‘A man is not an orange. You can’t eat the fruit and throw the peel away.’ With these words, Willy Loman captures the desperation at the heart of Arthur Miller’s extraordinary masterpiece — a play that changed the course of modern theatre and remains as searing an examination of American life today as when it was first performed. Willy is on his last legs: his career is failing, his sons Biff and Happy have fallen far short of his hopes, and the happiness and success of his neighbour Charley and son Bernard gnaw at him with jealousy. He spirals into regret and reminiscence, trapped in a harrowing journey of his own making. A scathing indictment of the empty pursuit of wealth and the ultimate failure of the American dream, Death of a Salesman sees Miller define his aim as being ‘to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life’ — and in the destructively insecure Willy Loman, he achieved exactly that.
ISBN 13: 9780141182742
Author: Arthur Miller
