推销员之死【英文】-推销员之死中英文对照30页PPT
推销员之死共21页
10.06.2020
His plays
• 1944. The Man Who Had All the Luck -closed after 4 performances
10.06.2020
His key dramatic devices
• The idealist who pays too much for his inability to compromise.
• The Great Depression. • The theme of man's responsibility to his
destructive main character based on MM • 1962 Inge Morath (dies 2019)
10.06.2020
Arthur Miller (1915-2019)
• an American playwright and essayist. • a prominent figure in American theatre, • wrote dramas that include award-winning
10.06.2020
His plays
• 1950. The Enemy of the People, adapted from Ibsen's play, opened at the Broadhurst (12/28) for 36 performances.
English presentation(推销员之死)
What are characters in this play?
Willy Loman: The salesman. He is 60 years old and very unstable（不稳定的）, tending to imagine events from the past as if they are real. He vacillates（犹豫；踌躇；摇摆） between different perceptions（认知，观念） of his life. Willy seems childlike and relies on others for support. His first name, Willy, reflects this childlike aspect as well as sounding like the question "Will he?" His last name gives the feel of Willy being a "low man," someone low on the social ladder and unlikely to succeed.
Linda Loman: Willy's wife. Linda mostly just smiles and nods when Willy talks unrealistically about hopes for the future, although she seems to have a good knowledge of what is really going on. She berates her sons for not helping Willy more, and supports Willy lovingly, despite the fact that Willy sometimes ignores her opinion over that of others.
推销员之死文献翻译英译中
中国地质大学江城学院文献翻译姓名：张诗卉专业：英语班级：41300701学号：4130070109指导教师：蔡喆讲师Arthur Miller is one of the most influential playwrights in America. Death of a Salesman, one of his representative plays, got an immediate success after its first performance. Meanwhile it has aroused heated debates in the criticism circle both home and abroad. According to my survey on the domestic journals, in the span from the year 1984 to 2005, the reviews on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman amount to 50. Among 50 articles studying on Death of a Salesman, most of them are about the disillusionment of the American Dream and Arthur Miller’s views on tragedy in Death of a Salesman. Among a few essays which are about the expressionistic techniques used in the play, they mainly focus on some of the expressionistic techniques such as stream of consciousness, dream, and some auxiliary stage devices, but there is no systematical analysis of the expressionistic techniques adopted in the play. Moreover, none of the articles under the survey comprehensively analyze how Arthur Miller combines the subjectivity of expressionism with the illusion of objectivity afforded by realism in Death of a Salesman.So the emphasis of this thesis is through analyzing the realistic and expressionistic features in structure, character, stage design and language to argue that Death of a Salesman is a play in which realism and expressionism are perfectly combined together.Firstly, this thesis focuses on how Miller combines realism and expressionism in structure in Death of a Salesman. On the one hand, the structure has realistic features: there is a well-knit plot; the play contains standard dramatic elements such as exposition, rising action, climax, and ending. Besides, "reversal" and "recognition", traditionally realistic devises as referred to by Aristotle, can be found in the play. On the other hand, the characteristics of Willy’s thought decide that besides the external plot, there exists the internal plot which mainly deals with the memories of the past.The salesman is a typical die of modern tragedy. It is revealed that the United States of some social ills, smashing success ", "everyone can the myth. Willy lothrop is the tragic character. The tragedy of his dead wrong values around, cannot face reality. His life is in the wrong in the dream, and dreams of a mistake to die. Willy represents his class, so he's tragedy is a group of holding the tragedy of dream ofsuccess. As the name suggests, he Lowman, he belongs to lower the society. Willy: nothing at all, the salesman wages, only bring commissions. They sell is something, he believes, if has the charm, pleasing the gate is open towards him. He put his life in such dreams above the building. He to David singh mann admiring, because David sell very successful. He needn't leave the hotel, a telephone can clinch a deal, 84 when he died, there are so many buyers with his funeral behavior. Because he always living in their own imagination, in a world of fantasy as the reality, so often boast. He ignored his marketing unwelcome facts, boast about themselves in New England, said his how important how high he sales that sank into their lies. At an early age, his brother this advised him to go to Alaska is rich, but his wife, Linda said, "do you not at warner work well? Hope to become shareholders." He missed the opportunity, even first ask the boss to persuade him Linda in his city, he also can refuse to hire, because "he is very important in New England," but the reality is, the boss gave him the chop. Treat eldest biff he desperately instill "likable, attractive can succeed" thought, to make biff long-term cannot correctly understand oneself, he still palliative biff theft, caused the tragedy of another generation. Willy blindness made him jealous of success, neighbor Charley refused to offer him Charlie's career. He forced biff believes his charm will make old boss gave him borrow money. Finally, when biff ShengLeiJuXia to help his face reality, he finally biff for accepting his point of view, he decided to commit suicide, need to have some money to him. However, Willie's tragedy is not entirely due to its character, the weakness of American society is part of itself. Willy finally found himself as he installment buying things, you pay the money, then used or bad things. He paid the last house, while he had to go to the tomb. In American society, people are old elephant was ate meat, orange, skin is thrown away. However, his two sons of sacrifice, is not worthy of his doing it. The second important biff is character, he is the victim of philosophy, Willie because willy long thin and thick always young compared with Cardiff love the father, and biff as idols. Willy: biff for coach like that, even to steal something is no problem, then to display gallantry brother, urged biff brothers to steal wood. Biff so to behave in accordance with his father's values, until flunked math, to find his father for help, found in Boston,the father's privacy completely changed to his father. Because his father told him how important he constantly, so that he can't listens to the people, and have steal habit for many years, I not only, still have nothing in prison. He tried to help her father losing face and fantasy, both is mediocrity, can start, but will not succeed. But when the play, he finally came. If, mueller on dramatis personae still hope, then hope is in biff. His father is a son of neglect. In the home, biff always pinned him down. Hubby grew up a drifter, also very selfish, but the insane father threw in restaurants, and prostitutes. But the first victims of philosophy is Willie, sadly, until he still believes his play will be successful. Linda is a wife, but she did not image help willy back to reality, on the contrary make Willie in their imagination and blindness in deeper. The death of her willy is responsible, but he seems to be mueller spokesperson, shouted out of many people, must pay attention ", "the old man is not to like orange peel is like. Ben and Charlie is to prove willy philosophy and the fallacy of the characters. This represents full of adventure and cruel competition. 17 years old, he entered the jungles of Africa 21 walked out became millionaires. He succeeded. His philosophy is "and" not fight strangers. Charley a realist, he does not believe in a personal charm. He's saying: "J P Morgan clothes off like a butcher, but he bring his pouch, he very likable." Because of his practical spirit, he also received in American society has limited success. He and his father and son Bernard Willie completely opposite. This also USES the symbolism, such as the symbol of human society; the jungle The wife of filar dark demonstration of guilt, Forest fires symbol willy feel life pressure to bear, Pay the mortgage house symbol in American society of values, Willy suicide in the sun before midnight on insufficient backyard vegetables says he will give family despair to leave a little; And the curtain and curtain when the flute, the symbolic willy that cannot achieve the dream. Symbolic tactics consciousness in novels like the application. In the design of the house, the scenery wall is transparent, realistic character and late characters, past plots and practical circumstances appear alternately, also like stream-of-consciousness, just past performance and late plot, characters, and wear wall, and ignore the indoor environment of reality from the door. Past performance, the lights dimmed, the character of the age difference, dress show behavior shows era.Arthur Miller initially had the concept for "Death of a Salesman" when Miller was 17 years old and working at his father's company. The original story was about an aging salesman who has no luck with his sales and is ridiculed by his potential customers. In the postscript for the manuscript, Miller noted that the person on which the story was based ended up killing himself by throwing himself in front of a subway train. However, it should also be noted that the inspiration for the play came from many sources, including an encounter with Miller's uncle in 1947 on whom Willy Loman is also based. Through his uncle, Miller met many other salesmen and they also had an influence on the caricatures of salesman apparent in the play. Miller described some of them as having a lot of personal dignity, being ultra-competitive, able to withstand inevitable putdowns, and "forever imagining triumphs in a world that either ignores them or denies their presence altogether."Miller did not write "Death of a Salesman" immediately after his encounter with his uncle, since he was very involved with the production of his "All My Sons," which had just premiered in theaters. He waited about a year later, in April 1948, until the play began to formally come together, a combination of a portrayal of his own uncle and his original short story concept.Willy Loman is an unsuccessful salesman, who deludes himself and his family by saying that he is in fact very lucrative. Willy always tells his sons that all that matters is being well-liked and having an attractive personality, and by doing so, he encourages Biff not to study and rely heavily on his athletics. It is as though Willy wants to live vicariously through his sons since he knows that he is not well-liked himself. When Biff discovers that Willy has been having an affair, he no longer respects Willy and their relationship sours from that point on. Biff goes from job to job, travelling all over the country, unable to find anything stable from which to make a living. Biff's turn for the worse strongly affects Willy, who now has no hope for success so he continues to delude himself further. Biff accuses Willy of having all the wrong dreams, and Willy cannot admit to the fact that he is not a good salesman. When Willy tries to get a job with his firm that does not involve traveling, he is ultimately fired and he frantically grabs for his sons through which to have his lasthopes. Biff refuses to play into the lies anymore, and Willy is distraught. He finally decides to kill himself, to give Biff some seed money, but there is nothing that comes out of his decision. Willy is an example of the tragic man who has many unrealized dreams which he cannot realize even as he dies.Linda Loman is Willy's ever-faithful wife. She is his biggest defender against his sons, whom she accuses of being careless about Willy's feelings. She manages their finances and always reminds Willy how much money he needs to pull in in order to make that week's payments. Every time Willy comes home disillusioned, Linda always puffs him back up saying that he is a great salesman. She believes anything Willy tells her, except when he talks about his faults. Even when she finds out that Willy has thoughts of killing himself, she refuses to confront Willy about them since she knows it will embarrass him. When the boys come home after deserting Willy in the restaurant, she tells them never to come there again. They cannot just come and see her, since she loves Willy too much to let them disrespect him. At the end, she stands over his grave, saying that she cannot cry but as she tells Willy that she has just made the last payment on the house, she becomes overwhelmed. All through their life together, she had refused to let Willy believe that his dreams were false, but now, it is too late.Willy Loman is an aging salesman who returns home one night from a sales trip, unable to concentrate on the road. He needs to keep making sales since there are so many payments to make, and they need the money. His wife, Linda, is worried about him, but she is completely devoted to him and encourages him to find a job where he does not have to travel anymore. His two adult sons, Happy and Biff, are back in the house for the first time in years, talking about their future job prospects. Both Biff and Willy are determined to ask for better jobs: Biff from Bill Oliver, a successful man whom he knew long ago, and Willy from Howard Wagner, the son of the man who first hired Willy to the firm. Both are unsuccessful.As the play unfolds, the observer learns about various incidents in the Loman family past which account for their present condition. Biff, having always relied on athletics, fails math and does not graduate high school. Willy, having alwaysencouraged Biff not to concentrate on academics since he had such great athletic potential, does not want to be blamed for Biff's failures. Moreover, one day, Biff catches Willy cheating on Linda with another woman in Boston, and his esteem for Willy completely vanishes. Willy thinks Biff is intentionally spiteful to him and only wants to hurt Willy, but soon Willy realizes that Biff just wants Willy to accept him for who he is. Biff says that he is not the business type and just wants to work on a farm in the open air, and he breaks down crying since Willy keeps forcing him to pursue a job with Bill Oliver. Biff says he does not want to lie anymore.When Willy sees Biff crying, he finally realizes that Biff loves him and has not been trying to hurt him all these years. He wants to make up for it by giving Biff $20,000 with which to start a new business with, and Willy will get the money by killing himself and collecting the insurance policy. Willy kills himself by crashing the car before Biff can make amends with him. Biff realizes that they have all been living a false dream, but Happy is determined to carry out Willy's dreams. Linda is distraught, especially since she has just paid the last payment on the mortgage but now there is no one to live in the house.As a dramatist, Miller has more in common with Ibsen, Shaw, Chekov, and Brecht than with his fellow American playwrights, Eugene O'Neil or Thornton Wilder. With Ibsen, Shaw, and Chekov, Miller shares in common the philosophy that the fate of a person is social and that the stage should be considered as a medium more important for ideas than for mere entertainment.As a dramatist, Miller is a moralist, and his plays have a serious intellectual purpose.The theater of twentieth century America took a long time to come of age. No American dramatist in the early 1900's dared to experiment with subjects, ideas, or production techniques because theatre was regarded as business. Slowly, in response to the plays of European realistic dramatists, American theater began to change. The years between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Depression saw more frequent reflections of economic problems on the American stage. In 1922, Eugene O'Neill's Hairy Ape represented the psychological defeat of an uncouth proletarian struggling to adjust himself to a complex economic order which he could notunderstand. Maxwe Anderson's play What Price Glory(1924) dealt with the bitter realities of war and its aftermath.After World War II, the theatre of social protest fell into disrepute. Senator McCarthy succeeded in suppressing critical dissent and created a climate hostile to the free expression of the artist. During this period, the American theater concentrated on light comedy and lush musicals. Arthur Miller, born in 1915, was a young adult at the time of the suppression of free thinking. He decided to fight McCarthyism and to work for the expression of free ideas in the theatre. He also decided to write plays of social protest. In Death of a Salesman(1949), Miller criticizes the falsity of the American Dream and the emphasis placed on financial success in the United States. he term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (p.214-215)In the United States’ Declaration of Independ ence, our founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream?Were homesteaders who left the big cities of the east to find happiness and their piece of land in the unknown wilderness pursuing these inalienable Rights? Were the immigrants who came to the United States looking for their bit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their Dream? And what did the desire of the veteran of World War II - to settle down, to have a home, a car and a family - tell us about this evolvingDream? Is the American Dream attainable by all Americans? Would Martin Luther King feel his Dream was attained? Did Malcolm X realize his Dream?Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others lo ok toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.Thomas Wolfe said, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be hi mself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him."Arthur miller has emerged as one of the most successful and enduring play wrights of postwar era in Amercia,no doubt because his focusing on middle-class anxieties brought on by a society that emphasizes the hollow values of material success has struck such a responsive chord.The recurring theme of anxiety and insecurity reflects much of Arthur Miller’s own past.Born the son of a well-to-do Jewish manufacturer in New York City in 1915,Miller had to experience the social disintegration of his family when his father’s business failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.By taking on such odd jobs as waiter,truck driver,and factory worker,Miller was able to complete his studies at the University of Michigan in 1938.These formative years gave Miller the chance to come in close contact with those who suffered the most from the Depression and instilled in him a strong sense of personal achievement necessary to rise above the situation.He began writing performed in 1949 that Miller established himself as a major American dramatist.Winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1949,Death of a Salesman has to this day remained a classic.The play’s intellectual appeal lies in Miller’s refusal to portray his characters as two-dimensional-his refusal to involve himself in a one-sided polemic attack on capitalism.Even critics cannot agree as to whether Death of a Salesman is to be categorized as social criticism,a tragedy,or simply a paychologicalstudy.Of necessity,each person will have to draw his or her own individual conclusions.The fact that performances of Death of a Salesman have met with acclaim throughout the world testifies to its universality:the play’s conflicts and themes appear not to be uniquely American.阿瑟米勒是美国最具影响力的剧作家之一。
推销员之死21页PPT
26.11.2019
Arthur Miller (1915-2019)
• an American playwright and essayist. • a prominent figure in American theatre, • wrote dramas that include award-winning
26.11.2019
The Death of a Salesman (1949)
Douglas Henshall as Biff and Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman
26.11.2019
The Death of a Salesman (1949)
• Wins both the Tony and the Pulitzer • Originally titled The Inside of His Head • The question of how does our mind
fellow man. • The Guilt of the survivor. • An ordinary man's tragedy doubling as
symbol of a larger societal flaw. • A Penchant for Big Operatic Speeches.
