FREE ESSAY ON ARTHUR MILLER'S DEATH OF A SALESMAN AND THE CRUCIBLE

ARTHUR MILLER'S DEATH OF A SALESMAN AND THE CRUCIBLE

Arthur Miller, winner of many literary and dramatic awards, is an incredibly influential
force in American drama. His plays deal with issues common to every society. He makes the
audience face fault, weakness, and ignorance; subjects we would typical
hide from. At the same time he emphasizes strength, human spirit, and familial love.
Alice Griffin believes that Miller's plays are important internationally (xii). He
belongs to an international theater rather than a regional theater (Heilman 170). His
plays are staged and studied by students to understand American life in Russia, P
and, Iceland, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and China to name a few
(Griffin xi). Miller's works thrived in England. The University of East Angelia named
it's center the Arthur Miller Centre (Griffin 1). They can relate to the sense
f identity, honor, recognition, and familial love (Griffin Preface). In a production in
Beijing, Miller explained to a Chinese actor playing Biff the son's feelings of guilt and
painfully requited love for his father, the actor understood as it is v
y Chinese (Morath 79). The phenomenon of Death of a Salesman has been the same all over
the world. Audiences all have a sense of their life story of their father, uncle, or
brother (Griffin 35). In real life Miller had an Uncle Manny who had two sons
ho were in competition with Miller and his brother. Manny ended his own life because he
failed at business. Miller's personal history is demonstrated in his sensitive and
passionate writing in Death of a Salesman (Griffin 41). 
The Crucible (1952) was originally intended to be called Those Familiar Spirits,
referring to a spirit that a witch presumably sends out to torment her victims. However,
the well area at the bottom of a blast furnace is known as the crucible, it is whe
the molten steels collects being entirely broken down due to immense heat. Miller thought
that this was a precise metaphor for what happened in Salem. Crucible also means a harsh
trial or examination. John Proctor's integrity was surely investigated.
He chose to die instead of confessing to being evil. According to Raymond Williams, The
Crucible is a powerfully successful dramatization of the notorious witch trials of Salem.
It is technically less interesting than its previous ones because it is b
ed on a historical event which is explicit enough to solve, the difficult dramatic
problems which Miller had originally set himself. Miller brilliantly expresses a
particular crisis the modern witch hunt in his own society, but it is not often, in ou
own world, that the issues and statements so clearly emerge in a naturally dramatic form
(13). Miller used the Salem Witch Trials of the 17th century, to make an indirect, but
assertive comment upon McCarthyism in American life (Richard Watt, Jr. 536).
In 1953, when the play was produced, the United States was in social and political
turmoil. Joseph McCarthy a Senator from Wisconsin and the play in comparison were both
significantly politically infamous. The Senator was responsible for the investiga
ons to find communists in the State Department, Hollywood, and the U.S. Army. These
investigations created fear and suspicion within our society. McCarthy was eventually
found guilty of misusing his authority (Watts vii). Before being found guilty S
ator McCarthy accused the Democratic administration of sheltering and helping Communists
in the American government. It was a fearful time similar to that in Salem. The United
States government called McCarthy's activities witch-hunts. In The Crucibl
Miller mentions that McCarthy accuses individuals of being Communist if they opposed him.
Any government official who criticized his hearings was soon found to be defending
himself against the charge of being involved in a Communist conspiracy. Miller 
mpared McCarthy to the Salem judges in a broad sense (Cliffnotes 52). In 1953 The
Crucible was attacked as a comparison to the current Senate witch hunts. Critics said it
was not a good play at that time, however, later it was found to be superior. 
he House Un-American Activities Committee summoned Miller to a hearing. Miller refused to
name others as communist sympathizers. He also said that he would only take
responsibility for himself and not others. Miller was fined and given a thirty day s
pended jail sentence because he spoke out like John Proctor in The Crucible (Griffin 7).
During the McCarthyism period witnesses refused to answer questions and when they did
they were scorned (Bentley 302). Thousands of people who refused to answer q
stions and confess were executed during the seventeenth century. Authorities believed
that believing in witches was extensive in America and Europe (Cliffnotes 44 - 45). Eric
Bentley provides us with information that Arthur Miller had tried to apot
osize this heroic refusal to speak in dramatic literature (The Crucible). In real life,
unhappily, such refusal was rendered suspect and ambiguous by its whole background in the
life and hates of the Communist Party (302).
Cushing Scott states that, Miller has argued for (the) historical truth (of the play),
pointed to its contemporary parallels, and defined its transhistorical subject as a
social process that includes, but also transcends, the Salem witchcraft trials a
the anticommunist investigations of the 1950's (128). However, Miller was interested in
the witch trials before he opposed McCarthyism however. He decided to write the play
telling about the fear and hysteria McCarthyism caused. His play makes clea
the facts from the past that sinners and guilty people were mistaken for witches in Salem
(Bu*censored* 128 -129). Elsom writes that Arthur Miller wrote about witch-hunting in
Salem but it was really an indirect commentary on Joe McCarthy and the congression
sub-committees investigating un-American activities. (140) Joe McCarthy probably thought
of Arthur Miller as a 
dangerous communist subversive, but in Europe he was regarded to be agreeably left wing
(Elsom 139). After a few years McCarthy had died and the committees were dissolved. The
Crucible was included in schools as a modern classic. A political jou
alist might have summed up Arthur Miller's achievement like this: he had helped to rally
the moderates against the forces of extreme right-wing reaction (Elsom 140). 
Guilt... was directly responsible for the 'social compliance' which resulted in
McCarthy's reign of terror in the 1950's: 
'Social compliance'... is the result of the sense of guilt which 
individuals strive to conceal by complying... It was a guilt, in this historic sense,
resulting from their awareness that they were
not as Rightist as people were suppose to be (Bu*censored* 133).
The Crucible made a statement for the subject of the free man's fight against emotional
terrorism to put him down. Arthur Miller was completely involved with the social and
moral problems of American society and inevitably made an impact on the world. 
he danger from Russian subversion was a more obvious danger than the witch hunts of
innocent people in 17th century Massachusetts (Watts viii). The comparison in 1953 was
harmful to Arthur Miller and his drama. The similarities of the two eras dealing
ith freedom of judgment against barbaric control remains an issue today. Witch-hunting
and the evil Salem trials in The Crucible was a work of social dramatic art making a
statement of evil intolerance for global history (Watts viii). Miller wrote The
rucible to prevent history frm repeating itself.
