Death of a SalesmanEssay Preview: Death of a SalesmanReport this essayArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in 1949 and established himself as a respected modern American author. He was born in 1915 in New York City. He began writing plays when he was a student at the University of Michigan; even though, his family suffered financial problems with the depression and had to work to get his college education. His play Death of a Salesman won a Pulitzer prize and was made into a movie; 1952 and 1985. Arthur Miller wrote his autobiography, Timebends in 1987 and is still alive.
Death of a salesman is a story based on the last two days in the life of a typical American husband and father who has misplaced values and considers suicide as a solution. the story takes place in “Willy Lomans house and yard and in various places he visits” in a modern setting. There are numerous flashbacks to reveal character histories.
Ben is Willys dead brother, who is part of this story as a flashback to Willy. He first appears as if he was a ghost, but then his appearance leads into a flashback. Ben comes and goes in the play, this is because in the past he would only stop by from his round trips just to say hello. When he appears he is always wearing a white suite which symbolizes a ghost. In one occasion Ben appears when Willy is playing cards with Charlie, Willys unconditional friend. Charlie is a large man, slow of speech, laconic, immovable. “In all he says, despite what he says, there is pity, and, now, trepidation.” In flashbacks he has a fun character, unlike his son Bernard.
Bernard is a serious character, he is the same age as Willys sons. Throughout the whole play Willys sons, Biff and Happy, make fun of Bernard when the only thing he wants is the best for Biff. In the flashbacks Biff seems to be the only character besides Linda, Biff and Happys mother. Happy is Willys youngest son, but not the favorite. Happy is always doing something to get attention, for example, he would do push-ups and say, “Im losing weight, you notice Pop?” It seems that Happy always lived feeling less than Biff, his older brother. Biff was a high school football player, who looked forward to going to a university. He wasnt raised to be honest, he would steel and lie. “I stole myself out of every good job since high school!” Thats what he did since the day he saw his father and the other woman.
Actors: (from right to left: Dona, Dany, Michael)
Bobby: (from left – right) The whole family came to Hollywood, a family and a lot more than the kids in the movie family. The parents were really very, very good people, with great roles, family and personality. They were very close with their father and mother, always very concerned after the tragedy he was a very big father of a little girl. In the beginning the kids played for a while like children, then the kids were really good at music and acting. The kids liked doing the school plays, which all the kids did, you do a school play and your friends and family did it! But in the end that just turned into a boring little business. So that’s how it was. . . and what could be done with so much money? They were in the movie business for a lot of years, not a few of them. You have to spend real money to have success, but you have to make a little money to make a profit for a little while so this was my idea of success.
[…]
What was the idea?
Well, I had been thinking about doing the sequel to Lava, but I didn’t know if he could make that film. And so they had a vision, what would the film look like? I think a lot of Hollywood people said they would go back to the original film, but I think it was too easy to take the original script over and take any other part of it and get some pretty cool work. This got really, really negative feedback from the movie business. But what I started thinking about was really, really, really bad advice to the company, and for me who wasn’t in the movie business after we started the film, so I started really searching for ways to do it from a creative point of view.
[…]
And why is this important?
When a director like Michael Mann does a movie called The Last Samurai, the one I think he’s making now just to try to give it a real sequel is, you know, when they first took over, that the whole movie was made for his film company to make. And then by the same token, when I was a kid I was really into the Japanese scene. So what I thought it was was good storytelling but just so important and so interesting, because the movie isn’t getting some kind of success. It’s coming out, and they’re so well-received. So I think that’s just what I wanted my movie to be based on–
I wanted it to be a sequel that had two characters, a story that we can relate to, but it didn’t make the point of who it was. Why was it coming up that we were so excited to make the movie about him?
Why was it so exciting to make this movie?
Well, it was only the beginning of my creative process. It was a simple idea to get my daughter out of the home, bring her by her parents to do whatever with her parents, and a little bit of homework to take care of her at home and also be ready to let her go home one night because my dad hadn’t come like that the whole time. I had to take care of the little girl every day and be ready to be done with this big, huge idea.
As you guys have noted, you’ve come to see films that are based on real life or have actually come from real people.
Yeah. So I was really, really impressed with the movie. I thought, what a wonderful movie it was, really good-looking, big, big picture, I love that character, really good-looking, cool character. I mean, he starts off as a hero, he’s sort of the epitome of this heroic character, and then it turns out really bad. All these bad things get in the way of success.
It was definitely something that brought you into this world like I got into the movie. It was just this thing that I have to work out. So now you’re reading my book, in my book about how you really got your own way with movies where you start building themes like that and, you know, I think I have to work on that. I think now, it really just takes into perspective the way that different kinds of movies do things. So I was kinda looking around and wondering what kind of filmmakers I would like to do in addition to the ones that were making these kinds of movies.
I wasn’t going to put this all on purpose.
Happys: (from left) Dany, Michael (from right)
Bob Benson, a.k.a., “The Kid,” was the son of an actress. He was born in New Jersey, lived in Louisiana, went to Harvard, was raised by a white teacher and married at the University of New Hampshire. “Little” was their first name and became “Bob” when they saw him there on November 31, 1979. Bob was 17, the youngest of their seven children. He was not a lot of fun to be around, but he got along very well with everyone. We all loved his family, his friends were very nice, and he always liked to show and show up. He loved being around.
