Language, Style, Sign and Symbols

Question 1

Much of Willy’s appeal derives from his concise expression of the inconveniences of modern life. What quote is an example?

Answer 1

“The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood.”

Question 2

Arthur Miller stated that his play “stood squarely in conventional realism” but added to it, and one aspect of realism is elements of the play become symbolic. In this play for example stockings acquire a double meaning of?

Answer 2

self indulgence and and household drudgery

Question 3

What are such symbols as the Stockings so significant?

Answer 3

as they express the extreme ways of illustrating the state of Willy’s mind in keeping with the Expressionism which influenced him

Question 4

The flute is reminiciet of Willys father and his relatively carefree existence, and the distant sound at one point, for example, prompts Willy to begin to reminisce about Biff’s childhood and the ?

Answer 4

red Chevy car which he used to have.

Question 5

What does Biff call his father?

Answer 5

a “prince”

Question 6

Biff calls his father a “prince” which evokes a possible comparison to which tragic figure?

Answer 6

Hamlet, prince of Denmark

Question 7

Who was Aristotle?

Answer 7

he is an ancient phosphor who wrote the first and in many ways the most significant, treatise on tragedy in his Poetics.

Question 8

What did Aristotle claim was the purpose of a tragedy?

Answer 8

to create pity and fear in the audience

Question 9

Why can it be argued that DOS conforms to the pattern of Aristotelian tragedy?

Answer 9

as in Act 1 Miller inspires horror as Willys sad state is made clear, and Act II engenders pity as he suffers even more for it

Question 10

Who did Aristotle believe could only be tragic figures?

Answer 10

only those of high birth

Question 11

To be a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense, Willy would have to be a man of obvious virtue who has a tragic flaw that led to his terrible fate. Where would this place blame?

Answer 11

firmly on Willy’s shoulders

Question 12

Which 19th century dramatist wrote what is generally accepted as a tragedy in Ghosts with the term applied to the middle classes?

Answer 12

Henrik Ibsen

Question 13

19th century dramatist Henrik Ibsen wrote what is generally accepted as a tragedy in _______ with the term applied to the middle classes?

Answer 13

Ghosts

Question 14

How did Henrik Ibsen in 19th century play Ghost help to extend the concept of tragedy to the ordinary man?

Answer 14

by producing a story of an ordering man who becomes involved in a fate that they do not serve and are not responsible for

Question 15

What has Miller said about the Aristotelian need for a figure of nobility in a tragedy?

Answer 15

that “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy as kings are”

Question 16

How did the New York Herald Tribune describe DOS upon release?

Answer 16

as a “soaring tragedy”

Question 17

DOS was undoubtedly appealing in its elevation of an ordinary American to a heroic stats. It thus enabled many of the New York audience to feel that their own lives had to some extent and in some way become dignified through Willy’s recognisable tragic fall. How does this suggest a tragedy?

Answer 17

as we do pity Willy as we align ourselves with him as a “common man”

Question 18

What is the argument that Willy is not a tragic hero?

Answer 18

Willy is a man who is in control of his own fate, though he may be punished by forces beyond his control, his error was committed by his own character. To make the construct distinguished the error must spring from a noble intention which is somehow thwarted; his intention of material success is not a noble cause.

Question 19

In Aristotlean tragedy, the drama ends with catharsis, the purging of our emotions, such as when the villain we come to hate is finally punished (such as when Iago’s villainous construct is revealed). However what does Linda say which suggests that Willy is enduring misfortune rather than ruining his own life?

Answer 19

“a terrible thing is happening to him”

Question 20

Critic Welland has noted that “tragedy implies values” and what have critics accused Willy of?

Answer 20

of having no great values

Question 21

Arguably Willy does not die because he realises he cannot succeed in a great and worthwhile plan, but because death is ithe way he will succeed on his terms. He acts freely and chooses wrong. What did he have according to Biff in the requiem?

Answer 21

“the wrong dreams”

Question 22

When Linda declares in a strangely rhythmic sentence ‘Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person” what is she making a plea for?

Answer 22

for his tragic quality in the play

Question 23

The tragedy of Willy Loman is that he gave his life, or sold it, in order to justify the waste of it. Who said this?

Answer 23

Arthur Miller

Question 24

The true tragedy is that Willy’s life lacked meaning despite a frantic desire to find it. What does Charley say in the requiem about Willy?

Answer 24

“Nobody dast blame this man”

Question 25

Willy, we must remember, is not intended to be a great man, and Arthur Miller denies that he set out to write a conventional tragedy. If we look for the usual characteristics of the genre of tragedy, we will not find them in this play. Miller has argued that there should not be a an all-embacing _______.

Answer 25

paradigm (a typical pattern)

Question 26

It could be argued that what makes Willy seem great at times is his refusal to rest content with what he is. Miller writes about ‘the intensity of the ______ _______ to surpass his given bounds’

Answer 26

human passion

Question 27

Willy does have a fanatical desire to transcend his ordinariness. This may be an emotion with which audiences can sympathise. What does it take to persist in such an ambition?

Answer 27

courage