Miller does not use an ordinary plot in The Crucible. ... tension inheres in episodic
conflicts rather than in an over-all advancing action. The sense of an evolving general
situation, so well achieved by tight structure in The Crucible... is larg
y gone (Heilman 151). Heilman states that Miller, 
turned to more vigorous characters who cause suffering 
rather than uncomprehendingly suffer, he portrayed an 
evil rooted in human nature overwhelming the community, 
he made advances toward complexity of motive, and he 
began to discover inner division (160).
In Salem, Massachusetts, a black slave woman and twelve teenage girls were caught dancing
around a bubbling cauldron in the woods, despite the fact that dancing was not allowed by
the Puritans. The Puritan government ruled the church in 1692 and relig
n believed that women who dance with the Devil are witches. 
Fearing being hanged the girls blamed each other. Everyone in the town panicked and began
accusing everyone else of witchcraft. The Puritans believed that the Devil was
continually enticing man. If a person sinned they had to confess it, regret it, a
perform some act of penance. To avoid being hanged many people in The Crucible confessed
to sins they did not commit. Fearing that she would be damned forever Rebecca Nurse
refused to confess. Adultery was one of the worst sins someone could commit.
The Puritans also thought that anything pleasant was the work of the Devil, therefore,
they were a serious and fearful group. It was an atrocious sin for children to even
dance, so to avoid punishment they would pretend to be under the spell of the Dev
. The Puritans believed that a person became a witch by entering into an agreement with
the Devil. They further believed that the Devil or one of his witches could take over the
body of an innocent person (Cliffnotes 44 - 47). It is a complex story b
Miller makes it easier because he starts each new act telling us of the dreadful
possibilities and ending each act with the possibilities happening. Miller uses a
repetitive style of questions and answers forming the rhythm of the play. The story is t
d in John Proctor's perspective (Barron's Booknotes 7 - 8). 
The Crucible has a narrator, a voice not a character, that tells us about the characters
and the action and helps us to understand the moral implications. 
The director of the l958 off-Broadway revival for The Crucible drew
the consequences of the revised text and introduced 'a 
narrator,' called The Reader, to set the scenes and give
the historical background of the play. The introduction 
of a 'narrator' element in The Crucible is closely related 
to Miller's attempts to have a separate voice present the 
author's view of the 'generalized significance' of the 'action'
in the later play (Overland 57). 
The Crucible has a series of non-dramatic interpolated passages in the first act, where
the playwright takes on the roles of historian, novelist and literary critic, often all
at once, speaking himself ex cathedra rather than through his character ex 
ena are concerned with motivation. Psychological, religious and socioeconomic
explanations of the trials are given... Miller has also been seen to depart from the
second of his basic principles of playwriting in introducing narrative and expository p
sages into The Crucible (Overland 57 - 60). Overland writes that Miller tends to confuse
the characters with the real people with the same names from the seventeenth century,
such as Parris, Putnam, Rebecca, and Francis Nurse (60). 
Conflict between a man's raw deeds and his conception of himself, poses as the struggle
for John Proctor to attain high standards. To understand the character Proctor it is
important to realize his sense of guilt, which is made clear to us by Elizab
h's remarks and his behavior. Individual tragedy to John Proctor is the back bone of the
play. The first Puritans struggled to survive. John Proctor and John Hale went against
the order of the Puritan society in The Crucible. Reverend Hale declares 
at the Devil can delude God so he can certainly fool humans. (Cliffnotes 43). During the
witch trials there would be no half way point it was either black or white. If guilty you
were to be hanged. You had to remain obedient. Rebecca Nurse symbolize
a wise woman who knew her place, the place of the church and the dangers of witchcraft.
The danger could be brought forth at any time within the play. The confrontations within
the play were brought together in precise detail but the powerful were bro
ht to a lower level throughout the play. You could not be fearful or you would be among
the guilty. Ezekiel Cheever arrested Elizabeth Proctor, even though he was on her side,
because he had no other choice. Abigail Williams was described by Rebecca 
the very brick and mortar of the church. All hell broke loose due to the evil of Abigail
Williams, seeking revenge on the Proctors when John stopped the affair. Miller writes as
though he belittles his characters and condemns them as he sees fit to
unt down all dwellers of the Salem society. The irony was that the purist of the citizens
hunted down the innocent people and plagued them with crimes, when they themselves were
now a part of the crime of the hunt. Hale was the first to come to the re
ity to oppose the view of the court proceedings and terminate his position in the court.
It was better to hang innocent people than to admit to a wrong doing. Old Goodby Osborne
was found guilty of witchcraft because she could not remember the commandm
ts (Cliffnotes 43). Hale later in the play realizes that this is wrong and tries to
convince Proctor to flee for his life which leads to the most dramatic scene of
confrontation. John Proctor is caught in the tangled web he has woven between his wife,
riends, and himself and the entire Salem community. Proctor did not want to be a part of
the trials and was forced to make important decisions. He was also accused of being a
witch. His destiny relies on his choices. He becomes a rebel against the c
rch and now he must sign a confession. John Hale tries to convince Proctor's wife to get
him to sign. Elizabeth replies with I think that be the Devils argument. Which means John
Proctor knows inside himself what he will do and no one else will cha
e his mind. John Proctor mulled this over and over and he finally came to a decision. A
once weak man now had the authority to make a commitment to mankind. He has chosen to die
an honest man. He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from hi
 Charity and justice are major features of human relationships, both public and private.
These issues, therefore, not only frame the play, but specifically define the
relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor, and they largely determine the co
se of their tragedy (Bu*censored* 135). 
We recognize our own victory over evil from our Puritan past because of the struggles for
justice in characters like John Proctor. The Crucible practically has all of the
qualifications of a successful tragedy as Miller imagines them to be. Yet it c
not be said to reach 'those heights where the breath fails' because it lacks something
far more important to drama: that sense of vividly and fully imagined character that made
of Willy Loman a kind of modern Everyman states Clinton W. Trowbridge (44).
It is apparent that Danforth and Hathorne are a threat to freedom. Proctor is not a
threat to freedom because he does not have the power or authority. The Puritans became
dangerous and powerful in the new world. Also powerful is the richest man in Sa
m, Thomas Putnam. He gets land by having his daughter accuse others of witchcraft. 
Indeed, the apparent difference between Proctor and the 
Puritans serves only to stress how corrupting power can
become in the hands of a certain kind of person, the Puritan
American who is obsessed by his own guilt and driven by
the desire to determine sanctity in himself and in others, and 
to make it conform to the visible human being (Bu*censored* 131). 
