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Death of A Salesman - English Literature A level (AQA)

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Other

Last updated

21 March 2021

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This is an in-depth summary of all themes, quotes and tragic aspects in Death of a Salesman for A level AQA English Literature . It is everything you need for any essay question on Death of a Salesman. just memorize and regurgitate: it’s what got me an A *

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Death of a Salesman: Comprehensive Guide for AS/A Level

• AQA B AS & A Level

Give your students an insight into the USA in the 1940s and the reality of the American Dream through Arthur Miller’s classic play. Willy Loman is a fascinating protagonist, and he and his family introduce ideas of illusions, dreams and secrets as well as the harsh reality of working life. Explore the play’s themes and complex narrative structure in detail with this engrossing guide with fantastically clear and comprehensive analysis.

Well written, informative and a really useful aid in teaching the text ... ... Allows the teacher to feel they have comprehensive understanding before exploring the text with students A Baiden, Teacher & Peer Reviewer

Engage your students!

Includes debate prompts; active learning tasks; further reading suggestions; key literary and linguistic terms; practice essay questions throughout!

Tackles the key stages of text analysis:

• Walk-through Thorough section-by-section commentary walks students through each scene
• Drawing it all together In-depth discussion of whole text focuses on: characterisation, relationships, genre, themes, attitudes and values, language, form, structure, context, literary approaches
• Indicative content To support teaching by making sure all key areas are covered

Plus! A glossary of key terms ensures full understanding

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What do teachers say about this resource (7041).

Great resource ... It offers background and discussion prompts that work very well... It helped me save time on preparation... Suggestions are made for classroom activities... The essay questions suggested help students prepare for their written exam. C Levey, Head of English & Customer

Excellent resource, packed with ideas for teaching. It is well written, informative and a really useful aid in teaching the text... It enhances learning both for the student and for a teacher teaching the text for the first time . It allows the teacher to feel they have comprehensive understanding before exploring the text with students. Given how many are 'thrown in' to teaching at A Level, it is a great comfort to have this on hand. A Baiden, Teacher & Peer Reviewer

This is truly a comprehensive resource on this text ... Overall, it is well written and informative... The debate prompts are a very useful part of the resource... [They] invite the students to engage with Miller’s message or reason(s) for writing the play... Encouraging students to question their understanding is an excellent way to enhance learning and help them achieve good grades. T MacLean, Course Leader & Peer Reviewer

• A Level AQA B English Literature (7717)
• A Level Comprehensive Guide
• A level English Literature
• A Level English Literature Comprehensive Guide
• Arthur Miller
• Aspects of Tragedy
• Paper 1: Literary Genres

A-Level English With Miss Huttlestone

AQA Tragedy Section C Model Answer

The following was a class effort, with small groups each contributing paragraphs on a specific focus:

‘Within tragedies, men are presented as destructive forces’ to what extent do you agree?

Whilst it can certainly be said that men act destructively, to state that they are in absolute control of such ‘forces’ would be limiting.

The destructive force of the male character can be clearly seen through the characterisation of the knight in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ The ‘Knight at arms’ is ignorant of the obvious warnings of danger that the faery’s child presents. She is at first described as possessing the qualities of having a ‘light’ ‘foot’ and ‘her eyes were wild’. This immediately portrays her ephemeral and fleeting nature and foreshadows the knight’s tragic downfall due to his obsession and ignorance towards her nature. Furthermore, he attempts to control her through assuming her outlook on the situation as ‘She looked at me as she did love’ suggests he is tragically blind because of his refusal to become disillusioned with love and her supernatural status. It reflects a key point of Romanticism which is the unattainable dreamlike state of negative capability that becomes unreachable due to a need for reason, similarly to how the knight’s need for answers leads him to a state of cyclic suffering in which he is ‘alone and palely loitering’ here Keats may be trying to warn us of the destruction caused by striving for reason above feeling.

Immediately, within ‘Death of a salesman’, it can be seen that the tragic hero Willy Loman lives a life consumed by destructive patterns of behaviour due to his relentless desperation to achieve the American Dream and the derogatory lengths he’ll go to despite its drastic effects on others. Interestingly, the audience are forced to acknowledge one of Willy’s most destructive behaviours extremely early on in the production where flashbacks of ‘The women’, a lady whom Willy has an affair with, appear mid conversation between Willy and his Wife: (He suddenly grabs her and kisses her roughly). This brief encounter to Willy’s affairs is structurally interesting as Arthur Miller instantly demonstrates how Willy is selfishly destroying the trust and love between his family as a result of his greed for success and status. Miller wastes no time fooling the audience into a blissful interpretation of the tragic hero as an honest, hard-working man, but instead delves straight into his flaws. These moments of betrayal are at the root cause for the family’s later problems such as Biff’s downfall after witnessing the affair. During the moment Biff discovers the affair he exclaims “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!” This can be viewed as a terrifying moment of realisation for Biff that his father is not the idealised dream like hero he has envisaged, but a cheating liar.” Linda, Willy’s wife, can be considered to be the individual who should suffer from Willy’s actions the most due to her whole life being devoted to Willy. We are never shown Linda with a life outside of the family because during this era women were mainly house wives with no responsibilities aside from this. Therefore, Willy’s behaviour would be most destructive towards Linda because she is completely unable to uphold a life apart from Willy and the two boys.

