1B: Arthur Miller (1915-2005) & Death of a Salesman

 

Arthur Miller: younger (at left); older (at right).

The New York Times has an extensive archive of articles on Arthur Miller.  Click here  to see their many reports, slide shows, and videos on him, from reviews to interviews to a celebration of his life in the theater.   

Miller also appeared on the Charlie Rose show where he offered his thoughts on what makes a great playwright.  With a little searching you can find many other interviews with Miller on YouTube.

Here is a wonderful video, thanks to a great find by Rosario Anguiano. It's A Conversation on Writing with Arthur Miller, and he talks about Death of a Salesman during the first three minutes of the program. It is all worth watching. Here is another: a 60 Minutes report on Arthur Miller.

As you can probably see, the above video has been "terminated." But give Arthur Miller on 60 Minutes (Rewind) a try. It may still be working when you click on this link.

You can also find Miller interviews in print. Here is one, an interview with Miller, that I found in The Paris Review, Summer 1966 issue. Miller was also interviewed by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2002, and the Michigan Quarterly Review in 1998. Miller was featured on a PBS American Masters Program. Go here to read their biography of him.

Brief notes about the characters in Death of a Salesman:
Willy Loman (said to be 60, pages 6&8; 63, page 42)
Linda Loman ("not even 60")
Happy (son of Willy and Linda, 32)
Biff (son of Willy and Linda, 34)
Bernard (son of Charley; Biff's age)
The Woman (Willy has an affair with her)
Charley ("Uncle Charley," next-door neighbor; friend, not related)
Uncle Ben (Willy's brother)
Howard Wagner (Willy's boss; the son of Willy's former boss)
Jenny (Charley's secretary)
Stanley (waiter)
Miss Forsythe (woman at restaurant)
Letta (woman at restaurant)

English 1B students: Print and Read:
Arthur Miller's "Tragedy and the Common Man." In this 1949 essay,  Miller makes clear the relationship between a character like Willy Loman and the more classical (and commonly accepted) tragic figures from Greek playwrights and Shakespeare.  BRING YOUR COPY--print it out--of "Tragedy and the Common Man" to class. You need not read it before class. Skimming it would be smart, however, 

ATTENTION!
If the above link to "Tragedy and the Common Man" does not work, try this link to get a copy of Miller's essay. It was posted by Prof. Eric Hibbison of J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, VA.

If you've read "Tragedy and the Common Man" you've seen Miller's remark about the Oedipus and Orestes complexes. Thanks to the urging of Ricardo Paredes and Rafael Azizyan it's time to offer a briefing on said complexes.

These complexes begin with Greek tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides. Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus, the story of Oedipus, is about a man who fulfills a prophecy by unknowingly murdering his father and marrying his mother.  Sigmund Freud saw in this tale an example of a repressed personality passionately drawn to the parent of the opposite sex and severe hatred for the same sex parent (e.g., son loves mother, son hates father).

The Orestes complex is the opposite: in the story of Euripedes' Electra a man named Orestes kills his mother (with Electra's assistance) to avenge his father's death.  Freud took this play to serve as a template in describing the son whose extreme violent nature is directed against his mother while his deepest affection is reserved for his father. Today, with reference to both complexes, the offspring examined in this diagnosis may be a son or a daughter.

Maureen Dowd of The New York Times looks at the father-son relationship in the play and in our lives with Mike Nichols, stage and film director, and director of the Salesman production with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy. Here is The New York Times review of the production. NPR also did an interview with Hoffman about his performance; go to this page to listen to the interview.

Taking their bow: Linda Emond, left, as Linda Loman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy.

Finally, you may wish to turn to the web pages of Prof. Barbara McManus, of the College of New Rochelle, and her discussion of Aristotle's definition of tragedy. Note how Aristotle calls for a character to be "renowned and prosperous."  What would Miller say to this?  Willy is neither, of course.  Miller's explanatory argument is not just for the drama critics and audiences of 1949, it may be for Aristotle too.

If you wish further help understanding the meaning of tragedy in dramatic literature, check Dr. L. Kip Wheeler's website for definitions of tragedy, tragic flaw and tragic hero.

For a discussion regarding the idea of a flashback in contrast to the past being concurrent to the present read Miller's remarks below. He made them in his interview with the National Endowment for the Arts:

"[Death of a Salesman] begins with its action, and there are no transitions. It is a kind of frontal attack on the conditions of [Willy Loman's] life, without any piddling around with techniques. The basic technique is very straightforward. It is told like a dream. In a dream, we are simply confronted with various loaded symbols, and where one is exhausted, it gives way to another. In Salesman, there is the use of a past in the present. It has been mistakenly called flashbacks, but there are no flashbacks in that play. It is a concurrence [my emphasis] of a past with the present, and that's a bit different."

In fall 2012 Manuel Gonzalez asserted that flashbacks do occur in the play,  after all.  I attempted to explain Miller's position by quoting William Faulkner's position re: the past: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Explain why you agree (or not) that Faulkner's words describe Miller's characterization of Willy.

These three clips, below, from three very different Death of a Salesman productions:

Fredric March starred as Willy Loman in the 1951 film

version of Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller had

no control of the screenplay and was unhappy with

the film, which cut a number of scenes from his play.

Brian Dennehy was honored twice, a Tony Award (1999) and the

 Laurence Olivier Award (2005), for his stage performances

 of Willy Loman in New York and London, respectively.

