Harold Bloom had this to say about “Death of a Salesman<\/i>:<\/p>\n I myself resist the drama each time I reread it, because it seems that its language does not hold me, and then I see it played onstage . . . and I yield to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The question: whether or not Death of a Salesman<\/i> is an actual tragedy – whether or not tragedy can be a “middle-class” event – remains unanswered and debated. I remember we had to write a paper on this topic in high school – we had to choose a side: either it IS or it ISN’T – and we had to back up our opinion with quotes from the play, etc.<\/p>\n I always felt that the play WAS a tragedy, even though a middle-class man doesn’t have as far to fall as a king … But THAT was Miller’s point. That was Miller’s point.<\/p>\n The Washington Post obit says:<\/p>\n “Salesman,” gave the American theater its most tortured antihero, Willy Loman, the misguided dreamer, the stand-in for the bottomless terror of American life, the fear of being branded a failure.<\/p>\n “I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you,” the son, Biff, declares soberly, in the final movement of the play. “You were never anything but a hardworking drummer who landed in the ash can like all the rest of them!” Miller’s epitaph can be drawn from ideas such as this, the wrenching, simple truths that flow from the mouths of his everyday people. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is why the impact of the play was so enormous when it first was produced (opening night described here<\/a>) – it created a catharsis in the audience, along the lines of the great Greek tragedies – any tragedy … The audience identified with Willy. The character of Willy Loman is, although very specific and real, is also an archetype. And because the audience identified with this person who had a great fall by the end of the play, the catharsis (pity and terror) was enormous. You PITY Willy Loman. And you are terrified of any similarities you may have with him. Willy Loman was not JUST a character in a play. He became ALL of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harold Bloom had this to say about “Death of a Salesman: I myself resist the drama each time I reread it, because it seems that its language does not hold me, and then I see it played onstage . . … Continue reading