Language, style, sign and symbols Flashcards
Much of Willy’s appeal derives from his concise expression of the inconveniences of modern life. What quote is an example?
“The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood.”
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?
self indulgence and and household drudgery
What are such symbols as the Stockings so significant?
as they express the extreme ways of illustrating the state of Willy’s mind in keeping with the Expressionism which influenced him
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 ?
red Chevy car which he used to have.
What does Biff call his father?
a “prince”
Biff calls his father a “prince” which evokes a possible comparison to which tragic figure?
Hamlet, prince of Denmark
Who was Aristotle?
he is an ancient phosphor who wrote the first and in many ways the most significant, treatise on tragedy in his Poetics.
What did Aristotle claim was the purpose of a tragedy?
to create pity and fear in the audience
Why can it be argued that DOS conforms to the pattern of Aristotelian tragedy?
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
Who did Aristotle believe could only be tragic figures?
only those of high birth
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?
firmly on Willy’s shoulders
What has Miller said about the Aristotelian need for a figure of nobility in a tragedy?
that “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy as kings are”
How did the New York Herald Tribune describe DOS upon release?
as a “soaring tragedy”
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?
as we do pity Willy as we align ourselves with him as a “common man”
What is the argument that Willy is not a tragic hero?
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.
