When posting comments...
* Use your name and first initial as usual.
* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).
* Leave an empty line.
* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.
Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.
Note: Since you will have to read a second play as well, I think it will useful for you to think about which play you will read next as you read through your peers comments. Family tensions -- some hidden, some overt -- mark each of the American plays I've listed for you, so I think any pairing will yield productive comparisons. I look forward to reading the comment stream.
53 comments:
Sarah Johnson
1st (Death of a Salesman)
1a Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) is unsurprisingly bleak and infuriating, much as one would expect from the author of the Crucible. That’s not to say it isn’t well written, because it most certainly is. I was surprised by the degree to which I became emotionally involved, and I appreciate Miller’s tactics here.
On page 35, of Act One, Willy (the father) and Linda (the mother) have an exchanging of words. Willy has this habit of reliving memories on the stage, ignoring the people standing in front of him. This exchange is a memory, and Willy is recounting his “success” on the road, as he is a traveling salesman. He is boasting of his success in Providence and Boston, and his wife happily exclaims “That makes your commission…Two hundred—My GOD!” and Willy, who might have been exaggerating just a little, sheepishly replies “Well, I didn’t figure it yet, but…” and so begins one of the most infuriating conversations of the book, as he admits that despite his spectacular efforts as a salesman (“I’m well-liked!”), he actually doesn’t have enough to pay all of the bills. His excuse: “The trouble was that three of the stores were half closed for inventory in Boston. Otherwise I woulda broke records.”
I hate Willy for this. And if it were just this one time, I would have let him get away with it, but this is just one of many prime examples of that theme we discussed in class, of hiding from reality. Willy is an expert at this, as he constantly lives in anytime but the present. He refuses to admit defeat. When his sons amount to nothing, he just bites off the head of anyone who makes a remark against them, and refers to the glory days…back when his sons were in high school, when Biff (the older son) was a football star (and so well-liked). Willy builds up even the most minor of successes in order to compete with everyone around him. In his memories we see that he is constantly comparing Biff to Bernard, their cousin/neighbor, and being so very pleased that Biff is so much more well-liked. In the present, Willy runs into Bernard, a successful lawyer, happily married, and still can’t bring himself to admit Bernard’s success, even though his own son is unemployed and hopelessly single. Willy can’t even accept a job from Charley, his brother, who is constantly borrowing money from, because he won’t admit he lost his job. Willy is so obsessed with his pride and his ridiculously large ego that he ignores the plight of everyone around him, and digs his whole deeper and deeper. Wily obstinately defies every constructive criticism he receives, and obviously does not benefit from it. His family does little to help, since the mother is always begging her sons to be kind to him, and the sons play along with his skewed realities to appease him. In the end, this doesn’t help anyone, because Willy remains in his imaginary world where it’s ok to ignore responsibility and brag about things you haven’t done, and be proud of your son because he’s gutsy and steals things even though he’s flunking math.
I’m not exactly unbiased, and I clearly have an opinion about the characters in this book, but I believe it’s productive to have such strong feelings. Miller did not write this play so that his audience would watch it and think “Oh, what a shame this disjointed family is failing. Oh well.” I believe he was hoping for a bit of a stronger reaction, evidenced by the outrageous amount of American clichés he uses, from the classic names (Biff, Happy, etc) to the secret adulterous life of the man in denial, Miller makes sure that every American of the time has something to connect to, some way to see himself in this play. This is effective because the reader is repulsed by Willy and his family. If I were a writer, and I was trying to tell my audience NOT to deny reality, and that they MUST embrace the truth and take help when it is offered, I can’t think of a better way to do it.
This was a very opinionated post, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to focus on so I decided to just point out various instances where people are denying reality. And nobody else has posted yet, so I can’t do 1b yet…but I will.
Emily C.
1st ( A Doll's House)
1a) See Ibsen section.