• 1956. A View From the Bridge, one-act version paired with another one acter, A Memory of Two Mondays. Opened at the Coronet (9/29) for 149 performances.
推销员之死【英文】
➢ Pulitzer Prize winner for Death of A Salesman
➢ Double winner of New York Drama Critics Circle Award
The American Dream is closely tied up with the literary works of another author, Horatio Alger. This author grew famous through his allegorical tales which were always based on the rags-to-riches model. He illustrated how through hard work and determination, penniless boys could make a lot of money and gain respect in America.
➢ the concept of the hero’s flaw ➢ the hero’s capacity to willingly endure
suffering ➢ the catharsis of the audience
Initial Themes
➢ Addresses family conflict in post World War II America
allow Miller to make a film for them on juvenile delinquency
Final Destination《死神来了(2000)》完整中英文对照剧本
"法国观光""推销员之死""邪恶""死亡是终结"艾力克斯Alex.托德和乔治的爸爸明天来接你Tod and George's dad just called. He's picking you up at 3.30 tomorrow. 五点巴士从学校出发The bus leaves the high school for the airport around 5.00.我的皮包好用吗?How's my suitcase working out for you?妈妈不要拆标签Mom, you got to leave that on.爸爸上次带着标签搭飞机...The tag made the last flight without the plane crashing...没有出事应该保留So l figures it's got to be on or with the bag.是吉祥物For luck.胡思乱想Where would you get a nutball idea like that?我的确还活着l'm still here.你才17岁So, seventeen, on the loose...你们这群野马...Senior trip with your friends in Paris...到巴黎度假十日Ten days in the springtime.趁还年轻好好开心吧Live it up. You got your whole life ahead of you.比利让叔叔帮你一下Hitchcock, let me give you a hand with this. There you go.混球Carter, you dick.-笨蛋 -小子-Schmuck. -Good one.-你遗留在巴士上的 -谢谢-You left this on the bus. -Thanks.赶快我们一起去拿Come on, let's get your stuff together.姬丝黛贝丽Hey, Christa. Hi, Blake.-做什么? -你们的爸爸-What are you doing? -He's the man.带齐行李没有?All right. You guys got everything?爸都带齐了Yeah, Dad, we're all set.意思是指可以起程吗?Does that mean go?不知道Don't know.这是给你们两个的玩得开心This is for both of you. Have a great time.谢谢爸爸Thanks, Dad.-是给我们两个的 -走吧-Both of us. -Let's go.-艾力克斯照顾一下他们 -我会的-Alex, takes care of them. -l will.校刊上我的照片真恶心I didn't think anything could look worse than my yearbook photo. 别烦我从早到晚就听你罗嗦How do you think I feel having to look at you?他叽哩咕噜什么?What the fuck does he want?机上不准乘客生事The airport does not endorse solicitors.死并非一了百了Death is not the end."世界并非只有物质"再骚扰我学生你就一了百了It will be for you if you harass my students.神会保佑你Hare Rama.去你的Fuck.我想问你几句I have to ask you a few questions this evening.行李是你自己收拾?Did you pack your bags yourself?一直在你身边?Have your belongings been in your possession the entire time?"取消"布郎宁先生?Mr. Browning?你有没有接过陌生人的东西?Have you received any packages from persons unknown to you?"终点巴黎戴高乐机场"-和你生日一样 -什么?-Same as your birthday. -What?你生于9月25日起飞是9点25分September 25. 9.25.生日和起飞时间一样Your birthday's the same as your departure time."终点"滚开! 迪克Fuck off, dude. Dick.老爸说给的钱我们两个都有份George, Dad said both of us. Give me some cash.不要闹了Knock it off.混♥蛋♥You asshole."巴黎观光"-谢谢 -不用客气-Thanks. -You're welcome.一起去拉屎Let's go take a shit.-你自己去拉个够 -不一起去-Take a shit by yourself. -No, dude.听我说动动脑子Listen, OK? Take some knowledge.七个钟头飞机We're about to board a seven-hour flight.机上厕所不通风The toilets in coach are barely ventilated closets.飞到半路...你进去拉屎Say halfway through the flight...your body wants that aeroplane food out. 拉完屎出来万一...You got to go torque a wicked cable...姬丝黛或者贝丽接着进去...Then directly after you, walks in Christa or Blake...见到你留在马桶内的杰作...Want them to associate you with that watery sting in their eye? 不反胃才怪That reflexive gag at the back of their throat?他生于27岁的夏季...He was born in the summer of his 27th year...是约翰·丹佛唱的John Denver.死于飞机事故Died in a plane crash.各位先生女士请注意Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience.飞往巴黎的180号♥班机...At this time, we would like to begin preboarding...即将登机乘客们请前往46号♥登机口Of Vol Air flight 180 to Paris through gate 46.火像雨点从天而降...I've seen it raining fire in the sky...有人看见比利·希治格吗?Anyone seen Billy Hitchcock? How did we lose him?走Go. Go.走Go.好痛That hurt.飞机上有小孩多数不会失事That's a good sign. Younger, the better.否则上帝必定心理变♥态♥It'd be a fucked-up God to take down this plane.也许真的变♥态♥A really fucked-up God.-你好 -你好吗?-Hey, Tod. -Hello. How you doing?你可以跟姬丝黛换个位置吗?Can you switch seats with Christa?可以但我随时要小便God, I would, but I got a bladder thing.尿道发炎It's a urinary tract infection.问问艾力克斯吧Let's go ask Alex.艾力克斯换个位子我想和贝丽坐一起Could you trade seats so Blake and I could sit together?她问过托德他说他得了什么病She asked Tod, but he had some medical thing.求求你好吧?Please?你真是个好人艾力克斯You're so sweet. Thanks, Alex.谢谢你艾力克斯Thank you, Alex.不用客气You're welcome.你以为在飞机上可以泡到马子吗?You really think we'd titty-fuck them over Greenland?搞得我吃得都没胃口全程只看一级片Because of you, I got to watch fucking "Stuart Little."你还真够朋友Thank you.-谢谢 -太棒了-Thanks, man. -That's great.抱歉迟到那是我的座位Sorry I'm late. That's my seat right there.谢谢Thanks.-你好? -不是吧-Hello? -Ain't going that way.请大家注意May I have your attention?系好安全带To properly fasten your seat belts...slide the flat portion into the buckle. 服务员准备起飞Flight attendants, prepare for departure.真棒All right.无论如何Whatever.不要紧It's OK.不要怕It's fine.亲爱的没事了It's OK, honey.艾力克斯换个位?我想和贝丽坐一起Could you trade seats so Blake and I could sit together? 她问过托德他说他得了什么病She asked Tod, but he had some medical thing.求求你Please?什么事?What's up, dude?先生什么事?Is there a problem, sir?搞什么鬼?What's your fucking problem?飞机会爆♥炸♥!This fucking plane's going to explode!闭嘴! 布郎宁Shut up, Browning.搞什么鬼?You're so not funny.不应该开玩笑...If this is a joke...不是开玩笑!It's not a joke!艾力克斯真的Alex, take it easy.坐下!Sit down!飞机会坠毁!It's going down!你们可能要下飞机We'll remove you if this continues.我自己会下的!I'll fucking remove myself!抱歉放手I'm sorry. Get away.-那个座位是我的 -飞机正在下降!-That's my seat. -This plane is going down!通道上的人全都下去Everybody in the aisle off the plane.下飞机! 大家都坐好!Just stay where you are. Sit tight.飞机会坠毁!This fucking plane is going down!你跟他去照顾他一下Go check him out. See how he's doing.-我没有闹事放手! -我们走-Get the fuck off me! -Let go, jerk.看着他不要放他们上机You got this? No one gets back on board.这是我的命令That's my call.等一等Wait, please!我有40个学生去巴黎I've got forty students going to Paris. Please.-请明白我的立场 -十分抱歉...-You must understand my position. -I do, and I apologize for Alex... 机上的学生不能没有教师But one of us needs to be on that plane.我不能让这些学生自己去巴黎十天...I cannot let those students go to Paris for ten days...卡特停手!Carter, no!坐下卡特!Sit the fuck down, Carter! Sit!你们之中只准一个上机One of you can go on the flight.机师态度强硬只准你或我上机They're not taking this well. One of us can get back on.我们迟三个小时后搭另一班The rest can take an 11.10 flight.我留下来I'll stay.-你上机吧你懂法语 -好吧-You know the French thing. Get on the plane. -It's fine.我刚才上了厕所才出来...Hi, I was in the bathroom, and the lock was stuck...等一等我没有生事!Wait, I didn't fight with anyone!岂有此理!Damn!谢谢Thanks.我通知了你父母他们正在赶来I called your parents. They're on their way.艾力克斯这白♥痴♥Stupid Alex.艾力克斯究竟什么事?Alex, talk to me. Tell me what happened.我看见它了I saw it.我好像看见它I don't know. I saw it.看见飞机从跑道起飞...I saw it on the runway, I saw it take off...我从窗口望出去望到地面I saw out my window, I saw the ground.机舱开始震动And the cabin, it starts to shake.左边飞脱跟着飞机爆♥炸♥The left side blows up and the whole plane explodes.看得清清楚楚和真的一样And it was so real, like how everything happens.你见惯飞机爆♥炸♥?Been on a lot of planes that blew up?你必定睡着了You fell asleep.我们延迟半日去巴黎?We get thrown off the plane and blow a half day in Paris? 只因为艾力克斯做他妈的噩梦?All because Browning has a bad fucking dream?不过且慢糟了飞机会爆♥炸♥!Wait! The plane, it's going to blow up!去死吧! 卡特Fuck you, Horton.去巴黎? 进医院就有你份! 你这混♥蛋♥! The only trip you're taking is to the fucking hospital!放开他! 艾力克斯住手!Get off him ! Alex, stop it!眼巴巴看着别人去There they go, here we stay.我要你赔偿可惜你没留在机上You're paying for my trip. I wish you were on that plane!-贱♥人♥! -哦见鬼!-You fucking prick! -Shit!-快报♥警♥! -保安!-Call it in! -Security!为什么望着我?You're looking at me as if I caused this.不关我的事I didn't cause this.有没有人生还?Are there any survivors?我怎么会知道?How should I know?-我没有... -这不是巫术-You think I'm some... -He's not a witch.我叫薛高...I'm Howard Seigel...运输安♥全♥局♥National Transportation and Safety Board.你们的家人接到通知正赶来的途中We've contacted all your families. They are on the way.谁要见...Is there anyone here who...神父或是牧师?feels they might need medical attention or spiritual counselling?什么事? 有没有人生还?What's going on? Are there any survivors?爆♥炸♥的原因未明The cause for the explosion is still undetermined.救援队抵达现场后...The Nassau County authorities are on the scene...展开海上搜索naval search and rescue en route.打扰一下我是温纳Excuse me. I'm Agent Weine.这位是希瑞克联邦调查局探员This is Agent Schreck. We're with the FBl.我明白你们的心情不过...I understand how you all must be feeling and I know it's going to be difficult...我们不得不问几句话...but we need to ask questions regarding today's events...趁你还记得的时候while they're still fresh in your mind.你们所提供的数据都很有用...This will prove invaluable to our rescue attempts...无论是对拯救还是调查and any potential criminal investigation.你说听我说You said, "Listen to me."飞机起飞后会爆♥炸♥""This plane will explode on takeoff."你怎知道?How did you know that?我有预感I got this feeling.奇怪的预感This weird feeling.上机后你有没有服过镇静剂?Did you take any sedatives before boarding?安♥眠♥药♥ 镇定剂或迷幻药?On board, did you take any sleeping pills, narcotics, hallucinogens? 吸不吸毒?Do you take any drugs?我看见了I saw it.看见将会发生的事I saw it happen.见到飞机爆♥炸♥I saw the plane explode.你的预感让你说出这样的话...Did the weird feelings have anything to do...可惜卡特没留在机上...with your saying you wished Carter Horton was on it...这就是飞机爆♥炸♥前你的预感?just before it exploded?那么为什么那样说?Then why'd you say it?我不以为飞机真的会爆♥炸♥I didn't really think it was going to happen.既然如此...If that's the case, Alex...为什么下飞机?why did you really get off the plane?我哥哥...My brother George...叫我下机照顾艾力克斯he told me to go keep an eye on Alex.于是哥哥留在机上...And so he stayed and...而我下机He told me to get off the plane.拉利叫我上机...Larry Murnau said I should get back on...但我认为他上机比较适合but I told him that he should go.我叫他上机I sent him back on the plane.没有人逼你下飞机All right. Nobody forced you off the plane.你跟下飞机的同学也不熟...You said you weren't friends with those that were...克莱尔那么你为什么下飞机?so, Clear, why did you get off the plane?因为我看到听到艾力克斯的情形...Because I saw and I heard Alex...因为我相信他and I believed him.他在那里There he is.谢谢你送我回来Thank you for the ride.您在收看的的是...You are looking at the first piece of debris...180号♥航♥班♥事故的第一现场...to wash ashore from Vol Air flight 180...随即发生爆♥炸♥ 爆♥炸♥碎片... which erupted shortly after a 9.25 p.m. take off...约翰·F·肯尼迪在纽约机场向您报道from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.据悉未有生还者There are no known survivors.水警与海军的搜寻工作...Coast Guard and naval search and rescue efforts...此刻仍在进行...are continuing at this moment...飞机燃料仍在海面燃烧even as jet fuel burns on the ocean's surface.对于寻获生还者的机会...Authorities are pessimistic about the possibility...当局认为微乎其微of finding anyone alive from the ill-fated flight.287名乘客可能全部遇难All 287 passengers are feared dead.其中有...Amongst the travellers...来自阿伯拉罕山中学的...a class of forty students and four teachers...40名学生 4位教师from Mount Abraham High School in south-east New York. 该批师生拟赴巴黎参观en route to Paris on a field trip.起机前...There are reports several students...数名学生因事...were removed from the aircraft moments before departure... 被驱逐下机不过...however, investigators remain guarded...详情未获披露about the specifics of this incident.运输安♥全♥局♥和联邦调查局... Authorities from National Transportation and Safety...两局人员已经到抵达现场...and the Federal Bureau of lnvestigation...着手调查have arrived at JFK to begin the initial investigation.机场与附近的长岛...Eyewitnesses at the airport, as well as on Long lsland...都有人目击这次爆♥炸♥意外report seeing the plane explode.肇事上空当时并没有其它飞机No other aircraft were visibly near flight 180.航机控制员...At JFK, air traffic controllers...正研究目击者口供are corroborating these eyewitness accounts.爆♥炸♥碎片...After the explosion, debris apparently rained...散播在大西洋数英里范围into the Atlantic Ocean for several miles.目前调查人员...Investigators are cautious about verifying these accounts...仍未能确定...believing they'll learn more...39日前...Thirty-nine days have passed...我们痛失39位亲爱师友since we lost our thirty-nine loved ones, friends, and teachers.空难的原因一日未查明...As each day passes without a determining cause for the accident... 我们的心结一日不能解开we ask ourselves, "Why?"圣经传道书这样说..."Ecclesiastes" tells us...死亡何时出现殊难预料...Man no more knows his own time...人就像网中鱼...than fish taken in the fatal net...笼中鸟...or birds trapped in the snare.死往往突如其来...Like these, the children of men caught...听天由命而已when the time falls suddenly upon them.正当伤痛犹新...And so, before we can heal...死亡阴霾徘徊未散...before we escape the presence of death and time...我们谨立此碑...we must mourn and celebrate theirs...悼念亡魂with this memorial.你不要自以为...I hope you don't think because my name ain't on this wall...是我的救命恩人that I owe you anything.我没有I don't.他们死去我更应该...All I owe these people is...好好地活to live my life to the fullest.那就少饮酒为妙Why don't you stay off the J.D., then?你没资格干涉Don't you ever fucking tell me what to do.