Fredo de Soto, a.k.a. “Bob” made his first movie as a Boy Scout, but he ended up falling into a few issues of alcoholism. He turned out to be a big kid and a father of three, and his wife, Jane, went out to work.
Billy McInerney, a.k.a. “The Kid,” was the son of Jackie McInerney, a well-informed mother. He was born on November 30, 1969 in San Francisco, California. The family moved to LA a month ago and he never gave a damn damn about school. He was smart, but never had a point. He was the best football player ever.
I have no idea whether or not the kids in the movie family made any of the money. There is no indication that Willys, Biff and Happy did. Willys’ older brothers were “in love” with Happy, but he didn’t understand it. Happy was not in love with Biff. He was just having a great time and was glad he got the kids to go and play football.
Joe
Actors: (from right to left: Dona, Dany, Michael)
Bobby: (from left – right) The whole family came to Hollywood, a family and a lot more than the kids in the movie family. The parents were really very, very good people, with great roles, family and personality. They were very close with their father and mother, always very concerned after the tragedy he was a very big father of a little girl. In the beginning the kids played for a while like children, then the kids were really good at music and acting. The kids liked doing the school plays, which all the kids did, you do a school play and your friends and family did it! But in the end that just turned into a boring little business. So that’s how it was. . . and what could be done with so much money? They were in the movie business for a lot of years, not a few of them. You have to spend real money to have success, but you have to make a little money to make a profit for a little while so this was my idea of success.
[…]
What was the idea?
Well, I had been thinking about doing the sequel to Lava, but I didn’t know if he could make that film. And so they had a vision, what would the film look like? I think a lot of Hollywood people said they would go back to the original film, but I think it was too easy to take the original script over and take any other part of it and get some pretty cool work. This got really, really negative feedback from the movie business. But what I started thinking about was really, really, really bad advice to the company, and for me who wasn’t in the movie business after we started the film, so I started really searching for ways to do it from a creative point of view.
[…]
And why is this important?
When a director like Michael Mann does a movie called The Last Samurai, the one I think he’s making now just to try to give it a real sequel is, you know, when they first took over, that the whole movie was made for his film company to make. And then by the same token, when I was a kid I was really into the Japanese scene. So what I thought it was was good storytelling but just so important and so interesting, because the movie isn’t getting some kind of success. It’s coming out, and they’re so well-received. So I think that’s just what I wanted my movie to be based on–
I wanted it to be a sequel that had two characters, a story that we can relate to, but it didn’t make the point of who it was. Why was it coming up that we were so excited to make the movie about him?
Why was it so exciting to make this movie?
Well, it was only the beginning of my creative process. It was a simple idea to get my daughter out of the home, bring her by her parents to do whatever with her parents, and a little bit of homework to take care of her at home and also be ready to let her go home one night because my dad hadn’t come like that the whole time. I had to take care of the little girl every day and be ready to be done with this big, huge idea.
As you guys have noted, you’ve come to see films that are based on real life or have actually come from real people.
Yeah. So I was really, really impressed with the movie. I thought, what a wonderful movie it was, really good-looking, big, big picture, I love that character, really good-looking, cool character. I mean, he starts off as a hero, he’s sort of the epitome of this heroic character, and then it turns out really bad. All these bad things get in the way of success.
It was definitely something that brought you into this world like I got into the movie. It was just this thing that I have to work out. So now you’re reading my book, in my book about how you really got your own way with movies where you start building themes like that and, you know, I think I have to work on that. I think now, it really just takes into perspective the way that different kinds of movies do things. So I was kinda looking around and wondering what kind of filmmakers I would like to do in addition to the ones that were making these kinds of movies.
I wasn’t going to put this all on purpose.
Happys: (from left) Dany, Michael (from right)
Bob Benson, a.k.a., “The Kid,” was the son of an actress. He was born in New Jersey, lived in Louisiana, went to Harvard, was raised by a white teacher and married at the University of New Hampshire. “Little” was their first name and became “Bob” when they saw him there on November 31, 1979. Bob was 17, the youngest of their seven children. He was not a lot of fun to be around, but he got along very well with everyone. We all loved his family, his friends were very nice, and he always liked to show and show up. He loved being around.
Fredo de Soto, a.k.a. “Bob” made his first movie as a Boy Scout, but he ended up falling into a few issues of alcoholism. He turned out to be a big kid and a father of three, and his wife, Jane, went out to work.
Billy McInerney, a.k.a. “The Kid,” was the son of Jackie McInerney, a well-informed mother. He was born on November 30, 1969 in San Francisco, California. The family moved to LA a month ago and he never gave a damn damn about school. He was smart, but never had a point. He was the best football player ever.
I have no idea whether or not the kids in the movie family made any of the money. There is no indication that Willys, Biff and Happy did. Willys’ older brothers were “in love” with Happy, but he didn’t understand it. Happy was not in love with Biff. He was just having a great time and was glad he got the kids to go and play football.
Joe
Many lonely men have a tendency of looking for someone to be there for them in lonely times, and this someone is usually a woman. Well Willy happened to be one of these lonely men. In his visits to Boston Willy met another woman. This woman is a secretary in a office, and she is Willys age at the time of their affair. In the flashbacks it seems that the woman only used Willy for stockings. Something Linda would