1b) Well Sarah, I'm really glad that I decided not to read Death of a Salesman, because it sounds extremely irritating. To be honest, Ibsen's "A Doll's House" is also pretty annoying. I enjoyed the play, but the main character, Nora, has a secret that she has kept from her husband for a very long time. However, after the first act of the play, Nora finds herself in a compromising position, and I honestly believe that if she simply told her husband the truth, as opposed to sneaking around and further entangling herself into a sticky web of secrecy, her troubles would diminish significantly with relatively mild repercussions. What ever, Nora.
Another connection; money. I assume that money is a recurrent theme throughout all of the plays. It seems as though Willy is financially lacking. Nora has always been rather comfortable, and her husband recently became the manager of a bank, which means Nora and her family will soon be able to live even more comfortably, although Nora actually experiences a bit of discomfort. The secret that she refuses to tell her husband one based around money: Years ago Nora needed a large sum of money because her husband was very ill and needed to be sent somewhere far away in order to be cured. Nora however, didn't have the money to send her husband away, so she borrowed it from someone. So, by her own foolishness, Nora is scraping around for money trying to pay her debt by a certain deadline, as opposed to living without worry and a feeling of security.
So, in way, Sarah, I share your frustration.
Hannah B
1st (Death of A Salesman)
1a) Basically all I can think about is how much I hate Happy and Biff for still trying to scam off of their parents in this play. They continually bash on their father for being too out of it, but disregard the fact that they are still living under their roof. When Willy reminisces of his relationship with the woman on one of his trips, a woman who is not Linda, it seems like a foreshadowing to what his sons are going to be like. I get that guys have a tendency to talk nasty in general, but by hearing the conversation between the two about women and the various experiences they have had, they do not seem like they are much better off. Whether or not they know of their father’s history with women or not does not seem to make a difference. Now, I have only read the first act, but it is still a little aggravating how for the whole time they are speaking to each other in their rooms, they are portraying all the things they dislike about their father. They think he is losing it, but they are not going to do anything about it. On page 21 happy talks of how “…It got so embarrassing I sent him to Florida…” It is his own father. They both know that their mother is not capable of attending to all of his needs for she is getting older too. When Biff hears of all these embarrassing moments, he is still fixated on himself. He cannot seem to get over the fact that his father is always mumbling about him. These characters are so viciously wrapped up in themselves it is infuriating. Willy has a problem and can recognize it to an extent, but will still continue to drive around aimlessly and lie to Linda about the sales he could be making but cannot because he is not all there. Happy is going to stay feeling sorry for himself at a job he does not really like, and Biff is going to continue to find odd jobs here and there and grow more and more disgust towards his father. Where is the help? Willy talks to Linda on page 18 about how he is worried about Biff, and she tries to persuade him to take a different route with him, but he seems to refuse it. Happy tries to tell Biff how awful their father is getting but that is all he is going to do. Biff, is just going to continue to resent his father for past happenings, but no one will help each other out. The selfishness in the first act is what really is frustrating and I hope it changes by the end of the play.
1b) I completely agree with Sarah in that the play can be aggravating sometimes because the characters are so obnoxiously selfish. I think that is in part to the fact that it is fairly realistic. When Willy is trying to save himself when talking to his wife, his supposed other half, it is frustrating to see that he is lying. The reader later goes on to read of a time Willy spent with another woman, only to fade out of his flashback at the sound of his own wife’s laughter. She is supportive and her character reads as your average sympathetic housewife aiming to please her husband. I see Sarah’s frustration in that he lies to his wife about how good he is when he cannot even afford to pay the bills. He just lets her think that he is some “well-liked” salesman, but has nothing to show for it. I hate that he causes her such disappointment and has the nerve to not only be with other women, but to also think back on it without much shame. Maybe that has something to do with his aging, but it is certainly something most people find unsettling about relationships. I think Arthur Miller is creative as well, but in a different sense. When Willy plays out his flashbacks, they come with two different emotions. When Willy talks of the time he bought a punching bag for his children whom he was overly proud of, you feel like he is a great father and you are happy to him. However, when he talks about past relationships with other women when his wife is at home, and then has the nerve to lie to them it is infuriating. Plus, you add in that he is old and must feel like he needs to accomplish more, you feel sorry for him. So yes, he is a very aggravating character, but he also has a certain charm.
