阿瑟米勒及推销员之死简介
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• Like all postwar America writers, he wrote in the wake of Modernism, under the towering figure of Joyce.
DoS was an immediate success…
• Death of a Salesman, 1949: “Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949 at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for best play, the New York City Drama Circle Critics Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The searing drama ran for 742 performances.[5]” /wiki/Arthur_Miller
• Papers: I’m grading the first bunch, then I’ll go over them with Edwina. Edwina will grade second bunch, then go over with me. Give me another week, svp. Will give next essay assignment next week.
• HUAC prosecuted writers, actors, teachers as well as union organizers
• General strategy is to seed betrayal into a movement (see handout)
• AM comported himself well.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949)
EN2112, Week 7 30 September 2008
Housekeeping….
• This Wednesday is Hari Raya Puasa, so no JWB tutorial; it will happen on the following week during the same time, same place.
• Questions?
Arthur Miller, b. 17 October 1915 d. February 10, 2005
Perhaps the most famous American Playwright…?
• “one of America’s most respected playwrights, his critical reputation rests upon a relatively small body of work produced between 1947…and 1968.”
• --like O’Neill’s, Miller’s plays often attempt to capture formal power of Greek tragedy but in modern settings
• --like O’Neill, driven by dissatisfaction with “American Dream” and commercialism
• Death of a Salesman and The Crucible (1953) are his most famous works.
He was married to Marilyn Monroe!
biographical
• Ambivalent feelings about his father, who never fully recovered from damage doneular in his work.
Miller vs previous dramatic giant, Eugene O’Neill
• --like Eugene O’Neill, his work is grounded in dramatic realism yet marked by experiments in “Expressionist” technique (
Miller behaved honourably during HUAC & wrote about it as well
• Miller was, in a sense, living the writer’s version of the American dream—GREAT success.
• --unlike O’Neill: his plays don’t ramble over vast landscapes but are dramatically tight
• --M. is a precise craftsman, has detailed exposition, moves toward focused dramatic ironies
• --unlike O’Neil, not interested in FATE or GOD but rather in how human beings have created their own social structures and paradigms
Some key moments in the play
• Opening • Willy as a father • Uncle Ben’s visit • Willy between Charley and Ben • Biff’s self-awareness • Acceleration: the restaurant debacle • The funeral
• Solid Jewish family, possible source of moral seriousness
• When to “radical” U of Michigan, joined Federal Theater Project in 1938, which was closed because of suspected communist infiltration.
DoS was an immediate success…
• Death of a Salesman, 1949: “Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949 at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for best play, the New York City Drama Circle Critics Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The searing drama ran for 742 performances.[5]” /wiki/Arthur_Miller
• Papers: I’m grading the first bunch, then I’ll go over them with Edwina. Edwina will grade second bunch, then go over with me. Give me another week, svp. Will give next essay assignment next week.
• HUAC prosecuted writers, actors, teachers as well as union organizers
• General strategy is to seed betrayal into a movement (see handout)
• AM comported himself well.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949)
EN2112, Week 7 30 September 2008
Housekeeping….
• This Wednesday is Hari Raya Puasa, so no JWB tutorial; it will happen on the following week during the same time, same place.
• Questions?
Arthur Miller, b. 17 October 1915 d. February 10, 2005
Perhaps the most famous American Playwright…?
• “one of America’s most respected playwrights, his critical reputation rests upon a relatively small body of work produced between 1947…and 1968.”
• --like O’Neill’s, Miller’s plays often attempt to capture formal power of Greek tragedy but in modern settings
• --like O’Neill, driven by dissatisfaction with “American Dream” and commercialism
• Death of a Salesman and The Crucible (1953) are his most famous works.
He was married to Marilyn Monroe!
biographical
• Ambivalent feelings about his father, who never fully recovered from damage doneular in his work.
Miller vs previous dramatic giant, Eugene O’Neill
• --like Eugene O’Neill, his work is grounded in dramatic realism yet marked by experiments in “Expressionist” technique (
Miller behaved honourably during HUAC & wrote about it as well
• Miller was, in a sense, living the writer’s version of the American dream—GREAT success.
• --unlike O’Neill: his plays don’t ramble over vast landscapes but are dramatically tight
• --M. is a precise craftsman, has detailed exposition, moves toward focused dramatic ironies
• --unlike O’Neil, not interested in FATE or GOD but rather in how human beings have created their own social structures and paradigms
Some key moments in the play
• Opening • Willy as a father • Uncle Ben’s visit • Willy between Charley and Ben • Biff’s self-awareness • Acceleration: the restaurant debacle • The funeral
• Solid Jewish family, possible source of moral seriousness
• When to “radical” U of Michigan, joined Federal Theater Project in 1938, which was closed because of suspected communist infiltration.