Answering a passage-based question: Prose and Drama Ask yourself: Where in the text does this passage come from? What has happened before it? What happens as a result of it? What does it reveal about: characters, plot, themes, and language? How is it structured? What devices have been used?

How does Miller make this such a moving ending to the Act? What is the key word here? What is essential for us to feel this way? How many synonyms can you list?

How many did you get?

In Aristotle's understanding, all tragic heroes have a "hamartia." The character's flaw must result from something that is also a central part of their virtue, which goes somewhat awry, usually due to a lack of knowledge. Oedipus:

“But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.” (Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman, Act I) Who is Willy Loman? What does he believe in? What does he dream of? What is hamartia or tragic flaw?

Willy Loman - An insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. When Willy’s illusions begin to fail under the pressing realities of his life, his mental health begins to unravel. The overwhelming tensions caused by this disparity, as well as those caused by the societal imperatives that drive Willy, form the essential conflict of Death of a Salesman.

Willy: Loves me. [Wonderingly ] Always loved me. Isn’t that a remarkable thing? Ben, he’ll worship me for it! Willy is overwhelmed at the start of this scene. Why? Who is “he” and what will he be grateful for? Who is Ben and what does he symbolize?

“I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have - to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him.” Happy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Act 2 How likely do you think this is? What do you think will happen to the insurance money? Why does this make Willy’s sacrifice even more tragic?

Death of a Salesman is considered an artistic masterpiece and became a turning point in Arthur Miller’s career as a writer. Willy Loman, the protagonist of the play, has became a symbol of the common man throughout the world. The play has had a profound influence on its audiences often moving them to tears. Audiences saw themselves or someone they knew, in the character of Willy, as he tries but fails to achieve the American Dream of material success and prosperity. The play has been structured “expressionistically”, in that, Miller broke down conventional constraints of time and place traditionally observed in theatre, and moved the audience in and out of Willy’s past and then into the present and then back in the past again, as Willy shuttles between the dreams and promises of his past and the harsh reality of the present. The experience of the play thus carries the audience into the mind of Willy, both intellectually and viscerally, to his loneliness, his needs, and his struggle to establish his existential significance in the world.

'Death of a Salesmen' is a play that examines in painful detail American life and consumerism. Its author, Arthur Miller, defines his aim in writing the play as being 'to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the senses of life'. In this, the final scene, there is an unravelling of some of the major themes of the play. In particular, aspects of the characters of Willy and Biff are dramatically highlighted, together with the tensions in their relationship which reach a climax in the play's denouement. In this scene Willy is portrayed as a character who is overly ambitious for his son to succeed in the business world, in the way that he himself has not. He refuses to accept that Biff cannot fulfil these dreams, neither for himself nor for his father. No matter what Biff says to try and convince him otherwise Willy persists: "The door to your life is wide open!" This demonstrates that he is very obstinate in refusing to acknowledge the reality of Biff's situation.