Arthur Miller

## Biography

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915, in an upper-middle class family. He moved to Brooklyn in 1929 after his father lost his business to the Depression caused by the Crash of Wall Street.

After graduating from high school he worked a variety of jobs until 1934, when he started studying journalism and playwriting at the University of Michigan.

In 1936, his first play *No Villain* is produced and wins the University of Michigan's Avery Hopwood Award.

Upon his graduation in 1938, he moves to New York. He worked writing scripts for the Federal Theater Project and radio plays for CBS and NBC.

His first Broadway production is produced in 1944, *The Man Who Had All the Luck*, but it wasn't very succesfful, closing after just four performances. However, the play won a Theatre Guild National Award.

In 1945, Miller published his first novel, *Focus*, on anti-semitism. The same year, he publishes an opinion piece in the magazine *The New Masses* along other writers, attacking Ezra Pound for his pro-Fascist activities, going as far as to suggest Pound was worse than Hitler: “I can tell … that in his wildest moments of human vilification Hitler never approached our Ezra. For sheer obscenity Ezra took the cake.”

His first major success, *All My Sons*, opened on Broadway in 1947. The play wins the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. He became involved in a variety of anti-Fascist and pro-Communist activities.

Miller’s next play, *Death of a Salesman* (1949), became one of the most famous American plays of its period. Jo Mielziner designed the innoative set. The play won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Miller also publishes, in 1949, the first of his many theatrical and political essays ―"Tragedy and the Common Man," in the New York Times.

In 1953, *The Crucible* opens in New York to mixed reviews that differ on the play's relevance to McCarthyism. The play depicts the Salem (Massachusetts) witchcraft trials of the 17th century in which Puritan settlers were wrongfully executed as supposed witches. Its message, though — that “witch hunts” directed at innocent people are anathema in a democracy — was relevant to the era in which the play was staged, the early 1950s, when an anti-Communist crusade led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and others ruined the lives of innocent people. Partly in response to *The Crucible*, Miller was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1956 and asked to provide the names of persons who might have Communist sympathies. Because of his refusal to do so, Miller was charged with contempt of Congress, a charge that was overturned on appeal.

During the McCarthyism era, Miller was blacklisted along other artists suspected of being involved in pro-Communist activites. As a result, he loses screenwriting job opportunities.

In 1956 he married Marilyn Monroe, his second of three marriages. They divorced in 1961.

In 1965, Miller is elected president of PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists), an international literary organization.

He married Inge Morath, an Austrian-born photographer, in 1962.

His later works include, apart from drama, screenplays (mostly film adaptations of his plays), short stories, and non-fiction travel journals with photographs by his wife.

Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of *Death of a Salesman*) at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure.

## Historical & Cultural Context

### Post World War II

The United States dominated global affairs in the years immediately after World War II. Victorious in that great struggle, its homeland undamaged from the ravages of war, the nation was confident of its mission at home and abroad. U.S. leaders wanted to maintain the democratic structure they had defended at tremendous cost and to share the benefits of prosperity as widely as possible.

For 20 years most Americans remained sure of this confident approach. They accepted the need for a strong stance against the Soviet Union in the Cold War that unfolded after 1945. They enjoyed a postwar prosperity that created new levels of affluence.

### The Cold War

The Cold War was the most important political and diplomatic issue of the early postwar period. It grew out of longstanding disagreements between the Soviet Union and the United States that developed after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Soviet Communist Party under Lenin considered itself the spearhead of an international movement that would replace the existing political orders in the West, and indeed throughout the world. The United States hoped to share with other countries its conception of liberty, equality, and democracy.

#### McCarthyism

The period of the Cold War (late 1940s and early 1950s) during which U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy pursued American citizens whom he and his followers suspected of being members or former members of, or sympathizers with, the Communist party. His efforts included the creation of “blacklists” in various professions — rosters of people who were excluded from working in those fields. McCarthy ultimately was denounced by his Senate colleagues.

## Bibliography

### Plays

* *No Villain* (1936)
* *The Man Who Had All the Luck* (1944)
* *All My Sons* (1947)
* *Death of a Salesman* (1949)
* *The Crucible* (1953)
* *A View from the Bridge* (1955)
* *The Price* (1968)

### Fiction

* *Focus* (novel, 1945)
* "The Misfits" (short story, 1957)
* *I Don't Need You Anymore* (short stories, 1967)
* "Homely Girl: A Life" (short story, 1992)

### Non-Fiction

* "Tragedy and the Common Man" (essay, 1949). Miller explores the tragedy of the average man as opposed to the classsic tragedy.
* *In Russia* (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
* *In the Country* (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
* *Salesman in Beijing* (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of *Death of a Salesman*. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.
* *Timebends: A Life* (autobiography, 1987). Like *Death of a Salesman*, the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.

## Literary Style

With the advent of TV and the new development in film, the theater experienced a decrease in popularity. Thus, the theater industry saw the need to reinvent itself in order to bring people back to the stages.