It is ironic that Proctor is a victim of what he opposes. As well as John Proctor adding
to his own disaster, the Reverend John Hale finds that in trying to solve a horror he
creates a horror. He could be a tragic hero, but his role is minor: throug
him, then, the play has a 'tragic accent'  (Heilman 324 - 325). 
Arthur Miller was not satisfied with the original version of The Crucible so he added
additional data. Overland reports that Miller added a scene to explain Abigail's behavior
even though it was not needed (57). Miller does not accomplish artistic d
th in The Crucible because of his inability to project seventeenth century sensibilities
and thus to sympathize with them. The play, according to many critics, is not seriously
historical and, therefore, not seriously literary or political. This pl
seems to fail to reach the social, historical, and moral depth of a great work of art,
because it cannot imaginatively conjure the world that it pretends to describe (Levin
127). The Crucible, some critics say, is a controversial and a modern virtuous
lay. Miller has created a community disturbance too far-reaching to result from an evil
plot of a simple villain according to Heilman (144 - 145). 
The Crucible is an argument in favor of moral flexibility. The fundamental flaws in the
nature of the Puritan elders and by extension of the McCarthyites, as Miller sees it, is
precisely their extreme tendency toward moral absolutism (Bu*censored* 129). 
wants to abolish these factors. Critics say that there is a balanced cast of sinners and
non-sinners who deserve our sympathy. Despite the continuing serious crimes by judges
Danforth and Hathorne, there is a moral education in the characters Hale an
Parris. Goody Nurse and Giles Corey symbolize unabated moral sanity and good will
(Bu*censored* 130). John Proctor is a basic hero who opposes evil. He was, however,
indiscreet with Abigail Williams, this of course is only a fabrication by Miller. Mill
's plays constantly 
stress the value of the nuclear family, the ties of loyalty between
husband and wife, and their protectiveness towards their 
children. Marriage can be destroyed... soured by nagging 
sexual guilt (as the The Crucible),... it nevertheless remains 
an emotional stronghold, the instinctive centre of people's 
lives, without which society itself falls in anarchy and 
self-destruction (Elsom 140 - 141).
Proctor does in some ways represent an enemy to the community because he does not like
the representative of the church. He doesn't go to church regularly and did not take his
sons to be baptized. Moral judgments are made by the good people and Salem'
leaders. The courts condemn the witches, to be sure, and this act is the most flagrant
example of over-zealous righteousness in the play (Bu*censored* 130). The town is
unmerciful in its destruction of witchcraft.
Miller originally thought of naming his play The Inside of His Head instead of Death of a
Salesman. He wanted a huge head to appear and then open up so that we could see inside. 
This, in dramatic terms, is expressionism, and correspondingly
the guilt of William Loman is not... a single act, subject to public 
process, needing complicated grouping and plotting to make it 
emerge; it is rather, the consciousness of a whole life. Thus the 
expressionist method, in the final form of the play, is not a casual 
experiment, but rooted in the experience. It is the drama of a 
single mind, and moreover, it would be false to a more integrated 
- or less disintegrating - personality (Williams 11 - 12). 
Through the years expressionism has become sensitive to the experience of weakening. It
can be categorized in two ways, personal and social. The continuity from social
expressionism remains clear, however, for I think in the end it is not Willy Loma
as a man, but the image of the Salesman, that predominates, maintains Williams. The
social theme in the alienation of Willy is his transition from selling goods to selling
himself. He becomes the merchandise which will at some time become economicall
useless. The convincing sense of Death of a Salesman is one of false awareness, ...the
conditioned attitudes in which Loman trains his sons - being broken into by real
consciousness, in actual life and relationships. The expressionist method embodies
his false consciousness much more powerfully than naturalism could do (Williams 12).
Slang is used perfectly in the play because it is a result of their lifestyle.
In 1950 Death of a Salesman was attacked in America as part of a communist movement
threatening the American way of life and capitalism. Stage productions and movie shows
were closed because Senator Joseph McCarthy accused individuals in this field o
being communists. Actors, writers, and directors confessed to socialist principals to
save their careers. Those who denied the charges found themselves unemployed (Griffin
5).
Death of a Salesman is one of the lasting plays of our time. It's strength lies in the
ability to evoke sympathy and pity rather than fear and incite anger and controversy
(Trowbridge 43). Probably the most significant comment about Death of a Salesm
is not its literary achievement but the impact it has had on readers and viewers in
America and overseas. Its influence continues to grow in world theatre (Jackson 36).
Death of a Salesman has been described by Professor Francis Fergusson as poetry
n the theatre (Jackson 35). 
It is a myth which projects before the spectator an image 
of the protagonist's consciousness. The playwright attempts 
to reveal a tragic progression within the consciousness of the 
protagonist. He employs, as the instrumentation of vision, a 
complex theatre symbol: a union of gesture, word, and music; 
light, color, and pattern; rhythm and movement (Jackson 35). 
The most important asset that playwright Arthur Miller holds is his knowledge of the
theater. He knows that plays must deal with matters of interest to the public. It is
almost impossible to not be impressed with a play by Miller because they are writ
n realistically. A play, according to Miller, ought to make sense to common-sense
people... the only challenge worth the effort is the widest one and the tallest one,
which is the people themselves (17). In Tom F. Driver's writings he states that,
We must remember that the only success both popular and critical Miller has had in this
country is Death of a Salesman (20). He does have weaknesses in his writings. Miller has
too narrow a view of man in society. He has not investigated human natu
fully, restricting him to a specific social theory. Miller's idea of the real world in
which humans must deal is limited and how he sees life is not extensive. He does not
possess the curiosity that would help him to solve problems. 
One might say that he sees the issues too soon, sees them in 
their preliminary form of social or even moral debate, but 
not in terms of dramatic events that disturb the audience's 
idea of basic truth, which is the foundation for it's moral attitudes. 
Miller is a playwright who wants morality without bothering to 
speak of a good in the light of which morality would make sense. 
Man must be made to create his values and live up to them 
(Driver 22).
