Death of a Salesman: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''He's liked... but not well-liked.''|'''Willy Loman''', |''Death of a Salesman''}}

Once upon a time (in the 1940s), playwright [[Arthur Miller]] (some time husband of [[Marilyn Monroe]]) set out to disprove one of the fundamental theories about the [[Tragic Hero]] -- specifically, that the [[Tragic Hero]] must be royalty, nobility, or some other type of great man who has far to fall (which he does) and much to lose (which, again, he does). Miller intended to write a play with an [[EveryThe ManEveryman|everyman]], a [[Meaningful Name|low man]], as the [[Tragic Hero]]. He may instead have created an entirely different archetype, the [[This Loser Is You|"pathetic hero"]]. Either way, in doing so, he wrote what is often considered the greatest American play.

It's''''Death of a Salesman''''' is a very stagy play, since it's from Willy's dreamy, hallucination-and-flashback-ridden perspective. They managed to turn it into a very faithful, satisfactory movie, with [[Dustin Hoffman]] as Willy and [[John Malkovich]] as Biff.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Willy.}}

* [[Tragic Hero]]: Unlike a Tragic Hero, Willy Loman is a "pathetic hero" because he learns nothing from his ordeal or mistakes, maintaining his belief in the power of popularity to the end, nor does his death somehow make life better for those he leaves behind (as his hallucination of his dead brother tells him, {{spoiler|they won't honor his insurance policy in the case of a suicide}}). But because of the play's popularity, it took Miller years of defending his success in creating a Tragic Hero out of the common man to admit he failed with Willy Loman and that Biff really should have been the protagonist (especially since he does learn something).