In ‘Death of a Salesman’ males other than Willy are painted as destructive forces, and most specifically through the characterisation of Happy. Happy is a clone of Willy, he takes his father’s delusional advice and example in every aspect of his life which causes him to destroy a lot of his prospects; “my own apartment, a car, and plenty of women and still goddamit I’m lonely”. His inability to accept truth and reality is tragic because it enhances the claustrophobia of this period and the Great Depression. He chooses to live within lies and stay ignorant to the truth which cements the tragic closing of the play as it is with this mindset that he is unable to prevent his father’s end. One truly tragic trope of Happy’s character is his relentless pursuing of something so futile. Not only does Happy’s “crummy characteristic” destroy his own life but also those around him “That girl Charlotte I was with tonight is engaged to be married in five weeks. (he tries his new hat)” the juxtaposition of the destruction of an engagement and the seemingly casual stage direction “tries on his new hat” exemplifies how little empathy he has towards other people’s relationships and how he instantly goes from feeling remorse to almost feeling proud of his destructive personality. While Happy doesn’t necessarily play a role in Willy’s insanity and eventual death some may argue that the shadow caste from Willy’s older brother Ben may have impacted Willy. The stage entrances from the both of them completely contradict each other “dressed quietly…exhaustion is apparent” compared to “utterly certain of his destiny” illustrates that Willy aspires to this type of success and just like Happy relentlessly pursues it even if he knows it is unattainable or not real. Miller constantly makes references to where Willy’s talents lie “good with my hands” illustrates how Willy is ignoring his talents and embracing the futility of the path he has chosen. When the audience is made aware of some of Willy’s influences such as Ben it becomes clearer to us what type of person Willy wishes to be. These idols can be seen as the culprits for Willy’s tragic downfall. Ben especially because he makes Willy believe that success is easy and that he hasn’t had to sacrifice anything (e.g. family, love, friends) to attain it. Ben lacks detail as a character and is very detached from the stage, suggesting that perhaps Willy’s presentation of Ben is either false.

Furthermore, In “Isabella, or; The Pot of Basil”, the effects of the male influence and male destructive forces are already made known to the readers, by Keats when he opened the first stanza with “poor simple Isabel!”. At first readers experience Lorenzo’s period of inactivity, when he doesn’t muster enough courage to confess to Isabella about how he feels. However, this period of inactivity causes Isabella to suffer greatly from loneliness due to her “sick longing” that remains unfulfilled until she had to confess her love to “Lorenzo!”. Though, this period of “To-morrow”, may have been due to the clear distinctions of classes Lorenzo felt between himself and Isabella. During Keats time, we see how he himself struggles against society’s expectations and social norms that upper class such as Isabella does not mix with someone who’s positioned in lower class, such as Lorenzo. Nevertheless, the male destructive force continues with Isabella’s “money bags” brothers. The “money bags brothers” in ‘Isabella; or, and the Pot of Basil’ are the epitome of destructive men. The male antagonists are strict followers of the class system, by which society lives, so when their younger sister begins a relationship with Lorenzo, a man of lower class, they feel they must right a wrong. To right this wrong the brothers form a “stratagem” and plan to murder Lorenzo. As destructive forces the brothers instantly believe that the best and only solution to the problem is to make Lorenzo their “murdered man”. At no point do the brothers take into consideration Isabella and the devastation they will cause her. The capitalist brothers go against much of what the Romantics such as Keats believed in with their firm belief in the class system and exploitation of that system, making profit without concern for any damaged caused along the way. The brothers can therefore be described as a destructive force because they profit from every devastating event they cause, “each richer by being a murderer.” Keats almost solely depicts the brothers as destructive forces apart from their guilt when they realise the impact their act has had on Isabella but even as they flee and escape their guilt they still leave behind Isabella, more alone than ever, and cause more destructive as they run away. Not only are the brothers presented as destructive forces in this poem but they are tragically destructive in the complete devastation caused by them alone.

Similarly within ‘Lamia’, male protagonists are also represented as destructive forces, with Lycius’ damaging need for validation and Apollonius’ ‘demon eyes’. Lycius’ destruction comes when he seeks to inform ‘all his kin’ of Lamia’s ‘beauty’ at the wedding. This could be endorsed from the setting of Corinth, as contextually it was a place of great trade and competition. Many readers interpret this act as him emulating the setting, as he sees Lamia as a possession to show off. However, it can also be said that Lamia self-wills her own destruction and is destructive herself, as firstly she ‘loved the tyranny’ and can therefore not leave Lycius and his destructive nature. Lastly, she is the one responsible for the nymph ‘self-folding like a flower’, as she exposes her to Hermes and the outside world, just to get to Lycius. This in itself is destructive because she sacrifices the nymph for her own personal gain. Therefore, the females in Keats’ poetry can also be seen as destructive forces, as well as the males.