According to Harold Bloom, Miller is not an articulate writer but he is not a bad writer
either. Miller articulates, in language that can be appreciated by popular audiences,
certain new dimensions of the human dilemma (Jackson 36). Both Death of a Sa
sman and The Crucible if properly staged are very effective dramas. Death of a Salesman
is the best of the two, ranking as one of the half-dozen crucial American plays. There
are still many other questions about the staging of the play that can not be
bsolutely answered correctly. Each person will have different ideas as to why Miller used
the music the way he did, about the way he uses language, about the comic lines and how
they should be read, about the order of the scenes, and about the change f
m the present to a scene from the past because of the use of a certain word and phrase
(Schneider xx). Yet its literary status seems to me somewhat questionable, which returns
me to the issue of what there is in drama that can survive indifferent or ev
poor writing (1). Thus with all our efforts, and good intentions, we have not yet
achieved a theater; and we have not, I believe, because we do not see life in historic
and dramatic terms (Kernan 2). Our greatest novelists and poets continue not 
see life in historic and dramatic terms, precisely because our literary tradition remains
incurably Emersonian, and Emerson shrewdly dismissed both history and drama as European
rather than American (Bloom 2). Whether the play is a narrative or a lyr
al one the American style usually leans towards romance and musing, or something bizarre,
rather than drama. Miller, a social dramatist, keenly aware of history, fills an
authentic American need, certainly for his own time (Bloom 3). Bloom question
if it has the aesthetic dignity of tragedy, but no other American play is worthier of the
term, so far (5). The author has captured a kind of suffering that is universal, probably
because his hidden model for this American tragedy is an ancient Jewish 
e. Willy Loman is not Jewish, but there is something about him that is and according to
Bloom, the play does belong to that undefined entity we can call Jewish literature. The
only meaning of Willy Loman is the pain he suffers, and the pain his fate 
uses us to suffer. His tragedy makes sense only in the Freudian world of repression,
which happens also to be the world of normative Jewish memory (5). In the Jewish
environment everything has already happened and nothing can be new again because the
is a meaning in everything and everything hurts. That order known to Jewish memory is the
secret strength of Death of a Salesman and the reason for its ability to endure shrewd
criticism. Miller wonderfully states that Willy's decision to die happens
hen he is given his existence...his fatherhood, for which he has always striven and which
until now he could not achieve. Willy is really a good man who only wanted to earn and
have the love of his wife and sons. Willy is dying throughout the play n
because he wants to be successful but by the common desire to be loved even though he
feels he does 
not deserve it. Miller is not one of the masters of metaphor, but in Death of a Salesman
he memorably achieves a pathos that none of us would be wise to dismiss (Bloom 6). 
Deciding if Death of a Salesman is or is not a tragedy is determined by the reader or
viewer interpreting it. Is Willy, for instance, a born loser, or is he a game little
fighter who, having been sold a bill of goods about the American Dream, keeps s
gging it out against unequal odds (Weales xvi)? It is often believed that tragedy only
happens to people of higher status. In Barrett H. Clarks writings he states that Miller
believes that the common man experiences tragedy as well as kings. Miller 
els that this should be obvious in the light of modern psychiatry, which bases its
analysis upon classific formulations, such as the Oedipus and Orestes complexes, for
instance, which were enacted by royal beings, but which apply to everyone in similar
motional situations(Popkin 537). Tragedy is the result of man's total duress to judge
himself justly according to Miller (Popkin 537).
John Gassner calls Willy a loud-mouthed dolt and emotional babe-in-the-woods... and if
so, does his love for Biff somehow let him transcend that characterization (xvi)? Willy
has been called a low-man by Schneider, a common man by Eleanor Clark,
victim by Wiegand, a poor, flashy, self-deceiving little man by Ivor Brown, a
'schizophrenic' by Hynes, and a 'social-martyrdom image' by Raymond Williams. Clurman is
interested in him as a salesman, but Fuller, who has understandable interest in
alesmen, prefers him as Everyman. Weales also writes that Bierman, Hart, and Johnson find
a basis conflict between the salesman and the man in him (xvii). Willy has a complex
personality and all of these things at once. It is because of all the fa
s and lies, the realities and fantasies that Willy has the potential to actually kill
himself. He does not realize whether he is condemning or defending himself when he speaks
(Weales xvii). 
Many readers feel that the play is about Biff and that it is a play about a son's
troubles with his father. Willy's recognition of Biff's love does not alter his basic
self-delusion about success, the audiences attention, sympathy, concern turn to Bi
, who... finds his 'true self,' finds understanding, pushing Willy out of the spotlight
(Clurman and Gassner xvii). Schneider states that 
For me, the Requiem of the play is ironic, the gathering 
of people who never understand Willy at all, and how 
much more effective it would be if Biff's 'I know who I 
am, kid,' were taken as still another sample of Loman
self-delusion, the true legacy (the insurance being the false) of Willy (xviii).
Dillingham believes that Linda adds to Willy's plight, but according to T.C. Worsley
Linda is the perfect wife. Willy's wife interacts with all the people in his life. She
cares for their children Happy and Biff. She washes and mends the clothing and 
rries about paying bills. She loves and admires Willy (Griffin 49). Most of the critics
believe that Linda is the character that the audience should admire. Robert Garland feels
that she is the one character in the play who could see clearly what wa
going to happen. There is no doubt about what that means in the context of the play. It
is not necessary to decide, that Linda is the central character in 'Salesman,' but it is
important to decide just what her function is in the play (xix). Accordi
to Schneider the lesser characters should not be ignored. Of importance is Happy's
feeling of guilt because he hates his older brother, Biff. It is questionable whether
Charley, Bernard, Howard, or Ben are acceptable character or stereotypes. If the
lay belongs, as Gassner says it does, in the tradition of American realism, then those
characters may stand out as unreal, stock. If, however, Miller's borrowing of
expressionistic techniques allows him to use a type character when he needs one to make
point, they may be functioning legitimately within a particular scene (Schneider xix).
Willy is a victim of ignorance. Willy the protagonist is still only a man to whom things
happen, who is not capable of even a belated understanding, and who is seen in a
vocational and technological rather than a broadly human context (Heilman 143). 
nd according to Heilman, Miller wrote pathetic drama, the history of an undivided
character experiencing pitiable obsolescence (160). Miller tracks suffering to the
ancient cause, ignorance and he follows Loman's progress from ignorance, suffering, t
enlightenment. As in Classic tragedy, the price of this 'Odyssey' is death, but, through
his personal sacrifice, the protagonist redeems his house, and promises to his posterity
yet another chance. Loman's suicide, as in traditional tragedy, is a con
adiction to his victory over the circumstances (Jackson 35). 
