Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

By Arthur Miller and Christopher Bigsby

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream
 
Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room.

"By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." —Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times

"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." —Time

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Release date: May 1, 1998
• ISBN: 9781101042151

Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he began work with the Federal Theatre Project. His first Broadway hit was All My Sons, closely followed by Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. His other writing includes Focus, a novel; The Misfits, first published as a short story, then as a cinema novel; In Russia, In the Country, Chinese Encounters (all in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath) and 'Salesman' in Beijing, non-fiction; and his autobiography, Timebends, published in 1987. Among his other plays are: Incident At Vichy, The Creation of the World and Other Business, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Resurrection Blues. His novella, Plain Girl, was published in 1995 and his second collection of short stories, Presence, in 2007. He died in February 2005 aged eighty-nine.

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Reviews for Death of a Salesman

[Dan02a? · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about the tragedy of the common man.

Our protagonist is Willy Loman, a salesman who has devoted his life to work and to supporting his family. He earned well, was well known in his job, had a loving wife, and his children saw him as a hero. Life smiled upon him, but it also gets tired of being generous. Over time, Willy realizes that, although he has sacrificed much for his work, he was not as indispensable as he thought; his children grow up and now see their father's numerous flaws; his wife knows that there is not much hope for Willy, but she continues to support him as best she can. Willy clings to the idea that at any moment everything will change back to how it was before, that suddenly everything will get better, but he keeps repeating the same pattern that led him to what he is now.

It leaves me with a feeling of sadness to know that there are thousands of Willy Lomans in the world, people dedicated to improving their lives, but at the same time without truly trying. They are blinded by their fantasy, believing that "if you work hard, you will achieve what you want," but how true is that? If you don’t take risks, you will never know, but... what happens when you spend your whole life "trying"? For starters, are they really trying or are they just sticking to what they know and what once worked for them?
This work has given me a lot to think about; as a reader, one can see various mistakes that led Willy to end up as he did, although they were not apparent to him. Perhaps we need to look at our lives in the same way if we want to avoid getting stuck; seeing ourselves in reader mode.
A quick but bitter read. (Translated from Spanish)

[Mirana la Reina Blanca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It has a classic narrative.
It is a smooth read, with intrepid characters and a traveler who will undoubtedly leave you speechless.
It has a very good plot twist.
And it can be read in one sitting.
Very good and recommended. (Translated from Spanish)