117 pages
Published March 18, 1994 by Heinemann Educational Publishers.
The blood of Willy Lohman flows in all of us. The story of the salesman who wanted more for his sons than he knew how to get, who harmed them through his well-meaning dreams but atoned with his life, is at least in part the story of all of us. That is why it is one of the most overwhelming successes of the modern American theatre. --back cover
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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.