Brian Hand
Death of a Salesman
I don't know how to cite plays
1a. I think that passage involving Willy and The Woman is important because it demonstrates both Willy’s guilt about past experiences and his inability to detach the past from reality. In this specific passage, the characters of Linda and The Woman are useful in conceiving this idea. Miller aligns the two characters when “Linda’s laughter blends in” to that of the woman (38). It is from this comparison that they can be more easily contrasted. The Woman is Willy’s way of reminding himself that he is well liked. The memory is littered with compliments such as: “you’ve got such a sense of humor,” and “you’re so sweet.” (38,39) In fact, The Woman claims to have picked Willy because of his sense of humor. While being “picked” seems to appeal greatly to Willy, (You picked me, heh? (38) it appears to be a position capable of being filled by anyone with Willy’s “sense of humor” which indicates that she does not love Willy for who he is, like Linda does (To me…you are the handsomest (37) It is symbolic that while Willy is remembering this event (in detail) he is ignoring his wife, who is giving him more genuine compliments. She says, “To me you are…the handsomest” (37). Also, it is important that right before drifting into the memory of his adulterous relationship, Linda says, “Few men are idolized by their children the way you are” (37) Immediately following this, Willy proves unworthy of such admiration. His choice to detach himself from the present in favor of reliving this memory points out Willy’s need to feel liked stands above his relationship with his family. Also, I think it is important to note that The Woman exists solely because of Willy’s job as a salesman, and she knows him as just one of “the salesman” that she sees go by (38). The Woman has no ability to differentiate between Willy the man and Willy the salesman. Linda on the other hand, knows the Willy that gets money for being a salesman, and the Willy who loves his family.
The affair, coupled with Willy’s insatiable need to be liked causes Willy to be greatly guilt ridden. Miller uses the stockings to symbolize the extent his guilt, and to demonstrate Willy’s pride and ego. Emerging from his daydream, Willy notices Linda mending stockings and becomes upset. He exclaims that there will be no stocking mending “in this house!” (39) Besides illustrating Willy’s provider complex, the stockings are a reminder to Willy of his unfaithfulness to his wife. While Linda is mending her torn stockings, The Woman is basking in the luxury of “the stockings” that Willy gave to her (39). When Linda mends the torn stockings, Willy is forced into remembering his infidelity, which Willy expresses as anger resulting from his tremendous guilt.
1b. Although I mostly agree with Sarah when she says that Willy is “hiding from reality,” I think it is important to point out that Linda exacerbates the situation and disallows Willy’s growth in her attempts to protect Willy from his own self-criticism. In the first scene of the play, Willy is telling Linda that he is having trouble focusing on reality, he takes responsibility, saying “its me, its me…I can’t seem to—keep my mind to it” (13). However, Linda repeatedly makes excuses for Willy, offering “The Studebaker,” his “glasses” and his need to “take a rest” as possible explanations for his wandering mind (13). By creating excuses for Willy, Linda is preventing his self-criticism and therefore his own self-realization and growth. I think Sarah is referring to these as “constructive criticisms” that Willy is defying, but I think they are actually deconstructive to Willy’s growth. It seems as though Linda would rather play into Willy’s likeability complex than criticize and risk upsetting him.