Arthur Miller structured Death of a Salesman to show Willy Loman's pleasures, dreams, and
hopes of the past. Thus the central conflict of the play is Willy's inability to
differentiate between reality and illusion. In the opening of the play numerous
otifs are presented. The first being the melody of a flute which suggests a distant,
faraway fantasy: Willy's dream world. This is playing in the background as Willy enters
carrying his burdensome traveling suitcases. He has been a traveling salesma
for the Wagner Company for thirty-four years. Willy left that morning for a trip and has
already returned. He tells his wife Linda that he opened the windshield of the car to let
the warm air in and was quietly driving along when he found himself drea
ng. Later when Linda suggests taking a ride in the country on Sunday with the windshield
open, he realizes that the windshields don't open on new cars and he was remembering the
1928 Chevy, alluding to his life being an illusion. Linda would like Will
to work in New York so he would not have to travel, but he refuses as he is, vital to New
England. This is another illusory motif; the reality is in fact that Willy is a hindrance
to the company. He tells Linda he is, vital to New England, to cove
up his inability to get a position in New York. Willy asks Linda about his boys, Biff and
Happy, who are home for the first time in years. He can not understand why Biff,
thirty-four years old, can not find a job and keep it. After all, Biff possesse
so much, personal attractiveness, yet another motif. To Willy a person must not be liked,
but well-liked. When a person is well-liked the entire world opens up for him, as it did
for David Singleman, a salesman who was so loved and respected that he
ent to a town, picked up a phone, and placed order after order. When David Singleman died
at the age of eighty-four buyers and sellers everywhere attended his funeral, but that
was a time when selling depended on the salesman's personality and not the 
oduct. Willy sees all the, personal attractiveness, in Biff and expects him to have a
successful career. Willy complains he feels all cramped and, boxed-in. The bricks and
windows in the city make him feel too closed in and nothing grows anymore. 
e remembers a good time in his life when the boys were young and flowers were growing in
the backyard, but now the outside forces are smothering him and he makes useless attempts
to plant things in the backyard. 
The focus switches from Billy to the two boys talking up in their bedroom. Biff tells
Happy what he has done in the last fourteen years and the reason he does not keep a job
is because when spring rolls around he feels he has to move on to another pla
. Happy talks about having an apartment, a car, and plenty of girls - all the things he
has ever wanted - but he is still lonely. This is because he has never bothered to find
out what he really wants. Biff says men built like them are meant to work 
tside in the open air and they should meet a steady girl to marry. Biff wonders if a man,
Bill Oliver, would remember him. He had stolen a carton of basketballs once, but Happy
assures Biff that he was well-liked by Oliver, a philosophy they learned f
m their father. Downstairs, the boys can hear their father talking to himself and the
focus is brought back down to Willy who is reminiscing a time in 1928 when he came home
from a trip and the two boys were polishing the car. 
Willy's flashbacks are always in 1928. This is his last happy year before his break with
Biff. Willy tells young Biff to be careful with the girls and then shows the two boys a
punching bag he has brought home to help Biff improve his timing. The bo
are all excited and Willy notices Biff has a new football. Football is used to symbolize
immaturity in Biff and Willy (Heilman 123). He asks Biff where he got it and Biff tells
Willy he borrowed it from the locker room to practice. Happy says Biff w
l get in trouble, but Willy thinks the coach will congratulate you on your initiative.
The values Willy is teaching his son about, personal attractiveness, leads to more thefts
and ultimately to jail. While all attention is being focused on Biff, 
ppy announces, I'm losing weight, you notice, Pop. Willy, not paying attention, says, Try
jumping rope. According to Schneider the lesser characters should not be ignored. Of
importance is Happy's feeling of guilt because he resents his older bro
er, Biff (xix). Later Happy lays on his back and pedals his feet while saying he's lost
weight, but still no one notices the overshadowed son. Willy tells the boys that he will
have his own business someday and he will not have to leave anymore. He t
ls them it will be better than Uncle Charley's because Uncle Charley is, liked, but he's
not well-liked. Willy also promises to take the boys on a trip through the New England
states so they can see how well-liked he is. In reality Willy knows he is
ot well-liked so he never does take his boys. Bernard enters and tells Biff they must
study because his math teacher has threatened to flunk him. Since Biff has three athletic
scholarships, Willy finds studying unnecessary. He would much rather see h
son practicing or socializing so he can be well-liked. He encourages Biff to cheat off of
Bernard on the final exam. Willy tells his sons that good marks in school do not mean too
much, but instead, the man who creates a personal appearance is the m
who gets ahead... Be liked and you will never want. Biff explains to Willy that Bernard
is liked, but not well-liked. It has become evident that Biff is accepting all the values
Willy is instilling in him and not making any of his own. This leads t
his downfall. Willy tells his boys that later in life good marks mean nothing, Because
the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal
interest, is the man who gets ahead. Linda comes on stage carrying a basket of
ash and Willy tells the boys to help their mother. Willy tells Linda he was great and
sold 1,200 gross in Boston and Providence. Linda figures out how much they owe and Willy
knows he only sold 200 gross and his commission does not cover what they owe
So he told Linda the truth. Annoyed with the need for a new fan belt for the refrigerator
he says, The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things.
They time them so when you finally pay for them, they're used up. He 
uld like to own something before it breaks. When the boys were polishing the car, Willy
calls it, the greatest car ever built. After he finds out he needs to buy a new
carburetor for the car he has a quick change in temper, that goddam Chevrolet, t
y ought to prohibit the manufacture of the car. Willy can not face the reality that he is
not a good salesman and can not understand why, people don't seem to take to me, and why,
people laugh at me. He guesses he talks too much, but Linda is alw
s there to reinforce his illusion by telling him how wonderful he is. She also fails to
recognize his limitations and covers them up so he can keep building his illusion. Linda
takes out some silk stockings and begins mending them. Willy thinks Charl
is a man of few words, yet people respect him. Willy worries about his appearance, but
Linda assures him that he is handsome. While Linda is talking a woman appears in Willy's
mind. She is laughing while dressing. It is clear that Willy gets loneso
on the road because he is not as popular as he says. As the woman leaves she thanks Willy
for the stockings. Willy feels guilty and upon returning to the happier illusion he
notices Linda mending her stockings and tells her to stop. Bernard enters a
asks for Biff so they can study because it is a state test and he can not give Biff the
answers. Willy is aggravated by Biff's lack of studying and threatens to whip him. Then
Bernard and Linda begin to criticize Biff as well and Willy abruptly turns
n defense of Biff. Willy tells Biff that he does not want him to be a worm like Bernard
because Biff has spirit and personality. 