On the other hand, it could be argued that men seek to repair the destruction caused by society as seen in ‘Death of a Salesman’ through Willy Loman. From the start, Willy Loman is highly indoctrinated by the illusion of the American Dream symbolised by the ‘red Chevy’, this reflects the materialism of the classist society in which they live however in a moment of anelepsis, willy contradicts his view of the Chevy by saying “That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car” Here willy displays a moment of recognition however due to societal expectations he continues on a path of tragic downfall. At the end of his narrative, Willy Loman is still concerned of how to ensure he leaves his family with money, shown through his speech “A man has got to add up to something” “It’s a guaranteed twenty-thousand-dollar preposition.” Here it suggests that Willy is not the cause of the destruction, the society, which has driven him to this decision is, and Willy Loman continues to strive to fix the damage to support his family financially.

Whilst it can be said that male protagonists act destructively, contributing to their tragic fall, ultimately it seems larger forces are at work, such as society itself, that compels such figures to possess a myopic vision of their world.

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Published by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Secondary English teacher in Herts. View all posts by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

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Death Of A Salesman, Willy Loman analysis

English Assignment Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

How much sympathy does Willy Loman deserve?

Willy Loman, like millions of others, dreamed of improving himself and his family. Willy’s life and death, I feel are extremely tragic, he has been working as a travelling salesman for the last forty years of his life, never really amounting to anything and not until the very end of his life has he managed to pay off his mortgage.

Willy Loman, is someone who suffers from a mental illness. Therefore, I believe his plight is tragic as he seems unaware of this at times, he lives a delusional life in which he has regular conversations with his deceased brother Ben. To a certain extent his life has been an epic failure, he has not achieved what he had wished, at least not in reality. Therefore, I feel it is hard not to feel sympathy for Willy, as his demise I feel is upsetting and to a certain extent heart-rending.

Willy despite proclaiming he is a great salesman and a successful one at that, in his entire life, it is evident that he is not. He constantly wishes that he had travelled to Alaska alongside his brother, where he could attain a better life for him and his family and this is something that weighs heavily on his mind. It may have been be a contributing factor to mental illness. On numerous occasions he questions his deceased brother for ideas on how to succeed. In addition to this, he idolises Dave Singleman, a salesman that he met a long time ago. How there were many people who attended his funeral and how successful he was as a salesman. Willy talks about how he was able to make sales without even leaving his hotel room, who died the noble “death of a salesman” in which the play is named after. Willy covets this.

Furthermore, I question whether if this story is firstly fallible and secondly if it was true and he was as successful a salesman as Willy believed. Then how come he was working until well after his eightieth birthday, as at that age he would have been very old, especially at that time when the average life expectancy of people would have been lower than it is today. Therefore, I feel it is another heart-rending trait of Willy’s as he idolises this man and this, I think, could further enhance the sorrow that the audience may feel for Willy as he never lives up to this man even if it were true.

I feel that Willy longs for popularity and to be well liked more than that of being a salesman. He feels that a good personality and good appearances are the way to succeed in this world and this alone can help a man achieve his dreams,

"Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead"

This is a preview of the whole essay

He is fixated with the idea of popularity and how it determines whether someone is successful or not. His ideals of working as a salesman I feel are ultimately incorrect and injudicious.

As explained in his essay "Tragedy and the Common Man," Arthur Miller sets out the pattern for his own idea of a tragedy and the tragic hero. This pattern supports the idea that a tragedy can occur in characters of common men as well as those in high places. In his paper, he demonstrates that it should be possible for everyone to be able to identify with the tragic hero. Miller redefines tragedy as more common occurrence that it could happen to any man. Therefore we should feel sympathy for him. You could argue that he is a victim of the times. Willy Loman had a fixation with the ideal of the American dream and the benefits of achieving this dream. Charley unquestionably believes that Willy is a victim and deserves pity from the reader. Charley proclaims “Nobody dast blame this man” and at the funeral adds how hard it is for a salesman to achieve what he wishes, and how much strain it puts upon someone like Willy, he is a victim of a cut throat industry in which his working practices are obsolete and better suited to another time.

Furthermore, as Willy's mental state deteriorates, the boundaries between past and present are destroyed, and the two start to exist in parallel, he has great trouble differentiating between reality and illusion and seems to believe his own lies. For instance when he is talking to his boss Howard “in 1928 I had a big year. I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions”. Coincidentally, this was the year before the Wall Street crash which makes the reader question if Willy is fabricating the actual amount that he did sell or the fact that he actually believed this is further enhanced when Howard dismisses the fact that Willy ever sold that amount. This delusional state of mind that Willy finds himself, I believe, evokes compassion for Willy.

