Author: Arthur Miller- he was a prominent figure in the American theatre. He wrote many plays such as The Crucible and All My Sons.
Setting: This play mainly takes place in New York. Most of the time they are in the Loman's kitchen, but Boston, and the office is also where a few scenes take place. This takes place after World War 2.
Characters:
Willy Loman- constantly searching through his past, cannot accept the fact that he is a "low man" and his failures as a father and husband. He is materialistic, and only cares about whether he is "well liked" by others. He seems as though he favors Biff over Happy, and disregards his wife Linda. He is the typical tragic hero.
Biff Loman- One of Willy and Linda's sons. Was a popular athlete in high school, but turned out unsuccessful in his adult life. He is the only one out of his entire family that acknowledges the fact that he has failed in the business world and that they should not be there. Willy has talked him up his entire life and has made him think that he is one of the best men out there, when that is not the case. This ultimately sets Biff up for failure, and Biff recognizes that. Willy on the other hand, does not. Biff spends a lot of his time searching for his true identity.
Happy Loman- Basically a younger version of Willy. He is very determined to make it in the business world, even though that is not where they belong. He shares many of the same qualities as Willy, such as always talking himself up to people, and not accepting that he is a "low man". He also really only cares about the women.
Linda Loman- She seems like the voice of reason. She is always protecting Willy from the truth, just trying to keep her family together. She wants everyone to get along and isn't always treated the best by Willy. Yet she is loyal and respects him more than anything. Probably even more than her sons.
Charley- Willy and Linda's next door neighbor. He is successful and recognizes Willy's failures when it comes to his job. He always tries to help Willy, although they don't always get along.
Bernard- Biff's high school friend. He was very into his studies unlike Biff in high school. He turned out to be very successful, and basically the son that Willy had always wanted.
Ben- Willy's older brother who went to Africa and discovered diamonds. Willy looks up to him very much.
The Woman- Willy's mistress in Boston
Howard- Willy's boss who has known Willy his whole life, but still does not treat Willy with respect and doesn't have the patience to deal with him.
Plot: The play starts out with Willy coming home from traveling, and Linda seems very worried about him and rushes to his side to help. Their two sons, Biff and Happy, are home. Biff has just gotten back from out West where he was jumping from job to job, and was in prison for a few months too. Willy and him are not on the best terms at this point in the play. Happy is unsuccessful as well, although he thinks highly of himself, he is just an assistant to an assistant. Willy starts to talk to Linda about Biff, saying that he is a bum and that he's lazy. He wonders what went wrong in Biff's life. Willy reverts into a flashback and starts to think about the times when Biff and Happy were in high school. This was when Biff was on the football team, and was very well liked. Bernard, Biff's friend, keeps coming up saying that they must study for math, or else the professor will fail Biff. Willy and Biff disregard Bernard, as if it doesn't matter. All that matters for them is that they are well liked. Willy also has a flashback in this time about the woman he had an affair with in Boston. He snaps out of it when Charley, their neighbor, comes by to play some cards. Willy again goes back into another flashback about his brother Ben. They talk about many things, such as their mother's death and going to Alaska. It is made quite clear here that Willy idolizes Ben very much and wanted to go find Alaska with him. By this time, Charley gets very annoyed and leaves and Willy wanders out to the yard, saying things to Linda about his diamond watch fob that Ben gave him years ago. The boys talk to Linda with concern about Willy, and she informs them that he is in need of some serious help and that he has tried/is trying to kill himself. This is when the boys agree to step it up and help him out. So Biff agrees to go to Oliver to get a job, and Willy is going to Howard to try to get a job in New York instead of traveling.
The next day, everyone is in a good mood until Willy gets to the office and Howard fires him. He says that Willy needs a break and is too tired. Willy is heartbroken by this. This causes Willy to go back into yet another flashback about Biff. This time he was taking Biff to his biggest football game ever. You can see here how their relationship used to be great. He snaps out of it when he gets to Charley's office, where he has been going to get his pay for several weeks now. He finds Bernard, and sees how successful he is. He asks Bernard why Biff isn't as successful as him and is very emotional. He takes his money from Charley, and before leaving, says that he is probably worth more dead than alive.