Jaclyn Arnold
1st (Death of a Salesman)
1a. Willy is stuck in the failure his family is experiencing, partly because of his lack of success, and also due to his sons. Biff and Happy are both lost and unsure about where they are supposed to be, and where they are heading in life. While Biff and Happy consult to discuss their father and his peculiar behavior, they are similarly guilty of avoiding what is real. The strangest thing I noticed was a certain favoritism Willy had for Biff when him and Happy were back in high school. Willy honored his son, who was adored by adults and kids alike, stalked by girls in the corridors, and made captain of the football team. Happy is rarely mentioned in this reflection back to childhood days. When the boys are all grown up, it is Biff that Willy is so upset with for not becoming successful. Although Happy is not satisfied with where he is at in life right now, Willy doesn’t see this, and therefore doesn’t recognize an issue with his younger son. All Willy seems to always concentrate on is Biff. I think it’s recognizable that Willy is completely let down because he assumed that even if he was never a successful salesman, Biff showed some promise. With the way Biff’s life is turning out, I think Willy is experiencing double the amount of disappointment and let down.
1b. I can identify with what Sarah said completely. What I wrote about was just one of the specific episodes from the early part of the play where Willy hides from reality. As Sarah said, hiding from reality is a theme here, and it’s easy to see how by doing so, the characters end up distraught and lost.
Sarah Johnson
1b (Death of a Salesman)
I can see where Brian might think I was laying all of the blame on Willy, but as he kind of noted, I did say that he ignores the advice of his family, and that “His family does little to help, since the mother is always begging her sons to be kind to him, and the sons play along with his skewed realities to appease him.” I agree with Brian on his thoughts about Linda’s problem with building Willy up when he should be brought back down to reality. I do think though that Brian misinterpreted my use of “constructive criticisms”, because I was referring to the advice from Charley, Bernard and Howard for him to get a life and stop living in his head. I can see however where my words might be confusing and thought to refer to Linda’s comments. I agree with Brian that linda’s comments are deconstructive for Willy. I have no doubt that the way Linda babies Willy, making excuses for him and exceptions for him are detrimental to Willy’s progress. She builds him up, telling him that he should demand to work in New York, because he’s “too accommodating” (14), as if he had a choice in the matter. The bottom line is that Willy is pretty much out of a job. Now, either he is more secretive than I give him credit for and Linda is truly oblivious to the peril of his position, or Linda is just playing along with the accepted misconception that everything is fine in their household, to try and build Willy up. Either way, no one will benefit.
Sarah Johnson (Death of a Salesman)
2a
Brian’s comments about the socks were interesting to me, and I decided to look further into the relationship between Willy and The Woman. While reading, I also noted the issue with the mending of the socks, and I think Brian is right when he says it's a reminder for Willy of his infidelity. It is particularly interesting to note that in the memory where Biff finds out about Willy and the Woman, as Willy begins to send her out, the woman starts screaming, "Where's my stockings? You promised me stockings Willy...You had two boxes...and I want them!" (119) The woman doesn't particularly care that Willy is about to have to face confrontation with his son, or possibly the rest of his family, or that they've been caught in a completely forbidden relationship. She only seems concerned with the stockings. This indicates that perhaps the success of Willy and the Woman’s relationship is based only on Willy’s habit of providing her with things. She is, for want of a more tame expression, a "gold digger". She happily compliments Willy on his outward talents (Sense of humor, sales, etc), in order to receive gifts. It is clear, however, the relationship is mostly meaningless. They have little substance to their bond. For instance, when the woman says "from now on, whenever you come to the office, I'll see that you go right through to the buyers. No waiting at my desk anymore Willy. You ruined me" is a little iffy. For some reason this does not ring true to me. I feel like the Woman has the same empty-promise syndrome that Willy has. His dreams are so big, and he wants so badly to be liked and revered by his family, he is willing to say anything to please them, the same way the Woman is willing to say anything to please Willy, so that he keeps giving her what she wants. This relationship seems to embody a message of the play, that if we keep moving blindly forward in search of one goal, disregarding everything around us (the Woman looking for material things, Willy looking for respect, Linda looking for unconditional love, etc), then we miss the things that make life meaningful, and forfeit the chances at success that come after we take on life’s challenges. If, for instance, Linda had allowed herself to take Willy’s flaws into account, she could have helped him improve and then maybe he wouldn’t have been an adulterous fool. If the Willy had stopped denying reality and just tried a little honesty, and raised his kids on the principles of honesty and hard work, maybe he wouldn’t be so disappointed with them. We have to take on challenges to reap rewards, and that has been made clear by this play.