There are numerous parts in the story in which Willy’s profession is discussed by other characters. F        irstly Biff states “He never knew who he was” “He had the wrong dreams” moreover Charley also speaks of how “He was a happy man with a batch of cement.” Linda adds to this saying that he “Was so wonderful with his hands”. We are left wondering if possibly things could have been different for Willy if he had been in a different profession other than as a salesman. All four are reminiscing of the good times that they had directly after the burial of Willy and these good memoires that they hold of him involve him working. Biff talks about how “there were a lot of good days... making the stoop, putting on the new porch, finishing the cellar”. Biff continues saying that “There’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made” This revelation by Biff further adds to the argument that maybe he was not best suited to his job, it is evident throughout the text that he is not as successful as he makes out to be, nor did he achieve his primary aim which was to be popular and have the kind of funeral that he wanted, Linda says “Why didn’t anybody come? and “Where were all the people he knew”. From this it is apparent that he was not as popular as he made out to be, which I believe is why the reader must feel a great amount of sympathy for Willy. After everything he has ever wished for in his life nothing has come to fruition, neither of his sons have became as successful as he wished especially his youngest son Biff who has never amounted to anything, despite all the promise that Willy felt that he had. There were not hundreds of salesman and buyers at his funeral like that of Dave Singleman, which I believe is disconcerting.

One of the key reasons that you could argue that Willy deserves no sympathy is the treatment of his wife. It is apparent that he is having an affair with a lady whose name is not given, she is referred to only as ‘The Woman’ which I feel is a deliberate ploy used by Miller to dehumanise her and to portray a negative opinion of her. Moreover, we come to understand that Linda has gone through a lot during her marriage with Willy principally when his mental state has deteriorated. The first instance in which Biff brings up his father’s mental state she proclaims, “Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived” Despite all this she does still love him, this leads me to believe that there must have been a time in which they were happy, as she defends him against her sons when they question why she is still with him and make derogatory comments upon the state of his health. In addition to this, Willy’s ‘pride’ that he tries to uphold, prevents him from taking up a job with Charley despite his numerous advances offering him a job. Alas this does not stop him from taking money from Charley to pay bills. What is more is that Linda is fully aware of this despite Willy’s attempts to hide this from her, which gives the impression it has been going on for some time.

I feel you cannot blame him for his treatment of his sons, especially in the case of Biff, whom it appears Willy would like nothing more than to see him succeed. His heart is in the right place so to speak, yet it appears he lacks the parenting skills to realise the detrimental effect he has had upon his sons. He himself never had a father figure when he was younger and his older brother, we come to learn, had also left.

However, Happy is presented as a carbon copy of his father, whom he idolises despite his father’s constant rejection. For instance, when he tells his father about his plans to get married, Billy blames his father for the false hope installed within him with regard to the American Dream and how he could achieve it, even after Biffs’ emotional speech to his father asking him to ‘Forget about him”, and is in tears, Willy proclaims  “that boy is going to be magnificent”, his disillusion is unprecedented and leaves the audience feeling bewildered.

In conclusion, I feel a vast amount of sympathy for Willy Loman, and whole heartedly would struggle to believe why the audience would not feel even the slightest bit of empathy for him. This is primarily due to the fact that it is clear that he suffers from some sort of mental illness that clearly affects him a great deal and clouds not only his vision but his judgement as well. He seems to have lost his grip on reality and is somewhat perplexed to say the least. Which is evident none more so in his conversations with his deceased brother. It is apparent that Willy’s ideals are erroneous, his whole working life has been devoted to chasing the American Dream through attaining popularity which he feels is the key to success.

Miller alludes to the fact that the audience should feel a certain degree of sympathy for Willy and firmly believes that he is a tragic hero. He defines tragedy as a situation in which something good could've happened to an ordinary person, but because of their failure to take advantage of it, they succumb to failure and tragedy. (Miller, "Tragedy..."). Willy's "underlying fear of being displaced" is the real tragedy . He added, "the tragic feeling is invoked whenever we are in the presence of a character, any character, who is ready to sacrifice his life, if need be, to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity." Although ultimately being a failure in his life , when he took his own life, it as a selfless act because in dying he provided financial security for his wife and his family. Furthermore, Arthur Miller added in ‘On Joy in Tragedy’, states "tragedy occurs when a man misses accomplishing his joy"  and Willy Loman certainly did not accomplish what he had sought after, his name establishes this from the outset, his name is a play on words Loman – ‘Low-man’ which I feel is a intentional ploy utilised by Miller.

James Coxon

Document Details

• Word Count 1950
• Page Count 4
• Level AS and A Level
• Subject English

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History and English Literature A-Level Notes

Aqa a-level english literature b: aspects of tragedy: death of a salesman, arthur miller.

