Death of a Salesman

Additional Death of a Salesman Information

Death of a Salesman burst upon the scene in 1949, and is as fresh and meaningful today as it was when it opened on Broadway - and won the Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

As Death of a Salesman is Miller's great play, Willy Loman is Lee J. Cobb's great role. He created the part on Broadway, just as Mildred Dunnock created the role of Linda Loman. They both recreate their roles here, with an exceptional cast including Michael Tolan as Biff, Gene Williams as Happy, and in the role of Bernard - Dustin Hoffman. Arthur Miller took an active part in this production, undertaken expressly for this recording - from Miller himself recording the introduction with which the play opens to choosing the director, participating in the casting, and attending the rehearsals.

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. His first theatrical success occurred in 1947 with All My Sons, which earned him the Drama Critics' Circle Award. In 1949, Death of a Salesman was given the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics' Circle Award. The Crucible won a Tony Award four years later. His other plays include A View From the Bridge, The Price, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, Danger: Memory, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, and Broken Glass.

What Customers Say About Death of a Salesman:

The item was VERY used. The cover was wrinkled, showed folded edges. Product was below standards advertised.

it reflect the reality after World War 2 and Cold War.My favorite character is Linda. she really loves her husband and ready to sacrifice for him.

Being an English major, this book was not one of my favorite works, but I wouldn't skimp on reading it either. Arthur Miller is a brilliant playwright/author but for some reason it just didn't grasp me like other works have in the past and I've read hundreds of books. If you need something to read to occupy your time, this book is a good read but it's not the best.

The characters have very little physical action, no humor, and no eccentricity. Although most readers will develop an emotional attachment to the downtrodden family, the language is just too dry and dull. In short, the scenes are boring. The only upside is that it's easy to understand and a quick read. But clearly better seen than read.

Promises of old have long been forgotten. Arthur Miller's brilliant play Death of a Salesman is compelling and pertinent to the point of being painful. The protagonist, Willy Loman, is aging, damaged, and profoundly lost. He has been passed by. He can't go on like this, and he doesn't. His son, who once showed great promise on the football field, is reduced to living at home and trying to make a living doing work not unlike Willy's, if he works at all.

He searches pathetically for reasons why his family has not done better: his older son missed lost out on a good job because he whistled on an elevator.This is a man without anchorages to give him self-respect. If anything, it is more timely today than when it was when first performed in the late '40's. Willy's sales pitch and to-be-well-liked prescription for success is hopelessly misguided. The life of Willy's second son is summed up with excruciating irony when his mother tells him, "You're nothing but a philandering bum, my baby." Willy's wife is long-suffering, but she loves him, and demands that her son's respect that. But Willy's world, if it ever existed in the form he imagined, is gone. He takes weekly handouts from a relative to feed his family.

A purposeful suicide, one that will provide his wife with a life insurance payoff, is all he's got left.The French sociologist Emile Durkheim might have described Willy's life as bereft of durable cultural standards, deregulated to the point of chaos, and devoid of opportunities for membership which would give his a sense of belonging without fearing he might be stabbed in the back at any time.The death of a salesman may speak even more clearly to us today because our world seems even more anomic and egoistic than Willy's.