The rising fascination with Freudianism, psychotherapy, and the mysterious workings of the mind was a new source of inspiration. The contemporary popular understanding of Freudianism assumed that exploring the darker recesses of the psyche was the best way to understand human behavior.

It was the arrival of Tennesse Williams on the theatrical scene that signales a genuine shift in American drama. Williams stood at the nexus of melodrama and psychotherapy. His plays took the by-now classic American themes of home and family and, using an essentially melodramatic vocabulary, explored the inner workings of societally marginal characters. In terms of dramatic technique, Williams' significant contribution was to find a theatrical framework by which theater would create a series of productions that typified the postwar style and that some would see as the pinnacle of American theater.

A contributing factor to the success of the play, and a significant element in establishing poetic realism as the dominatn styler, was the design by Jo Mielziner.

As crucial to the success of the plays of Miller and Williams as the visual environment were the acting and directing. Once again, the American fascination with psychology informed the development of acting style and led to a major shift in the forties from a technical virtuosity to a more energetic emotionalism. At root, the interest lied in an emotionally truthful form of acting that emanated more from internal ans psychological understanding of character than from external techniques, the origins of the so-called "Method Acting."

**Realism *in theater*:** Focus on postwar American society and its discontents. Home and family, middle-class social issues. Simple vocabulary and lexis.

## *Death of a Salesman*

* **Original premiere**: February 10, 1949
* **Setting**: Willy Loman’s house and yard and various places he visits in the New York and Boston of 1949.
* **Characters**:
	+ Willy Loman
	+ Linda (Willy’s wife)
	+ Biff and Happy (Their sons)
	+ Charley and Bernard (Neighbors)
	+ Uncle Ben
* **Tone**: Tragic, reminiscent/nostalgic

### Themes

* **Failed American Dream**
	+ Willy's idea of success (financial stability). Effect of the Great Depression on the middle-class.
	+ Uncle Ben's overnight success and Willy's regret of not having joined him in his new, thriving business. (Relationship with Westward expansion and the "promise of the West")
	+ Biff blows his chances at a sport scholarship due to the disillusionment caused by his finding out about Willy's love affair.
* **Search for identity**
	+ Biff's struggle to let his father know he doesn't want to be like him and wants to live in a farm away from the urban setting.
	+ Willy's inability to find himself outside his job as a salesman. Seeking for approval and recognition. (not accepting his friend's job offer)
* Mental instability
	+ Willy's conversations and projections with his brother, who is not in Boston. It's all product of Willy's imagination.
* Father /Sons Relationship
	+ Strained relationship between Willy and his sons. He thinks Happy is a "lazy bum" and that Biff is throwing away his future. He feels disappointed on his sons's inability to do something with their lives.
* Consumerism in America in the 1950s
	+ Willy's idea of the American Dream stems from the encouraged consumerism in the US in the 50s, fueled by the advancements of technology.
* Rural vs. Urban Environment
	+ Biff's wanting to go to a rural setting
	+ Transition between past and present depicted, in stage design, by the green trees and leaves surrounding the backyard (past) being replaced by buildings that obstruct the view, to which Willy complaints (present).
	+ Longing for growth, Willy buys some seed to start growing something in his backyard.
* Keeping up appearances - Façade
	+ Willy and Happy lie to their family about their employment situation. Willy hides the fact that he's been borrowing money, Happy seeks his parents' apporval.
	+ Linda protects Willy's pride (she knows about the borrowing of money and his attempts to commit suicide)

### Plot

**Act I**

The play takes place in the present day, 1949. The setting is the Loman home in Brooklyn, which is hemmed in by apartment buildings.
Willy Loman returns home exhausted after a failed business trip. Worried over Willy's state of mind and recent car accident, his wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss Howard Wagner to allow him to work in his home city so he will not have to travel. Willy complains to Linda that their son, Biff, has yet to do something with his life. Despite Biff's potential as a high school football star, he failed in mathematics and was therefore unable to enter a university.

Biff and his younger brother, Happy, who is temporarily staying with Willy and Linda after Biff's unexpected return from the West, reminisce about their childhood together. They discuss their father's mental degeneration, which they have witnessed in the form of his constant indecisiveness and daydreaming about the boys' high school years. Eventually, Willy walks in, angry that the two boys have never amounted to anything. In an effort to pacify their father, Biff and Happy tell him that Biff plans to make an extraordinary business proposition the next day.

**Act II**

The next day, Willy goes to ask Howard for a job in town while Biff goes to make a business proposition, but they both fail. Howard boldly refuses to give Willy a New York job, despite Willy's desperate pleas. Willy then loses his temper and ends up getting fired when Howard tells him he needs a long rest and is now no longer allowed to represent the Wagner Company, while Biff waits hours to see a former employer who does not remember him and turns him down. Biff impulsively steals a fountain pen. Willy then goes to the office of his neighbor Charley, where he runs into Charley's son Bernard, who is now a successful lawyer about to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. Bernard tells him that Biff originally wanted to go to summer school to make up for failing math, but something happened in Boston when Biff went to visit his father that changed his mind. Charley then offers Willy a do-nothing job, but Willy repeatedly refuses. Charley then reluctantly gives the now-unemployed Willy money to pay off his life-insurance premium, and Willy shocks Charley by remarking that ultimately, a man is "worth more dead than alive."