• In his essay ' Tragedy and the Common Man ', he states that 'tragedy' did not only have to be about kings or nobles (as Aristotle's did)
• " The common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were "
• What mattered (in Miller's point of view) was the character's strength of principle and a ' sense of personal dignity ' for which he is willing to sacrifice anything
• The protagonist will struggle and attempt to 'gain his 'rightful' position in society'
• It doesn't matter "whether the hero falls from a great height or a small one"
• What matters is the "intensity of the human passion"
• Miller invites the audience to reflect upon actions within the domestic because it is the " common man who knows this fear best " (deep words)
• The play (or drama) is about a man disillusioned by the passage of time and is horrified at the realism that it has robbed him of his dreams, ambitions and success
• Basically, an attack on the newly developing American system (at the time), Capitalism
• Where wealth (assets and money) and social status were indicators of worth rather than old values of personality
• Miller says himself that "I set out not to write a tragedy but to show the truth as I saw it"
• Based in post-war America , 1949
• American Dream and Great Depression
• Intent of dream to provide hope and ambitions for people to achieve wealth and status
• BUT, in reality, Capitalist society is ruthless and there is no room for sentiment
• It is all about taking risks and gaining profits
• American Salesmen
• Salesmen were the original self-made men who sold not their goods but their personality
• Willy served the system loyally but deluded by false/ o bsolete values
• Values that once seemed important in society now carriers little weight
• Willy self-destructs due to inability to adjust to the changing and declining living standards
• Many salesman wooed secretaries and other intermediaries to get into the post-war competitive market (as seen with Willy and The Woman)
• Domestic Tragedy ; rather than focusing on great rulers, looks at the lives of ordinary people
• Looks at issues of private discontent; shame, lack of fulfilment, infidelity
• Creates a form of tragedy which real lives are lived realistically, invites reflection on actions and the world
• American Tragedy ; focus on family tensions and frustrations
• Miller believes the past  is omnipresent, it is with us and influences our actions and choice
• Through flashbacks, Miller reveals how Willy degenerated and why he lost hope of a successful and popular life
• Willy Loman's past and present are enacted at the same time
• This is so that the audience can sympathise with him, so that we can understand the emotional burdens and formative influences which he carries from the past
• Act One reveals elements of Willy's delusions and his values, building to gradual demise
• Act Two builds up to the scene of Willy's ' anagnorisis ' and self-destruction after gaining insight
• The Requiem, Miller exploits the tragic element of pathos with Linda crying at the graveside
• Marxist critical perspective; based on Willy's social organisation at work, it has inevitably forced him to be a 'proletariat', someone who works and does repetitive work for the 'bourgeoisie'. His fate has already been determined by the establishment of the Capitalist society.
• Willy Loman is a deluded salesman who is clearly unable to work due to his inability to distinguish reality (real time) from his past (remembered time), interfering with his everyday life. He has attempted suicide several times.
• He thinks he is well-liked, that personality gets you far in the business world and that to succeed you need to cheat your way through
• His two children return to his household and Willy pushes Biff and Happy to live the dream he wasn't able to live
• Biff is unsuccessful and is a victim of Willy's vicariousness, goes on a quest to make his father happy only to recall the reason to why he doomed himself after discovering his father's affair with The Woman in Boston
• Linda is constantly supportive of Willy and sympathises with him, Charley also sympathises with Willy and tries to help him but Willy refuses (although he borrows money from Charley often), likewise Bernard tries to help Biff
• Willy finally recognises his son 'loves' him and 'likes' him, believes his life insurance will guarantee 20,000 dollars and therefore commits suicide.
• At his funeral, only Charley's family and his immediate family attend.
• Despite his low status, has traits of which we would associate with a classic tragic protagonist
• Has a ' tragic flaw ' and never understands the inconsistency of his beliefs
• On one hand, wants to be ' well-liked ', on the other, encourages competitive and unlawful behaviour
• Willy has ' myopia ' or blindness
• He is self-deluded, believing in dreams which are destructive
• He makes mistakes and missteps
• Suffers acutely and causes terrible suffering in his family
• Similarly troubled like his father, haunted by failure (both is own and Willy's)
• Biff never really recovers after discovering his father's affair
• To Willy and perhaps himself, he is a disappointment in the Capitalist world - he doesn't see himself fit for the urban life and would be seen better off in the countryside, desires to set up his own farm
• Wants to be free from pressures of the commercial world and work by hands
• Although Biff doesn't share the same fate as Willy's and has a greater understanding of who he is, could be said that his fate is linked to his father's as he is also broken
• "He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong", could also apply to himself
• Capitalism seen to be the 'villain' or external force that impacts the fate of the tragic protagonist Willy, as well as on his son, Biff
• Willy could be viewed to be a nemesis to Biff as by being vicarious and deluded, he has done nothing but cause harm to his son, leaving him 'lost' like himself
• House seems small, insignificant and vulnerable - symbolic of Willy
• Towering angular shapes surrounding the house suggests entrapment
• World beyond looms and engulfs the house like capitalist America consumes Willy
• Miller picks up realistic and expressionistic modes of the play as indicated by setting descriptions
• 'An air of dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality'
• Shows emotional states by distorting reality (combining dreams and reality)
• Return of Biff to the family household worsens the stresses on the family
• Willy and Biff come into regular conflict
• Relationship strained by:
• Willy's unrealistic expectations of Biff and Willy's myopic view of himself
• Biff's discovery of his father's affair
• Willy also confused about his own father
• Leaves him feeling 'kind of temporary'
• "Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it."
• "They massacred the neighbourhood"
• "There's more people! That's what's ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is maddening!"
• [Flashback] "Someday I'll have my own business, and I'll never have to leave home anymore"
• [Flashback] "I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own"
• "He's liked, but he's not well liked" - Biff
• "The man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead"
• "I'm very well liked in Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me."
• "I get so lonely - especially when business is bad ... I get the feeling that I'll never sell anything again"
• "The world is an oyster, but you don't crack it open on a mattress"
• "I got a good job"
• "A man who can't handle tools is not a man"
• [Flashback] Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way" - Ben
• "But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him" - Linda
• "A lot of people think he's lost his balance" - Linda
• "The man is exhausted" - Linda
• "A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man" - Linda
• "Because personality always wins the day"
• "They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up"
• "He's only a little boat looking for a harbour" - Linda
• "I'm just a little tired"
• "In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it's all out and dried, and there's no chance for bringing friendship to bear - or personality."
• "This is no time for false pride, Willy. You go to your sons and you tell them that you're tired" - Howard
• "I can't throw myself on my sons. I'm not a cripple!"
• "The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you're a saleman, and you don't know that." - Charley
• "I always felt that if a man was impressive, and well liked, that nothing..."
• "You end up worth more dead than alive"
• "I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been" - Biff
• "A man has got to add up to something"
• "I made the last payment on the house today" - Linda
• "And they'll be nobody home" - Linda
• "We're free and clear" - Linda
• Since the third question is more generalised, you have to write about two of your studied texts (Death of a Salesman and John Keats' Poetry) and not necessarily compare the two but to see whether or not it supports or disputes the statement and perhaps make any links if there are.
• Ensure you have at least a minimum of 10 quotes remembered to back up your points and recite key episodes to show you know the text well.