我的命掌握在我自己手上I control my life, not you.我不会死的I'm never going to die.我在考车牌考到70分I took my driver's test last week at the DMV. Got a seventy. 虽然是最低分不过总算及格It's the lowest score you can get, but I passed.考完路试...The thing is, when I was done with the test...那个考官居然跟我说you know the guy that drives with you during the test?对我说...Anyways, he goes..."年轻人你会英年早丧""Young man, you're going to die at a very young age."我真的短命?Is that true?放心好了你吉人天相Not now, not here, not ever, Billy.那我可以约仙迪出去了?If I ask out Cynthia Paster, will she say no?见鬼Fuck.不要跟我交谈我怕了你Don't talk to me. You scare the hell out of me.我过去一下I'm going up.不要误会不过我不希望你选择错的路I don't want you to take this the wrong way.我会记住你的I miss you, you know?我也会记的你的Yeah, I miss you, too.可是我爸爸不明白But my father, he doesn't understand.等他心情平复...Look, when he gets over this thing...你和我一同出城散散心...you and me, we'll road trip to the city...去看扬基棒球队catch the Yanks.一言为定We'll do that.好极Cool.我还是走了I better go.悼念文章柳敦老师叫我朗诵This thing Ms Lewton showed me in class, they're going to let me read it. 正说出我的心声It says what I'm feeling.保重Take care, man.全靠你我还活着谢谢Because of you, I'm still alive. Thank you.俗语说死期难料We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast.话虽如此其实...But when we say this...我们心底把自己的死亡当作遥不可及的一回事We imagine that the hour is placed in an obscure and distant future.做梦也想不到...It never occurs to us that it has any connection...自己的生命...with the day already begun...可能随时终结or that death could arrive this same afternoon.可能今天中午...This afternoon which is so certain...甚至可能此时此刻and which has every hour filled in advance."火灾与爆♥炸♥""各种空难""空难""机场运作""学生悼念会昨天举♥行♥""阁楼杂♥志♥"落矶山高中"托德""黑箱车"什么事?What happened?托德呢?Where's Tod?快离开这里Get out of here.-你预见不到吗? -什么事?-Didn't you see it? -What happened?托德下机而哥哥没下机你令他觉得很内疚...You caused Tod so much guilt over George stay at that plane...于是自杀he took his own life.他不可能自杀He wouldn't do that.如果他想自杀怎么会说...He said we'd be friends again after you got better.等你心情平复约我出去玩?Why would he make plans if he was going to kill himself?华格纳先生Mr Waggner.华格纳先生Mr Waggner.几乎成秋天了Almost autumn.只是六月底It’s only the end of June.但什么都在转变Yeah, but everything's always in transition.只要留意感到秋意转浓If you focus, even now, just one week into summer you can almost feel autumn coming.我喜欢预测未来I like being able to see the future.你昨晚为什么去托德家?Why were you at Tod's house last night?联邦探员去托德家不是调查自杀I've seen enough TV to know the FBI doesn't investigate teen suicides. 那就是说...一...They were there last night. That means, one...他们仍然不知道事故原因they still don't have a clue what caused the crash.二...他们没有任何线索...Two...they haven't ruled out anything...七个人事先离开飞机已经够奇怪了and the fact seven people got off the plane is probably weird enough.其中一个有异能预见飞机爆♥炸♥...Not to mention, one of those people had a vision...飞机果然爆♥炸♥ 那就是奇上加奇of the plane exploding minutes before it actually did is highly suspicious. 最可疑的是他的朋友自杀And it doesn't help that the visionary's friend just committed suicide.你昨晚为什么去?Why were you there last night?这塑像是谁知不知道?You know what this is?是...This is a...弹簧头This is Springy Head Guy.是你It's you.不求形似只求神似Not a likeness.你带给我的感觉It's how you make me feel, Alex.对不起I'm sorry.像你一样塑像不知情由No. Like you, the sculpture doesn't even know what or why it is.无所适从...It's reluctant to take form...却肯定有一个理念...and yet creating an absolute...一个抽像而不可解的理念but incomprehensible attraction.四年中学我们未交谈过半句In four years of high school we haven't said one word to each other. 机上你预感到危险我也预感到At that moment, on the plane, I felt what you felt.你发慌我才察觉是什么危险...I didn't even know where those emotions came from...你能够预见危险我不能够我只能预感危险until you started freaking out. I didn't see what you saw, but I felt it. 危险仍未消除对不对?You can still feel it, can't you?那日所发生的事仍未完结Something from that day is still with you.你预感到我也预感到I know because I can still feel you.所以我昨晚也去That's why I was there last night.我从未面对过死亡I've never dealt with death before.可能只是疑神疑鬼This could all be in our head.总觉得有异样It just feels like it's all around us.异样?It?我们或者难逃一死?What if Tod was just the first?像托德一样Of us.这是你的预感?Is that something that you're feeling?不知道I don't know.假如可以再见到托德见他最后一面I wish I could see him one last time.或者可以弄明白Maybe I would know.想见他就去见好了Then let's go see him.小心Easy.我的心跳得很快Gives me a rush.因为这个地方?This place?因为做不应该做的事Doing something I'm not supposed to.跟我来Come on.快点Hurry up.-是他? -我觉得是-Is that him? -I think.为什么化妆成麦克尔·杰克逊一样?Why did they make him up like Michael Jackson?就是他That's him.他已经不是托德了Whatever it was that made him Tod is definitely gone. 天啊!Holy Christ!不要吵Please.吵醒长眠的人You'll wake the dead.他的手为什么动?Why'd his hand do that?化学剂Chemicals.在血管流动令尸身抽搐The vascular flush creates cadaveric spasms.是这样的...Look...我是他的朋友...I'm his friend...我知道你是谁I know who you are.为什么有这瘀痕?What are all those tiny marks?被铁丝勒到皮下出血Cuticle lacerations from pulling at the wire.铁丝?Pulling at the wire?他不是死于自杀是死于意外If he was pulling at the wire, he didn't kill himself. It was an accident. 人没有横死这回事...ln death, there are no accidents...也没有枉死惨死...no coincidences, no mishaps...只有注定的一死and no escapes.我们就像一只老鼠...What you have to realize is we're all just a mouse...被猫玩弄于指掌之间a cat has by the tail.我们无论做什么...Every single move we make...鸡毛蒜皮抑或丰功伟绩...from the mundane to the monumental...停红灯抑或冲红灯...the red light that we stop at or run...跟谁做情人抑或做陌路人...the people we have sex with or won't with us...搭飞机抑或下飞机...aeroplanes that we ride or walk out of...都属于死亡程序由死神...it's all part of death's sadistic design...预先设计的程序leading to the grave.预先设计Design.也就是说如果洞悉了设计...Does that mean if...就可以逃出鬼门关?you figure out the design, you can cheat death?艾力克斯你一下飞机已经逃出来Alex, you've already done that by walking off the plane.现在你朋友已经死去...Your friend's departure...这就是说死神为你们...shows that death...准备另一套新设计has a new design for all of you.你想活命就要猜测...Now you have to figure out...自己会怎样死几时死how and when it's coming back at you.艾力克斯劫数难逃...Alex, Play your hunch...你想逃唯有凭直觉if you think you can get away with it.不过记住...But remember...欺诈和不尊重此设计...the risk of cheating the plan...可引致愤怒和恐吓你的内心...of disrespecting the design...该死而不死...could incite a fury to terrorize...就是犯大忌even the Grim Reaper.你根本不想知道个中道理And you don't even want to fuck with that Mack Daddy.好了到此为止...OK, then. Well...我们偷进来对不起...I'm sorry we broke in, and...不知者不罪No harm, no foul.很快会再见你I'll see you soon.那个殡仪佬说死亡是经过设计的The mortician said that death has a design.即是有迹可寻I'm talking about omens.我们坐在这里喝咖啡呼吸...How do we know, that just by sitting here by sipping this coffee or breathing the air... 有可能引起一连串事件...or even crossing the intersection we haven't started in motion...最终导致我们若干年后死亡...the events that will some day lead to our death...40年 10年明天几时死?forty years from now, ten years, tomorrow?我们不知道...We don't...除非我们留意蛛丝马迹...unless we open ourselves up...及早洞悉那设计to the signs it's willing to show us.我不明白I don't understand.你有没有预见托德死去?Did you see Tod die?就像在机上...Did it happen again...预见爆♥炸♥一样?like on the plane?没有预见但有预兆No, it didn't, but it might as well have.从预兆也可以...This is a message from something, Clear...揣摩出设计端倪or someone, hinting at a design.胡说八道Total bullshit.要找预兆到处都找到预兆You can find death omens anywhere you want to. 咖啡是黑色黑色代表死亡Coffee starts with a "C" and ends with an "E".那又怎样? 我们喝咖啡而呛死?So does "choke." We'll choke to death?你的看法有一定道理...I want to hear you...但不可以捕风捉影走火入魔but we'll go nuts if you start with this shit.殡仪佬说死是预先设计的?The mortician said that death has a design, right? 我可能无意中预见了那设计...Now, what if you, me, Tod, Carter...令你我托德卡特...Terry, Billy, Mrs Lewton messed up that design? 泰莉比利刘老师...For whatever reason, I saw death's plan...逃出鬼门关and we cheated it.即是说我们该死而没有死?But what if it was our time? What if we were not meant to get off that plane? 我们仍然大限临头?What if it still is our time?果真如此我们迟早死于非命...If it is, then it's not finished...而且早死多过迟死and we will die. Now, not later.除非及早察觉蛛丝马迹再逃出鬼门关Unless we find the patterns and cheat it again.听完你这样说...After hearing you, I do believe...我相信托德自杀that Tod killed himself.卡特不要烦他Baby, come on, not now.人全到齐了Looks like we have a reunion here.算了吧Let it go.-几时搬走? -几个星期后-When are you moving? -Couple weeks.-可惜 -该死的!-That's too bad. -Carter, you dick!我们失去一位良师Losing our favourite teacher.我们走吧Baby, come on.我有话说...Guys, there's something I need to tell you...你要背井离乡而且她也不在了...Lived here your whole life, and now she's gotta move...-你们都有危险! -不要吵了! 你们两个-We're in danger! -Enough! Both of you!人死不能复生They died, and we lived.我们还活着Get over it.坠机的事我不会耿耿于怀!I will not let this plane crash be the most important thing in my life! 我要过新日子卡特...I'm moving on, Carter...你一定要浪费时间...and if you want to waste your life...专找艾力克斯霉气那么...beating the shit out of Alex every time you see him...你不如干脆死掉好了!then you can just drop fucking dead!艾力克斯在吗?Is Alex there?克莱尔他在等一等Hi, Clear. Yeah, just a minute.克莱尔又打来接听吗?It's Clear again. You want to talk to her?克莱尔他在洗澡我叫他再打给你Clear, he's in the shower. Can I get him to call you back?好的再见Sure. Bye.她担心你我也担心你She's concerned about you. I'm concerned about you.为什么不跟她谈?Why won't you talk to her?不跟我谈?Or to me?爸爸你和妈妈很关心我...Dad, you and Mom have both been a big help...但我暂时没话说有些问题我要自己想通but there's something I need to understand before I can talk.对谁都一样To anyone.运输安♥全♥局♥...The National Transportation Safety Board...就180号♥班机的爆♥炸♥成因...has a new theory tonight on the cause of the explosion...提出另一解释of Vol Air flight 180.某个发动机的电路绝缘体...Officials believe deterioration of silicone insulation...可能出现剥落导致...on an electrical connector to the scavenger pump...易燃液体泄漏may have leaked combustible fluids.托德的座位That's Tod's seat.接触到电制的火花...A spark beneath the coach cabin in the fuselage may have ignited the fuel line... 燃烧起来...proceeding to the fuel pump...从而引起爆♥炸♥which would have set off the catastrophic explosion.爆♥炸♥的途径The path of the explosion.首先是托德然后是泰莉First was Tod, then it was Terry.死亡秩序照旧They're dying in the order they would've died.死亡设计That's death's design.下个轮到柳敦老师Ms Lewton's next.我一睡着就梦见泰莉...Whenever I can fall asleep, I see Terry Chaney...光天化日突然...and in the day, out of nowhere...脑里响起自己的声音...I hear the sound of my own voice in my head...我对拉利说...saying to Larry Murnau...你上机吧你懂法语"No. You know the whole French thing. Get on the plane."当日的情形我总是念念不忘Everything reminds me of that day.所以打算搬走换换环境...Right. Yeah. I'm hoping a change will help. It's just that...但我生于斯长于斯你知道吗?I lived here my whole life, you know?一草一木都是愉快的回忆And everywhere I looked were great memories.现在我只见到拉利和那班学生And now all I see is Larry and those kids.望出去前院我已经不寒而栗。
Death of a Salesman-推销员之死 PPT
The Tragic Flaw
Willy witnesses his and his sons' failures and clings ever more tightly to his master plan, now placing his hopes vicariously on them: he may not succeed, but they might. His tragic flaw is in failing to question whether the dream is valid. Tragic Flaw: a flaw in character
The Lomans…
Willy has worked hard his entire life and ought to be retiring by now, living a life of luxury and closing deals with contractors on the phone— especially since increasing episodes of depersonalization and flashback are impairing his ability to drive. Instead, all of Willy's aspirations seem to have failed: he is fired from his job—which barely paid enough anyway—by a man young enough to be his son and who, in fact, Willy claims to have named.
大家应该也有点累了，稍作休息
促销管理-Death of a Salesman推销员之死英语详细分析
