Customer Reviews

Death Of A Salesman (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Penguin Plays)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Death of a salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller (1915- ). The play focuses on how Willy Loman, the main character always thinks and talks about being successful. Being successful is Willy's great dream. Just like the American dream. Willy strives to bring happiness to himself and his family, but does not succeed. He is too prideful to accept the fact that his dream of being a successful salesman never will become true, and he is too prideful to accept where he fits in society. People like Willy are very common in today's society. They are caught up in the American dream; everybody wants to be successful, but only a few make it to the top. But is this really the most important values in life? Willy looks at himself as a failure, just because he didn't make it to the top in business life, well, that is how business is; not everybody can make it to the top. That doesn't necessarily mean that your whole life is over. That is what happened to Willy; when he felt like a failure because of his broken dream, he let it out on his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy. Then he killed himself. This shows that Willy's only values in life were to become wee-liked and successful and if he didn't, it wasn't worth living. I think the book was a bit difficult to read, because the play shifts between present and past, which makes it a bit confusing. All over, I liked the book, not because the story was so good, but because after finishing it, it made me think about how much people think about their career, and how often the career becomes a first priority, no matter what. Is it the career that makes a man successful?

The play, "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller, is a classic representation of the strife that the so-called pursuit of the American Dream can bring. The main character of the play is Willy Loman, who is found trapped by his old fashioned beliefs of how the business world should operate. It is found in the play that often times a smile and good appearance is not enough to get the job done. Willy was never successful in fufilling his ultimate dream of becoming a successful salesman. While he tried to attain his dream, he began to realize that his family life was unraveling. He was a victim of the "Heratio Alger" mentality, which stated that success would come to those who pursued their goals diligently. As high school students, we found the issues brought up in the play to be extremely relevant to everyday life. People like Willy are very common in today's society, in which people try so hard and still have troubles taking care of their family and fufilling their responsibilities. For a man that places so much importance on being successful it is hard for Willy to deal with the consequences he is faced with when his dreams fail to come true. The American Dream for some people is not easy to attain. This play is a good example of the everyday struggle that people face when trying to live up to something that they are not. Whether Willy liked it or not, he could not achieve the level of success and recognition he would've wanted for himself and his family. The true tragedy of the play is the gradual decline of which the Loman family is faced with. Some people have touble surviving in today's society becuase they just don't have what it takes to stay in the game. This play makes you think about the value that our society places on something we know we cannot attain. We felt that this play was informative and offered an in-depth look at the obstacles that people face when trying to attain something that is important for themselves to achieve. We would recommend this play to people who want to pursue a certain goal in life. It shows the struggle of a man with a good heart, who in the end has nothing but his life insurance to show for it. We must ask ourselves then, what it is that makes a man successful. Perhaps after reading this play the reader will begin to realize that there is more to life than the American Dream.

I am an outside sales rep so I have a lot of drive time...I put that time to good use by listening to Death of a Salesman on tape.
It is an amazing story that is still relevant today. The moral is a nice reminder that the worth of oneself is not measured merely in wealth and career accomplishments.

I have read many of the reviews and i must wonder if they read the play. How can someone not fall in love with the play, much less, how can they not call it a tragedy. This play is about an average man, Willy Loman, who is caught up in the American Dream. He is disillusioned because he is too prideful to accept where he fits in society. The play shifts between the present and the past, and at times it may be confusing, but Willy's world is confusing, he does not know where he is. This play is an incredible piece of American writing, because it is the first true tragedy in a long time. WIlly's death is a tragedy, he is a tragic hero, and the play is incredible. I encourage all who read this commentary to read this play, it is one that people of all social classes and ages can relate to. GO READ THIS PLAY!

I read Arthur Miller's The Crucible when I was in high school. While I didn't hate it, as many of my classmates at the time did, I really could live the rest of my life happily without ever reading it again. So why, one might ask, did I pick up The Death of a Salesman in a used bookstore? I don't know, but I'm so glad that I did! I was totally surprised to find that I loved this play! I have seen the play and liked it well enough, but reading makes it so powerful!

The Death of a Salesman, as many of you know, is the story of Willy Loman, a professional salesman. The play actively shows his breakdown of his mental facilities, but also the breakdown of his spirit. What happens when a man cannot face his failure? What happens when a man has worked incredibly hard, simply for respect, only to be tossed out like refuse? When your reality becomes the one thing that you cannot tolerate, what do you do? What does your family do?

Those are the questions explored in The Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller's writing style is active and powerful. Because The Death of a Salesman is a play, there is no narration, you are hit with the actions of the characters head on.