dude ur literally a lifesaver i have a mock in like 2 hours and i only just started revising

Feel free to correct any mistakes, add your opinion, or just a comment in general!

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Death of a Salesman

Arthur miller.

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The American Dream

The American Dream that anyone can achieve financial success and material comfort lies at the heart of Death of a Salesman . Various secondary characters achieve the Dream in different ways: Ben goes off into the wilderness of Alaska and Africa and lucks into wealth by discovering a diamond mine; Howard Wagner inherits his Dream through his father's company; while Bernard , who seemed a studious bore as a child, becomes a successful lawyer through…

Fathers and Sons

The central conflict of the play is between Willy and his elder son Biff , who showed great promise as a young athlete and ladies' man, but in adulthood has become a thief and drifter with no clear direction. Willy's other son, Happy , while on a more secure career path, is superficial and seems to have no loyalty to anyone.

By delving into Willy's memories, the play is able to trace how the values…

Nature vs. City

The towering apartment buildings that surround Willy 's house, which make it difficult for him to see the stars and block the sunlight that would allow him to grow a garden in his back yard, represent the artificial world of the city—with all its commercialism and superficiality—encroaching on his little spot of self-determination. He yearns to follow the rugged trail his brother Ben has blazed, by going into the wildernesses of Africa and Alaska in…

Abandonment and Betrayal

Inspired by his love for his family, Willy ironically abandons them (just as he himself was abandoned by his father when he was three). The tragedy of Willy's death comes about because of his inability to distinguish between his value as an economic resource and his identity as a human being. The Woman , with whom Willy cheats on Linda, is able to feed Willy's salesman ego by "liking" him. He is proud of being…

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Death of a Salesman

Explore Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman,  with a range of questions on each act, character prompts, essay questions and revision questions, alongside activities to explore the symbolism of dreams and key quotations.

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• AS and A-level English Literature B 7716; 7717

Aspects of tragedy - exemplar student response and commentary

Below you will find an exemplar student response to a Section C question in the specimen assessment materials, followed by an examiner commentary on the response.

Paper 1A, Section C

Sample question.

'At the heart of the tragic experience is an overwhelming sense of shame.'

To what extent do you agree with this view in relation to two texts you have studied?

Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on the ways the writers have shaped meanings.

Band 2 response

Tess is the trajic heroine in Hardy's ' Tess of the D'Urbervilles ' and she does lots of things that she should be ashamed of according to Victorian society like having sex with someone when they are not married and then lying to Angel. In my opinion, the way she behaves is immoral because back in those times it was considered wrong to sleep with someone when you weren't going marry them and then just run away. Also, she lies about it to Angel so that he does not know about her past and then doesn't want to be with her, which is understandable because she is not fit to be the wife of someone who comes from a religious family. She should feel bad because she has almost ruined his life and even today lots of couples would have an argument about this.