Key FactsFULL TITLE • Death of a Salesman:AUTHOR • Arthur MillerTYPE OF WORK • PlayGENRE • Tragedy, social mentary, family dramaCLIMAX • The scene in Frank’s Chop House and Biff’s final confrontation with Willy at home PROTAGONISTS • Willy Loma n, Biff LomanANTAGONISTS • Biff Loman, Willy Loman, the American DreamSETTING (TIME) • “Today,” that is, the present; either the late 1940s or the time period in which the play is being produced, with “daydreams” into Willy’s past; all of the action ta kes place during a twenty-four-hour period between Monday night and Tuesday night, except the “Requiem,” which takes place, presumably, a few days after Willy’s funeralSETTING (PLACE) • According to the stage directions, “Willy Loman’s house and yard [in Brooklyn] and . . . various places he visits in . . . New York and Boston”FALLING ACTION • The “Requiem” section, although the play is not really structured as a classical dramaTENSE • PresentFORESHADOWING • Willy’s flute theme foreshadows the revelation of his father’s occupation and abandonment; Willy’s preoccupation with Linda’s stockings foreshadows his affair with The Woman; Willy’s automobile accident before the start of Act I foreshadows his suicide at the end of Act IITONE • The tone of Miller’s stage directions and dialogue ranges from sincere to parodying, but, in general, the treatment is tender, though at times brutally honest, toward Willy’s plight THEMES • The American Dream; abandonment; betrayalMOTIFS • Mythic figures; the Americ an West; Alaska; the African jungleSYMBOLS • Seeds; diamonds; Linda’s and the womon’s stockings; the rubber hoseAnalysis of Major CharactersWilly LomanDespite his desperate searching through his past, Willy does not achieve the self-realization or self-knowledge typical of the tragic hero. The quasi-resolution that his suicide offers him represents only a partial discovery of the truth. While he achieves a professional understanding of himself and the fundamental nature of the sales profession, Willy fails to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional, spiritual understanding of himself as a literal “loman” or “low man.” Willy is too driven by his own “willy”-ness or perverse “willfulness” to recognize the slanted reality that his desperate mind has forged. Still, many critics, focusing on Willy’s entrenchment in a quagmire of lies, delusions, and self-deceptions, ignore the significant acplishment of his partial self-realization. Willy’s failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to the climax of his torturous day, and the play presents this incapacity as the real tragedy. Despite this failure, Willy makes the most extreme sacrifice in his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream. Ben’s final mantra—“The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds”—turns Willy’s suicide into a metaphorical moral struggle, a final skewed ambition to realize his full mercial and material capacity. His finalact, according to Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond . . . rough and hard to the touch.” In the absence of any real degree of self-knowledge or truth, Willy is able to achieve a tangible result. In some respect, Willy does experience a sort of revelation, as he finally es to understand that the product he sells is himself. Through the imaginary advice of Ben, Willy ends up fully believing his earlier a ssertion to Charley that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”Biff LomanUnlike Willy and Happy, Biff feels pelled to seek the truth about himself. While his father and brother are unable to accept the miserable reality of their respective lives, Biff acknowledges his failure and eventually manages to confront it. Even the difference between his name and theirs reflects this polarity: whereas Willy and Happy willfully and happily delude themselves, Biff bristles stiffly at self-deception. Biff’s discovery that Willy has a mistress strips him of his faith in Willy and Willy’s ambitions for him. Consequently, Willy sees Biff as an underachiever, while Biff sees himself as trapped in Willy’s grandiose fantasies. After his epiphany in Bill Oliver’s office, Biff determines to break through the lies surrounding the Loman family in order to e to realistic terms with his own life. Intent on revealing the simple and humble truth behind Wi lly’s fantasy, Biff longs for the territory (the symbolically free West) obscured by his father’s blind faith in a skewed, materialist version of the American Dream. Biff’s identity crisis is a function of his and his father’s disillusionment, which, in or der to reclaim his identity, he must expose.Happy LomanHappy shares none of the poetry that erupts from Biff and that is buried in Willy—he is the stunted incarnation of Willy’s worst traits and the embodiment of the lie of the happy American Dream. As such, Happy is a difficult character with whom to empathize. He is one-dimensional and static throughout the play. His empty vow to avenge Willy’s death by finally “beat[ing] this racket” provides evidence of his critical condition: for Happy, who has lived in the shadow of the inflated expectations of his brother, there is no escape from the Dream’s indoctrinated lies. Happy’s diseased condition is irreparable—he lacks even the tiniest spark of self-knowledge or capacity for self-analysis. He does share Wil ly’s capacity for self-delusion, trumpeting himself as the assistant buyer at his store, when, in reality, he is only an assistant to the assistant buyer. He does not possess a hint of the latent thirst for knowledge that proves Biff’s salvation. Happy is a doomed, utterly duped figure, destined to be swallowed up by the force of blind ambition that fuels his insatiable sex drive.Linda Loman and CharleyLinda and Charley serve as forces of reason throughout the play. Linda is probably the most enigmatic an d plex character in Death of a Salesman, or even in all of Miller’s work. Linda views freedom as an escape from debt, the reward of total ownership of the material goods that symbolize success and stability. Willy’s prolonged obsession with the American Dr eam seems, over the long years of his marriage, to have left Linda internally conflicted. Nevertheless, Linda, by far the toughest, most realistic, and most levelheaded character in the play, appears to have kept her emotional life intact. As such, she represents the emotional core of the drama.If Linda is a sort of emotional prophet, overe by the inevitable end that she foresees with startling clarity, then Charley functions as a sort of poetic prophet or sage. Miller portrays Charley as ambiguously gende red or effeminate, much like Tiresias, the mythological seer in Sophocles’ Oedipus plays. Whereas Linda’s lucid diagnosis of Willy’s rapid decline is made possible by heremotional sanity, Charley’s prognosis of the situation is logical, grounded firmly in practical reasoned analysis. He recognizes Willy’s financial failure, and the job offer that he extends to Willy constitutes a monsense solution. Though he is not terribly fond of Willy, Charley understands his plight and shields him from blame.Themes, Motifs & SymbolsThemesThemes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.The American DreamWilly believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material forts offered by modern American life. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without plaint as the key to success. Willy’s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.AbandonmentWilly’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believe s that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.BetrayalWilly’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with “insult” and “spite”).Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff’s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy’s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda’s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him, Biff feels that Willy, a “phony little fake,” has betrayed him with his unending stream of ego-stroking lies.MotifsMotifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.Mythic FiguresWilly’s tendency to mythologize people contributes to his deluded understanding of the world. He speaks of Dave Singleman as a legend and imagines that his death must have been beautifully noble. Willy pares Biff and Happy to the mythic Greek figures Adonis and Hercules because he believes that his sons are pinnacles of “personal attractiveness” and power through “well liked”-ness; to him, they seem the very incarnation of the American Dream.Willy’s mythologizing proves quite nearsighted, however. Willy fails to realize the hopelessness of Singleman’s lonely, on-the-job, on-the-road death. Trying to achieve what he considers to be Singleman’s h eroic status, Willy mits himself to a pathetic death and meaningless legacy (even if Willy’s life insurance policy ends up paying off, Biff wants nothing to do with Willy’s ambition for him). Similarly, neither Biff nor Happy ends up leading an ideal, godlike life; while Happy does believe in the American Dream, it seems likely that he will end up no better off than the decidedly ungodlike Willy.The American West, Alaska, and the African JungleThese regions represent the potential of instinct to Biff and Willy. Willy’s father found success in Alaska and his brother, Ben, became rich in Africa; these exotic locales, especially when pared to Willy’s banal Brooklyn neighborhood, crystallize how Willy’s obsession with the mercial world of the city has trapped him in an unpleasant reality. Whereas Alaska and the African jungle symbolize Willy’s failure, the American West, on the other hand, symbolizes Biff’s potential. Biff realizes that he has been content only when working on farms, out in the open. His westward escape from both Willy’s delusions and the mercial world of the eastern United States suggests a nineteenth-century pioneer mentality—Biff, unlike Willy, recognizes the importance of the individual.SymbolsSymbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. SeedsSeeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. His desperate, nocturnal attempt to grow vegetables signifies his shame about barely being able to put food on the table and having nothing to leave his children when he passes. Willy feels that he has worked hard but fears that he will not be able to help his offspring any more than his own abandoning father helped him. The seeds also symbol ize Willy’s sense of failure with Biff. Despite the American Dream’s formula for success, which Willy considers infallible, Willy’s efforts to cultivate and nurture Biff went awry. Realizing that his all-American football star has turned into a lazy bum, W illy takes Biff’s failure and lack of ambition as a reflection of his abilities as a father.DiamondsTo Willy, diamonds represent tangible wealth and, hence, both validation of one’s labor (and life) and the ability to pass material goods on to one’s offs pring, two things that Willy desperately craves. Correlatively, diamonds, the discovery of which made Ben a fortune, symbolize Willy’s failure as a salesman. Despite Willy’s belief in the American Dream, a belief unwavering to the extent that he passed up the opportunity to go with Ben to Alaska, the Dream’s promise of financial security has eluded Willy. At the end of the play, Ben encourages Willy to enter the “jungle” finally and retrieve this elusive diamond—that is, to kill himself for insurance money in order to make his life meaningful.Linda’s and The Woman’s StockingsWilly’s strange obsession with the condition of Linda’s stockings foreshadows his later flashback to Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room. The teenage Biff accuses Willy of giving away Linda’s stockings to The Woman. Stockings assume a metaphorical weight as the symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. New stockings are important for both Willy’s pride in being financially successful and thus able to provide for his family and for Willy’s ability to ease his guilt about, and suppress the memory of, his betrayal of Linda and Biff.The Rubber HoseThe rubber hose is a stage prop that reminds the audience of Willy’s desperate attempts at suicide. He has apparently attempted to kill himself by inhaling gas, which is, ironically, the very substance essential to one of the most basic elements with which he must equip his home for his family’s health and fort—heat. Literal death by inhaling gas parallels the metaphorical death that Willy feels in his struggle to afford such a basic necessity.Act 2SummaryWhen Willy awakes the next morning, Biff and Happy have already left, Biff to see Bill Oliver and Happy to mull over the “Florida idea” and go to work. Willy, in hi gh spirits with the prospect of the “Florida idea,” mentions that he would like to get some seeds and plant a small garden in the yard. Linda, pleased with her husband’s hopeful mood, points out that there is not enough sun. Willy replies that they will have to get a house in the country. Linda reminds Willy to ask his boss, Howard, for a non-traveling job as well as an advance to pay the insurance premium. They have one last payment on both the refrigerator and the house, and they have just finished paying for the car. Linda informs Willy that Biff and Happy want to take him to dinner at Frank’s Chop House at six o’clock. As Willy departs, moved and excited by his sons’ dinner invitation, he notices a stocking that Linda is mending and, guilt-ridden with the latent memory of his adultery with The Woman, admonishes her to throw the stocking away.Willy timidly enters Howard’s office. Howard is playing with a wire recorder he has just purchased for dictation. He plays the recorded voices of his family: his cloyingly enthusiastic children (a whistling daughter and a son who recites the state capitals in alphabetical order) and his shy wife. As Willy tries to express admiration, Howard repeatedly shushes him. Willy asks for a non-traveling job at $65 a week. Howard replies that there is no opening available. He looks for his lighter. Willy finds it and hands it to him, unconsciously ignoring, in his nervous and pathetically humble distraction, his own advice never to handle or tend to objects in a superior’s offic e, since that is the responsibility of “office boys.” Willy keeps lowering his salary request, explaining his financial situation in unusually candid detail, but Howard remains resistant. Howard keeps calling him “kid” and assumes a condescending tone desp ite his younger age and Willy’s reminders that he helped Howard’s father name him.I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want.