Critics Flashcards
Arther Miller
tragedy of common men
Tragedy and the common man (1949)
“the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were…”
Arther Miller
Definition of tragedy
Tragedy and the common man (1949)
“the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity.”
Guerin more like Girls in
Guerin Bilquez
Linda
Linda is both the protector and the enabler in the Loman family’s endless cycle of hope and despair, unable to fully grasp the destructive nature of Willy’s illusions.
being hit in the nards knock your confidence
Leonard Moss
Willy chooses death, not as an escape from shame but as a last attempt to re-establish his own self confidence and his family’s integrity.’
L for loser, who relys on their sons
Jessica L Tracy
‘Willy’s self esteem is highly dependent on feedback from his sons’
welland more like well youre a child
Dennis Welland
Willy’s repression of the past is a barrier to maturity and ego development.’
Christopher Brigsby
If personal meaning lies in success, then failure must threaten identity itself.’
Susanna Clapp
Willy is a man ‘garrotted by the American Dream’
and
The play treats Linda as collateral damage to her husband’s tragedy.’
Robert Martin
‘Sacrificing himself to provide Biff with a secure future provides Willy with a noble stature.’
Philip Rahv
“Death of a Salesman is an indictment of the competitive nature of American society.”
R.C. Wimmer
“Biff’s disillusionment is the play’s moral awakening.”
Harold Clurman
“Howard represents the new, impersonal corporate world that views Willy as expendable.”
Robert Garland
“Charley is the moral center of the play, representing practical wisdom in contrast to Willy’s delusions.”
countering Willy’s belief that success requires visibility and admiration.
Susan Abbotson
“Happy is more dangerous than Willy because he is morally vacuous and represents the next generation’s embrace of shallow values.”
since Happy lacks the same moral struggle or desire for a meaningful life.
Terry Otten
“The play fails as a social critique, as Miller creates in Willy a character who is complicit in his own ruin, thus undermining any true critique of society.”