Tess is also the trajic heroine because she is the one we sympathise with the most and Hardy calls her a 'maiden' in one of the sections, which means that she is innocent and so we feel sorry for what happens to her in the novel. For example, she seems really happy at the dairy with her friends Iss, Retty and Marian. She falls in love with Angel and thinks that all her sorrows from the past are over and she is at home in the natural world. However, when Alec turns up again, he ruins everything for her and this is what brings about her downfall. This is not her fault, which is why her situation is so trajic. She feels shame when she is abandoned by her husband, she has no money and her family are homeless so she wants to help them out so she gets together with Alec even though he has been quite mean in the past. When Angel turns up again having been away for a while, she wants to be with him because she loves him more than Alec. She kills Alec and then they run away together and hide in a cottage, but they are spotted, they run onto Stonehenge and Tess falls asleep. When she wakes up there are some policemen and they take her away and she is hanged. Her death is trajic because we don't feel she deserved to die as fate always seemed against her and she didn't know about 'the dangers of men' because she was so young when she went to see Alec and her mum didn't tell her anything about what they were like and her dad was always drinking and in the pub. As a result, Tess becomes a victim of all the other people in the novel and she is ashamed of what she does and what happens to her.

Also, Alec should feel bad for what he has done to Tess. He is like a pantomime villain with his moustache and cigar and giving her strawberries, which is bit like what Jack the Ripper did when he tempted prostitutes by offering them grapes. He lures Tess to his house and then he rapes her there, which means that she isn't pure anymore and later, when Angel finds out, he doesn't want to be with her either. Some critics would argue that this is all Alec's fault as he is the villain and so he should feel ashamed about how he is spoilt everything for Tess even though he does try and help her family later on.

In the same way that Tess is the trajic heroine, Willy is the trajic hero in 'Death of a Salesman' although because this is a play, he is presented very differently and it was written over a hundred years later. Willy tries really hard to do his best for his family and sons and is kind to them, but he is ashamed of his lack of success. Linda is really worried about him because he seems to be having a breakdown, but she doesn't really know why because she has always lived inside their house and never really goes out much whereas Willy has done lots of travelling. However, Linda does love Willy and she does know that he feels bad about himself and wants to make his life better and is really pleased that her sons have come home and wants them all to go out to dinner together to sort things out. This is one of the trajic climaxes because the dinner does not go as planned and Willy is left by himself in the restaurant and he can't really afford the food.

Also, I think Willy should feel bad in the way he does because a man is supposed to support his family and Willy doesn't anymore because he is not a very good salesman, which is what the title is all about. Also, he has affairs and gives the other women stuff, which is definitely wrong even today, which is also like Tess having an affair with Alec. Willy feels embarassed about this affair especialy because Biff sees him.

At the end of the play, Willy is also seen as a trajic victim like Tess because they both die and it is sort of their fault. Willy kills himself when everyone else is in bed although we don't see this because he drives off in his car. We know he is dead because there is a funeral, which is different to Tess being hung. However, not many people come to this, which is also a shame.

Overall, I think Tess is more of a trajic victim because lots of awful things happen to her whereas Willy is older and should know better so we feel less sorry when he dies. At the end Linda thinks that she is 'free' because Willy's insurance money pays off their bills. He killed himself so that his family could have the money as he is so ashamed of not making enough as a salesman. Miller puts this at the end of the play so that we think about it.

Examiner commentary

This response is not very securely focused on the task and though the student does mention shame and ashamed, there is little sense of 'overwhelming' and not much sense of how shame operates in the overall tragic experience. Whilst there is evidently some simple knowledge of the texts there is little understanding of the texts' subtlety and ambiguities. Some vague points of relevance emerge such as Willy being 'ashamed about his lack of success', but these are not developed or explored.  In places the candidate offers a descriptive approach though there is an awareness that the texts are tragedies and they are discussed as such. There is a sense the candidate wants to write about tragic heroes or heroines rather than the question that has been set, which means there is not enough about 'shame'.

There is a very simple structure to the writing but the paragraphs do not clearly follow on from each other. The expression is simple and there is some vague awareness of critical vocabulary. Although the candidate's argument lacks cohesion, there is some discussion of shame though some of the comments are muddled. The candidate often writes about the characters as if they are real and whether they ought to be ashamed. There are some spelling and punctuation errors but they do not obstruct the meaning. Although there is some textual knowledge, this remains rather general and there are almost no direct quotations.

There is an awareness that Death of a Salesman is a play and that this is different from Tess of the D'Urbervilles but not much is made of the novel and drama forms and there is little sense of the writers at work and how they shape meanings. At the end of the answer there is a mention of Miller's structure and how this affects audiences but the point is not developed.