(See Important Quotations Explained)Desperate, Willy tries to relate an anecdote about Dave Singleman, an eighty-four-year-old salesman who phoned his buyers and made his sales without ever leaving his hotel room. After he died the noble “death of a salesman” that eludes Willy, hundreds of salesmen and buyers attended his funeral. Willy reveals that his acquaintance with this venerable paragon of salesmanship convinced him to bee a salesman himself rather than join his brother, Ben, on his newly purchasedplot of timberland in Alaska. Singleman’s dignified success and graceful, respected position as an older m an deluded Willy into believing that “selling was the greatest career a man could want” because of its limitless potential and its honorable nature. Willy laments the loss of friendship and personality in the business, and he plains that no one knows him anymore. An uninterested Howard leaves the office to attend to other people, and he returns when Willy begins shouting frantically after accidentally switching on the wire recorder. Eventually, Willy bees so distraught that Howard informs him that he does not want Willy to represent his pany anymore. Howard essentially fires Willy, with the vague implication of reemployment after a period of “rest.” He suggests that Willy turn to his sons (who he understandably assumes are successful given Willy’s loud bragging) for financial support, but Willy is horrified at the thought of depending on his children and reversing the expected familial roles. He is far too proud to admit defeat, and Howard must insist repeatedly on the cessation of Willy’s employment before i t sinks in.AnalysisBiff’s decision to seek a business loan raises Willy’s spirits, and the way in which Willy expresses his optimism is quite revealing. The first thing Willy thinks about is planting a garden in his yard; he then muses to Linda that they should buy a house in the country, so that he could build guesthouses for Biff and Happy when they have families of their own. These hopeful plans seem to illustrate how ill-suited Willy is to his profession, as it stifles his natural inclinations. Indeed, the petitive, hyper-capitalist world of sales seems no more appropriate for Willy than for Biff. Willy seems happiest when he dreams of building things with his own hands, and when his instincts in this direction surface, he seems whole again, able to see a glimmer of truth in himself and his abilities.Willy’s wistful fantasy of living in the forests of Alaska strengthens the implication that he chose the wrong profession. He does not seem to like living in an urban setting. However, his fascination with the frontier is also intimately connected to his obsession with the American Dream. In nineteenth-century America, the concept of the intrepid explorer entering the unknown, uncharted wilderness and striking gold was deeply imbedded in the national consciousness. With the postwar surge of consumerism in America, this “wilderness” became the bustling market of consumer goods, and the capitalist replaced the pioneer as the American hero. These new intrepid explorers plunged into the jungle of business transactions in order to find a niche to exploit. Ben, whose success involved a literal jungle in Africa, represents one version of the frontier narrative. Dave Singleman represents another. Willy chose to follow Singleman’s path, convinced that it was the modern version and future of the American Dream of success through hard work.While Willy’s dissatisfaction with his life seems due in part to choosing a profession that conflicts with his interests, it seems also due in part to paring all aspects, professional and private alike, of his own life to those of a mythic standard. He fails to realize that Ben’s wealth is the result of a blind stroke of luck rather than a long-deserved reward for hard work and personal merit. Similarly, Willy misses the tragic aspect of Singleman’s story of success—that Singleman was still working at the age of eighty-four and died on the job. Mourning for him was limited to the sphere of salesmen and train passengers who happened to be there at his death—the ephemeral world of transience, travel, and money, as opposed to the meaningful realm of loved ones.Willy’s humiliating interview with Howard sheds some light on his advice for Biff’s interview with Oliver. This advice clearly has its roots in Willy’s relationship with his boss. D espite beingmuch younger than Willy, Howard patronizes Willy by repeatedly calling him “kid.” Willy proves entirely subservient to Howard, as evidenced by the fact that he picks up Howard’s lighter and hands it to him, unable to follow his own advice about such office boy jobs.Willy’s repeated reminders to Howard that he helped his father name Howard illustrate his psychological reliance on outmoded and insubstantial concepts of chivalry and nobility. Like his emphasis on being “well liked,” Willy’s harping upon the honor of bestowing Howard’s name—one can draw a parallel between this naming and the sanctity and dignity of medieval concepts of christening and the dubbing of knights—is anachronistically inpatible with the reality of the modern business world.Willy seems to transfer his familial anxieties to his professional life. His brother and father did not like him enough to stay, so he endeavors to be “well liked” in his profession. He heard the story of Dave Singleman’s success and exaggerated it to h eroic, mythical proportions. Hundreds of people attended Singleman’s funeral—obviously, he was a man who was “well liked.” Dave Singleman’s story hooked Willy as the key to emotional and psychological fulfillment. However, the inappropriateness of Willy’s ideals reveals itself in his lament about the loss of friendship and camaraderie in his profession. Willy fantasizes about such things, and he used to tell his sons about all of his friends in various cities; as Willy’s hard experience evidences, however, such camaraderie belongs only to the realm of his delusion.Important Quotations Explained1. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?Willy poses this question to Howard Wagner in Act II, in Howard’s office. He is discussing how he decided to bee a salesman after meeting Dave Singleman, the mythic salesman who died the noble “death of a salesman” that Willy himself covets. His admiration of Singleman’s prolonged success illustrates his obsession with being well liked. He fathoms having people “remember” and “love” him as the ultimate satisfaction, because such warmth from business contacts would validate him in a way that his family’s love does not. In so highly esteeming Singleman and deeming his on-the-job death as dignified, respectable, and graceful, Willy fails to see the human side of Singleman, much as he fails to see his own human side. He envisions Singleman as a happy man but ignores the fact that Singleman was still working at age eighty-four and might likely have experienced the same financial difficulties and consequent pressures and misery as Willy2. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to bee what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.Biff’s explanation to his father during the climax of their final confrontation in Act II helps him articulate the revelation of his true identity, even though Willy cannot possibly understand. Biff isconfident and somewhat fortable with the knowledge that he is—“a dime a dozen,” as this escape from his father’s delusions allows him to follow his instincts and align his life with his own dreams. Whereas Willy cannot prehend any notion of individual identity outside of the confines of the material success and “well liked”-ness promised by the American Dream, Biff realizes that he can be happy only outside these confines. Though his attempt to cure Willy’s delusions fails, Biff frees himself from Willy’s expectations for him. He sees the stupidity of stealing the pen and renounces the mercial world, content to enjoy the simple necessities of life3. A diamond is hard and rough to the touch.Ben’s final mantra of “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds” in Act II turns Willy’s suicide into a moral struggle and a matter of merce. His final act, according to Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond … rough and hard to the touch.” As opposed to the fruitless, emotionally ruinous meetings that Willy has had with Howard Wagner and Charley, his death, Ben suggests, will actually yield something concrete for Willy and his family. Willy latches onto this appealing idea, relieved to be able finally to prove himself a success in business. Additionally, he is certain that with the $20,000 from his life insurance policy, Biff will at last fulfill the expectations that he, Willy, has long held for him. The diamond stands as a tangible reminder of the material success that Willy’s salesman job could not offer him and the missed opportunity of material success with Ben. In selling himself for the metaphorical diamond of $20,000, Willy bears out his earlier assertion to Charley that “afte r all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”4. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the groundAfter the climax in Frank’s Chop House, in Act II, Willy, talking to Stanley, sudden ly fixates on buying seeds to plant a garden in his diminutive, dark backyard because he does not have “a thing in the ground.” The garden functions as a last-ditch substitute for Willy’s failed career and Biff’s dissipated ambition. Willy realizes, at least metaphorically, that he has no tangible proof of his life’s work. While he is planting the seeds and conversing with Ben, he worries that “a man can’t go out the way he came in,” that he has to “add up to something.” His preoccupation with material evid ence of success belies his very profession, which necessitates the ability to sell one’s own, intangible image. The seeds symbolize Willy’s failure in other ways as well. The fact that Willy uses gardening as a metaphor for success and failure indicates that he subconsciously acknowledges that his chosen profession is a poor choice, given his natural inclinations. Though his figurative roots are in sales (Ben claims that their father was a successful salesman), Willy never blossomed into the Dave Singleman figure that he idolizes5. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine … A salesman is got to dream, boy.Charley’s speech in the requiem about the nature of the salesman’s dreams eulogizes Willy as a victim of his difficult p rofession. His poetic assessment of sales defends Willy’s death, attributing to Willy’s work the sort of mythic quality that Willy himself always envisioned about it. Charley。
deathofasalesman推销员之死英语详细分析
