We read it my senior year of high school (1985) and I fell in love with reading plays because of it. It's damn near flawless.

+Gus Gambatese Have you thought about pursuing another line of work?

I do as well. To me, as well as the love story between Willy and Biff part, it is also an everyman tale. It is that tension that can never be resolved between who we long to be and what the world wants from us. We are all Willy Loman to some extent. If we do not kill ourselves, we kill who we are everyday in an attempt to live this life. Life is killing us all, as some have paradoxically said.

Yet one is still being talked about _fifty_ years later. Both films carry great archetypes.

Owl Eye in terms of script yes.. But i see guys like will smith bringing their "commercial emotion" in "Pursuit"..let him play a Frederic March in "Salesman" once in his life !!

the Will Smith movie? What a crap... Homeless man dreaming of becoming a speculating banker, whose job it is to put other people on the streets. American, fuck no.

Pursuit of Happyness is a shite American Dream propaganda. I hated that movie.

Yes you are correct. But as Miller states, it is more than that. It is about a love story between a father and his son. And as anyone who knows anything about love, once it materializes in life, it is ALWAYS tragic on some level.

Capitalism isnt like a lottery, its more like competitive gaming, those who learn from their mistakes and apply everything learned skillfully is the ones who get to stand on the top

Capitalism is far from from the lottery. As someone who comes from a family of immigrants they have all made it, they have all made the American dream. The American Dream doesn’t have to mean becoming a millionaire.

There is no novel, the original play has never been adapted into a novel.

yes, it has.

+MrSpencerMcIntosh What are you talking about? It's a play. Yes, it's been adapted for film and TV productions, but never a novel. Why do you insist that it has? I notice you didn't back up your argument with any links. The internet is vast resource at your fingertips. One minute googling the topic would have set you straight... smh

Yeah beacause why have school or anything? Just use Google instead of the book in your hand... pffft. I read the novel adaptation in like grade 11 AND my teacher played the audiobook that was made for it as well, quit being so dumb.

Well so I found out it’s also a play right after reading the novel. There’s definitely a novel, you can buy it online and i even prefer it to the play

AndyHocvs bullshit, she sees all and plays her role to support her husband at all costs, no matter what truths she knows. She is as much a product of her time that Willy is. Both of them based on the horrors of toxic masculinity- if you know what that term actually means.

If you think this character have made mistakes, then I suppose you can come up with better ways to deal with the situations she was facing isn't that right? I mean it's only natural ... so what do you suggest?

I wouldn't say she is a force of destruction nor a product of toxic masculinity. I would say that she is, like us all, lacking in self evaluation. The hard truth that lies at the bottom of ourselves and how this stands in the world would drive most to madness. She is simply blind, willfully or not, to the whole picture unfolding in front of her. If hindsight is 20/20, watching a play of a family is even more divine in its omniscience. No, she is nothing more than a tragic victim of life. And as Miller pointed out when he was describing what makes a great drama, she is in an unresolvable conflict.

@@mountbrocken I disagree with your statement. The thing about old men...especially this character, is that they see any attempt of help an insult to their masculinity and a showcase of pity they simply can not tolerate, a man is taught that he's only a man if he was able to provide and help, so when he's old, he subconsciously realise that he's slowly becoming useless to those around him. That makes him feel less of a man, a thought he absolutely rejects even considering. His wife knows that very well as she lived with him and most likely suffered from his backlash when she tried to help him, and knowing him, he might have done something extreme. That is why she acts the way she does, knowing that it is impossible for her to help him and his sons, whom he still consider himself superior to them in every sense despite the age difference, will only make it worst should they try themselves.

@@ayouxy While it is the case that Willy is behaving from the assumption that he must take care of himself and his family and any sign of help seems a weakness to him, this is NOT the central theme. Even if he had taken loans from his neighbor or taken a less 'glamorous' (if we can use that term to describe his job) job, he, or anyone, would still be a victim of not only capitalism but Life itself. There are unresolvable conflicts in Life that go beyond feminist criticisms of patriarchy. For instance, just being an individual in a world that seeks to objectify someone for the sake of industry, beauty, family, etc. is tragic and this play encapsulates this perfectly. Does Willy Loman exhibit toxic masculinity? I am sure he does. He has an affair, overtalks his wife, and expresses strong masculine ideas about a man's role that is toxic. However, these are merely incidental to the larger theme of the person's, the everman's, struggle to find identity and meaning in a world that has neither.

MyGuitargirl101 OMG YES!!!

