Does willy loman die a martyr? how do linda 39 s and his sons 39 interpretations of his death differ? a strong answer will note that willy has a noble conception of his suicide he kills himself because he truly believes that the insurance money will allow his sons to achieve their destined greatness. But miller does not give the audience the easy satisfaction of seeing willy 39 s plan come to fruition. It is highly doubtful that the lomans would actually receive any insurance money at all. He has a record of suicide attempts, and it would be near impossible to convince the insurance company that his death was an accident. The crux of an essay should be that willy thinks he is martyring himself, but his martyrdom is in vain. Death of a salesman is one of the foundational texts describing the american dream. How does miller 39 s play differ from the more traditional horatio alger model? is miller overwhelmingly cynical on the topic? strong answers will contrast miller 39 s pessimistic and cynical take on the concept of the american dream with its glorified horatio alger representations.

Traditionally, the american dream means that any person can work his way up from the bottom of the ladder to the top. Miller 39 s work isn 39 t so much a direct subversion of that dream as it is an exploration of the way in which the existence of the american dream can ruin a person 39 s expectations. Discuss the motif of women 39 s stockings in death of a salesman? what are willy and biff 39 s attitudes toward them? how do linda and the woman with whom willy is having an affair regard them? to the women, stockings serve as a symbol of what willy can provide and as a measure of his success.

Each time the stockings appear, they serve each of these three purposes for every character present. How do happy and biff 39 s names contrast with or support their characters? interpret the name loman. As his name implies, happy is someone who should be content he has a job, an apartment, and a never ending stream of women but he remains deeply unhappy.

Ben willy 39 s brother is named after the biblical figure benjamin, which means one who is blessed. The biblical benjamin far outstripped his brothers in all areas, rousing their jealousy. No great hero, he is already so low on the ladder that he has hardly anywhere to fall. What is the role of modernity in death of a salesman? have cars and gas heaters fundamentally changed the american dream? how does miller view these innovations? the answer should note that willy is a man left behind by progress.

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His is a profession that only functions in a small niche of time he is reliant on the automobile and the highway system, but can 39 t survive the advent of more sophisticated sales methods than the door to door. He is startled and confused by howard 39 s gadgets, and longs for an outdoors life that involves creating things with his hands. Are there any positive models for a harmonious relationship? does miller find this concept plausible? there are only two women of significance in the play, linda and the woman, who does not even merit a name. Happy nicely exposits the dichotomy between the two types of women in the world, as represented by his idealized mother and by the woman and miss forsythe. The attitude towards women that willy modeled for his sons was that women exist to be conquered and once they 39 ve been had, they are no longer worthy of respect.

What do they stand for? willy begins to obsess over seeds as he realizes that he has nothing to pass on to his sons. He hasn 39 t created anything real, nothing physical that you can touch with your hand. But seeds are an investment in the future, something that is both tangible and grows with time, and that is what he wants to pass on to his sons. Discuss examples of ways in which willy loman 39 s suicide is foreshadowed in the first act of the play. Be sure to note that the question isn 39 t really whether willy is going to die, but how. The discussion of willy as suicidal is quite on the nose in the first act, but what is left ambiguous at that point is the how and the why.

We are given both the rubber hose and the car as possible modes of suicide, and general despair and desperation as motivations, but the ultimate motivation of insurance money does not become an issue until the end of the play. How do willy loman and blanche dubois each represent a fundamental element of the american drive towards progress and success? willy and blanche are both victims of modernity. Rather than adjusting, both characters descend deeper into their idea of the idealized past, until they lose hold on reality altogether. How do willy loman and jay gatsby suffer a similar fate? answer: although they lived very different lives willy, objectively a failure, and gatsby, objectively a success willy and gatsby had similar downfalls. Both were caught up in the illusion of the american dream, fervently believing that they could and should reach for the stars. But after a lifetime of having relied on personality to get by, the men found themselves terribly alone, even in death. How does willy rsquo s home function as a metaphor for his ambitions? when willy and linda purchased their home, the neighborhood was quieter than they now find it.

Willy was a young man with ambitious hopes for the future, and his house represented a space in which he could expand his dreams. Willy is a much older man, and his chances of achieving his dreams are much slimmer. There is less room to expand, and the sunlight does not even reach into his yard. When he returned, his worshipful sons greeted him, and he whispered into their eager ears his hopes to open his own business.

When the play opens, willy returns to his home a defeated man, unable to complete his latest business trip, and with his argument with biff left unresolved. What role does the fear of abandonment play in willy rsquo s life? willy rsquo s obsession with making his family conform to the ideals of the american dream seems rooted in the childhood emotional trauma of his abandonment by his father. Since his father left him with nothing, willy feels an acute need to put his sons mdash especially biff mdash on the right path in life. He convinces himself that he is capable of doing so, which leads to his inflated sense of self importance as when he tells his young sons about how well known he is in new england. Willy rsquo s ultimate belief in the deluded prospect of biff rsquo s imminent success causes him to trade in his own life to leave biff $ 20,0.

Death of a Salesman Essay Topics American Dream Text

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