d e a t h o f a s a l e s m a n推销员之死英语详细分析 The pony was revised in January 2021Key FactsFULL TITLE Death of a Salesman:AUTHOR Arthur MillerTYPE OF WORK PlayGENRE Tragedy, social commentary, family dramaCLIMAX The scene in Frank’s Chop House and Biff’s final confrontation with Willy at homePROTAGONISTS Willy Loman, Biff LomanANTAGONISTS Biff Loman, Willy Loman, the American DreamSETTING (TIME) “Today,” that is, the present; either the lat e 1940s or the time period in which the play is being produced, with “daydreams” into Willy’s past; all of the action takes place during a twenty-four-hour period between Monday night and Tuesday night, except the “Requiem,” which takes place, presumably, a few days after Willy’s funeral SETTING (PLACE) According to the stage directions, “Willy Loman’s house and yard [in Brooklyn] and . . . various places he visits in . . . New York and Boston”FALLING ACTION The “Requiem” section, although the play is not really structured as a classical dramaTENSE PresentFORESHADOWING Willy’s flute theme foreshadows the revelation of his father’s occupation and abandonment; Willy’s preoccupation with Linda’s stockings foreshadows his affair with The Woman; Willy’s automobile accident before the start of Act I foreshadows his suicide at the end of Act IITONE The tone of Miller’s stage directions and dialogue ranges from sincere to parodying, but, in general, the treatment is tender, though at times brutally honest, toward Willy’s plightTHEMES The American Dream; abandonment; betrayalMOTIFS Mythic figures; the American West; Alaska; the African jungleSYMBOLS Seeds; diamonds; Linda’s and the womon’s stockings; the rubber hose Analysis of Major CharactersWilly LomanDespite his desperate searching through his past, Willy does not achieve the self-realization or self-knowledge typical of the tragic hero. The quasi-resolution that his suicide offers him represents only a partial discovery of the truth. While he achieves a professional understanding of himself and the fundamental nature of the sales profession, Willy fails to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulouslyconstructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional, spiritual understanding of himself as a literal “loman” or “low man.” Willy is too driven by his own “willy”-ness or perverse “willfulness” to recognize the slanted reality that his desperate mind has forged. Still, many c ritics, focusing on Willy’s entrenchment in a quagmire of lies, delusions, and self-deceptions, ignore the significant accomplishment of his partial self-realization. Willy’s failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to the climax of his torturous day, and the play presents this incapacity as the real tragedy. Despite this failure, Willy makes the most extreme sacrifice in his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream. Ben’s fina l mantra—“The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds”—turns Willy’s suicide into a metaphorical moral struggle, a final skewed ambition to realize his full commercial and material capacity. His final act, according to Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond . . . rough and hard to the touch.” In the absence of any real degree of self-knowledge or truth, Willy is able to achieve a tangible result. In some respect, Willy does experience a sort of revelation, as he finally comes to understand that the product he sells is himself. Through the imaginary advice of Ben, Willy ends up fully believing his earlier assertion to Charley that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than a live.”Biff LomanUnlike Willy and Happy, Biff feels compelled to seek the truth about himself. While his father and brother are unable to accept the miserable reality of their respective lives, Biffacknowledges his failure and eventually manages to confront it. Even the difference between his name and theirs reflects this polarity: whereas Willy and Happy willfully and happily delude themselves, Biff bristles stiffly at self-deception. Biff’s discovery that Willy has a mistress strips him of his faith in Willy and Willy’s ambitions for him. Consequently, Willy sees Biff as an underachiever, while Biff sees himself as trapped in Willy’s grandiose fantasies. After his epiphany in Bill Oliver’s office, Biff determines to break through the lies surrounding the Loman family in order to come to realistic terms with his own life. Intent on revealing the simple and humble truth behind Willy’s fantasy, Biff longs for the territory (the symbolically free West) obscured by his father’s blind faith in a skewed, materia list version of the American Dream. Biff’s identity crisis is a function of his and his father’s disillusionment, which, in order to reclaim his identity, he must expose.Happy LomanHappy shares none of the poetry that erupts from Biff and that is buried in Willy—he is the stunted incarnation of Willy’s worst traits and the embodiment of the lie of the happy American Dream. As such, Happy is a difficult character with whom to empathize. He is one-dimensional and static throughout the play. His empty vow to avenge Willy’s death by finally “beat[ing] this racket” provides evidence of his critical condition: for Happy, who has lived in the shadow of the inflated expectations of his brother, there is no escape from the Dream’s indoctrinated lies. Happy’s diseas ed condition is irreparable—he lacks even the tiniest spark of self-knowledge or capacity for self-analysis. He does share Willy’s capacity for self-delusion, trumpeting himself as the assistant buyer at his store, when, inreality, he is only an assistant to the assistant buyer. He does not possess a hint of the latent thirst for knowledge that proves Biff’s salvation. Happy is a doomed, utterly duped figure, destined to be swallowed up by the force of blind ambition that fuels his insatiable sex drive. Linda Loman and CharleyLinda and Charley serve as forces of reason throughout the play. Linda is probably the most enigmatic and complex character in Death of a Salesman, or even in all of Miller’s work. Linda views freedom as an escape from debt, the reward of total ownership of the material goods that symbolize success and stability. Willy’s prolonged obsession with the American Dream seems, over the long years of his marriage, to have left Linda internally conflicted. Nevertheless, Linda, by far the toughest, most realistic, and most levelheaded character in the play, appears to have kept her emotional life intact. As such, she represents the emotional core of the drama.If Linda is a sort of emotional prophet, overcome by the inevitable end that she foresees with startling clarity, then Charley functions as a sort of poetic prophet or sage. Miller portrays Charley as ambiguously gendered or effeminate, much like Tiresias, the mythological seer in Sophocles’ Oedipus plays. Whereas Linda’s lucid diagnosis of Willy’s rapid decline is made possible by her emotional sanity, Charley’s prognosis of the situation is logical, grounded firmly in practical reasoned analysis. He recognizes Willy’s financial failure, and the job offer that he extends to Willy constitutes a commonsense solution. Though he is not terribly fond of Willy, Charley understands his plight and shields him from blame.Themes, Motifs & SymbolsThemesThemes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.The American DreamWilly believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.AbandonmentWilly’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes himwant his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.BetrayalWilly’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with “insult” and “spite”). Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff’s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy’s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda’s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed hi m, Biff feels that Willy, a “phony little fake,” has betrayed him with his unending stream of ego-stroking lies.MotifsMotifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.Mythic FiguresWilly’s tendency to mythologize people contributes to his deluded understanding of the world. He speaks of Dave Singleman as a legend and imagines that his death must have been beautifully noble. Willy compares Biff and Happy to the mythic Greek figures Adonis and Hercules because he believes that his sons are pinnacles of “personal attractiveness” and power through “well liked”-ness; to him, they seem the very incarnation of the American Dream.Willy’s mythologizing proves quite nearsighted, however. W illy fails to realize the hopelessness of Singleman’s lonely, on-the-job, on-the-road death. Trying to achieve what he considers to be Singleman’s heroic status, Willy commits himself to a pathetic death and meaningless legacy (even if Willy’s life insuran ce policy ends up paying off, Biff wants nothing to do with Willy’s ambition for him). Similarly, neither Biff nor Happy ends up leading an ideal, godlike life; while Happy does believe in the American Dream, it seems likely that he will end up no better off than the decidedly ungodlike Willy.The American West, Alaska, and the African JungleThese regions represent the potential of instinct to Biff and Willy. Willy’s father found success in Alaska and his brother, Ben, became rich in Africa; these exotic locales, especially when compared to Willy’s banal Brooklyn neighborhood, crystallize how Willy’sobsession with the commercial world of the city has trapped him in an unpleasant reality. Whereas Alaska and the African jungle symbolize Willy’s failure, the American West, on the other hand, symbolizes Biff’s potential. Biff realizes that he has been content only when working on farms, out in the open. His westward escape from both Willy’s delusions and the commercial world of the eastern United States suggests a nineteenth-century pioneer mentality—Biff, unlike Willy, recognizes the importance of the individual.SymbolsSymbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. SeedsSeeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. His desperate, nocturnal attempt to grow vegetables signifies his shame about barely being able to put food on the table and having nothing to leave his children when he passes. Willy feels that he has worked hard but fears that he will not be able to help his offspring any more than his own abandoning father helped him. The seeds also symbolize Willy’s sense of failure with Biff. Despite the American Dream’s formula for success, which Willy considers infallible, Willy’s efforts to cultivate and nurture Biff went awry. Realizing that his all-American football star has turned into a lazy bum, Willy takes Biff’s failure and lack of ambition as a reflection of his abilities as a father.DiamondsTo Willy, diamonds represent tangible wealth and, hence, both validation of one’s labor (and life) and the ability to pass material goods on to one’s offspring, two things that Willy desperately craves. Correlatively, diamonds, the discovery of which made Ben a fortune, symbolize Willy’s failure as a salesman. Despite Willy’s belief in the American Dream, a belief unwavering to the extent that he passed up the opportunity to go with Ben to Alaska, the Dream’s promise of financial security has el uded Willy. At the end of the play, Ben encourages Willy to enter the “jungle” finally and retrieve this elusive diamond—that is, to kill himself for insurance money in order to make his life meaningful.Linda’s and The Woman’s StockingsWilly’s strange obsession with the condition of Linda’s stockings foreshadows his later flashback to Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room. The teenage Biff accuses Willy of giving away Linda’s stockings to The Woman. Stockings assume a metaphorical weight as the symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. New stockings are important for both Willy’s pride in being financially successful and thus able to provide for his family and for Willy’s ability to ease his guilt about, and suppress the memory o f, his betrayal of Linda and Biff.The Rubber HoseThe rubber hose is a stage prop that reminds the audience of Willy’s desperate attempts at suicide. He has apparently attempted to kill himself by inhaling gas, which is, ironically, the very substance essential to one of the most basic elements with which he must equip hishome for his family’s health and comfort—heat. Literal death by inhaling gas parallels the metaphorical death that Willy feels in his struggle to afford such a basic necessity.Act 2SummaryWhen Willy awakes the next morning, Biff and Happy have already left, Biff to see Bill Oliver and Happy to mull over the “Florida idea” and go to work. Willy, in high spirits with the prospect of the “Florida idea,” mentions that he would like to get some seeds and plant a small garden in the yard. Linda, pleased with her husband’s hopeful mood, points out that there is not enough sun. Willy replies that they will have to get a house in the country. Linda reminds Willy to ask his boss, Howard, for a non-traveling job as well as an advance to pay the insurance premium. They have one last payment on both the refrigerator and the house, and they have just finished paying for the car. Linda informs Willy that Biff and Happy want to take him to dinner at Fra nk’s Chop House at six o’clock. As Willy departs, moved and excited by his sons’ dinner invitation, he notices a stocking that Linda is mending and, guilt-ridden with the latent memory of his adultery with The Woman, admonishes her to throw the stocking away.Willy timidly enters Howard’s office. Howard is playing with a wire recorder he has just purchased for dictation. He plays the recorded voices of his family: his cloyingly enthusiastic children (a whistling daughter and a son who recites the state capitals in alphabetical order) and his shy wife. As Willy tries to express admiration, Howard repeatedly shushes him. Willyasks for a non-traveling job at $65 a week. Howard replies that there is no opening available. He looks for his lighter. Willy finds it and hands it to him, unconsciously ignoring, in his nervous and pathetically humble distraction, his own advice never to handle or tend to objects in a superior’s office, since that is the responsibility of “office boys.” Willy keeps lowering his salary request, explaining his financial situation in unusually candid detail, but Howard remains resistant. Howard keeps calling him “kid” and assumes a condescending tone despite his younger age and Willy’s reminders that he helped Howard’s father name him.I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want.