Study of Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman tells the story of a man confronting failure in the success-driven society of America and shows the tragic trajectory which eventually leads to his suicide. ... To some extent, therefore, Death of Salesman is concerned with the jagged edges of a shattered dream but on another more tragic and bitter level, it also evokes the decline of a man into lunacy and the subsequent effect this has on those around him, particularly his family. ... He is a simple salesman who constantly aspires to become great. Nevertheless, Willy has a waning career as a salesman and is an aging man who considers himself to be a failure but is incapable of consciously admitting it. ... Death of a Salesman seems to conform to the tragic tradition that there is an anti-hero whose state of hamartia causes him to suffer. ... Willy Loman is a deluded salesman whose vivid imagination is far greater than his sales ability. ... Nevertheless, when Charlie declares, Nobody dast blame this man, Miller hints at the responsibility of the state influenced Everyone should have a dream campaign behind Willys death, suggesting that the salesman was driven too far, pressurising himself into suicide. ... As a result, Willy continually finds aspects of his life remarkable but never actually realises that as a salesman and a father, he is a failure. This lack of understanding eventually leads to his tragic death; a death he could not escape for he brought it on himself. ... In American Society the only option open to Willy as such was to be a salesman. ... Death of a Salesman has a form that allows for the simultaneity of past and present, enabling the events in Willys life to proceed from the fragmented logic of his own experiences. ... Consequently, the audience is able to share the nightmare experience of the protagonist and eventually deduce their own opinions of the death of a salesman. Miller said of Death of a Salesman that it was a slippery play to categorize because nobody in it stops to make a speech objectively stating the great issues which I believe it embodies.