What, like of mice and men?

kiayeoja no resemblance at all if you're referring to Lennie Small from Steinbeck's novella

Same. Especially in the 1985 film of the play before the 1992 version of John Steinbeck’s novel

Tell about the rabbits dordge 😂

Joe M Lol no, the play was adapted into novel format, like many of Shakespeare's plays

What? There are no official novels of Death of a Salesman or any of Shakespeare's plays. There are some materials that summarize plots for, say, younger readers, and in general, to aid in the study of these works (ie. Cliffs Notes), but calling them novels is a huge stretch. If that's not what you're talking about, then please provide a link.

Poor Finian you're right and they're wrong. Just because a play has been printed into a book format and can be read does not make it a novel

What Is Life? Is’t this s play by Arthur Miller??

i remember watching a production of this and cried my way home in the car. it's ok tho like my professors say, plays are meant to be watched.

Did you enjoy it, or watch a screened version?

that's why half of us are here

I know your pain

I had to read A View from The Bridge. Didn't like it, and then I learned about this and loved it.

That is impossible to say. But even if it is true that the insurance doesn't pay out due to suspicion of fraud, it is likely that Biff would still move out West and Happy will continue to be like his father.

@@mountbrocken It's made clear at the end that the insurance company will not honor the policy. In short, it was all for nothing.

@@kennethwayne6857 I was just reading the end and couldn't find where it made that clear. I mean Linda kept saying they were 'free and clear' that they had just finished paying most everything off and all he needed was a little more to pay off all their debts. But I didn't see an explicit statement on the insurance company. It doesn't seem likely they'd pay, but I just didn't see where it states it explicitly.

+Susan Hales - Two things. Form and content. Both of these plays balance the two in a way that communicates with both sides of our brain; the realistic and the imaginative. The reality of it plays out in the tale itself, manifested by the content; the words being spoken, and what those words reveal about the people speaking. The imaginative side of it plays out in the way that time and space are altered, manifested by the form. Willy Loman has 'episodes' that propel him into his own past, and we're taken along for the ride. We know, deep in our gut, that Willy's brother Ben isn't really 'there,' yet we're forced to deal with the fact that just for Willy and us, he is actually present. This has a way of shifting our perceptions of what is happening right in front of us. None of this imagination nonsense going on when you're standing in line at WalMart, or washing your dishes. It's all just three-dimensional reality that we've grown accustomed to. It is my contention that these two linger in your brain, because they both have a unique way of altering your perceptions of what is real. "Salesman," I think, has an added component, related to its content. Willy's struggle, throughout the play, is about coming to grips with the essential difference between one's dreams and the realities of everyday life. Each of these (dream and reality) is unique to specific individuals, both in the way that an individual manages to match them (or not) and the way we handle the result (how successful we are at realizing our dreams). It's not just a Willy Loman struggle we're watching, which is very specific to Willy's dreams and reality and the way he, as an individual copes with the result. It is a universal struggle that's a recognizable ("sticking in your mind") part of human existence.

Beautifully said. Thank you so much!

Good choice, one of mine went through, waiting to see if another will go.

I think it's taken as a work of literature

the PLAY is a work of literature

its a tragic story.

IKR, the "spot the difference" folks are invariably wet blankets.

@@waterhead1027 To some. Personally I enjoy the 'spot the difference' games, I feel being exposed to multiple versions of classic plays enhances my understanding and enjoyment.

In a cutthroat profession like sales, you can't be a delusional asshole with only imaginary friends. In "personality" professions, you must plan ahead for when you've lost your edge. By Willy's age, and with his disagreeable personality, it would have been best to have a job away from the lean young wolves playing with a full deck.

Do you mean Ben, his brother? Cause his dad isn't mentioned much

yeah sorry I meant Ben. :P

ottomaticification Or not mentioned at all.

As123 He is, actually.

Of course it's subjective, but I thought it was Dustin Hoffman's greatest role.

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I love this

Old post. I said "F$%# it" awhile back and started posting replies to posts I like anyway. Appreciating the arts is a lifelong process. Jimmy Stewart would have been excellent. The Loman's plight may be relevant again soon, we're coming into rough days. I had good friends ruined in the last recession, and they were young. There may be an abundance of Willy's in the near future.

@@waterhead1027 Always have been Willy Lomans, always will be.

***** Yet

HIS VOICE

the set on stage was supposed to have this sort of "transparent" look to it, like you cant tell where the set ends and the stage begins, representing willy not being able to tell the difference between reality and dreams

1953, 1983.

***** yes. but the dustin hoffman one was a remake. the original is from 1951.

GamingRisen Which was based on the original 1949 Broadway adaptation.