Death Of A Salesman Revision

Question 1

What is the ‘American Dream’ ?

Answer 1

A national ethos of the US rooted in the Declaration of Independence
-ideal that the government should protect each persons opportunity to pursue their own idea of happiness

Question 2

How is the ‘American Dream’ achieved?

Answer 2

Through sacrifice, risk taking, hard work and NOT by chance.

Question 3

What does the ‘American Dream’ enable if achieved?

Answer 3

Opportunity for prosperity and success, an upward social mobility for families and their children, regardless of social class and previous circumstances

Question 4

What did the American Dream turn into from the 1940s onwards?

Answer 4

Went Ron being a simple national ethos to moving into the materialistic realm, spreading ideas of consumerism and suburban living

Question 5

What did Arthur Miller write?

Answer 5

He was a writer of social plays with a strong emphasis on moral problems in American society and often questioned psychological causes of behaviour

Question 6

What is usually contained in his work?

Answer 6

• a penetrating insight into familial relationships > must be immersed in social context to stress realism
• consciousness of characters in play as he confronts a level of banality with the roller coaster of guilt and responsibility
• deals with eternal themes of life, death and human purpose> protagonists struggle with the mark they leave on life

Question 7

When was the play written? What type of play is it?

Answer 7

In 1948

-inherently capitalist play with examination of American life and consumerism

Question 8

Social & cultural contexts of the play?

Answer 8

• American people unable to attain financial/emotional stability
• 1929 crash of stock market> US plummeted into Great Depression & economic downturn > left a bruised national psyche
• Technological advances & industrialisation after WW2> embracing a new American consumerism

Question 9

What does Miller aim to do in the play?

Answer 9

He excavates various layers of Willy’s life and is aware of hollowness of dreams & extend to which illusions protect guilt and regret
•Play is illustrative of Miller’s family and American people reflected in Willy

Question 10

What does Willy do to the American dream?

Answer 10

Makes it something merely philosophical rather than concrete and sails to define the dream within reality of living

Question 11

Staging features of the play?

Answer 11

• Nebentext = enhances our understanding of the text further than the ocular play> deeper insight into meaning
• Thin walls & entrapment of house is a physical manifestation of Willy’s mental fragility and entrapment in his mind
• Lack Of permanency and togetherness as walls don’t hold family together
• parenthetic stage directions> Linda’s blind and utter devotion to her husband

Question 12

How is ‘time’ incorporated into the play?

Answer 12

• Willy never experiences future but only recognised the future he believes is latent in his paradise
• Slowly seems to actualise his own destruction ironically
• Ironically incorporates the concept of progress, time’s movement into changeless paradise
• Frequent flash backs to past show he is trapped between the past and present > motif of entrapment both physically and psychologically

Question 13

“Because personality always wins the day”

“Appearance is a key concept”

What do these quotes show?

Answer 13

His dreams rests upon the cult of personality
-personal attractiveness and charm is only ingredient needed to attain wealth and success

Narcissistic?

Question 14

How does Miller’s choice of names act as a method of foreboding from the start?

Answer 14

The literal connotations of ‘Loman’ suggest ‘low man’ > opposite of a ‘high man’ > ironic
-family destined for tragedy and failure from the beginning as lives revolve around disparity and entrapment

Question 15

What does the line ‘A man is not a piece of fruit.’ suggest?

Answer 15

• Metaphor at the heart of Miller’s thesis; under capitalism people are used up and discarded without consideration of their humanity> powerful force
• Willy is the ‘peel’ that is discarded in the analogy> inability to define the American Dream in his reality of living
• Represents the time and hard work Willy has invested in the firm > almost contradictory of previous Capitalist ideas as he believes his hard work should be rewarded
• Reinforces societal values and gender hierarchies during the 50s and possible misogyny towards women due to binary opposition created

Question 16

Why are the Lomans hard to like and harder to pity?

Answer 16

• They are a normal working class family with a huge lack of communication> causes disintegration of family structure> Willy’s indoctrination of his views set his sons up for failure
• Willy’s demise is caused by his distorted view of the American Dream and the return of Biff as his inflated ego refuses to accept Biffs lack of success
• Distorted gender relationships are a primary cause of destruction > neurotic, imbalanced and deviated behaviour

Question 17

Why may the audience pity Willy Loman and his family?

Answer 17

Willy may be seen as a ‘tragic hero’ as he progresses from a loving and dedicated father into a suicidal, delusional man due to his hamartia = dishonesty and his misconception of American Dream
•Willy, a vulnerable man with metal fragility, was a powerless victim of the overpowering forces of an American Capitalist society and the idea of a ‘perfect life’ > unavoidable and destined failure

Question 18

How is the play unlike traditional tragedies?

Answer 18

The play tells of the demise of an everyday domestic figure who could represent any man - or low man.
-Willy does not fall from a position of ‘greatness’ like Othello

Question 19

How does Miller use the play?

Answer 19

As an indictment of the American Capitalist system; in it he exposes the potentially harmful & destructive ideology of the AD

Question 20

How is Willy presented as a ‘tragic hero’ ?

Answer 20

• Miller believed that ‘the common man is as apt as subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.’ > reflects Willy Loman
• Loman is an every day figure, allows a sense of empathy as we relate to his suffering and decline
• has the myopia & blindness of tragic heroes
• for all his shortcomings, ‘he was great of heart ‘ & Miller’s dramatisation of his suffering arouses sadness in audience as his passing makes the world seem a worser place

Question 21

How is Biff presented as a ‘tragic hero’ ?

Answer 21

• He is similarly troubled, haunted by failure, both his own and Father’s
• Is a disappointment to himself and father as he is unsuccessful in capitalist world as he wants to be free of pressures of commercial world
• Biff is deluded > but has a greater understanding of who he is > his fate is inextricably linked to his fathers and he is broken
• “He has the wrong dreams. All, all wrong” could apply to himself

Question 22

Why may the audience feel sorry for Willy?

Answer 22

His confusions about his own father, one whom he reveres as an inventor and musician but one who because of his desertion has left Willy bereft, feeling ‘kind of temporary’ about himself
-Exposure to such tragedy during childhood meant his infidelity and family’s desertion were inevitable? > ‘Monkey see monkey do’

Question 23

Quote suggesting entrapment?

Answer 23

‘Towering angular shapes surround the house’

• the world behind looms and engulfs the house just as capitalist America overwhelms and consumes Willy
• Metaphor for his mental fragility

Question 24

Why is the ‘Requiem’ an important structural feature that is significant in terms of the dramatic tragedy?

Answer 24

•Tragic element of pathos exploited by Miller
•Linda crying at graveside “We’re free… we’re free’ > Willy’s status as tragic victim is most keenly felt
-The world has betrayed Willy, encouraging him to believe in dreams and betterment but refusing ultimately to reward him
•Takes to his death the delusory idea that money = worth and sacrifices himself for financial purposes