Happy comes downstairs and Willy is saying he wishes he went to Alaska with his brother
Ben. He says Ben at age seventeen, walked-into the jungle and when I was twenty-one I
walked out...and by God I was rich. Happy tells Willy he is going to retir
him for life and although that is what Willy wants, he can not ask his boys for help
because then he will have to realize that they are incapable of helping him. Willy tells
his boys the, ...woods are burning. I can't even drive a car. When Willy s
s the woods are burning he means that life is closing in on him. Ben is Willy's ideal
because he had nothing and ended up rich. The jungle is woods for Willy. Ben conquered
the jungle of life (in its figurative meaning) and Willy is trapped in burnin
woods. Thus time is running out on Willy. Every time we see Ben he has his watch out and
says he only has few more minutes to catch the train. This emphasizes the concept of time
hurrying past man. Ben utilized time while time simply passed Willy by
At this time Charley enters and sends Happy back upstairs. They begin to play cards and
Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy refuses. Ben appears in an illusion and Willy is
talking to Charley and Ben at the same time. Ben is Willy's ideal success 
ich Willy would like to obtain. Charley has practical success, which is not what Willy
believes in, so when Ben appears in illusion Willy is anxious to get rid of Charley, this
way Willy can indulge himself in his favorite daydream. Charley stands for
verything opposite of Willy's view of life. Charley is not well-built, he has no personal
attractiveness, he is not adventurous, and he is not well-liked. But Charley is
successful. These are the reasons Willy can not accept a job from him. It would
ean Willy acknowledging that all his ideas in life were wrong. Charley tells Willy to
forget about Biff, but Willy can not because he would have nothing left to remember.
Biff's success is Willy's purpose to live and later it is his purpose to die. W
hout the memories of Biff and the hopes for a better future, Willy's entire existence is
meaningless. Willy insults Charley on his card playing and Charley goes home. Willy is
now alone with Ben and asks Ben about their parents. Ben tells Willy that 
eir father used to make and sell flutes giving more meaning to the flute being played in
the background. Although this implies a similarity of a salesman quality between Willy
and his father, we see that Willy pedals wares already made whereas his fat
r made his own flutes and sold them himself by piling the whole family in a wagon and
driving across the entire midwest. Happy and Biff appear and Willy tells them that Ben is
a genius, success incarnate. He wants to show Ben that his boys are magni
cent. Ben suddenly trips Biff and tells Biff to never fight fair with a stranger, You'll
never get out of the jungle that way. Willy sends his boys to the construction site to
steal some lumber in an effort to show Ben their fearlessness and ruggedne
. The stealing of the lumber relates to Willy's teaching of bad values and Biff's
stealing himself out of every job he will ever have. Charley's reaction to the stealing
is that the boys will get caught and be put in jail just like the other fearless 
aracters. Ben says the stock exchange has fearless characters. As well as Biff's
approval, Willy would like Ben's recognition. Willy expects Ben to praise him for having
great sons but Ben merely says they are, Manly chaps. 
Linda comes downstairs to check on Willy, Willy complains about being too crowded and
boxed in, and decides to go for a walk even though he is wearing his slippers. Biff comes
down and asks his mother what is wrong with Willy. She tells him that when
e is away Willy functions much better, but when Biff writes that he is coming home all of
Willy's dreams begin to close in on him and he becomes agitated. Linda tells Biff not to
come home just to see her because he can not be disrespectful to Willy. 
ttention, attention must be finally paid to such a person. Linda tells Biff that after
thirty-four years the company has put Willy back on straight commissions. Biff thinks the
company is ungrateful, but Linda tells him the company is no worse than h
two sons. She tells her sons that Willy goes to Charley every week to borrow $50.00 and
tells Linda that it is his salary. Biff refuses to take all the blame and accuses Willy
of being a fake. Biff calls him a fake because of the scene in the hotel 
Boston, but does not tell Linda. Linda tells Biff that Willy is trying to commit suicide.
Last month he had a car wreck, and the insurance company thought it may have been
intentional. After the car accident, she found a rubber hose attached to the 
s pipe. This is the first introduction of suicide in the play. Arthur Miller is trying to
prepare the audience to accept Willy's suicide as a result of cause and effect. Linda
tells Biff, I swear to God! Biff, his life is in your hands! Biff says 
ey all should have worked out in the open, mixing cement on some open plain, or... be a
carpenter. Willy has just entered and represses these physical urges saying that even,
your Grandfather was better than a carpenter. Thus Willy's dreams make h
aim higher than his heart would like. Biff and Willy argue and Willy tells Biff not to
curse in the house. Then Biff, referring to the hotel scene in Boston, asks, When did you
get so clean? Happy tells Willy that Biff is going to see Bill Oliver.
Willy gets excited over the idea and tells Biff to wear a dark suit, to talk as little as
possible, and not to tell any jokes. Willy was being realistic, teaching Biff not to be
like Willy Loman, but to conduct himself as Charley would. Biff says he wi
ask for $10,000.00 and Willy tells him to ask for $15,000.00 because if you start out big
you end up big. Contrary to before Willy gets caught up in his illusions and tells him to
begin with some jokes because personality always wins the day. Not o
y is Willy getting caught up in his dreams but even Biff is beginning to believe that
Oliver will lend him this large sum. When Linda puts in a few words Willy yells at her to
stop interrupting. It gets to the point where Biff can't take it anymore and
emands that Willy not yell at her. Subconsciously Willy takes out his own sense of guilt
by yelling at his wife. Biff is upset by this, yells at Willy, and Willy leaves. Linda
follows Willy up to the bedroom and Linda reminds Willy that the plumbi
needs to be fixed. Now Willy feels everything is falling to pieces. The two boys come in
to say good-night. Willy falls back into his dreams and could only think of Biff's
greatness. He gives Biff more advice about what to do in the interview with 
iver and Biff begins to feel the greatness in himself. While Willy is reminiscing about
Biff's greatness, Happy, feeling overshadowed by Biff, tries to get his parents'
attention by saying, I'm gonna get married. This serves the same purpose as I'm
osing weight, in the earlier scenes. Biff goes down to the kitchen and removes the rubber
tubing, ending Act I on the thought of suicide. 