Lee J. Cobb brought Willy Loman to the world in the 1949 stage premiere

 of Death of a Salesman. Here Cobb is--some believe he was the

 quintessential Willy--in the 1966 television broadcast.

Miller reads excerpts from Death of a Salesman.  This recording was made in Feb.1955 in New York City at the 92nd Street Y, home to many literary events. If the recording does not play, go to the 92nd Street Y archive to listen.

Questions re: Death of a Salesman: All Miller quotes below are taken from his “Tragedy and the Common Man” essay.

We will form groups for discussion regarding these questions. One group member will lead the discussion, one will take notes and two others will prepare to represent the group for a class discussion.  One set of notes per group will be collected at the end of the discussion. Answer the questions in RED for group discussions. Along with your answers refer to specific pages within the play. Include these page numbers with the notes that you will give to me.

1. What does Miller mean when he says in his essay, “we are often held to be below tragedy or tragedy above us”? Does he agree with this belief? Do you? Why?

2. How is Willy Loman, as Miller writes, unwilling to “remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status”? Does Willy’s family—Linda, Biff and Happy—share this trait with him or not?  Explain.

3. Miller discusses “the underlying fear of being displaced” and its connection to tragedy.  How does this quality apply to Willy Loman?

4. Miller argues how “tragedy requires the finest appreciation by the writer of cause and effect.” Offer examples from Death of a Salesman that illustrate his claim. 

5. What is the difference between a hallucination, a dream, and a remembrance? Is Willy inhabiting a world of hallucinations or dreams? Neither? Are his remembrances mostly accurate, or not? Explain with specific references to Ben, the Woman, and Biff.

6. Why is it difficult to follow the action? Why is Miller telling things in such, some might say, an unconventional fashion? Time is all over the place. (Some students have asked.)

7. How do each of Willy's family members react to Willy's  planned suicide?  What does their reaction--whether to confront, ignore, or be gentle--reveal about their character? 

8.  Willy favors Biff over Happy.  Why?  Is it because Biff is a talented athlete, the oldest, or reflects the nature of a succession in a powerful family?  Explain.

9.  Some members of the audience see Willy as suffering some sort of nervous disorder or mental disability.  If this is so, can Willy still be a tragic hero as Miller wants us to believe he is? When answering the question, recall Miller's assertion that "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 be, to secure one thing--his sense of personal dignity [my emphasis.] From Orestes to Hamlet, Medea to Macbeth, the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his "rightful" position in his society."

10.  We know that the gods are present in Greek tragedies. Royal figures appear in Shakespeare.  Are they present in Death of a Salesman?  Offer examples that demonstrate that this is true.

The 1949 premiere of Miller's Death of a Salesman,

 with Mildred Dunnock, Lee J . Cobb, Arthur Kennedy, and Cameron Mitchell.

Additional Questions from previous classes: 

1.  What is the importance of music playing at the opening and end of Act I? (Jeremy)

2. Why do you think that Willy is so stubborn? Why does he resist change? (Eunice)

3. Why does Willy demand that Linda not speak? (Felipe)

4.  Why does Biff tell his mother to dye her hair? 
 (David)

5. Willy says, "That's a million dollar idea!" What is Willy revealing about himself when he says these words? (Shogo)

6. Why does Willy want to kill himself? (Dara)

7. Why does Happy not have the respect of his family? (Sydnee)

8. Reread the description of Feminist criticism in our literature textbook.  Apply its features to the character of Linda.

The Many Productions of Death of a Salesman

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of productions of Death of a Salesman since its 1949 premiere.  Here are some memorable ones.

Since the Opening Curtain, Is Willy Loman Jewish?

"A Yiddish play with the title Toyt fun a Salesman opened at the Parkway Theater in Brooklyn early in 1951. As most of the audience recognized from the name alone, the show was a translation of Arthur Miller’s drama Death of a Salesman. It seemed a mere footnote to the premiere production, which had completed its triumphal run on Broadway several months earlier, having won the Pulitzer Prize." A photograph of the production appears below.  (from The New York Times, May 18, 2012)

Alfredo Valente/Associated Press

Gene Lockhart, center, playing Willy Loman in the 1949 original production

 of “Death of a Salesman,” by Arthur Miller. (from The New York Times, May 18, 2012)

Philip Seymour Hoffman starred as Willy Loman in a New York production of Death of a Salesman in Spring 2012. See "Searching for the Life of a Salesman," The New York Times, March 8, 2012.  Maureen Dowd, also of the Times, talks to its director Mike Nichols about the significance of the father-son relationship in her article "How Oedipus Wrecks."

A scene from the 2012 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, with, from left,
Andrew Garfield, Finn Wittrock, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Linda Emond.

The South Coast Repertory (SCR) theatre in Costa Mesa, CA production of Death of a Salesman ran August-September 2013. Go to the SCR site for more information. The Los Angeles Times also profiled Charlie Robinson, who starred as Willy Loman.

Charlie Robinson as Willy Loman in the August-September 2013

 South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, production of Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller with 1983 Chinese cast of Death of A Salesman.  Ruocheng Ying played Willy Loman in the production staged at the Peoples Art Theatre in Beijing. Photograph by Inge Morath. Read about Miller's recollections of the production here.

Image from a 2012 Australian production of Death of a Salesman, where its connection to American culture is apparent, it was said to be "more relevant to Australia than ever." Read about the production here.