(See Important Quotations Explained)Desperate, Willy tries to relate an anecdote about Dave Singleman, an eighty-four-year-old salesman who phoned his buyers and made his sales without ever leaving his hotel room. After he died the noble “death of a salesman” that eludes Willy, hundreds of salesmen and buyers attended his funeral. Willy reveals that his acquaintance with this venerable paragon of salesmanship convinced him to become a salesman himself rather than join his brother, Ben, on his newly purchased plot of timberland in Alaska. Singleman’s dignified success and graceful, respected position as an older man deluded Willy into believing that “selling was the greatest career a man could wa nt” because of its limitless potential and its honorable nature. Willy laments the loss of friendship and personality in the business, and he complains that no one knows him anymore. An uninterested Howard leaves the office to attend to other people, and he returns when Willy begins shouting frantically after accidentallyswitching on the wire recorder. Eventually, Willy becomes so distraught that Howard informs him that he does not want Willy to represent his company anymore. Howard essentially fires Willy, with the vague implication of reemployment after a period of “rest.” He suggests that Willy turn to his sons (who he understandably assumes are successful given Willy’s loud bragging) for financial support, but Willy is horrified at the thought of depending on his children and reversing the expected familial roles. He is far too proud to admit defeat, and Howard must insist repeatedly on the cessation of Willy’s employment before it sinks in.AnalysisBiff’s decision to seek a business loan raises Willy’s spirits, and the way in which Willy expresses his optimism is quite revealing. The first thing Willy thinks about is planting a garden in his yard; he then muses to Linda that they should buy a house in the country, so that he could build guesthouses for Biff and Happy when they have families of their own. These hopeful plans seem to illustrate how ill-suited Willy is to his profession, as it stifles his natural inclinations. Indeed, the competitive, hyper-capitalist world of sales seems no more appropriate for Willy than for Biff. Willy seems happiest when he dreams of building things with his own hands, and when his instincts in this direction surface, he seems whole again, able to see a glimmer of truth in himself and his abilities.Willy’s wistful fanta sy of living in the forests of Alaska strengthens the implication that he chose the wrong profession. He does not seem to like living in an urban setting. However, his fascination with the frontier is also intimately connected to his obsession with theAmerican Dream. In nineteenth-century America, the concept of the intrepid explorer entering the unknown, uncharted wilderness and striking gold was deeply imbedded in the national consciousness. With the postwar surge of consumerism in America, this “wilderness” became the bustling market of consumer goods, and the capitalist replaced the pioneer as the American hero. These new intrepid explorers plunged into the jungle of business transactions in order to find a niche to exploit. Ben, whose success involved a literal jungle in Africa, represents one version of the frontier narrative. Dave Singleman represents another. Willy chose to follow Singleman’s path, convinced that it was the modern version and future of the American Dream of success through hard work.While Willy’s dissatisfaction with his life seems due in part to choosing a profession that conflicts with his interests, it seems also due in part to comparing all aspects, professional and private alike, of his own life to those of a mythic standard. He fails to realize that Ben’s wealth is the result of a blind stroke of luck rather than a long-deserved reward for hard work and personal merit. Similarly, Willy misses the tragic aspect of Singleman’s story of success—that Singleman was still working at the age of eighty-four and died on the job. Mourning for him was limited to the sphere of salesmen and train passengers who happened to be there at his death—the ephemeral world of transience, travel, and money, as opposed to the meaningful realm of loved ones.Willy’s humiliating interview with Howard sheds some light on his advice for Biff’s interview with Oliver. This advice clearly has its roots in Willy’s relationship with his boss. Despite being much younger than Willy, Howard patronizes Willy by repeatedly calling him“kid.” Willy proves entirely subservient to Howard, as evidenced by the fact that he picks up Howard’s lighter and hands it to him, unable to follow his own advice about such office boy jobs.Willy’s repeated reminders to Howard that he h elped his father name Howard illustrate his psychological reliance on outmoded and insubstantial concepts of chivalry and nobility. Like his emphasis on being “well liked,” Willy’s harping upon the honor of bestowing Howard’s name—one can draw a parallel between this naming and the sanctity and dignity of medieval concepts of christening and the dubbing of knights—is anachronistically incompatible with the reality of the modern business world.Willy seems to transfer his familial anxieties to his professional life. His brother and father did not like him enough to stay, so he endeavors to be “well liked” in his profession. He heard the story of Dave Singleman’s success and exaggerated it to heroic, mythical proportions. Hundreds of people attended Singleman’s funeral—obviously, he was a man who was “well liked.” Dave Singleman’s story hooked Willy as the key to emotional and psychological fulfillment. However, the inappropriateness of Willy’s ideals reveals itself in his lament about the loss of friendship and camaraderie in his profession. Willy fantasizes about such things, and he used to tell his sons about all of his friends in various cities; as Willy’s hard experience evidences, however, such camaraderie belongs only to the realm of his delusion.Important Quotations Explained1. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man couldwant. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?Willy poses this question to Howard Wagner in Act II, in Howard’s office. He is discussing how he decided to become a salesman after meeting Dave Singleman, the mythic salesman who died the noble “death of a salesman” that Willy himself covets. His admiration of Singleman’s prolonged success illustrates his obsession with being well liked. He fathoms having people “remember” and “love” him as the ultimate satisfaction, because such warmth from business contacts would validate him in a way that his family’s love does not. In so highly esteeming Singleman and deeming his on-the-job death as dignified, respectable, and graceful, Willy fails to see the human side of Singleman, much as he fails to see his own human side. He envisions Singleman as a happy man but ignores the fact that Singleman was still working at age eighty-four and might likely have experienced the same financial difficulties and consequent pressures and misery as Willy2. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out t here, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.Biff’s explanation to his father during the climax of their final confrontation in Act II helps him articulate the revelation of his true identity, even though Willy cannot possiblyunderstand. Biff is confident and somewhat comfortable with the knowledge that he is—“a dime a dozen,” as this escape from his father’s delusions allows him to follow his instincts and align his life with his own dreams. Whereas Willy cannot comprehend any notion of individu al identity outside of the confines of the material success and “well liked”-ness promised by the American Dream, Biff realizes that he can be happy only outside these confines. Though his attempt to cure Willy’s delusions fails, Biff frees himself fromWi lly’s expectations for him. He sees the stupidity of stealing the pen and renounces the commercial world, content to enjoy the simple necessities of life3. A diamond is hard and rough to the touch.Ben’s final mantra of “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds” in Act II turns Willy’s suicide into a moral struggle and a matter of commerce. His final act, according to Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond … rough and hard to the touch.” As opposed to the fruitless, emotionally ruinous meetings that Willy has had with Howard Wagner and Charley, his death, Ben suggests, will actually yield something concrete for Willy and his family. Willy latches onto this appealing idea, relieved to be able finally to prove himself a success in business. Additionally, he is certain that with the $20,000 from his life insurance policy, Biff will at last fulfill the expectations that he, Willy, has long held for him. The diamond stands as a tangible reminder of the material success that Willy’s salesma n job could not offer him and the missed opportunity of material success with Ben. In selling himself for the metaphorical diamond of $20,000, Willy bears out his earlier assertion toCharley that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointmen ts, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”4. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the groundAfter the climax in Frank’s Chop House, in Act II, Willy, talking to Stanley, suddenly fixates on buying seeds to plant a garden in his diminutive, dark backyard because he does not have “a thing in the ground.” The garden functions as a last-ditch substitute for Willy’s failed career and Biff’s dissipated ambition. Willy realizes, at least metaphorically, that he has no tangible proof of his life’s work. While he is planting the seeds and conversing with Ben, he worries that “a man can’t go out the way he came in,” that he has to “add up to something.” His preoccupation with material evidence of success belies his very profession, which necess itates the ability to sell one’s own, intangible image. The seeds symbolize Willy’s failure in other ways as well. The fact that Willy uses gardening as a metaphor for success and failure indicates that he subconsciously acknowledges that his chosen profession is a poor choice, given his natural inclinations. Though his figurative roots are in sales (Ben claims that their father was a successful salesman), Willy never blossomed into the Dave Singleman figure that he idolizes5. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine … A salesman is got to dream, boy.Charley’s speech in the requiem about the nature of the salesman’s dreams eulogizes Willy as a victim of his difficult profession. His poetic assessment of sales defends Willy’s。
推销员之死英文论文