There is some sense of the tragic and dramatic contexts here but ideas are mentioned rather than developed. In focusing on 'shame' the candidate engages with the moral context in a very simple way. There is also a little awareness of the contexts in which the two texts were written.

In writing about 'shame' across two texts the candidate makes some very simple connections. There is a vague sense that shame is an aspect of the tragic genre.

Although the focus is not consistent, there are views expressed in a very simple way.

This answer is slightly better than the descriptors for Band 1 and it would seem appropriate to place this response into band 2.

This resource is part of the Aspects of tragedy resource package .

Document URL https://www.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/as-and-a-level/english-literature-b/teach/tragedy-c-exemplar-student-response-commentary-band-2

Last updated 16 Dec 2022

Introduction to the Setting

The play is a domestic tragedy set in the Loman family home in Brooklyn, New York.

The Loman house

• Miller’s lengthy opening stage direction describes the Loman house as “small” and “fragile” against the encroaching blocks and skyscrapers represented by the “towering, angular shapes” and “angry glow of orange” which surround it.

Old America

• Willy complains that there isn’t “a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood” and the claustrophobic, almost suffocating, atmosphere created by Miller helps to intensify the drama and illustrate a major theme of the play: the loss of an older, more traditional America rooted in its farmlands and wild frontier.

Use of staging techniques

• The play also has different time settings, represented by different spaces on stage.
• The forestage is used to dramatise Willy’s increasingly desperate and painful recreations of past memories and other imaginings.
• During Willy’s psychological collapse, particularly in Act 2, past and present collide uncontrollably, creating an increasingly unsettling spectacle for audiences.

1 Introduction

1.1 Introductions

1.1.1 Author

1.1.2 Historical Context

1.1.3 Setting

1.1.4 Social Issues

2.1 Key Events

2.1.1 Staging

2.1.2 Key Events 1&2

2.1.3 Key Events 3&4

2.1.4 Key Events 5&6

2.1.5 Key Events 7&8

2.1.6 Key Events 9&10

2.1.7 Key Events 11&12

2.2 Key Themes & Links

2.2.1 Foreshadowing & Inevitability

2.2.3 Settings

2.2.4 Family

2.2.5 Reality v Fantasy

3.1 Key Events

3.1.1 Key Events 1&2

3.1.2 Key Events 3&4

3.1.3 Key Events 5&6

3.1.4 Key Events 7&8

3.1.5 Key Events 9&10

3.2 Key Themes & Links

3.2.1 Pride

3.2.2 Metaphor

3.2.3 Self-Realisation

4 Extended Passage Analysis

4.1 Act One

4.1.1 Staging

4.1.2 The Woman

4.2 Act Two

4.2.1 In Howard’s Office

4.2.2 The Final Confrontation

4.2.3 The Requiem

5 Character Profiles

5.1 Willy & Linda Loman

5.1.1 Willy Loman

5.1.2 Linda Loman

5.2 Biff & Happy Loman

5.2.1 Biff Loman

5.2.2 Biff's Relationship with Willy

5.2.3 Happy Loman

5.3 Other Characters

5.3.1 Uncle Ben

5.3.2 Charley

5.3.3 Bernard

6 Key Themes

6.1 Concepts

6.1.1 The American Dream

6.1.2 Fathers & Sons

6.1.3 Nature & the City

6.1.4 Success

6.1.5 Men & Women

7 Writing Techniques

7.1 Structure

7.1.1 Act One

7.1.2 Act Two

7.2 Realism

7.2.1 Introduction

7.2.2 Staging

7.2.3 Language

7.3 Expressionism

7.3.1 Introduction

7.3.2 Staging

7.3.3 Music

7.4 Symbolism

7.4.1 The Garden / Seeds

7.4.2 Diamonds

7.4.3 Alaska & Africa

7.5.1 Introduction

7.5.3 Silk Stockings

7.5.4 Money

7.5.5 Mythological Figures

8 Historical Context

8.1 Historical Context

8.1.1 Miller’s Family & The Great Depression

8.1.2 America’s Recovery

9 Literary Context

9.1 Tragedy

9.1.1 Introduction

9.2 Applying Tragic Concepts

9.2.1 The Tragic Hero

9.2.2 The Tragic Flaw

9.2.3 Recognition

9.2.4 Emotional Release

9.2.5 Chaos & Disorder

9.2.6 Revenge

9.2.7 Inevitability

10 Critical Debates

10.1 Introduction

10.1.1 Introduction

10.2 The Marxist Reading

10.2.1 Marxist Analysis

10.2.2 The Marxist Reading

10.3 The Feminist Reading

10.3.1 Feminist Analysis

10.3.2 The Feminist Reading

10.4 The Eco-Critical Reading

10.4.1 Eco-Critical Analysis

10.4.2 The Eco-Critical Reading

10.4.3 Post-pastoral

10.5 Other Debates

10.5.1 The Play as Tragedy

10.5.2 The Critics

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