Themes

Question 1

Death of a Salesman is the story of a man who comes to the conclusion that he can only save his life by losing it; in this sense the okay is concerned with what Aristotle called a ‘serious’ action.What does ‘serious’ action involve?

Answer 1

this involves life and death

Question 2

The early responses of the play tried to assimilate it into the tradition of tragedy. The play suggests that tragedy may befall the most ordinary life in contemporary society, and for this reason it raises issues about the way we all live and work and dream of happiness. As Arthur Miller has written, the play represents the need to “______________________________________________________”

Answer 2

face the fact of death in order to strengthen ourselves for life

Question 3

Why have early responses to the play tried to assimilate it to into the tradition of tragedy?

Answer 3

as the play suggests that tragedy may befall the most ordinary life in contemporary society, and for this reason it raises issues about the way we all live and work and dream of happiness

Question 4

Despite the setting in 1949, many of the features of American society which it depicts are still with us. Arthur Miller’s attack on the consumer society’s constant attempts to sell us goods which do not serve our needs is still as meaningful now as it was in 1949, if not more so. What are we encouraged to do in an economic system of capitalism which is familiar to today’s audience?

Answer 4

we are encouraged to accumulate capital as a symbol of success and a protection against disaster for our families

Question 5

From Europe to China, theatregoers have seen aspects of their own life enacted and voiced by who?

Answer 5

Willy Loman

(univseriality of the ordinary man’s problems, “always in a race with the junk yard”

Question 6

Willy finds out that in purely financial terms he is worth more dead than alive. This, of course, is not an uncommon situation for some of us today. On the face of it, to come to such a conclusion is a terrible _________ of the world in which we live/

Answer 6

Indictment

Question 7

Arthur Miller writes in the introductioon to his Collected Plays that Willy has broken the “law of success” by which a man who has failed in business……?

Answer 7

has no right to live.

Question 8

Who noted that “America was becoming suspiciously unreal”?

Answer 8

Timebends

Question 9

What was noted in Timebends about America?

Answer 9

that “America was becoming suspiciously unreal”

Question 10

How does Willy Loman present the ultimate challenge to an ‘unreal society’ which is based on capitalism?

Answer 10

since he concludes that 20,000 dollars is worth more than his life. Can a man really be valued at the amount of money which he is worth? If so, then capitalist societies such as America have reduced human beings to commodities and dehumanisation is inevitable

Question 11

Willy Loman present the ultimate challenge to an ‘unreal society’ which is based on capitalism since he concludes that 20,000 dollars is worth more than his life. Can a man really be valued at the amount of money which he is worth? If so, then capitalist societies such as America have reduced human beings to commodities and what is inevitable?

Answer 11

dehumanisation

Question 12

To accept Willys logic that sacrifice is the price of his self respect would be to accept a terrible truth and so audiences and readers feel the need to identify where Willy goes wrong in his tragic fall and decide how this defeatist logic can be refuted in our own lives. However, if the play is an indictment of our own way of life, then it has profound implications for all societies which now embrace the ethos of capitalism, and suggests an inevitable perpetuation of the tragedy of Arthur Miller’s “common man,” within us all.

Answer 12

To accept Willys logic that sacrifice is the price of his self respect would be to accept a terrible truth and so audiences and readers feel the need to identify where Willy goes wrong in his tragic fall and decide how this defeatist logic can be refuted in our own lives. However, if the play is an indictment of our own way of life, then it has profound implications for all societies which now embrace the ethos of capitalism, and suggests an inevitable perpetuation of the tragedy of Arthur Miller’s “common man,” within us all.

Question 13

Arthur Millers early flirtation with Marxism is often suspected to be an influence in his play; but has since explicitly rejected the idea that the play is overtly political. Instead the play is the sum of an inevitable tragedy of a fallen, “common man,” whom Miller allows the stature of a tragic hero in order to authenticate the psychological, and physical (through death) fall of those at the mercy of _______.

Answer 13

capitalism

Question 14

What has Arthur Miller said about those who choose not to identity with Willy Loman?

Answer 14

that “they themselves are living in obedience to the same law that killed him”

Question 15

If Willy was merely a foolish character, he would be unlikely to have earned the respect that has been paid to him. On the other hand, he is not clear-sighted and does labour under delusions. What might he be said to represent?

Answer 15

humanity with all its virtues and vices

Question 16

Where does the plays appeal lie?

Answer 16

in its ability to characterise the ordinary man (the ‘low’ man’) and to ennoble him and authenticate his tragic fall.

Question 17

How doe WIlly Loman become dignified?

Answer 17

because he is an ordinary man and recognisably subject to the same temptations as the audience

Question 18

Willy Loman is full of ______________, overly ___________, blind to his _______ and unsympethc towards those who love him.

Answer 18

contradictions
ambitious
vanities

Question 19

While WIlly Loman is full of contradictions (“Biff is a lazy bum! “There’s one thing about Biff–he’s not lazy”), overly ambitious (I’ll get an advance and I’ll come home with a New York job), blind to his vanities (“I am Willy Loman”) and unsympathetic towards those who love him, however he is also __________, ________ to the point of fanaticism and arguably a martyr to his family.

Answer 19

courageous, determined

Question 20

Why is it ironic that Willy is the most outraged about the way in which shoddy goods are designed to fall apart just as you have finished paying for them?

Answer 20

as he himself is a Salesman

Question 21

Willy is not someone with a consistent core to his personality, however Arthur Miller argues that this may be a general human characteristic in today’s society. What quote has Arthur Miller in his autobiography said summed up his life?

Answer 21

“I still feel-kind of temporary about myself”

Question 22

Many have disassociated himself with the branded foolish Willy Loman, however what can be said about the fact that Arthur Miller in his autobiography has aligned himself with the line in his play “I still feel-kind of temporary about myself”?

Answer 22

this suggests that Miller acknowledges this same trait as an indication that it is neither unusual nor particularly foolish; it is the ordinary process of discovering yourself.

Question 23

Arthur Miller is neither blaming society nor presenting a pathetic character who is the author of his own misfortunes and tragic fall. What is he doing?

Answer 23

he is studying how man and society interrelate.

Question 24

How did China perceive the line where Willy defiantly pronounces “I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!” in Act 2?

Answer 24

they saw it as a counter to generations of Communism in which individuals hand right to express themselves.

Question 25

In Willy, Arthur Miller has created a character who compels his audience to ask what types of fundamental questions?

Answer 25

those about human freedom and necessary which we can all recognise as significant