Paperback
English language
Published Jan. 6, 1998 by Penguin Books.
Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age sixty-three, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith.
Miller's masterpiece has steadily seen productions all ove rthe world since its 1949 debut. As the noted Miller scholar Christopher Bigsby states in his Introduction, "if Willy's is an American dream, it is also a dream shared by all those who are aware of the gap between what they might have been and waht they are." (back cover)
What a gut punch. Had me immersed from the first page on. The dialogue flows really well, the characters are basically alive and the story is amazing.
Really wish I could see a play live.
Outstanding and emotionally moving.
I started reading this on a whim. I had earmarked it because it was referenced in something, but now I forget what that was—either way, it was worth it, because this is certainly a classic play. This was a good rebuttal to the American dream concept, and though it was a tad bit on the dramatic side, Miller does present fallible characters whose complexity almost made me pity them. It is true that none of them are particularly likeable or respectable, except maybe Bernard, but the depiction of the Loman family is nevertheless well-done.
I don’t know what themes Miller was trying to address exactly, but I kept thinking not only of mental illness but age-related cognitive decline, as well as the myths of the nuclear family and the American dream. These are all addressed in the play to great effect. There were some confusing moments, like many of the …
I started reading this on a whim. I had earmarked it because it was referenced in something, but now I forget what that was—either way, it was worth it, because this is certainly a classic play. This was a good rebuttal to the American dream concept, and though it was a tad bit on the dramatic side, Miller does present fallible characters whose complexity almost made me pity them. It is true that none of them are particularly likeable or respectable, except maybe Bernard, but the depiction of the Loman family is nevertheless well-done.
I don’t know what themes Miller was trying to address exactly, but I kept thinking not only of mental illness but age-related cognitive decline, as well as the myths of the nuclear family and the American dream. These are all addressed in the play to great effect. There were some confusing moments, like many of the hazy dream-esque sequences with Ben and the flashbacks, but that might have been an effect of reading this play instead of seeing it.
One interesting question that the play asks is whether a singular event can shape or determine the course of our lives—and if it does, are we bound to that determination, or can we escape it? I am not sure the play gives us a clear answer, rather it takes us to wrestle with this ourselves; as I’m largely not a determinist, this is probably my own biased reading of the play. Even when life seems bleak and our opportunities are quashed, there are still things under our own control that we can utilize to change the course of our life. Even if a single moment drastically changes the course of our life and derails our expectations, it need not be the only one.
A sobering reflection on the meaning of life and the pursuit of dreams.
A sobering reflection on the meaning of life and the pursuit of dreams.
