loved one in an affair, what effect does tragedy hold on a person? Hamlet from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Biff Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman both experience life changing tragedy. Hamlet’s father died and his mother remarried to his uncle Claudius within two month of his father’s death. Hamlet is also compelled to avenge his father’s death and against his will he must kill King Claudius. In Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman struggles with the knowledge of his father’s affair, and his lack of success in life. On top of that he finds out that his father is in a state of mental decay. With the effect of tragedy how do Hamlet and Biff measure up through influence, relationships, and emotions?

In Theatre Mitu’s “hyper-theatrical” production of “Death of A Salesman” by Arthur Miller many aspects were added to heighten the messages and morals of the story about the American Dream. One major choice was the use of objects to signify characters as well as add to characters. Willy carried a empty, open briefcase. Linda carried a sun parasol. Biff carried football gear. All the other characters are objects themselves. Happ is a punching bag. Charley is a refrigerator door, and Bernard is a bug repellent light. The Women is a fan. Ben is a big light, and the waiter is a champagne bucket. Almost all of the characters excluding Biff, Willy, and Linda are recording voices which creates a degree of separation from the outside world. Happ is somewhere in between by being an actor with a microphone.

In the play “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, the primary theme can be seen as a conflict between man and society. In which the ambition to achieve the “American Dream” controls the life of Willy Loman and the influences he has. When success is not reached, sends Willy’s mind on a mental ride.

The play Death of a Salesman greatly portrays a specific ideology in regards to values, dreams, goals, and success in our consumer-driven society. It helps showcase the American dream that society tends to strive for even in the early 1900’s (the play is set in the 1940’s). That dream of being a successful business person or vendor. As well as the theory that image and physical attributes are most important to gaining fruition. Willy Loman plays a man in his sixties who has strived for this American dream for over 30 years but realistically has failed miserably on his goal in life – a wealthy salesman like his idol Dave Singleman (a fellow who could make a fortune selling without even leaving his hotel room). He spends his entire life in

In the book, Religion both guides a society and destroy from both Christianity and the religions of the clans.When the missionary arrived in Africa they brought more than just religion also bringing a new government that forcefully took power and got rid of the of the old culture.Missionary converted many natives to Christianity slowly taking over the clans and destroying the culture for future generation of the clan.An example is when Okwankwo’s son Nwoye chooses to convert Christianity instead of become a farmer or a warrior like his father wanted.Christianity converts many of the natives from Umuofia and neighboring clans creating a new society and bringing a new government, but also destroying the old societies of the native by convering

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

In respect to the main themes, the major theme of the play is sociological. Miller wants to show the contradiction between American democracy which approves the infinite success and happiness of the individual, and the law as well as social conventions which frustrate him. He dramatizes the individual torn between the expected and the actual ( Choudhuri 94-106).