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“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller Analysis

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Introduction

Death of salesman talks about the loss of distinctiveness and the inability of man to accept alteration between himself and the society that he lives in. it is a medley of flashbacks, imaginations, conflicts, and effects, all of which make up the final day of Willy Loman’s life. It also revolves around events that Willy Loman is involved with his present and his past which makes him worry about his future. The play is made up of three main themes. These themes are rejection, inconsistency, and instruction versus disorder. In the play, every member of Loman family is leading a life that is characterized by renunciation and perpetuation of a cycle of renunciation for others. Willy Loman denies the facts that he has the traits of a great salesman. He strives for his elegance of the American dream which is bound by accomplishment and bad status, even when he is obliged to renounce the reality in order to achieve it.

Willy chooses to reconsider his past events which he is known to have proficiency in them, instead of sticking to his acknowledgement that his success is not well-known. Willy’s deepest memory is bound by several other memories of his past life. One of these memories is that of Biff’s last football match. When he was assured of a succession by Biff, he becomes eager to make it known to his buyers. It happens that in the final parts of the play, Biff mainly admits that he has once been once affected by what Willy was undergoing. Linda is the only character that has observed and realized that Loman family lives with too much inconsistency. She goes along with Willy’s fantasies in order to spare the fragile state of his mind. Another theme is inconsistency. During the course of the piece, there are instances where Willy’s behavior is characterized by contradictions. The only consistency about Willy is his contradictions. This theme is spread all over, from the start of the first scene, which reveals Willy’s tendency, as Biff is referred to as a “lazy bum”, and then contradicts himself later by stating that the same person is hardworking and responsible. The fact throughout the play remains that Biff is not a lazy fellow, but the sentiments made by Willy at the beginning of the play tend to confuse the audience, who are dragged to become a symbol of his character. Through his behavior of uncertainness, Willy has been unable to appreciate the reality and his intentions to influence the past in an attempt to assume the present events (Smith and David 60). An example of these events is that Willy cannot appreciate the fact that Biff does not accord him any further regards because of the affairs of Willy. Instead of accounting for their relationship as one that is irreconcilable, Willy reforms back to particular times when Biff used to respect him.

As the play goes on, Willy disassociates himself more than any other time from the present as his problems become too many to respond to, calling for extra attention that could be unnecessary. The final theme that is among the major themes in the play is instructions versus disorder. This theme is directly linked to Willy’s flashback. Every moment when Willy reconnects with what he had done in the past, he disagrees with what he is undergoing currently. At the course of the play, it is clear that Willy spends most of his moments reflecting the past as a means of restoring his life to be orderly as before (Smith and David 60). The more disintegrated and disastrous reality tends to be, Willy still finds reason for the necessity to create an alternative reality even if he may be required to dwell alone in the past. This fact is illustrated well during the moment when Willy was fired. As the play continues, Ben appears and Willy submits that there is nothing that he tried and worked out in his favor, and therefore he did not know what to do. To confuse the conversation, Ben switches to talk about Alaska and proposes to offer Willy a job. Immediately during this context, Linda appears and convinces Willy to stick to sales the way Dave Singleman does. The encouragement by Linda gave him hopes to believe that he can be successful like Singleman. It has built in him a memory that distracting him from the reality that he has been fired from his job.

Conclusion

The three themes discussed in this essay work hand-in-hand to create an environment in which the audience are involved in the noticing the identity of the man wasting away. The play continues to cause effects to the audience as it allows them to put themselves in the shoes of the characters. Willy’s character affects many audience because in one way or another, many must have undergone several emotional moments like self-depreciation, failure and regret. Annotated bibliographyJia, X. U. ‘A Tense Conversion Approach to Western Narrative Drama from the Perspective of Tempo-spatial Reference Framework——A Case Study of The Death of Salesman.’ Journal of Guangdong University of Education 4 (2017): 009. This source is unique because of its illustration of the basic cognitive categories in human being. This source takes the play as a case study of the flavour of native drama. It also relates the play with real life situations, by drawing illustrations from the characters of the play. The source is relevant to my research essay because it generates cognitive mechanism towards high frequent tense conversion. This conversion is based on the various spaces that include, embodied language space and disembodied language space. There is also the use of combined language space.Smith, David. ‘Death of a Salesman.’ The Arthur Miller Journal 12.1 (2017): 60.

The source is unique because it describes how the international community of readers perceives it. The source illustrates the character traits of the characters. It also touches on the main themes of the play. The source is relevant to my research essay because it gives a clear explanation of the major themes of the play. It links the themes directly to the main characters in the play. It also touches on the possible effects of the audience on the use of different styles and character traits. Thompson, Terry W. ‘The Baggage Handlers: Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN.’ The Explicator 75.1 (2017): 52-54. The uniqueness of this source is the broad description of the characters in the book. . The source is relevant to my research essay because it generates cognitive mechanism towards high frequent tense conversion. This conversion is based on the various spaces that include, embodied language space and disembodied language space.

There is also the use of combined language space.Shahri, Fatemeh Pakdaman. ‘A Sociological Study on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and All My Sons, Based on Georgy Lukacs’s Theories.’ Review of European Studies 9.4 (2017): 83. This source is unique because of its design of the basic characteristics of a human being. This source takes the play to mirror the life in the society. It also relates the play with real life situations, by drawing illustrations from the characters of the play. The source is relevant to my research essay because it generates cognitive mechanism towards high frequent tense conversion. This conversion is based on the various spaces that include, embodied language space and disembodied language space. There is also the use of combined language space. Megawati, Sri. ‘The Desperation of Father in Great Depression Era as Seen in Arthur Miller’s the Death of Salesman.’ Macromac-Ind 1.1 (2018): 117-124.

The source is unique because its ability to show a detailed description of the perception by the audience. The source illustrates the character traits of the characters of the play and how their positions affect the audience. It also touches on the main themes of the play. The source is relevant to my research essay because it gives a clear explanation of the major themes of the play. It links the themes directly to the main characters in the play. It also touches on the possible effects of the audience on the use of different styles and character traits.

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“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller Analysis. (2022, Apr 18). Retrieved from https://artscolumbia.org/death-of-a-salesman-by-arthur-miller-analysis-176130/

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