Act II opens up with a touch of hope and joy. Willy wakes up after a good night's sleep
and finds that Biff has already left to see Oliver. Willy feels good and would like to
buy some seeds to see if they will grow in the backyard because he has a st
ng need to create something material to leave behind, something Ben says, one can see and
touch. Willy is determined to tell Howard he needs a New York job. On his way out Linda
reminds him of the bills they owe. Willy resents the refrigerator repair
ill because he bought an off-brand while Charley bought a well-advertised brand that has
never needed any repairs. Willy also has one last payment on the mortgage and the house
finally belongs to them. Linda tells Willy he is to meet Biff and Happy fo
dinner. Once again Willy asks Linda to stop mending her stockings. 
Willy is at Howard's office and is not only denied a job in New York but was fired from
the firm. Willy pleads saying he would only need a few dollars a week, reminding Howard
of how many years he has been with the company, and the promises made to hi
by Howard's father. You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a
piece of fruit. He also told him the story about David Singleman. Willy tells Howard he
averaged $170.00 a week back in 1928, but Howard states that he never aver
ed so much. Howard suggests that Willy gets help from his sons, but Willy can't go to
them because the fact that they are fine boys is a part of Willy's lies and illusions.
Right after being fired and hitting an all time low, Ben appears offering Will
a job in Alaska, but Linda reminds Willy of the partnership promised by old man Wagner.
Willy has to miss out on this opportunity to go to Alaska with Ben because he is trapped
in his lies about his position in the Wagner firm. Willy tells Ben he is b
lding something, personality and connections. Ben's idea of building something is so you
can lay your hand on it. Since Willy has nothing tangible he tries to grow things in the
backyard. Ben leaves and everyone is in a rush to go to Ebbets Field f
Biff's football game. As everyone is getting in the car Charley appears pretending not to
know that they are going to see Biff's game. Willy become very agitated and his display
of fury shows his immaturity. 
While thinking about the past Willy has been walking to Charley's office and is at the
height of his anger upon arriving at Charley's to borrow money. Willy talks to Bernard
and is impressed that Bernard will be playing tennis with his own tennis rack
s on some private courts. Willy seeks Bernard's advice about where Biff, the popular
athlete, went wrong, but once Bernard said the two boys fought for no reason after Biff
came home from Boston, Willy becomes defensive and yells angrily at him. Charl
enters and sends Bernard off to the train so he can argue a case before the Supreme
Court. Willy asks Charley for $110.00 so he can pay his insurance. Charley offers Willy a
job but Willy insists that he has one. In a small argument Charley asks, W
n the hell are you going to grow up, a question he asked in the previous flashback. When
Charley asks Willy how much he needs, Willy admits that he has been fired, but still
refuses to work for Charley. If Willy worked for Charley it would be an adm
sion that his life has been a failure. Charley gives Willy the money and Willy says that
a man ends up worth more dead than alive. Before leaving Willy realizes that Charley,
whom he previously felt was an enemy, is actually the only friend he has. 
Happy and Biff are at the restaurant. Happy is flirting with a girl and when she leaves
to find a friend to join them, Biff explains how he had to wait all day to see Oliver who
did not remember him. Biff discovers, What a ridiculous lie my whole li
has been. He has always stolen as a result of feeling neglected. The fright of seeing
himself for what he really is, caused Biff to steal Oliver's fountain pen. Happy opposes
telling the truth to Willy, but when Willy joins them in the restaurant B
f tries to make Willy understand reality. Biff's attempt to communicate with his father
and bring him out of his world of illusion is unsuccessful. In despair Biff cries to
Happy, I can't talk to him! The failure of Biff with Oliver brings to Willy
mind the failure Biff was in math. As Biff tells the truth, Willy's dreams overpower
Biff's realistic talk. Willy closes his mind to reality and feels that Biff is spiting
him because Biff refuses to do as he says. The break in Willy and Biff's rela
onship was a result of the woman in Willy's room in Boston. Willy blames the hotel
discovery on the fact that Biff failed math. If you hadn't flunked, you'd've been set by
now! Willy hears a woman's voice asking him to open the door and he gets fri
tened and goes to the bathroom. While he is in there Happy wants to leave. Biff says
Willy is, A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working unappreciated prince. A pal, you
understand? A good companion. Always for his boys. This is a sudden change fro
his calling Willy a fake earlier. This is because Biff has come out of Willy's world of
illusions and has begun functioning on reality. Looking back on Willy he notices Willy's
faults but now can see lots of values. This realization makes him beg Hap
to help him reach Willy. Happy wants to leave and Biff accuses him of not caring about
his father. Happy denies his father, No, that's not my father. He's just a guy. This is a
result of the brutal rejection Happy has been subjected to throughout
he play. 
Death of a Salesman illustrated the ruin of a family because the father was a failure.
Domestic happiness was shown to depend, not just on personal relationship, but on the way
in which men and women coped with the injustices of society (Elsom 139).
Throughout the play we have seen Willy's guilt when Linda mends her stockings, we have
heard the laughing of another woman, and we have heard Biff call his father a fake. While
Willy was in the bathroom the two boys left with the girls. This next flashb
k is the climatic failure in Willy's relationship with his son Biff. The flashback brings
us to Willy's hotel room in Boston. Biff knocks on the door continuously and Willy tells
the woman to hide in the bathroom. Willy opens the door and Biff tells 
m that he has flunked math. Biff showed Willy the imitation he gave in front of the class
before being caught by the teacher. They both laughed. The woman hears the laughter and
comes out. Willy gets her out of the room as quick as possible and she 
mands the stockings Willy promised her. Biff accuses Willy of being a liar, a fake, and
giving away Mama's stockings. 
Suddenly Stanley, the waiter at the restaurant, interrupts Willy's flashback and tells
him that Happy and Biff have left with the girls. Willy asks if there is a seed store
nearby. Now that his world has closed in on him he needs to leave something ta
ible behind. 
