Biff's Self Realisation

I believe Biff does have a self realisation and achieves a new sense of self. He questions 'why am I trying to become what I don't want to be?'. He notices that he has been striving in the wrong direction during his whole life, which has led to a lack of success. He realises that 'all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!'. Biff knows what he wants to do, he wants to be outdoors, be 'out there'. This is a change from the Biff of old, who was trying to work in offices and for companies. He realises that 'I'm just what I am'. He doesn't feel the need to pretend to be someone else to try and please anyone else. He is no longer interested in pleasing anyone else, as he decides to leave and cut contact with his family: 'I'm going and I'm not writing anymore.

This self realisation does add to the tragedy. Through this realisation Biff tries to show Willy that the dream world he is living in isn't real and that he needs to snap out of it and face reality, symbolised by Biff trying to 'make Willy face him' and the truth. However, Willy misinterprets what Biff is saying. When Biff breaks down into tears, Willy believes that Biff is crying for him, not because he has broken down from trying to get his father see the truth. This results in Willy killing himself under the impression that Biff will 'worship' him for it when in actual fact it is the opposite of what he wants, shown by Biff 'rushing down the stairs' to stop him.

Biff's self realisation therefore could be argued to be the cause of the tragedy of the play due to Willy misunderstanding what Biff is trying to say to him.

Biff's Reactions

Biff's reactions to being turned down a business chance is to steal a 'fountain pen' from a high up and influential business man. When lacking of success, Biff turns to theft, which may actually have been what caused his downfall from a young football player with promise to a struggling man. This suggests that even though Biff knows the theft is wrong, it may bring him satisfaction or happiness by stealing, hence his theft after being turned down a loan by his ex-boss.

Impressions on the End of Act 1

The line which stood out to me at the end of Act 1 was Happy saying 'I'm gonna get married, Mom. I wanted to tell you.' and Linda replies 'Go to sleep, dear.' This line reminded me of earlier in the play when Happy keeps saying 'I lost weight' seemingly out of the blue, raising little or no reaction. The significance of these comments are not explained by the end of the Act, but by putting in one of these odd comments, Miller has aroused curiosity around them.

Biff removing the tubing also naturally stands out in the reader's mind due to it being the last action of the Act. The lack of knowledge about what Biff will do with the rubber tubing means it increases suspense and anticipation for the next Act.

Are Willy's self destructive actions caused by an attempt to act ethically?

One self destructive action of Willy is his exaggeration. He exaggerates how successful a salesman he is. For example, he says 'I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston' before changing his story to 'it came to - roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip'. The moment he has to tell the truth brings him down and lowers his self esteem. His wife, Linda, is very excited at first, say 'my God!' but only saying 'that's very good', a less sincere and extreme congratulation of Willy. This lack of seemingly genuine praise would bring Willy's self esteem down, showing his exaggeration is self destructive. His exaggeration is not done to try and be ethical, it is to try and be impressive and give his family someone to look up to and be proud of. It is as much for his own ego and sense of self satisfaction as anything else, so is not due to acting ethically.

Willy also encourages his children to steal, telling them to 'get some sand' and puts emphasis on them being 'fearless characters'. He is more interested in them physically being impressive than mentally, telling his nephew to cheat to help his son in an exam. This will create a lack of opportunity for his children and a lack of skills for later life, just telling his children that it is important to be 'popular'. The lack of opportunity his children will have in later life could result in them loathing him for pushing them in the wrong direction. This is self destructive, his actions resulting in his children disliking him. However, while he tells his children to do bad things such as steal, this could be seen as ethical, as he is trying to prepare them for later life, just in the wrong way and is therefore setting them up for failure. As he means well, it could be argued that Willy's self destructive actions are caused by an attempt to act ethically and further his children's development.

Aristotle's Theory

Mimesis is the idea that the specific tragedy is universal. There is a chain reaction due to the tragedy which could affect anyone, purely because 'that is the way the world operates'. As a result of this, tragedy causes fear as well as pity in an audience, as they could be part of the chain reaction so the tragedy could affect them.

The Incentive Moment is the beginning of the play, which causes the chain reaction of events. It must be dependent on something within the play.

The Dénouement is the time between the incentive moment, where there is the pivotal incident, to the point in which the incident is resolved.

The plot must be complete while being self contained. It must have no outside input, or Deus Ex Machina. Each point of the story must move to the next point while being bound together internally.

A catastrophe is a moment which changes the plot. Simple plots only have a catastrophe, whereas complex plots (which are deemed better) have a change of intention and a moment of recognition or realisation connected to or the result of the catastrophe.

First Impressions of Happy and Biff

Our first impressions of Biff is that he may have suffered some form of 'defeat', as suggested in the stage directions. It compares him and his brother, Happy, saying Happy 'is lost' like Biff, 'but in a different way, for he has never allowed himself to turn his face toward defeat'. This implies Biff has turned his face to defeat. Biff replies 'I'm going to sleep' immediately after Happy talks of his father's success. By Biff choosing not to further that conversation it suggests that he may be tired of hearing of his father's exaggerated success and ability.

It also seems as if Willy's downfall could possibly be linked to Biff, as Willy is often 'talking to' Biff when he is talking to himself. It also seems Biff is not content. He has moved from many jobs and still wants something different, comparing himself with a 'boy' as he isn't married and isn't 'in business'. He is searching for something more.

Happy seems a womaniser, as he cannot even remember who he lost his virginity to, as he says 'that was my first time - I think.' Even when Happy has what he 'always wanted', he still isn't happy. This suggests that he is searching for something extra in his life that he has not yet found. He also seems to think being 'well liked' is important, as it means you can have 'any babe you want', linking back to Happy being a womaniser.

Arthur Miller

Basically, I watched this Waybuloo thing but all they do is shout jibber jabber and I had no idea what was going on. I was much more comfortable doing the gangsta blog, you know, growing up in da hood and all. Anyway, I'm just going to write it normally. Soz.

Arthur Miller was a playwright, writing famous theatre dramas such as Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge. He began writing plays while at university and has won many awards for his work. He was convicted for not identifying writers who were believed to have communist views by Congress, but the decision was overturned a year later. He wrote 'The Devil in Massachusetts, a book about witch trials drawing parallels to convictions of communistic views in the US and 'McCarthyism', showing his works had a focus on real life problems and ideas.

One such idea he addressed was the idea of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman, with him even saying "The American Dream is the largely unacknowledged screen in front of which all American writing plays itself out.! This shows how important he believed the American Dream to be to Americans, audiences and playwrights alike.