2b
Jaclyn’s comments on the difference between Biff and Happy were extremely insightful, and I completely agree with her assertion that Willy is feeling double the disappointment in life with Biff’s lack of success coupled with his own. I am particularly interested in her comments on Happy. I found myself mostly disregarding Happy throughout the play, because he seemed insignificant. He wasn’t strong enough to assert any action, and he was like a less-dramatic let-down in the image of Biff. I think Miller might be pointing this out to the reader,that Happy has been long disregarded and it’s made him a certain kind of person. The lack of respect and adoration from his family has slightly ostracized him. Happy doesn’t feel like he owes so much to his father, evidenced by his disengaged concern for Willy when they go out. Happy has always idolized his brother (carrying around the football Helmet, washing the car together, etc) and so when Biff gets mad girls, Happy thinks that’s the way to go as well. We are led to believe he is adequately successful at this, but it consumes his energy, and he leaves the care of his family to someone else, as we find out when they return home and Linda accosts them, and Happy happily explains that they were out with girls, and confirms that Willy had a “great time” with them (124). As it turns out, they left Willy, confused in the bathroom, at the restaurant, and went out with their lady friends. Happy doesn’t see much wrong with this, even though it eventually contributes to Willy’s decision to engage in his own demise. I think the lack of respect from his family over the years has made Happy feel like he isn’t responsible for anything, which is why he can shrug off the guilt of abandoning his father so easily.
alio
1st.(Death of a Salesman)
1a. The fact that Willy seems to remove himself from the present as often as he does is disturbing and bizarre to me. He goes off on these tangents about being the “successful” and “well-liked” salesman that he is, and ends with an explanation about his troubled outcomes that are always directed towards everything and anything but himself and his own faults. Aside from the unsettling comments that leave his lips, it’s even more aggravating to see how large Willy’s ego is and how it has no reason to be considering he’s jobless and blatantly ignorant to the people in his life. Take Bernard or his own brother Charley for example. He implies Bernard’s nerdiness, or whatever you want to call it, and how he is not “well-liked” unlike his son Biff. Despite the fact that Bernard ends up successful and married in his future, Willy still dismisses it and remains ignorant to his accomplishments, subconsciously aware that his own son remains jobless and lonely. Also, when Charley, Willy’s brother, offers Willy a job aware of his circumstances, Willy’s stubbornness to reveal his failure keeps him from accepting his help. When it came to Linda, what was frustrating to me was not so much the fact that she would always tell Happy and Biff to “be nice to him” or try to convince her boys that “He’s right…” it was more the reaction Linda herself got from Willy in return. She was constantly talked over, “shut up”, and disrespected. All the while, her every thought and word was in defense of Willy, if they weren’t interrupted first. Acknowledging this made me angry with Linda, because she never stood up for herself. Doing this and always pleading with the boys to make their father happy only made things worse. There were moments that I wanted to feel some sort of sympathy for Willy, but I could not find it completely. There was one conversation in Act One page 43 Willy’s brother Charley was talking to him about Biff. Charley: “Let him go.” Willy: “I got nothin to give him, Charley, I’m clean, I’m clean.” Charley: “He won’t starve. None a them starve. Forget about him. Willy: “Then what have I got to remember?” Right here, I got a sudden sad feeling. For who and what I don’t know, I just felt like there was some slight regret in Willy’s words. Almost like despite how he's failed at being a father and a person there’s nothing else to him but his boys.
