Arthur Miller

“The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life” – Arthur Miller

When I think of Arthur Miller I cannot help but think of the harsh realism he portrays in his plays. Nowhere is this more evident than in Death of A Salesmen, a stark look at a decaying family through the eyes of an increasingly cruel and mentally unstable man—Willy Loman.

Willy is a senile old salesman, failing in his work, alienating his family, and slipping in and out of paranoid delusions. Miller does not simply give us these characters to pity or gawk at them, but to ask a question. What is the American dream — is it attainable? And what led Willy to his untimely downfall?

The play never really answers that question, but the ride it took me on was one I will scarcely forget anytime soon. Everyone I have met has had different reactions to this play, its characters, and the morality of it. From the very get go, I despise Willy more than I pity him and I find Biff to be the most like-able of the cast, and yet others feel exactly the opposite.

The complete and utter subjectivity of it all is what makes it an incredible rare experience. Watching this play is like peering into fog — you can make out shapes but you cannot discern what’s going on behind the scenes.

Death of A Salesmen is not an easy play; it is not escapism so much as a hard slap of realism, but it is also thoughtful and makes even the lowliest characters admirable in some way. It is a tour de force on every level.