Biff and Happy come home with flowers for Linda. She throws them on the floor and yells
at her sons for treating their own father worse than a stranger. Happy begins to lie,
saying that they had a good time, but Biff stops him and agrees with his mot
r. Biff hears a noise outside and Linda tells him that Willy is planting his garden. Now
we see Willy outside talking to Ben he thinks Biff has been spiting him all of his life
and that if Biff sees the number of people at Willy's funeral then he will
ave respect for him. At the same time, Biff will have $20,000.00 in his pocket. With that
sum he could truly be magnificent. Willy's talking to Ben has convinced himself that he
has finished his life. So rather than, stand here the rest of my life 
nging up a zero, he decides he will commit suicide. Biff comes out to Willy to let him
know he is leaving for good and to ask for help to tell Linda. Willy refuses and warns
Biff that spite will destroy him. Willy wants to talk about Oliver, but Bi
has finally connected his thefts with Willy's philosophy of being well-liked. Biff
becomes angry and confronts Willy with the rubber hose. He tells Willy that they should
tell the truth. He says that he has stolen himself out of every good job sinc
high school. Biff also tells Willy, You blew me so full of hot air I can never stand
taking orders from anybody. Biff has come to realize that his father is just a,
hard-working drummer, and he sees that he is, nothing! I'm nothing. Biff trie
to get Willy to take that phony dream and burn it before something happens. Biff is
trying to make Willy face reality, but ironically Biff's attempt only convinces Willy
that his dreams are right. Biff becomes so infuriated that he suddenly breaks d
n and cries, asking Willy to burn his world of illusions. This makes Willy feel he is
needed by Biff and motivates him to commit suicide because now he feels he will be
leaving something for Biff. Willy was amazed that Biff still loves him and doesn't
ate or want to spite him. Willy says, Isn't that a remarkable thing. Ben reappears and
after Happy and Linda go to bed Ben reminds Willy that its, Time William, time. With life
closing in around him, Willy gets into his car and enters the jungle o
death. Miller wonderfully states that Willy's decision to die happens when he is given
his existence... his fatherhood, for which he has always striven and which until now he
could not achieve. Willy is really a good man who only wanted to earn and 
ve the love of his wife and sons. Willy is dying throughout the play not because he wants
to be successful but by the common desire to be loved even though he feels he does not
deserve it. Miller is not one of the masters of metaphor, but he memorably
chieves a pathos that none of us would be wise to reject (Bloom 6). 
Willy's life has been a struggle to get something paid for before it is all used up. He
had finally succeeded in paying for his house before it was all used up, the only problem
is his life is all used up. 
As a general rule, to which there may be exceptions unknown 
to me, think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the 
presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need 
by, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity. From 
Orestes to Hamlet. Medea to Macbeth, the underlying 
struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his 
'rightful' position in society... Tragedy, then, is the consequence
of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly... His 
'tragic flaw,' a failing that is not peculiar to grand or elevated
characters. Nor is it necessarily a weakness... his inherent 
unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives 
to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status...
those who act against the scheme of things that degrades them,
and in the process of action everything we have accepted out
of fear of insensitivity or ignorance is shaken before us and 
examined, and from this total onslaught by an individual against
the seemingly stable cosmos surrounding us - from this total 
examination of the 'unchangeable' environment - comes the 
terror and the fear that is classically associated with tragedy 
(Levin 171). 
A few days later Charley, Linda, and the boys went to Willy's funeral. They were the only
ones there; no sellers, no buyers, not even Howard came to pay their respects. This is
the final proof that Willy was not well-liked, his dreams were phony, and
is whole life was one big illusion. Biff comments on Willy having all the wrong dreams,
but Charley says a salesman has to dream. This shows Biff now has a firmer grasp on
reality, but Happy is as lost in his world of dreams as Willy was. While the ot
rs walk away Linda remains at the grave a few minutes. She tells Willy that she made the
last payment on the house that day, but now there is no one to live there. This is ironic
because early in the play Linda told Willy the whole house smelled of sh
ing lotion after the boys had left. Willy says, Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off
a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it. For Willy, death was an
escape from feeling boxed-in by the city and by the people around him,
ut now, ironically, Willy is boxed-in by his grave. The play closes with a melody of a
flute. 
Miller's main problem in his writing is the conflict of themes. It is hard to determine
whether his play is about politics or sex. If the important scene in Death of a Salesman
is the one with the tape recorder then it is political, however, if it is
bout sex then the important scene is the one in the Boston hotel. John Mander and Eric
Bentley agree with this criticism. They also agree that The Crucible may not be about
McCarthy but about love in the seventeenth century (Overland 52). More sympa
etic critics find that the plays successfully embody the author's intentions of
dramatizing a synthesis of the two kinds of motivation, Edward Murry, for instance, has
made the same observations as have Bentley and Mander, but in his view the difficulty
f branding Miller wither a 'social' or a 'psychological' dramatist points to a strength
rather than to a flaw in his work: 'At his best, Miller has avoided the extremes of
clinical psychiatric case studies on the one hand and mere sociological reports 
the other... he has indicated.... how the dramatist might maintain in delicate balance
both personal and social motivation' (Overland 52). The hotel room scene has an enormous
impact that it has a tendency to diminish the other scenes of Willy's dile
a. If the play is read, if one treats it as one would a novel, balance is restored and a
good case may be made for a successful synthesis of 'psychological' or 'social'
motivation as argued, for instance, by Edward Murray (Overland 55). 
In Death of a Salesman we can see the influences by O'Neill on Miller's work. The
disintegrating protagonist might also have come from Tennessee Williams, though in
Williams' hands Willy Loman would have had a flamboyant self-destructiveness rather t
n an unchangeable habit of knocking his head against a wall of unapprehended actuality.
But Death of a Salesman does not represent the mature Miller. He became more independent,
more forceful, and more deeply imaginative in The Crucible (1953) (Heilm
142). Lee Fischer works are thematically and technically influenced by Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman, reflects Jens Kistrup (855). 
In Death of a Salesman and The Crucible Miller seems to demonstrate a superiority to
other American dramatists in the representative interpretation of universal dimensions of
accumulated experience. He tries to investigate the reasons that men are res
nsible for their actions. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible is an investigation of
man's existence. Death of a Salesman seems to mimic classic tragedy mainly in its
acceptance of the principle of the responsibility of the individual. Like other co
emporary genre, the protagonist is the common man. Perhaps of greater importance is the
fact that it removes the ground of the tragic conflict from outer event to inner
consciousness (Jackson 28 - 31). Willy Loman and John Proctor exhibit Miller's c
cept of the tragic hero. Both of them struggling to maintain the image they have of
themselves. Miller maintains that this is the prime criterion of tragedy (Nicoll 798).
Loman's suicide, as in traditional tragedy, is a contradiction to his victory o
r the circumstances. It is an act of love, intended to redeem his house. Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman is, perhaps, to this time, the most mature example of a myth of
contemporary life (Jackson 35).
Miller's creative genius has made an impact on the world of drama for years to come. Many
upcoming characters will be influenced by the dramatic roles of Willy Loman and John
Proctor. These two plays bring a succession of conflicts to a dramatic end:
having each man die with dignity.
Bibliography
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