1b. I liked how Brian brought back into the picture that though Willy is to blame for his own characteristics, that Linda’s actions towards helping only hurt the situation more. Where Brian mentioned Willy admits that “It’s me…I can’t seem to keep my mind to it” and how Linda’s response is that he should rest or that he must be tired is not just how she reacts in this moment, but how she addresses the situation entirely, allowing for absolutely no progress or solution.
Michael M
2b
Brian’s comments about the character Willy in Death of a Salesman in many ways relate to the character Christy from Playboy of the Western World. Brian said of Willy that he is liked not for who he is, but what people see in him. The same can be said about why the townspeople like Christy. The lack of bravery in the town causes people to see Christy’s act of murder as an act of bravery. Due to their need to find a brave individual, they look past the evils of murder, and instead look at the fact that you need to strong willed in order to commit murder. The townspeople would have accepted anyone who could have filled this role, just as Brian said that The Woman would have accepted anyone with Willy’s sense of humor. Brian also says that Willy is undeserving of the attention that he receives. The same can be said about Christy. Due to the fact that he never killed his father, he is receiving praise for no reason. All of the respect and attention he is receiving is undeserved and unwarranted. However, the one main difference between Willy and Christy is that Christy shows no guilt. Brian states that Willy has tremendous guilt over the things he has done wrong. Christy on the other hand, has no guilt for hurting his father or lying to the townspeople. Christy only feels bad about the fact that he might be discovered as a fraud.
Hannah B
(Death of a Salesman)
2a) The part of the play that stood out the most to me was in the second act on pages 101-103 where Happy is hitting on a girl in the restaurant while waiting for Biff, and then just waiting for Willy. I previously had written about how disgusted I was with the boys behavior and how they did not help their father even though they both felt that he was getting out of hand. I also felt that Happy was the more reliable and softer-spoken of the two because he had always been in Biff’s shadow, but this scene changes it all around. This was the scene where I felt that Biff was the character I wanted to feel for, instead of Happy. As he is waiting, Happy notices a young girl who is relatively good looking and begins to hit on her. As he is hitting on her, he is giving a play-by-play to Stanley, the waiter. Happy opens up with a set-out plan. He tells the waiter to go wait on the girl, and then interrupts and suavely offers her some of his great champagne. Once he has her hooked he begins to feed her lies like, “Biff is the quarterback for the New York Giants…” and things that are just blatantly not true. He then persuades her to get a friend for Biff and ends the conversation telling the girl that she is not to try, but “try hard.” This is when Biff enters, feeling guilty about something he had done wrong, and Happy just tries to tell him to lie his way out. Basically, Happy enjoys his lies. Getting the girl in the beginning was a ploy, lying to her about Biff was a ploy, and leaving his father to find his own way home was nothing but carelessness. Happy is stupid.
2b) I thoroughly agree with Brian on the stockings issue, and Sarah as well. That was going to be my opening statement but I see you all stole my ideas and probably said it a lot better. But anyway, the stockings issue in the first act confused me because it seemed like such a small thing to bring up more than once. At first I thought it was just Willy being self-conscious about his inability to provide for his family, but it seemed weird that something to do with socks would be brought up frequently. However, when I read that Willy had given “The Woman” a whole lot of new stockings, I was aware. The way I took it, Willy did look to this woman for comfort, and did feel guilty when he saw his own wife mending stockings, but I do not know if Willy was with the woman because it is a game where he is picked. I feel that Willy knows he is not a good provider. He must feel like he does not deserve to be with someone as good as Linda, so he chooses to be with “The Woman” because she treats him the way he suspects he should be. Even when Biff walks in, she is not conscious and is primarily concerned with getting the stockings that Willy promised. (119) She is a woman like Linda, but she does not make excuses for him, which he finds appealing. I think that being in a relationship that is degrading makes him feel like he is not cheating life necessarily.