Happy, Biff, and Willy meet for dinner at a restaurant, but Willy refuses to hear the bad news from Biff. Happy tries to get Biff to lie to their father. Biff tries to tell him what happened as Willy gets angry and slips into a flashback of what happened in Boston the day Biff came to see him: Willy had been in Boston for work, and Biff went to visit him to ask Willy to convince his teacher to curve Biff's failing math grade. Willy was in the middle of an extramarital affair with a receptionist, when Biff arrived unexpectedly at the hotel room, and saw the woman, who was half-dressed. Biff did not accept his father's cover-up story, and angrily dismissed him as a liar and a fake before storming out. From that moment, Biff's views of his father changed and set him adrift.

Biff leaves the restaurant in frustration, followed by Happy and two girls that Happy picked up, leaving a confused and upset Willy behind. When they later return home, Linda angrily confronts them for abandoning their father while Willy remains outside, talking to himself. Biff tries to reconcile with Willy, but the discussion quickly escalates into another argument. Biff conveys plainly to his father that he is not meant for anything great, insisting that both of them are simply ordinary men meant to lead ordinary lives. The argument reaches an apparent climax as Biff hugs Willy and begins to cry as he tries to get Willy to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Rather than listen to what Biff actually says, Willy appears to believe his son has forgiven him and will follow in his footsteps, and after Linda goes upstairs to bed, lapses one final time into a hallucination, thinking he is talking to his long-dead brother Ben. In Willy's mind, Ben "approves" of the scheme Willy has dreamed up to take his own life in order to give Biff his life insurance money to help him start a business. Willy exits the house, and Biff and Linda cry out in despair as the sound of Willy's car blares up and fades out.

**Requiem**

The final scene takes place at Willy's funeral, which is attended only by his family, Charley and Bernard (who do not speak during the scene). The ambiguities of mixed and unaddressed emotions persist, particularly over whether Willy's choices or circumstances were obsolete. At the funeral, Biff retains his belief that he does not want to become a businessman like his father. Happy, on the other hand, chooses to follow in his father's footsteps, while Linda laments her husband's decision just before her final payment on the house.

## Intro Paragraph

The end of the World War two, arguably one of the most horrifying events in the history of humanity, signified both the beginning of a tedious process of recovery and a shift in the way power was distributed in the world. The US and the Soviet Union came to be the two leading global superpowers, and their strong rivalry and opposite economic beliefs led to decades of threats, desperate technological developments, and surrogate warfare in what was called the Cold War. In the midst of these events, many writers chose to portray the reality of a changing society into their pieces. This was the case of one of the most renowned playwrights in the history of America: Arthur Miller. Born in New York, Miller came from a wealthy family who lost its fortune during the Great Depression. He led the birth of the realist movement in theatre, an attempt to bring fragments every-day-life to the scenario. Miller’s talent and outstanding creativity also prompted the introduction of more profound, emotion-filled stage directions and twists in the use of music and lighting to create more compelling atmospheres. Some of his finest achievements can be seen in his masterpiece “Death of a Salesman”, a 3-act modern tragedy that narrates the last days of a once successful salesman who found himself falling in decay, not only professionally, but also in the heart of his dysfunctional family. “Death of a Salesman”(1949) is a controversial piece that explores the truth behind two of the strongest American foundations during the Cold War: the belief of the American Dream and the existence of the perfect American family.

“Death of a Salesman” reveals the often merciless nature of an idea so engraved in the American society as it is the equation between hard-work and progress.

-Am society and the American dream

-The American dream and capitalism

-Willy failing, embodying the idea of a “well-liked” salesman

-Quote

-Willy vs his brother – diamonds symbolizing easy money

-Another symbol: seeds in the city / Willy planting during the night

-Willy reaches rock bottom – believes he has to provide for his family

-Willy kills himself – rock bottom

Throughout his play, Miller is also able to bring into light the often hidden fragmentation of middle-class all-American families.

-Willy’s ambition staining the relationship with his son

-Biff representing failure, the way he was brought up affecting his professional life

-“I’m nothing”

-Happy as the forgotten child, always trying to make his family proud

-The relationship between Linda and Willy, “the woman”

-Linda’s description

-Ending scene, requiem

### MLA citation

Miller, Arthur. *Death of a Salesman*. 1949. Penguin Books, 1998.

## Sources

1. ↑  Bigsby, Christopher, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
2. ↑  VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. *Outline of American Literature*. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information Agency, 1994. Print.
3. ↑  Wilmeth, Don B., and Christopher Bigsby, editors. *The Cambridge History of American Theatre*. Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 1998.