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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I loved Death of a Salesman, even though it left me with such a deep feeling of melancholy, it was just so reassuring to read such a moving critique of capitalist work culture and the "American dream", that is founded in such realism. I felt so attached to the protagonist, Willy, and I think this play is as relevant today as it has ever been.
dark
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Quotes:
Willy: Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it.
Biff: Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind of another. And it's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still - that's how you build a future.
Biff: I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and everytime I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.
Biff: No, I'm mixed up very bad. Maybe I oughta get married. Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that's my trouble. I'm like a boy. I'm not married, I'm not in business, I just - I'm like a boy.
Happy: I don't know what the hell I'm workin' for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment - all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then, it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely.
Willy: American is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there'll be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing, boys: I have friends.
Ben: Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way.
Willy: Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it's broken! I'm always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it's on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up.
Willy: There were promises made across this desk! You mustn't tell me you've got people to see - I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can't pay my insurance! You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!
Biff: Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!
Biff: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong... He never knew who he was.
Willy: Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it.
Biff: Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind of another. And it's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still - that's how you build a future.
Biff: I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and everytime I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.
Biff: No, I'm mixed up very bad. Maybe I oughta get married. Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that's my trouble. I'm like a boy. I'm not married, I'm not in business, I just - I'm like a boy.
Happy: I don't know what the hell I'm workin' for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment - all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then, it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely.
Willy: American is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there'll be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing, boys: I have friends.
Ben: Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way.
Willy: Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it's broken! I'm always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it's on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up.
Willy: There were promises made across this desk! You mustn't tell me you've got people to see - I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can't pay my insurance! You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!
Biff: Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!
Biff: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong... He never knew who he was.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The last 30 pages are as tragic as they are intoxicating.
I'll never take social security for granted ever again.
I'll never take social security for granted ever again.
Was okay but gets points deducted because memorising quotes from this play and writing essays about it took years off my life
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
I sort of knew the story but never had seen or read the play. Finally, I listened to the audiobook and was blown away. Arthur Miller sure knows how to write a take on the human condition and complex family relationships within failing to achieve the American Dream. What a prolific play write to give us this and The Crucible!
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced