1. Death of A Salesman
Arthur Miller

2. Key Facts Published in 1949 Premiered on Broadway, 1949
Widely considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century

3. Critical Commentary
All Kinds a Greatness – Tragedy and Death of a Salesman by Tony Cavender
Students could discuss what they already know about tragedy (Streetcar/Tess…)
All Kinds a Greatness – Tragedy and Death of a Salesman by Tony Cavender who analyses Miller’s play of an ordinary man destroyed by his dreams of greatness, arguing that it’s just as much a tragedy as Hamlet or King Lear – and one particularly for our times.

4. The Tragedy of a ‘low man’
Arthur Miller seems to go out of his way to defy the conventions of ‘classical’ tragedy. The title of the play foregrounds the protagonist’s profession and the indefinite article ‘a’ presents him as a representative or generic ‘type’. Many tragedies have eponymous heroes/heroines – Oedipus, Medea, Antigone, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello. These characters are kings, princes and princesses, great warriors, high up in their respective societies. Miller chooses to give his protagonist the name ‘Loman’ or ‘low man’, emphasising his position towards the bottom end of his society. Further, ‘Willy’ is a childish diminutive which deprives the character of dignity and alludes to his inability to get an adult grip on life –his friend Charley exasperatedly demands, 
Willy, when are you going to grow up?
Willy is abusive and sarcastic to his friend, talks over (and cheats on) his wife and is a self-pitying failure at his job.

5. Dreams of Greatness Although there are no conventionally ‘great’ men (or women) in the play, an obsession with ‘greatness’ dominates it. ‘He had all the wrong dreams’, says Biff of Willy. Among them there’s the American Dream of a country in which anyone can succeed, whatever their background, regardless of handicap. Willy consoles himself for Biff’s lack of success to date with the thought, Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or BF Goodrich. One of them was deaf. He tells Biff that he has ‘all kinds a greatness’ in him, thanks God that both his sons are ‘built like Adonises’ and in his memory of the Ebbets Field football game Biff is Like a young god, Hercules – something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. The yearning for ‘greatness’, for a distinction that separates you from and elevates you above the crowd is what undoes Willy. With the imagery of Greek gods and heroes Miller reminds us of classical tragedy. Biff refers to his father as a ‘fine, troubled prince’, claiming for him a place in a tragic tradition, but then adds ‘hard-working, unappreciated’ to the description, not the qualities of a typical tragic hero.

6. Possible Aspects Links well with
Dreams v reality
The Great Gatsby – New York/materialism
Identity
Jude the Obscure/The Great Gatsby – tragedy of the common man
American Dream
Capitalism/materialism
Marriage/adultery
Great Expectations – ambitions/ aspirations
Father/son relationships
Love
Presentation of women
Tragedy
Self-absorbtion
Aspirations for “greatness”

7. Extract Extract (end of Act One)
WILLY: Keep up the good work. (Happy exits.) God... remember that Ebbets Field game? The championship of the city?
LINDA: Just rest. Should I sing to you?
WILLY: Yeah. Sing to me. (Linda hums a soft lullaby.) When that team came out — he was the tallest, remember?
LINDA: Oh, yes. And in gold.
(Biff enters the darkened kitchen, takes a cigarette, and leaves the house. He comes downstage into a golden pool of light. He smokes, staring at the night.)
WILLY: Like a young god. Hercules — something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. Remember how he waved to me? Right up from the field, with the representatives of three colleges standing by? And the buyers I brought, and the cheers when he came out — Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!
(The light on Willy is fading. The gas heater begins to glow through the kitchen wall, near the stairs, a blue flame beneath red coils.)
LINDA (timidly): Willy dear, what has he got against you?
WILLY: I’m so tired. Don’t talk any more. (Biff slowly returns to the kitchen. He stops, stares toward the heater.)
LINDA: Will you ask Howard to let you work in New York?
WILLY: First thing in the morning. Everything’ll be all right.
(Biff reaches behind the heater and draws out a length of rubber tubing. He is horrified and turns his head toward Willy’s room, still dimly lit, from which the strains of Linda’s desperate but monotonous humming rise.)
WILLY (staring through the window into the moonlight): Gee, look at the moon moving between the buildings!
(Biff wraps the tubing around his hand and quickly goes up the stairs.)
TIME CHECK 15 minutes
15 minutes left to analyse extract from end of Act One in a two act play. Willy is talking about setting up in business with his sons. NB: “Happy” in first stage directions is his son’s name! Comments could include:
Use of dialogue to develop relationship between Linda and Willy (husband and wife): juxtaposition of their styles of delivery and the constrast in content
Techniques to suggest hopefulness in relationship between Willy and his son: rhetorical questions; celestial imagery; punctuation of Willy’s speech; comparisons (Hercules)
Impact of stage directions: functional; symbolic; character development; plot development
Sinister imagery of gas heater
Key revelation – the implications of the length of rubber tubing
Structural comments – impact of this scene at the end of a two act play
Staging – dramatic irony/juxtapositon of hope (Willy’s dream future with his sons) and despair ( the implied suicide)