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Willy Loman

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Willy Loman. Salesman, 63 years old Protagonist of play

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Willy Loman

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  1. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Willy Loman • Salesman, 63 years old • Protagonist of play • Desperate to achieve even a small measure success to which he has always aspired. • Cannot face the reality that his misdirected energies and talents spent chasing a dream that never had any chance of coming true. • Highly emotional, unstable, also uncertain. • Willy’s idealized self, the well-known, well-liked, successful salesman, is in conflict with his actual self, a man worn down by the difficulties of life.

  2. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Willy Loman - Flashbacks • Will’s flashbacks serve informational purpose • Inform about Willy’s past • Inform about the histories of the other characters • Show events that have led to Willy becoming what he is in the present. • The Willy of the flashbacks is • Cheeful • Loving father and husband • Light-hearted • Self- assured

  3. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Linda Lowman • Willy’s long-suffering, devoted wife • Desperately loves her husband • Resents that Biff and Happy do not love Willy as they should • Speaks carefully • Possesses a quiet manner that belies inner strength • Has tremendous patience • Serves as family peacemaker • Linda sees through her husband and sons, knows they are deluded but feeds into their fantasies because she believes it is best for her family

  4. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Biff Lowman • Willy’s oldest son, in mid-thirties • Once a popular football star • Steals things, has even been to jail • Betrayed by Willy at age 18 when he discovered Willy was having an affair • Blames Willy for not giving him proper guidance • Blames Willy for instilling in him the belief that success lies in the accumulation of wealth. • Tortured by disillusionment with Willy • Tortured by his failure to live up to both Willy’s and his own expectations. • Tortured by own desire to get revenge on Willy for Willy’s failures and betrayal • At the end of the play, concludes that Willy “didn’t know who he was”.

  5. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Happy Lowman • Younger of Willy’s two sons, in early thirties • Grew up in Biff’s shadow • Is handsome, even-tempered and amiable • Is a womanizer • At the play’s end, he is drawn into Willy’s illusion: • “I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man. He foud it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him.”

  6. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Ben Lowman • Willy’s older brother • Only appears in flashback scenes in the play, because in the present of the play, he is dead • Appears in Willy’s imagination as larger than life, omnipotent, powerful and a great and successful adventurer. • Role is to serve as a sounding board for Willy. • Represents the kind of life Willy dreams of for his sons. • “William, when I walked into the jungle, I was 17. When I walked out, I was 21. And by God, I was rich.”

  7. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Charley • Willy’s next-door neighbor and only friend • “Loans” Willy money every week so that Willy can pretend to Linda that he is selling successfully • Charley knows Willy will never pay him back • Charley is a successful businessman • Exasperated by Willy’s lack of respect for him, Willy’s ideals and his inability to separate reality and fantasy. • Charley offers Willy compassion and support • “The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.”

  8. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Bernard • Charley’s son • Contrast sharply with Biff and Happy • Serves as the embodiment of success to which Biff and Happy aspire but never achieve • As a teen is quiet and dependable and a top student • As an adult he is a successful attorney arguing before the Supreme Court. • When Willy expresses astonishment that Bernard is not bragging about his case, Charley answers: “He don’t have to – he’s gonna do it.”

  9. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Bernard • Charley’s son • Contrast sharply with Biff and Happy • Serves as the embodiment of success to which Biff and Happy aspire but never achieve • As a teen is quiet and dependable and a top student • As an adult he is a successful attorney arguing before the Supreme Court. • When Willy expresses astonishment that Bernard is not bragging about his case, Charley answers: “He don’t have to – he’s gonna do it.”

  10. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. The Woman • Secretary at a firm in Boston that Willy sold to the year Biff graduated high school • She and Willy had an affair • Biff meets her in the hotel room in Boston and realizes that his father is a phony • Willy gives her a gift of nylon stockings, which, during WWII, were an extravagant gift. Repressed guilt over the affair manifests in Willy’s anger every time he sees Linda mending her stockings. • Periodically, the piercing laughter of the woman echoes over the action of the play, serving as an aural reminder of Willy’s infidelity and his betrayal of Biff.

  11. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Plot Exposition – the beginning of Act 1 serves as exposition where we learn a bit of background about the Lowman’s. Rising Action – Biff and Happy waking up and overhearing their parents’ voices sparks the rising action of the play. Events and tension escalate until Climax- Willy’s flashback to the day Biff came to the hotel in Boston. Falling Action – Willy and Biff’s attempts to come to terms in Act II. Denouement – Willy’s death and funeral.