Hannah B
(Death of a Salesman)
3a) The title of the play is Death of a Salesman but I really did not expect it to end with Willy killing himself, for whatever foolish reason. However, the way Willy did everything and why he did it does not show or reflect change in him, but in his son Biff. Willy kills himself in the end because as he tells Ben, Biff could only do magnificent things with twenty thousand. (135). If he dies, his life insurance is worth that much and Biff deserves it because he can do great things with it. Willy also does something very sneaky with his suicide that shows how deceiving he can be. On page 132 he tells Linda that there is nothing to worry about and that no one is hanging themselves, she should just go to sleep and get some rest. However, Willy commits suicide after all, just a different way. It is sneaky. He convinces Linda to sleep and then kills himself anyway, but not before assuring her that he is not going to kill himself (by hanging at least). He is a salesman through in through. You tell people whatever they want to hear, but not before getting what you need to get done, done. Biff has already made his transformation, and maybe by seeing the deception of his father, he will realize what a better person he needs to become. Through all of his father’s selfishness, hopefully Biff can learn from it rather than ignoring his life because he is resentful. If he tries to forget about his father, he will never learn how to improve the situation he is in himself.
3b) I really like what Jaclyn said about the brothers because it holds a lot of truth. They share some similar qualities, but they are different in the past and the present. Happy is successful in comparison to Biff, but Willy still almost idolizes Biff. It is as if Biff was supposed to be Willy, but a little better. Willy must have seen that potential in Biff and is disappointed that he is turning out worse than him in comparison. Maybe it is because Happy is content that Willy does not bother. Maybe Happy has always just been there, never a bother, but never really a great success like Biff could or should be. That also shows through when he refers to Biff as losing his confidence with girls. By getting a girl and one for Biff too at the restaurant, Happy must get a sense of satisfaction. Regardless of whether or not anyone acknowledges it, he has gained a minor success which must be what keeps him going.
Jaclyn Arnold
Death of a Salesman
2a) Towards the end of Act I, I was just feeling confused with the tone. When the four family members are all together, a fight breaks out between Willy and Biff. Happy tries to calm everyone with a new business proposal, and Willy sees some hope for his sons, particularly Biff. At this point, I again noticed Willy’s great concern for Biff even though Happy is going to be along side him in this new business endeavor. As they discuss selling sporting goods (Happy’s business plan), Willy randomly shuts down Linda every time she tries to be part of the conversation. Eventually the boys tell their father to stop talking to their mother like that, and the tone of the play becomes angry once more. Willy’s temper rises, and the three men are shouting things periodically. I just felt so confused by the way everyone was acting here. It’s all pretty much due to Willy, but even some of Biff’s responses were random and out of place. Happy is trying to keep the peace, and Linda is just trying to be part of the family conversation, but Willy’s mood just flies up and down the spectrum and causes everyone else upset.
2b) I liked what Hannah talked about in her second post, regarding Happy’s maneuver with the girl in the restaurant. After this instance, I was able to recognize that perhaps the way that Miller always had Happy being ignored in their childhood years due to Biff’s limelight was foreshadowing that the two brothers would sort of switch roles. I think it is clear that in this particular scene, Happy is the center of attention with his little scheme.
Brian Hand
Death of a Salesman
2a.
When Willy talks to Ben on page 45 it marks a major change in Willy’s inability to separate his thoughts from reality. Unlike his recollection of The Woman, Willy is actively interacting with his memory of Ben. In this particular scene, Ben’s existence is as real as Charley’s. He is talking to Ben as real as he is talking to Charley, and believes neither can see the other.
I feel Willy’s mind is regressing even more and slipping into a trance where he looks to the past to comfort his failures in the present. Ben comes in the context of Charley asking Willy if he wants “a job” and Willy becoming “insulted” (43). After, Willy attempts to justify his life by pondering what could have been. He imagines that if he’d “gone with” Ben to Alaska, things would be “totally different” (43). It seems as though Ben is a place Willy goes when his dissatisfaction with his life reaches a peak. This opportunity that could have been seems almost like a refuge for Willy in his deep sorrows.
