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What are readers saying about Death of a Salesman?
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eva posted a review at 2011-05-07 04:09:25.
(Language: English)
 
Oh the torture of reading this in high school. However, after getting over the HORRENDOUS job my teacher did, I re-read this as an adult. Ok, so I "got it" a little more this time around. I couldn't really relate to the character's frustration in aging and forgetting and starting to feel useless. I hope I don't. But at least now I appreciate WHAT was happening, when I certainly didn't as a student.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-11-03 07:24:03.
(Language: English)
Casting a stark, harsh light on the obsession with "success" and "business" that permeates Western society, Miller's most famous work reminds the audience that money is not everything.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-28 12:23:02.
(Language: English)
 
At one time DEATH OF A SALESMAN was my idea of the perfect play. Now dated but still relevant as a picture of the American dream slipping through the fingers of a tragic dreamer. Made into a movie in 1985 starring Dustman Hoffman and John Malkovich.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-28 09:58:58.
(Language: English)
A memorable text and play.
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Lori posted a review at 2012-03-03 08:43:36.
(Language: English)
REQUIRED READ
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-18 08:36:01.
(Language: English)
I have seen the movie, Dustin Hoffman is brilliant.
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Cindy posted a review at 2011-03-01 04:15:57.
(Language: English)
I wore out the cassette of this play I listened to it so often. Loved this play. And it's so interesting that Dustin Hoffman played both ends of the story, started as the nerdy neighbor boy Bernard early in his career and ended up playing Willy Loman himself later on. How cool is that?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-25 11:35:54.
(Language: English)
I am reading this again for a second time. I really admire Willie and his desire to continue to provide for his family and this book really shows what a toll hard work takes on a someone.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-30 04:53:40.
(Language: English)
I'm in a love/hate relationship with this book. Extremely depressing, but equally well written in terms of drawing the reader into the scenes emotionally.
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Laura posted a review at 2011-10-22 08:28:52.
(Language: English)
heartwrenching and moving.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-24 03:11:51.
(Language: English)
I understand why many people find Death of a Salesman depressing or why they might be frustrated by the lack of lovable characters, but I would defend this book as being an excellent piece of literature. Perhaps we dislike Willy because he is an unsteady, cruel, and foolish man, but who has not met someone who lives so completely on dreams? And Linda seems like a doormat, why doesn't she just fight for what she deserves? But she embodies loyalty and appreciation for mankind without qualifiers. The parallelism between the Ben/Willy brotherhood and the Biff/Happy brotherhood is great because it really illustrates the cyclical, eternal nature of their problem. And the requiem is a peculiarly moving portrayal of four forms of grief, each one an attempt to honor a dead man but each one different in its approach to that attempt. In short, five stars, full marks, loved it, would read it over and over again.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-03 03:29:45.
(Language: English)
There are not many things that can hold my attention completely and make me read open-mouthed. This play is one of those things. This might sound like a broken record, considering it is a classic in dramatic literature, but it is simply an amazing play. There is so much substance within the play and so many levels to each of the characters and to the action going on during the play. I always respect plays that do not tell you everything about the characters right away, but let you learn about them through the action of the play. Speaking of the characters, these characters are some of the most well defined that I have read in a long while. It is always a joy to be told that a book is a classic and not be disapointed by its heaviness or its inaccesability, which seems, all to often, to be the case. Therefore, I rate this book 5 stars with my highest recommendation to anyone who has not read it yet.
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Jason posted a review at 2010-01-05 11:51:53.
(Language: English)
I usually try to incorporate this book into my drama classes at Marquette on a semi-regular basis. I also have used it in classes at MATC. This drama is so important because it challenges Aristotle's convention of whom the tragic hero should be. No longer, in an age of Miller and post-world warfare, does a tragic hero have to be noble. Of course, such a scenario begs the question, "Can an everyday man's life be tragic?" Or, in the Greek sense of the word, can an everyday man's life only result in pathetic outcomes? Miller makes a strong argument for the tragic sensibility here and Willy Loman exemplifies that archetype quite well. Miller explored this idea in other plays, like "All My Sons," but not as poignantly as he does here.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-02 08:10:10.