The Death of a Salesman is most powerful because eventually we will all face Willy Loman's position. Perhaps not because we have failed, but simply because the tides of time go on, and our society treats people like a throw-away commodity. Willy was once a powerful salesman for his company, yet in the end, he was shown the door.

If my review has not been glowing enough to stress that I believe everyone should read this play (which can easily be read in a few short hours), let me finish with a thought on space. I don't have any. That is, my home is tiny, and therefore almost all of the fiction books that I read are passed on to someone else, because I don't have room to store them. The Death of a Salesman will not be passed on. It will stay with me forever.

Willy Loman is a sixty-five year old salesman who has been working at a dead end job for more than thirty years. The play revolves around the ideals of friendliness and being well-liked, which are the ideals which have now become despised in the world. An incredibly dark, satirical drama able to be ranked with "An American Tragedy"

'Death of a Salesman' is a play written by Authur Miller. The plot of the play moves from the present to the past and back again from the life of Willy Lowman,who had been a salesman all his life.HE has two sons Happy and Biff and wife Linda.His brother Ben went to Africa when he was very young and found diamonds after which he became very rich.Willy himself had been trying to make it big all his life as a salesman and had high hopes for his two sons but had always been dissappointed. This is a story of hopes and happiness with success but all hopes fail and the Salesman gets kicked by life.His attempt to make it big never comes true. The book is very interesting to read and tells a lot about the characters. A pretty cool book!

This is a preachy, political and partisan play that nevertheless manages to be quite affecting. It takes its cue from the socialist stereotyping of materialism that pervaded the theatre of the 1930's and shamelessly goes on to gore its straw man with remorseless abandon. Today, it reads as blatantly biased, but given the tone and tenor of its time, this is a forgivable sin.

This play is often included in grade school curricula as a superior example of mid-twentieth century theatre. This is done partly because its themes are simple and its language accessible, but also because, truth be told, it is a well-crafted play with meaningful characters and a significant message.

Death of a Salesman is not a complicated play. It argues that capitalist materialism consists of fraud, hypocrisy and delusion, and its central character, Willy Loman, has embodied these traits so completely and for so long that he can no longer distinguish between meaning and emptiness. His wife and sons are not just ciphers, but complex people in their own right, and the fallout from Willy's values is so toxic that it leads to the forfeiture of their own chance at happiness.

This play elicits mixed feelings because it straddles both the relevant and the simplistic. On the one hand, it accurately dissects certain aspects of western culture and the unthinking pursuit of riches. Our society does produce shallow unreflective wage earners who chase the almighty dollar to the exclusion of all else, and we have probably all met our own Willy Lomans before. However, the vast majority of the middle class do not conform to Miller's portrayal and, in this respect, Willy Loman resembles caricature more than personality. This feeling, that Willy Loman was constructed not so much to explore life as to score points, is what detracts from the general experience. Although the insights are both accurate and current, they are also simplistic, and the reader cannot shake the feeling that Willy Loman is an artifice that was built up in just such a way that he could later be knocked down to best press the playwright's agenda.

So this is the reader's dilemma: the central character is a caricature, but a finely wrought one; he is used to make a point, but a worthy one; the playwright preaches, but does it well. This play reminds me of Dickens's best work, where charming Cockneys, implacable revolutionaries and other memorable characters of remarkable distinction were used to promote similarly simplistic and partisan agendas. Those who can forgive Dickens should be able to enjoy this play. Those who find Dickens too barefaced will have problems with this work too.

This book serves as an excellent commentary on the falsity of the American Dream. Fed the propaganda of prosperity, every person believes they can make it in life, while most live out a modest existence. I give 4 stars because as a book it is not spectacular, but as a play, this work is brilliant. It's not a tongue-in-cheek satirical examination of insanity and lost hope. Instead, Miller grants us a bare-bones look at the psychological process of a man who's world falls apart because he puts too much importance on being 'well-liked'. Miller deftly examines the importance of charisma while providing for some values that we should all embrace; study, work, and love. What does this all come down to? Love accepts character flaws, but 'well-liked' doesn't.

This is REALITY at its cruelest. Not only does Miller display the emotional rollercoaster ability he is so famous for in this play, but he forces the reader to take society as she is...a cruel form of dictated rules and irony.

This play focuses on the American dream gone wrong. No wonder we can all relate! Timeless and truely classic, this play offers the best and worst of American society. What more does an average Joe need? A dream and a strong pair of hands and a ton of luck! As Death of a Salesman would prove, without luck there is no chance.