  12. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Appearance vs. Reality • Truth to the characters is often a far cry from reality • Happy is the “assistant buyer” vs. the assistant to the assistant • Biff was a salesman for Bill Oliver vs. being a shipping clerk • Willy averaged $170 a week in commissions in 1928 • Willy’s mind is full of delusions about his own abilities and accomplishments and those of his sons. • Willy and his sons all concoct grand schemes for themselves and see themselves as superior to others without real evidence to support this.

  13. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Individual vs. Self • Willy’s perception of what he should be is constantly in conflict with what he is: a mediocre salesman with delusions of grandeur and an outdated perception of the world around him. • Truly believes he can achieve success • Cannot understand why he hasn’t fulfilled this destiny • Complete denies his own talent for carpentry, believing this career would be beneath him somehow • When Willy can no longer deny that he will never become his idealized self, he commits suicide.

  14. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. The American Dream • The “self-made man” who rises out of poverty to become rich and famous • Willy believes firmly in this myth. • In the 1920’s a career in sales was a legitimate way for an unskilled, uneducated man to achieve financial success. • Willy would have entered sales in the 1920s. • By the late 1940s, changes in the job market required that salesmen have specialized training and knowledge, which Willy lacks. • This lacking means Willy is destined to fail in a business world that demands the ability to play a specific role in a larger whole. • Willy’s tragedy is that he is unaware of this cultural shift, and that he continues to attempt success using outdated methods.

  15. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. The Individual vs. Society • Willy is constant striving to find the gimmick or key to success. • Willy worries about how others perceive him. • Blames lack of success of superficial personality traits – people “don’t take me seriously”. • Willy’s failure is a result of his inability to see himself and the world as they really are: Willy’s talents lie in areas other than sales, and the business world no longer rewards smooth-talking, charismatic salesmen, but instead looks for specially trained, knowledgeable men. • Willy fails because he cannot stop living in a reality that does not exists and which dooms him to fail in the reality which does not exist.

  16. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Tragic Hero • 1.  The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness.  • The character must occupy a "high" status position but must ALSO embody nobility and virtue as part of his/her innate character. • 1.  Willy is noble to his own family. Arthur Miller argued in his essay, “Tragedy and the Common Man,” that it wasn’t necessary in modern times for tragic heroes to be of literally noble status. Willy tries to be a good and noble man throughout the play.

  17. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Tragic Hero • 2.  Though the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she is not perfect.  Otherwise, the rest of us--mere mortals--would be unable to identify with the tragic hero.  We should see in him or her someone who is essentially like us, although perhaps elevated to a higher position in society. • 2.  Willy’s inability to see past his own illusions and his willingness to live in a world of lies and illusions is his tragic flaw. He is so preoccupied with what should be that he never takes the time to appreciate what is.

  18. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Tragic Hero • 3.  The hero's downfall, therefore, is partially her/his own fault, the result of free choice, not of accident or villainy or some overriding, malignant fate.  In fact, the tragedy is usually triggered by some error of judgment or some character flaw that contributes to the hero's lack of perfection noted above.   This error of judgment or character flaw is known as hamartia and is usually translated as "tragic flaw" (although some scholars argue that this is a mistranslation).  Often the character's hamartia involves hubris (which is defined as a sort of arrogant pride or over-confidence). • 3. Willy’s downfall is the result of his own choice – literally to commit suicide, but also before that to continue to live in his fantasy world. • Willy’s hammartia is hubris,but it is an imaginary hubris covering his insecurities.

  19. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Tragic Hero • 4.  The hero's misfortunate is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. • 5.  The fall is not pure loss. There is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge, some discovery on the part of the tragic hero. • 4.  Willy’s “crime” of believing in the American Dream and failing to acknowledge reality over illusion is certainly not deserving of death. • 5. Willy recognizes, at the end of the play, that he will never live his dream. This is why he kills himself.

  20. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Tragic Hero • 6.  Though it arouses solemn emotion, tragedy does not leave its audience in a state of depression.  Aristotle argues that one function of tragedy is to arouse the "unhealthy" emotions of pity and fear and through a catharsis (which comes from watching the tragic hero's terrible fate) cleanse us of those emotions. • 6.  At the end of the play, Linda can live in the house worry-free because Willy’s insurance paid the last payments on the mortgage. Biff has come to accept that Willy didn’t know who or what he was. Only Happy seems to be still stuck in the illusory world, asserting that he will prove to the world that Willy Loman didn’t die in vain.

  21. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 IB JUNIOR ENGLISH OBJECTIVES - Today, I will review the literary and dramatic elements in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”. Dramatic Elements

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