Product Description

The "Heinemann Plays" series offers contemporary drama and classic plays in durable classroom editions. Many have large casts and an equal mix of boy and girl parts. This modern tragedy concerns a salesman who, at the end of his life, is forced to face its futility and failure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82859 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 117 pages

Customer Reviews

powerful!
I became a fan of Arthur Miller after seeing one of his plays on stage – “All of my Sons”. A powerful and tear-jerking story line if ever there was one. I was under the firm opinion that this one was a one-off. I was proven wrong with Death of a Salesman. A totally absorbing read.

I saw Willy - could feel his pain even... I had tears in my eyes during that last scene and was left grief-stricken at the end of the book! Arthur Miller truly is a powerful writer. It may take time to appreciate his writing – but if you take the time – you will be rewarded with a wonderful treat. I intent to read all of Arthur Miller’s writing. I find his work so moving. I hope other readers learn to appreciate him as much….He is simply amazing!

How to screw up you and everybody else's life
Have you ever thought about how it would feel if you were 63 years old and everything you reached in your life is, that you lost your job and the love of your oldest son? That is exactly what happens to Willy Loman, the main character in Arthur Miller's drama "Death of a Salesman".
This play is about Willy Loman's family, including his wife Linda and their two grown-up sons Biff and Happy and their process of realizing that their life is basically based on lies.
Willy is a salesman, who lately can't concentrate on working and drifts into the past very often, because the past was the time, when he and his son Biff were best friends and he was good at his job. In the present his life doesn't seem to be that great, because he got fired and he has to admit that he is not the strong man, he wanted everyone to think he was.
Throughout the whole play, Willy and Biff Loman are fighting about everything they could possibly fight about - but when Willy gets lost in his reminiscences Biff and he get along very well and he supports his son in everything Biff does. So the reader has to find out what happened to the great father-son-relationship. What he find out, is that Willy was unfaithful to Linda, and unfortunately he was objected by Biff, who can't forgive him. Another bad coincidence is, that because he realized what kind of man his father is, Biff didn't want to finish high-school and so he dropped-out with no graduation. One consequence of this is, that he was never able to find a proper job ore to finish anything he started with. Of course he blames Willy for it, who doesn't want to be responsible for his son's failure.
On the one hand, I suppose that "Death of a Salesman" will never be one of my favourite books, because even though it is a very sad and touching story, the reader gets easily lost in the weird imagination and reminiscences of Willy Loman. The story is not enough exciting to make the reader want to read it further that the fist pages. But on the other hand, I think that the play is very realistic, because everyone in the United States wants the American Dream to become true in their lives and only very few people got the luck to actually "live it" ....and Willy Loman is certainly none of them.

Biff: "I was in jail"
Willy (ironic): "I suppose that's my fault!"
Biff: "I stole myself out of every good job since high school"
Willy: And whose fault is that?"
Biff:" And I never go anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stnd taking orders from anybody. That's whose fault it is!"

Contrived, but sometimes effectively so
I can understand the appeal of Death of a Salesman and I respect the opinion that it is one of Miller's finest works, but I found the play highly disappointing.
Contrary to the popular response, I was unable to feel any sympathy for Willy Loman, a man whose tragedy was brought entirely upon himself, not by having the 'wrong dreams', as his son suggested, but by his failure to work towards those dreams and his complete denial of reality.
Miller has a talent for original metaphors and profound statements, unfortunately these are utterly wasted in Death of a Salesman, in which the modern language surrounding them makes them sound misplaced, forced and ridiculously contrived.
To be fair, the emotional climax between Willy and Biff was touching, even to a reader made so cynical by the short-comings of the play, but by this point I was so irritated by Willy's pathetic decline that I was unable to fully appreciate this otherwise ingenious scene.
My appreciation of this play is bound to be incomplete, however, due to my abhorrence of modern drama. Please also bear in mind that that I read this play and it is my firm belief that plays, should be watched, at least on video (there is an excellent film of Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman) if no theatre performance is accessible, not read. Anyone who likes this kind of play and who can tolerate or ignore the general air of falseness about it, should consider Death of a Salesman as top of its division.