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ejreadswords 's review for:
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
“Pop, I’m a dime a dozen and so are you!”
Heartbreaking. Devastating. Comes right off the page and is such a tragic page-turner. My heart aches for Willy, for Linda, for Biff, for Happy.
“A salesman is got to dream, boy; it comes with the territory.”
What an affecting read. I’m writing this review at 3:45 in the morning and I should just go to sleep; maybe my mind is racing because of school, because of the election, because of lots of things. But this play… certainly one of the best I’ve read so far and genuinely probably going to be one of the most important plays I’ll have read in my life.
Originally I said to myself, “finish Act One and then continue tomorrow.” Then Act One finished and I was like, “I think we can just bang this out.”
I’ve been Biff. I’ve had those exact conversations with my mom, in different contexts; but the dreams a father has for himself, for his family, and for his children — but specifically his son(s)… it’s too damn real.
“You’ve got to make up your mind now, there’s no leeway any more—either he’s your father and you pay him that respect or else you’re not to come here. I know he’s not easy to get along with—nobody knows that better than me—but—"...
“It sounds so old-fashioned and silly, but I tell you he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him. Biff, I swear to God; Biff, his life is in your hands.”
It wasn’t really that long ago when I was the spiteful Biff. We find out later what this spite comes from, and it’s also heartbreaking and reasonably debilitating. Everyone is right in this play, and everyone is wrong! Could Biff have had a bit more spine at times? Yeah. Did Willy fuck up his son forever? Yeah.
“Figure it out; work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.”
The writing is incredible. And the place it comes from, is so sad, too. I read that Arthur Miller got the idea for this play after a chance encounter between himself and his uncle Manny Newman, a salesman. Newman never said congrats or anything, and just said, “Buddy is doing very well.” Newman, consciously or unconsciously, always comparing his son to his nephew for their whole lives. Newman ended up committing suicide soon after.
“A man can’t go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has got to add up to something. You can’t, you can’t…”
Expectations. Desire. Suffering. All go hand in hand. Such in conversation with The Iceman Cometh, which I just recently read for the first time. I had to keep putting the book/play down to catch myself; just think of the new information I had to process. The heaviness of the words; the pangs of my heart. So, so tragic. It just gets sadder and sadder. But it’s, unfortunately, so true.
“Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phoney dream and burn it before something happens?”
Heartbreaking. Devastating. Comes right off the page and is such a tragic page-turner. My heart aches for Willy, for Linda, for Biff, for Happy.
“A salesman is got to dream, boy; it comes with the territory.”
What an affecting read. I’m writing this review at 3:45 in the morning and I should just go to sleep; maybe my mind is racing because of school, because of the election, because of lots of things. But this play… certainly one of the best I’ve read so far and genuinely probably going to be one of the most important plays I’ll have read in my life.
Originally I said to myself, “finish Act One and then continue tomorrow.” Then Act One finished and I was like, “I think we can just bang this out.”
I’ve been Biff. I’ve had those exact conversations with my mom, in different contexts; but the dreams a father has for himself, for his family, and for his children — but specifically his son(s)… it’s too damn real.
“You’ve got to make up your mind now, there’s no leeway any more—either he’s your father and you pay him that respect or else you’re not to come here. I know he’s not easy to get along with—nobody knows that better than me—but—"...
“It sounds so old-fashioned and silly, but I tell you he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him. Biff, I swear to God; Biff, his life is in your hands.”
It wasn’t really that long ago when I was the spiteful Biff. We find out later what this spite comes from, and it’s also heartbreaking and reasonably debilitating. Everyone is right in this play, and everyone is wrong! Could Biff have had a bit more spine at times? Yeah. Did Willy fuck up his son forever? Yeah.
“Figure it out; work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.”
The writing is incredible. And the place it comes from, is so sad, too. I read that Arthur Miller got the idea for this play after a chance encounter between himself and his uncle Manny Newman, a salesman. Newman never said congrats or anything, and just said, “Buddy is doing very well.” Newman, consciously or unconsciously, always comparing his son to his nephew for their whole lives. Newman ended up committing suicide soon after.
“A man can’t go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has got to add up to something. You can’t, you can’t…”
Expectations. Desire. Suffering. All go hand in hand. Such in conversation with The Iceman Cometh, which I just recently read for the first time. I had to keep putting the book/play down to catch myself; just think of the new information I had to process. The heaviness of the words; the pangs of my heart. So, so tragic. It just gets sadder and sadder. But it’s, unfortunately, so true.
“Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phoney dream and burn it before something happens?”