Death_of_a_Salesman__ppt.ppt

Death of a Salesman推销员之死- by Arthur Miller湖北第二师范学院外语学院 钱俊lArthur Miller (October 17, 1915 February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist.lA prominent figure in American theatre and cinema for almost 100 years, writing a wide variety of dramas, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are studied and performed worldwide. lArthur Miller was born in New York. His father was a ladies-wear manufacturer and shopkeeper who was ruined in the depression. The sudden change in fortune had a strong influence on Miller.lMillers plays often depict how families are destroyed by false values. lPoverty will have a lasting effectlInsecurity of modern existenceI. Introduction to Arthur Miller Arthur Miller 阿瑟米勒 & Marilyn Monroe玛丽莲梦露 His Major WorksvDeath of the Salesman 推销员之死vAll My Sons 全是我儿子制造商凯勒在二战期间向美国空军出售残次部件，导致21名飞行员机毁人亡，后他又将罪责推给合伙人。

当他得知遇难的飞行员中有自己的儿子时，受到良心谴责，终于愧疚自杀vThe Crucible kru:sibl炼狱 以1692年塞姆勒镇发生的驱巫冤案为素材，表现黑暗宗教势力与普通人良心的斗争戏剧公演时正值美国麦卡锡主义猖獗时期，该剧影射和抨击了非美活动调查委员会审讯共产党人的事件米勒因政治思想进步而遭该委员会传讯，但毫不畏惧，并借古讽今创作了该剧II. Death of A SalesmanII. Death of A SalesmanII. Death of A SalesmanuDEATH OF A SALESMAN (1949) brought Miller international fame, and become one of the major achievements of modern American theatre. It relates the tragic story of a salesman named Willy Loman, whose past and present are mingled in expressionistic scenes. Loman is not the great success that he claims to be to his family and friends. uThe postwar economic boom has shaken up his life. He is eventually fired and he begins to hallucinate about significant events from his past. Linda, his wife, believes in the American Dream, but she also keeps her feet on the ground. uDeciding that he is worth more dead than alive, Willy kills himself in his car, hoping that the insurance money will support his family and his son Biff could get a new start in his life. Critics have disagreed whether his suicide is an act of cowardice or a last sacrifice on the altar of the American Dream. The Family Members in Death of A SalesmanWilly Loman A sixty year old salesman living in Brooklyn, Willy Loman is a gregarious, mercurial man with powerful aspirations to success. However, after thirty-five years working as a traveling salesman throughout New England, Willy Loman feels defeated by his lack of success and difficult family life. Although he has a dutiful wife, his relationship with his oldest son, Biff, is strained by Biffs continual failures. As a salesman, Willy Loman focuses on personal details over actual measures of success, believing that it is personality and not high returns that garner success in the business world. Biff LomanuThe thirty-four year old son of Willy Loman, Biff was a star high school athlete with a scholarship to UVA, but he did not attend college after failing a high school math course and refusing to attend summer school. uHe did this primarily out of spite after finding out that his father was having an affair with a woman in Boston. uSince then, Biff has been a continual failure, stealing and even spending time in jail. Despite his failures and anger toward his father, Biff still has great concern for what his father thinks of him, and the conflict between the two characters drives the narrative of the play. Linda LomanlThe dutiful, obedient wife to Willy and mother of Biff and Happy, Linda Loman is the one person who supports Willy Loman, despite his often reprehensible treatment of her. lShe is a woman who has aged greatly because of her difficult life with her husband, whose hallucinations and erratic behavior she contends with alone. lShe is the moral center of the play, occasionally stern and not afraid to confront her sons about their poor treatment of their father. Happy LomanThe younger of the two Loman sons, Happy Loman is seemingly content and successful, with a steady career and none of the obvious marks of failure that his older brother displays. Happy, however, is not content with his more stable life, because he has never risked failure or striven for any real measure of success. Happy is a compulsive womanizer who treats women purely as sex objects and has little respect for the many women whom he seduces. Ben|Willys older brother, Ben left home at seventeen to find their father in Alaska, but ended up in Africa, where he found diamond mines and came out of the jungle at twenty-one an incredibly rich man.|Although Ben died several weeks before the time at which the play is set, he often appears in Willys hallucinations, carrying a valise and umbrella. |Ben represents the fantastic success for which Willy has always hoped but can never seem to achieve. Howard WagnerThe thirty-six year old son of Frank Wagner, Willy Lomans former boss, Howard now occupies the same position as his late father. Although Willy was the one who named Howard, Howard is forced to fire Willy for his erratic behavior. Howard is preoccupied with technology; when Willy mee。