
Bernard appears in Willy's memories, as well as in the present.

He provided Biff with answers while they were in high school and attempted to help Biff study so that he would graduate, even though Willy and Biff would criticize him. Charley appears in Willy's memories, as well as in the actions of the present.īernard Charley's son.

Charlie is a true friend to Willy, even though Willy is jealous of him. Charley supplies Willy with a weekly loan once Willy is put on straight commission, and he repeatedly offers him a job.

Ben appears in the play only in Willy's memories and fantasies.Ĭharley A long-time acquaintance of the Lomans. He made a fortune in the African jungle by the time he was 21 years old. He works as an assistant but exaggerates his position and his authority. Happy is a womanizer driven by his sexuality. Biff is the only member of the family who knows about Willy's affair, and he resents his father bitterly. Biff has been estranged from Willy for over 15 years, during which time he has not been able to hold a steady job. She will protect Willy at all costs, even if she must perpetuate his fantasies and deny his suicidal behavior.īiff Loman The Lomans' older son. She is Willy's champion and takes it upon herself to reconcile her family. As the play progresses, Willy loses the ability to distinguish between the present and his memories of the past. He suffers from depression and anxiety as a result of his dissipating career, his estranged relationship with his oldest son, Biff, and his guilt over an extramarital affair. c=mqr c=mqrarchive idno=act2080.0037.403 g=mqrg rgn=main view=text xc=1 What are your thoughts at this time about your masterpiece? Kullman: Death of a Salesman will soon be fifty years old.
#DEATH OF A SALESMAN THEMES FREE#
Although the interview focused on Salesman, Miller was free to take the conversation in any direction he felt suitable. The occasion provided the playwright with the opportunity to talk about Death of a Salesman fifty years after its successful Broadway premiere on 10 February 1949. On September 17, 1997, I interviewed Arthur Miller in his East Side, New York City apartment. If Salesman remains the flagship of his great career, a score of other dramatic pieces continue to link "a long and undying past" to the present moment of the contemporary stage. In high schools and colleges, in small towns and large cities all over the world, people are discovering daily the power of Arthur Miller's plays. This is only the tip of the iceberg, however. The enthusiasm of these young directors, all in their thirties, contributed, in part, to the success of these productions.
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Meanwhile a revival of A View from the Bridge at the Roundabout Theater Company, directed by Michael Mayer, introduced this play to a new generation of viewers. Peters' Connections (directed by Garry Hynes). In October of 1997, the Signature Theatre Company in New York opened its season with The American Clock (directed by James Houghton) and concluded a year of Miller plays with a new work, Mr. During the summer of 1997, the Williamstown Theater Festival staged All My Sons (directed by Barry Edelstein) and The Ride Down Mount Morgan (directed by Scott Elliott) shortly thereafter these productions moved to New York City. One thinks of the Roundabout Theater's 1992 revival of The Price, the National Actors Theater's production of The Crucible, the 1994 Olivier Best Play Award for the London production of Broken Glass, and the successful 1996 Nicholas Hytner film version of The Crucible. It is hoped that the aura of Salesman in its 50th year enhances and does not erase the accomplishments of Arthur Miller during the last decade, when new plays and revivals have kept his words before audiences around the world. Whatever stirred the spirit in Cobb, he did perform mightily, along with the rest of the cast, and from that night forward audiences and critics have praised the play as precisely that "continuation of a long and undying past" stretching from the Greek theater to the present day. We thought of ourselves, still, as a kind of continuation of a long and undying past. We sat on either side of him in a box, inviting him, as it were, to drink of the heroism of that music, to fling himself into his role tonight without holding back. We were now aware that Willy's part was among the longest in dramatic literature, and Lee was showing signs of wearying. Cobb, who played Willy Loman, to the majesty and exuberance of the music to inspire him for the ordeal to come: In his autobiography, Timebends, Arthur Miller recalls that directly across the street the Philadelphia Orchestra was performing Beethoven's Seventh Symphony that afternoon, and the play's director, Elia Kazan, thought it might be a good idea to expose Lee J. Death of a Salesman at Fifty: An Interview with Arthur Millerĭeath of a Salesman had its first public performance at the Locust Street Theater in Philadelphia.
