Essay Example about Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's playwright entitled “Death of a Salesman” in 1949 was a astory of a man who wanted to be a great salesman. He dreams of the same thing to for his son named Biff who happens to discover his adultery and turned his back on him. Biff was supposed to get a football scholarship but he failed his math and failed to graduate in highschool. His other son named Happy was a happy-go-lucky person who looks up to his father so much that until his death, he was talking about money and more money.

In Bert Cardullo's article entitled “Death of a Salesman, Life of a Jew: Ethnicity, Business and, the Character of Billy Loman in 2007, he mentioned several critics regarding the play, they flaws it contains, the conflicts it have, the missing parts and the numerous questions regarding the construction of the play itself. Although Cardullo somehow applauded to the playwright, he did not fail to point out some missing parts and suggested some things or issues that should be included. Aside from this, he analyzed the character of Willy Loman, whether as a psychopath or just a normal person.While they kept on saying that Willy Loman is a jewish (Cardullo, 2007), it was not stressed in the story and nothing was ever described relating to Jewish religion. The reason why it did not show was because of the americanized story.

Therefore, the Jewish culture was somehow wrapped by American culture since they were in the United States. Although at some part in the story, Willy shows his Jew culture through speaking Yiddish. Also, Jews value education so much just like Willy's view regarding going to school even if they don't have money for it or probably they weren't able to acquire it (Cardullo, 2007).This one shows his Jewish side but again, the whole playwright lacked the total description and incorporation of Willy Loman's Jewish identity.

Next point, Willy Loman is a psychopath (Cardullo, 2007). We cannot deny the fact that he has been experiencing some psychological problems but we can also say that this problem was only because he was under great depression. He is the man who suffered too many failure already and his sons even failed as he looks at it that way but the question now, why didn't he pursue laking a living when he was young?He was a salesman but his commodity was never mentioned in the story. It is because what he sells was his personality since he is claiming that he can sell everything. He was also having contradicting views and statements. One moment he will commend Biff for being hardworking but a few hours later, he will insist that he is lazy.

This shows that his identity was actually a picture of too may destruction and inconsistency. He never thought of accepting his failure and instead, he turned back to reality in the form of talking to Ben, his brother who was said to be dead already.The fourth critic was the absence of the historical or real facts such as the World War II and the Great Depression. The setting of the play was in the 1940s, therefore, it should have atleast talked about the War in 1945, how the brothers escaped from it, did they participate as soldiers or reserves? Were they able to lose each other? How did they find one another? Arthur Miller did not mention this part and at the same time, he did not highlight the Great Depression even if he was talking about business, selling and being a salesman (Cardullo, 2007).Miller also did not mention anything about the aftermath of Great Depression, whether they have a better lif or did they become successful.

The story was indeed a family based and chasing for dream story not relating any other important facts that can streghten the plot. The question whether I agree with the article or not, probably, yes. Agreeing from this write up of Bert Cardullo was not hard. He pointed out several examples and proofs of the playwright's lack of information and consistency.Although it tells a beautiful story, in a crowd, one will still notice the flaws and the absence of some important issues and facts that needs to be addressed as part of the narrative.

Miller lacked the capacity of combining history and fiction together which resulted to a story with no historical background. The character of Willy Loman was a person who hids from reality. He never pursued anything he was good at, he did not acvcept any job coming from Charley but accepts money from him thinking that it was a loan but Charley on the other hand knows that Willy won't be able to pay him.Willy never thought that he was wrong at some point in his life thus, he was the one to be blamed why Biff ended up that way and why he rather chose not to pursue college. His adultery was the main turning point in Biff's life and somehow caused his distraction.

No matter how great the play was as said by many and since it was able to be shown in so many places, the reality is there that it lacks some important facts and ponts that is needed to have a real story.Real in the sense that it has history on its background and not just plain flashback as what Miller used. In the end, no matter what is the reason of Willy's psychological problem or great depression, he never accepted the fact that he was the one to blame but indeed showed that he loves his son despite of being a lazy bum and a failure. His character further conflicts with the real salesman in the world but it doesn't matter anymore.

The playwright although beautiful is not enough to convince the people that it was reality.