That evening he meets his two sons at Frank's Chop House for dinner, when Biff tries to tell him that he stole Oliver's fountain pen and was ignored by Oliver, Willy gets very angry. He storms off to the bathroom where he has a flashback of his falling out with Biff when Biff caught him with the woman in Boston.
Biff and Happy leave Willy alone, and come home to find him planting seeds in the garden. They don't know this, but Willy is actually "talking" to Ben about how Biff would get $20,000 of insurance if Willy died. Linda, Willy and the two boys have a huge fight that results in Willy realizing that Biff has loved him the whole time. But all Biff wanted Willy to do was to let go of this phony dream he had. They all decide to go to bed, when they hear the car crash, and it was Willy. He had committed suicide. In the end, they have a funeral where no one but Willy's family and Charley and Bernard show up.
Miller's Style: There was no point of view in this play. I did see a lot of tone shifting, though. I saw this mainly with Willy. It seems as though whenever he is talking to his sons about business or getting money, he has a very happy and interested tone, but if something happens, like if Linda interrupts or says something, his tone automatically shifts to angry and upset. Something that was interesting about this play was that Willy is constantly going into the past with "flashbacks" or memories. There is no warning that this is happening, so sometimes the present and the past sometimes run together. That was something I hadn't seen in a play before.
I saw a lot of symbols in this play. One of them was the seeds that Willy always wants to plant out in the garden. I thought these symbolized Willy's hope for some better future, or that his dreams might one day come true. I think it is also worth noting that these plants will be growing and still there after he passes, and maybe that symbolizes that something of him will be left behind for his family. Another symbol was diamonds. These diamonds symbolize the wealth that Willy wants, and his failure has a salesman because these diamonds brought his brother Ben wealth, but is what Willy is still longing to get. Next was the stockings. These stockings remind Willy of the affair he had with a women while he was in Boston and his falling out with Biff. They symbolize betrayal of his family. One last thing that I thought was a symbol was the West. I thought that symbolized freedom and opportunity. Where they really belonged.
Memorable Quotes:
Willy: "Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground" (pg. 96).
Willy said this after the falling out at the restaurant with Biff and Happy. He starts talking about buying and planting seeds when he gets home. This shows that his life did not go the way he had planned, and he is afraid that he has nothing to show for his family or for all of his life's work as a salesman. I think that by planting these seeds, he thinks that after his death, he is leaving something behind for his family and he will be remembered as the successful man he thinks he is.
Willy: "Will you stop mending stockings? At least while I'm in the house. It gets me nervous. I can't tell you. Please" (pg. 55).
When Willy says this to Linda, it shows that he doesn't like to see the fact that he can't provide new stockings for Linda and that she has to wear old, torn up ones because he gave the new stockings to the women he was having an affair with. I think this bothers him because he is reminded of the affair, but more importantly he is reminded of what drove Biff away.
Theme: Willy's version of the American Dream, that superficial qualities such as being well-liked, won't get you very far in life.
Support: This whole play basically revolves around the idea that if you are well-liked, then you will go far in this world. This is what Willy had been telling his sons for years and years before Biff finally realized that being well liked isn't all that matters. You can see in the plot that Willy has not been as successful as he thinks, and he isn't as well liked as he thinks either. An example of this would be at his funeral, he said hundreds would show up from all over, but only his family and neighbors did. Also, he would pick on Bernard when he was younger because he was a "nerd" and not as well liked as Biff. The ironic thing was that Bernard focused on what was important, and good things basically stopped happening to Biff after the age of 17. Biff realized that there was more to life than being well liked and you should do what you love. He wanted to go out West, but Willy disapproved, but that's where they all really belong. Not in the business world, but doing something out West. Biff said to his father that they are all just a dime a dozen, and that there is nothing special about them. This is true because they are no more successful or well liked than anyone else, but they are struggling more than anyone.
Tone also supports this theme because throughout the play, I saw a lot of shifts in tone. One tone I saw in particular was Willy being a little arrogant at times. He would always say to his sons that no one would make a fool of him, and that he was very well liked and respected in the city. This was not true, because if it was, he would have been much more successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment