In the play, Death of a Salesman, the final chapter is titled “Requiem” instead of “Epilogue”. The definition of Requiem in’ The concise Oxford dictionary’ is a special Mass for repose of souls of the dead’. The Requiem serves as a tribute to Willy Loman. Sympathy is evoked and reasons for his behavior are given. Charley gives the central speech-‘ Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.’ Any blame or anger at Willy is counteracted. It echoes Linda earlier in the play’ But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.’ It is made absolutely certain that Willy is sympathized with rather than cursed. Though Biff criticizes Willy and argues with him, he still respects him and is compassionate-‘A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working, unappreciated prince’.
The dramatic car crash at the end of the previous scene would be a violent ending, and would leave us with many questions. Before he kills himself it looks like things are on their way to getting better, as if Willy realizes the importance of himself in the family. We can see that Willy is killing himself to help Biff-‘ Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?’. Its ironic that Willy commits suicide to further Biff’s career when it serves to finish it, but it convinces Happy, the son who was always second best, to carry on like his father. We know that Biff has no need for the money, as the things he appreciates in life are free. He thinks that his family will be thankful-‘ Ben, he’ll worship me for it!’ when we know they won’t. Without the Requiem we wouldn’t know how th…
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…ma. 36 (1993): 443-453.
Eisinger, Chester E. “Focus on Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’: The Wrong Dreams,” in American Dreams, American Nightmares,
(1970 rpt In clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1976 vol. 6:331
Florio, Thomas A., ed. “Miller’s Tales.” The New Yorker. 70 (1994): 35-36.
Foster, Richard J. (Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller’s ‘Salesman’ (1959) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:316
Gardner, R. H. (“Tragedy of the Lowest Man,” in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. Arthur Miller Criticism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1969.
Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Viking, 1965.
—. Eight Plays. New York: Nelson Doubleday, 1981.
Death of A Salesman as a Modern Tragedy
Death of A Salesman as a Modern Tragedy
It has been stated that the audience needs to have mixed feelings about the destruction of a human being for a play to be a tragedy. To establish Death of A Salesman as a tragedy, we must demonstrate that not only does the audience feel sadness due to Willy’s demise, but also they feel that justice has been exacted on Willy for his behavior. As this is the case I will first examine the reasons why the audience feels sadness for Willy, and then go on to see why it is that the audience also feels that Willy deserves the punishment which fate hands him.
It is obvious throughout Death of A Salesman that Willy Loman’s life is bad, and that it is getting worse, despite Willy’s dreams and aspirations. His first major problem is with his job. From the very first scene we see that all is not well. Willy has returned from a work trip the same day as setting out for it, and it is made obvious that this is not the first occurrence of an incident of this type. Thus the audience is aware that Willy has problems with his job, and it is not long before they find out that Willy having trouble getting to work is the least of his problems. The real problem lies at work itself. It appears that despite all of Willy’s bragging, he is not actually a very successful salesman (the lack of people at his funeral perhaps indicates not only that he isn’t one, but also that he never was a particularly good one in the first place). He has in fact been ‘borrowing’ money from Charley to make Linda think that he is still successful. Willy lies so often about his work (as well as other things), that he has almost made himself believe his own lies, and one of the only indications to the contrary is…
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…acter in the play inspires several different sentiments, including Linda who despite being loyal is too subservient for her own good, and Biff, who despite the fact that he is honest and has good intentions, is too direct to help matters very much.
Works Cited
Eisinger, Chester E. “Focus on Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’: The Wrong Dreams,” in American Dreams, American Nightmares, (1970 rpt In clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1976 vol. 6:331
Foster, Richard J. (Confusion and Tragedy: The Failure of Miller’s ‘Salesman’ (1959) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:316
Gardner, R. H. (“Tragedy of the Lowest Man,” in his Splintered Stage: (1965) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 2l6:320
Gordon, Lois “Death of a Salesman”: An Appreciation, in the Forties: 1969) rpt in clc. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983 vol. 26:323