Analysis of A Tragic Character of Death of a Salesman INRODUCTIONAs is known to all, one’s personal experience of life and social environment undoubtedly will affect his views towards life and his notions of art. As Arthur Miller’s explained, “The writer who wants to describe life must describe his own experience(5).” In addition, “the best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him---where he puts himself on the line(6).” According to Walden, Arthur Miller’s social conscience stemmed from the economic effects of the Depression which he experienced when he was a young man(189). Therefore, it is basic and necessary to know about his growing background and his works before introduction and analysis of Death of a Salesman.Arthur Miller was a prolific American playwright, essayist, and prominent figure in twentieth-century American theater, born in New York City on October 17, 1915. He was the son of Isidore Miller who was a Jewish businessman migrated from Austria, and spent his first fourteen years of life in Harlem, a middle-class neighborhood of mixed ethic people. Miller’s childhood was comfortable, but the Great Depression of 1929 inevitably had great impact on his views about life. His career as a playwright began while he was a student at the University of Michigan. His successful plays include All My Sons, Death of Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, After the Fall, Broken Glass and so on, among which Death of Salesman is the most successful one. Since its premiere in 1949, it has been widely acclaimed and won the Pulitzer Prize. Many critics described Death of Salesman as the first great American tragedy, and Miller gained eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the United States.The story of shows Death of Salesman the last twenty-four hour about the life of Willy Loman, an diligent traveling salesman, whose values, ideas and vanity is smashed into pieces by the fact that he is a total failure both in his family and the society. The postwar economic boom has shaken up his life, which causes that he is eventually fired and begins to hallucinate about significant events from his past. Linda, Willy’s loyal, loving wife, suffers through Willy’s grandiose dreams andself-delusions. She has nurtured the family through all of Willy’s misguided attemptsat success, and her emotional strength and perseverance support Willy until his collapse. Biff Loman, Willy’s thirty-four-year-old elder son, represents Willy’s vulnerable, poetic and tragic side. He cannot ignore his instincts, which tell him to abandon Willy’s paralyzing dreams and move out West to work with his hands. However, he ultimately fails to reconcile his life with Willy’s expectations of him. Happy Loman, Willy’s thirty-two-year- old younger son, represents Willy’s sense of self-importance, ambition and blind servitude to societal expectations. Happy has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he compensates by nurturing his relentless sex drive and professional ambition.Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. In the book Death of Salesman, there exists three themes. First, there is no doubt that one of themes is the American Dream. Willy believes absorbedly in what the promise of the American Dream that aspiration, hard work and individual enterprise will be rewarded with prosperity, regardless of family background. Unfortunately, Willy clings to the superficial qualities of attractiveness and popularity, which is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaints as the key to success. Willy’s blind faith in his distorted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life. Second, it refers to abandonment. Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. When Willy is very young, his father leaves him neither a tangible money nor an intangible legacy. Then his brother departs for Alaska, leaving his to lose himself in a stunted version of American Dream. Through these experience, Willy develops a fear of abandonment. However, when his son Biff fins out about his adultery, Biff also drops Willy. Third, it’s about betrayal. Willy’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. However, Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affairs with The Woman---a betrayal of Linda’s love. Besides, there is another betrayal that Willy has betrayed him with his unending stream ofego-stroking lies.In Death of Salesman, Miller creates a colorful and vivid world and depict a society full of problems, which are all the reflection of life and the playwright’s questioningof the present social value.Analysis of A Tragic CharacterThe whole play is written both in time sequence and in accordance with the protagonist’s psychological movement. The structure of events is the direction reflection of Willy’s view on his life and lives in his own world full of contradictions. “Young Biff and Young Happy appear from the direction Willy was addressing(Miller 68).”“Charley has appeared in the doorway (Miller 120).” Like these examples, past and present flow into one another perfectly. So in Death of Salesman, Miller not only depicts what happened in an 24 hours about the life of Willy Loman, but also describes the whole life of Willy. Besides, from depicting past, we can see that the purpose is to escape the depressing present.At the beginning of the play, Willy suffers from crippling self-delusion. His consciousness is so fractured that he cannot maintain a consistent fantasy. In one moment, he calls Biff, “Biff is a lazy bum (Miller 22).” In the next, he says, “There’s one thing about Biff---he’s not lazy (Miller 23).” his later estimate of his car is at odds---one moment he calls it a piece of trash, the next “the greatest car ever built (Miller 91).” Willy changes his interpretation of reality according to his psychological needs at the moment. Labeling Biff a lazy bum allows Willy to deflect Linda’s criticism of his harangue against Biff’s lack of material success, ambition and focus. Besides, denying Biff’s laziness enables Willy to hold onto the hope that Biff will someday fulfill his expectations of him in some capacity. This kind of satire fully shows Willy’s self-delusion and failure.In the meanwhile, by the time the play begins, it introduces the strangely unnatural tone of the dialogue, which appears more attractive. For example,“Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses (Miller 10).”“I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England (Miller 14)”.and there is persistent vexed questioning, “Why do you get American when I like Swiss (Miller 24).” The above sentences shows the particularly Jewish-American idiom. In fact, such dialogues will parallel the complex struggle of a family with a warped version of the American Dream trying to support itself.Furthermore, in Death of Salesman, there are many symbols representing the implications in order to deepen the theme like cars, diamonds, seeds and so on.Cars represent freedom, mobility and social status in American. However, in this drama, Willy loses the control of his family car.Willy: I’m tired to the death. I couldn’t make it. I just couldn’t make it, Linda.Linda (very carefully, delicately): Where were you all day? You look terrible.Willy: I got as far as a little above Yonkers. I stopped for a cup of coffee. Maybe it was the coffee.Linda: What?Willy (after a pause): I suddenly couldn’t drive any more. The car kept going off onto the shoulder, y’know?Linda (helpfully): Oh. Maybe it was the steering again. I don’t think Angeloknows the Studebaker.Willy: No, it’s me, it’s me. Suddenly I realize I’m goin’ sixty miles an hour and I don’t remember the last five minutes. I’m---I can’t seem to---keep my mind to it (Miller 7-9).As above shows, at the beginning of the play, Willy comes home exhausted, which means his car is going out of control. That is to say, his exhaustion with driving symbolizes his tiredness from life. In addition, it also give a sense of what the end will hold.Then, Ben’s incantation of “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds” in Act 2 turns Willy’s suicide into a moral struggle and a matter of commerce. Diamonds stands for the material success as well as a “get-rich-quick” scheme that is the solution to all problems. According to Ben, Willy’s death likes a “diamond...rough and hard to the touch.” What’s more, what Willy really understands is that the product he sells is himself and in the end he sells his own life.Another symbol is about seeds. Generally, seeds are regarded as a hope that Willy’s hope to his sons’ future. Besides, seeds also represents for him the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor. When Willy says, “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” after both his sons abandon him in Act 2, we have a feeling he is a failure.Thus, a conclusion can be drawn naturally that Willy dies as deluded as he lived.Through the fictional character of Willy Loman, Miller manages to touch deep chords within the national psyche.SUMMARYTo sum up, on the basis of the analysis above, we may draw a conclusion that death of salesman Willy is a corollary. In the last 24 hours of Willy’s life, he walks towards death step by step inevitably. Actually, the salesman’s condition is an enlargement of an insignificant facet of the general human condition. Miller shows that it is not an individual’s failure. While it is more like an embodiment for American’s life. Therefore, Death of Salesman is not merely Miller’s autobiography but also an epitome of American history that represents everyone who is placed in the same situation. In Death of Salesman, the author successfully applied both literary and theatrical techniques to explore the inner world of protagonist, in order to build the dramatic atmosphere and deepen the theme of the play. In the meanwhile, readers are impressed and shocked by various conflicts and think deeply about their reality. Through studying this book, I think this play conveys some philosophical ideas and shows more concern for humanity. It makes readers realize the value of life as well as the limited life. Therefore, we should live with more passion to discover the meaning of the life.Works CitedMiller Arthur. Death of Salesman. New York: Viking Penguin, 1981.Walden Daniel. Critical Essays on Arthur Miller, Massachusetts: G. K. Hall & Co., 1979: 189-96陶洁，《美国文学选读》（第三版）。
国贸09-2推销员之死
Willy 语言
人物刻画(2)— Linda Loman
Linda 语言、动作
THANK YOU ~
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้
• 工作和家庭，梦想和现实，这一切都令 Willy 失望进而心灰意冷，选择自杀。
课文节选的是第一幕的开头部分：从Willy 疲惫地回家直到与老婆谈论城市 里人太多带来的压抑感。
剧作家简介（1）
（2）Gentlemen Prefer Blondes~
字词句
P119 • brass bedstead 铜床 straight chair 靠背椅 athletic trophy银奖杯 ---厨房和居室陈列简单，表现生活境况。奖杯是为儿子骄傲。 • orchestra [‘ɔ:kistrə] 乐队席,乐池 ---音乐伴随剧情而变换，衬托出人物性格。 P120 • smash [smæʃ] vi 瓦解,击溃 • studebaker 美国汽车品牌 P121 • sell [sel] vi vt 说服,宣传, 使接受,
矛盾冲突(2)
• Willy 的东奔西跑任劳任怨 VS 工作危机 ---- 一直以来，作为一个每周都要长途到外地去工作的职员，Willy 都是恪守本职，努力想要发挥自己的作用，为了家庭的维持，也为了自 己的成功。然而在已经60岁的年纪，公司仍然不给他重用，似乎是对他 的存在与否并不在意。这样的反差，让Willy 不能接受。 这也是二战后经历了30年代经济大萧条的美国社会中，梦想与现实的 冲突---每一个渴望成功的小人物都有着这样的艰辛。
以上几个部分，顺着剧情的承接，综合借助音乐，灯光，布景， 讲述了这部剧的开始，营造了一个失意、消极的气氛，也很好地表达了 主人公的心情和处境。 主角Willy 不顺利的家庭和工作纠缠在一起，互相施加反作用力，让 他开始不堪重负。
推销员之死第二幕翻译与讲评
②谈。我要跟他们开门见 说的话。划线处语言简练
山。
准确，切合情景，从中可
③我这辆汽车款刚刚付清，以看出威利热爱家庭与生
这辆车也要快散架了。 活，爽朗风趣，大度从容
④为改造这房子，我丢进 的个性。
威利：我睡得好香啊，好 几个月没这么香了。
自我感受美好，强烈。
WILLY: ...all I'd need would be a little lumber and some peace of mind.
威利：......我只要点木料， 再就是心里别老这么乱。
语气肯定，目标明确。
LINDA: Well,it served its purpose.
我真期盼，哪怕一辈子有一回呢，等 我付清了分期付款之后，东西还能不 坏！
译句句式短小，采用句子拆分法，将原句一分为二或 拆为多个小句，形成鲜明的生活口语节奏。生活化色彩浓 郁，语气温婉亲和，对话不疾不徐。
鲜活的口语
人物口语
威利的口语 林达的口语
译文
解说
①咖啡真棒。能顶一顿饭。
②我睡得好香啊，好几个月没 这么香了。
WILLY:What purpose? Some stranger'll come along,move in, and that's that.If only Biff would take this house,and raise a family...
林达：不管怎么说，这力气没白花。
威利：怎么没白花？早晚来个素不相识 的人，搬进来，就是这么回事。要是比 夫肯要这所房，生儿育女......
Death_of_a_salesman
折射美国社会文化的多棱镜———《推销员之死》《推销员之死》是美国剧作家阿瑟·米勒的成功剧作,它有着高超的艺术价值和深刻的社会意义。
1949年2月该剧在纽约百老汇公演,创造了连续上演742场的成绩,为米勒赢得了当年美国的三项大奖:普利策戏剧奖、纽约戏剧评论奖和美国舞台艺术成就最高奖项“托尼戏剧音乐奖”。
《推销员之死》的剧情围绕63岁的主人公———推销员威利·洛曼生命的最后24小时展开,但米勒借助表现主义的手法将威利心头的往事片断穿插进来,让观众看到了他忙碌的一生。
年轻时的威利雄心勃勃,希望通过推销这个职业发家致富;威利的两个儿子年少时也是他的骄傲,尤其是身为足球健将的长子比弗。
但命运没有让威利得偿所愿,他的事业越来越不景气,在为公司闯荡了30多年后却落得个被解雇的下场,不但没有发财,到老反而负债累累;而他的两个儿子30出头还一事无成。
失望中的威利最后选择了自杀来为儿子获得两万美元的保险金,把自己未能实现的成功梦寄托在儿子的身上。
该剧的上演在美国引起了轰动,阿瑟·米勒对人物及其生活的描写近乎新闻记者的报道,剧中的主要人物既真实又富有个性。
而使千千万万人感动的不仅是剧本对人物生动而准确的刻画,更重要的是它所展现的美国社会和文化中一些最具深远影响的层面。
一、美国梦———美国文化永恒的主题“美国梦”是评论家们总结《推销员之死》主人公悲剧命运时最常用的词。
几百年来美国人相信在这片充满机会的土地上只要辛勤劳动就会取得成功,而且这种意识已经深入人心,它既有庸俗的一面,又是美国人和美国社会向前发展的动力。
《推销员之死》中的威利·洛曼就是美国梦的一个忠实追随者。
从剧情分析,威利生活在19世纪末到20世纪上半叶,这一时期有关白手起家的宣传很多,比如一位名叫康威尔(Russell H. Conwell)的教长写了一本名为《无数的钻石》(Acres of Diamonds)的书,在1870年至1915年之间他就该书作了5124次的演讲,核心内容是鼓励人们发财致富。
国贸09-2 推销员之死
• Bad drama reinforces our prejudices. It informs us of what we knew when we came into the theater - the infirm have rights, homosexuals are people, too. It appeals to our sense of self-worth, and, as such, is but oldfashioned melodrama come again in modern clothes .
矛盾冲突(2)
• Willy 的东奔西跑任劳任怨 VS 工作危机 ---- 一直以来，作为一个每周都要长途到外地去工作的职员，Willy 都是恪守本职，努力想要发挥自己的作用，为了家庭的维持，也为了自 己的成功。然而在已经60岁的年纪，公司仍然不给他重用，似乎是对他 的存在与否并不在意。这样的反差，让Willy 不能接受。 这也是二战后经历了30年代经济大萧条的美国社会中，梦想与现实的 冲突---每一个渴望成功的小人物都有着这样的艰辛。
•
[trying to bring him out of I t]. I got a new kind of American-type cheese. • I just thought you’d like a change---• [with a covering laugh ]. I thought it would be a surprise. ----想要岔开话题，却因小事惹来丈夫不快，在一一被丈夫反驳之后， Linda也并不生气，一二再而三地温柔以对。
以上几个部分，顺着剧情的承接，综合借助音乐，灯光，布景， 讲述了这部剧的开始，营造了一个失意、消极的气氛，也很好地表达了 主人公的心情和处境。 主角Willy 不顺利的家庭和工作纠缠在一起，互相施加反作用力，让 他开始不堪重负。