(Language: English)
I feel this is an essnetial read for any family man. Yes, it is all about how unrealistic the American dream is, but it holds many a lesson for any family man. Fantastic book, even if one is outside of the States (as I am). Fantastic movie too, with Dustin Hoffman putting in some brilliant work as Willy Loman. Let's just say that I am glad that I read this book & am a wee, wee bit wiser thanks to it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-16 02:32:55.
(Language: English)
i love willie lomax he was a player and a hustler but he did not quit being a salesman
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-25 11:23:51.
(Language: English)
This play discusses that often what we convince ourselves or are taught what will makes us happy in the long run rings false. Willy Loman has spent his life being concerned with what people think of him and focused on the model of the American dream with wife, kids, house, and car. He values one son more for adopting this belief system while seeing his other son as a loser and misguided. The irony being at the end of his life him and his favored son are not happy at all. While the "misguided" son seems happy. This play results in a good life lesson that far too few seem to grasp.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-02 08:25:19.
(Language: English)
An essential book for any man to read, as far as I am concerned. True it largely about the mirage called living the Amercian dream, but there are subtle lessons for most of us men & especially fathers. If a little immodesty is excused, may I dare to utter that am a wee wee bit wiser upon reading this book. The movie too was excellent, with Dustin Hoffman putting on a stellar performance. All in all, hats off to the late great Arthur Miller for creating such a revealing, immotional, brilliant play, which would make any man think for many days.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-11-17 08:19:37.
(Language: English)
Just because I still can't conclusively convince myself that hamlet is really all that different.
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Laura posted a review at 2011-10-22 08:25:12.
(Language: English)
heartwreching and moving...
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-12-05 10:40:43.
(Language: English)
Tragic. The story of a man who filled his son's head with deceptive feelings of self-grandeur that did not match reality. Makes you wonder what will become with all the kids who grew up with the "everyone is a winner" idea. The world is ready to serve up a disappointment to them.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-14 12:36:07.
(Language: English)
This book made me want to cry at the end - but I find I'm getting more emotional as I grow older and read more. It seems to me that that is backwards - you'd think I'd be numbed to the moving emotions of books by now. A classic hands-down, but full of twisted morals and emotions - if it was a classic because of it's reflectance of Western culture, I think it's also time to shed a few tears for our culture, which continues to disintegrate.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-22 03:31:03.
(Language: English)
some beautiful moments - maybe a tad predictable and very similar to All My Sons.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-09-09 06:28:30.
(Language: English)
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Elizabeth posted a review at 2012-02-24 10:48:05.
(Language: English)
Reading this play made it even better!
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Kelsey posted a review at 2009-05-06 03:01:44.
(Language: English)
Death of a Salesman has been called boring and dull. I can see were that comes from. It is simply the story of a man who realized that he's done nothing in life and that he cannot do anything to change that. But it's the characters that suffer through this, the absolute, uncomfortable truth in what Miller says and the way he says it that makes this so extraordinary. It follows through Willy Loman's attempts to foist importance on his sons in order to make his life more meaningful, but this invariably fails. He recalls the chances he'd had to make it big and become rich, but these are long gone and left only in his memory (if in fact, they existed at all.) He's a hopeless man, a desperate man, and most poignantly, the everyman. We all will be Willy Loman too soon, stuck in the past and unable to accept what we are-- Nothing, as Biff eventually cries. It is a simple story, and we sympathize and root for these characters that are so normal it hurts. Arthur Miller makes such great drama, whether it be in the Crucible or this. The ending scene with Biff and Willy will have your heart racing and your eyes flooding with tears. There are so many great tragedies of this play- whether you count it as Willy not heading out to Alaska or his life-changing decision in Boston- but one of the greatest is you can practically taste the reality of Miller's situations and conversations in the middle of this desperate and completely desolate world. It is life, not some Englishman sacrificing himself for religion or a prince killing for his dead father. This is an average man in an average situation-- an average crisis, if you will, that every human will experience. Miller just makes it an art, and what great art he makes.
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