Death of a Salesman Flashcards
Miller - social relations
“society is inside man and man is inside society”
Equates theatre with church - “the doorway through which all answers wait”
Miller - function of drama
Single feature of plays is “frustration…once the individual gains a consciousness of his own identity”
“the stage is the place for…intense discussions of man’s fate”
‘Common man’ emphasis
Miller - nature of man
Needs “food, sex and an image. The rest is commentary on these”
Miller - nature of tragedy
Underlying struggle is ‘man trying to find his ‘rightful’ place in society’
‘the flaw…[is] an unwillingness to remain passive’
‘the thrust for freedom’ as cause of exhilaration of tragedy
‘must strive always to posit a world in which good’ may have triumphed
Miller - poetry
‘A play can be poetic without verse’
Miller - Death of a Salesman
Succeeds as a tragedy as it extends beyond Willy Loman and his family
Christopher Bigsley
Willy is ‘staging his life in an attempt to understand its plot and looking for the applause and success he believes to be his due’
Miller - drama inside/outside
Compared drama to a ‘CAT scan’ showing both inner and outer workings
Miller - what causes tragedy
self-evaluation