It may also be possible that Ben represents an elusive and almost unrealistic happiness and success. Because this memory passes through the filter of Willy’s mind, Ben appears as a romanticized figure, one who is “authoritative” and “utterly certain of his destiny” (44). To Willy, he is the epitome of success; one who has made all the right moves in life and is reaping the rewards. Success, to Willy, is equally as imaginary and elusive as Ben’s memory. Defining success as Ben—everything Willy wishes he could achieve but never could—makes Willy even more critical of his life realizing that he will never measure up to this image.
Speaking of success (nice segue), the conversation between Charley and Willy demonstrates Willy’s desperate attempts to assert his dominance over Charley. Willy shifts his definition of success from a monetary based one to a physical one in order to stress his superiority. He says “a man who can’t handle tools is not a man” (44).
In response to Sarah’s response to my response, I said Linda “exacerbates the situation” which is different from doing “little to help” as she said. Sarah erroneously suggested that I “kind of noted” that she mentioned Linda not helping the situation. In fact, I did not, because like I said I was saying something completely different from Linda simply doing little to improve Willy’s state of mind. I have actually begun to disagree with my earlier analysis of Linda. It seems that Linda is the only one in the family that has a connection to reality. She is able to see the truth in situations. However, she has a responsibility to enlighten her family and she does not. She plays into the denial and dreaming that plagues her family and actively denies reality. Although she has seen the hose that Willy is using to try to “kill himself,” she refuses to do anything about it because she is “ashamed to” (59). She even knows that the accidents Willy has been getting into aren’t accidents, and still she feebly suggests that “things are beginning” to improve (64). In a way she is more to blame than Willy, because he can not distinguish imagination from reality. She can but works against it.
Jaclyn Arnold
Death of a Salesman
3a) In the beginning of Act II, something I noticed regarding Willy and Biff struck my interest. After Biff and Happy plan to start selling sporting goods and have their own business, Willy becomes a lot more hopeful about his own career. He wants to fix things around the house, and even mentions buying a house in the country. This sounded strange to me because I felt like he was almost accepting Biff's way of life. It was interesting to me how that at the time that Biff commits to a business-oriented career, Willy talks about buying a house in the country. In a way, this transformation foreshadows Willy's step down from the business world, as he is essentially fired shortly after this.
3b) I liked what Brian had to say about the incident where Willy is talking to Charley and Ben. It is definitely the perfect example of how Willy is losing his mind and can't separate it from reality. When I first began reading this scene, I was questioning myself asking, "Wait, is there really two people there?" It took me a moment to really confirm that Willy was imagining Ben. Also, Brian's assertion that "Willy’s mind is regressing even more and slipping into a trance where he looks to the past to comfort his failures in the present", is insightful and makes a lot of sense in terms of explaining why Willy experiences these episodes of failing to separate his imagination from reality.
Kyle Smith
An Enemy of the People
2A See the Ibsen topic
2B
I’ve decided to stray away from my own topic because I don’t find too much of interest there (women leaves husband for other man, wow!) and have decided to plant my comment here, in this thriving spot. Sarah’s last sentence (along with the rest of the post) in her 2a post caught my attention. Her statement that “We have to take on challenges to reap rewards” caught my particular interest because the main character of my play is the embodiment of that statement whereas it seems the main character of her play is the exact contrast. However, I’d like to argue against either extreme because in my play, Dr. Stockmann sticks to his guns so to say and it ends up being detrimental to his family, and in death to a salesman, Willy ends up dead, which is arguably detrimental to one’s health. My argument is that the plays demonstrate that either extreme is too much for one’s own good but it is absolutely necessary to face challenges in the pursuit of reward. Experiences wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding if there was not some effort required to achieve them.
Brian Hand
3a
The end of the play is strange because in a way Willy achieves the sense of place that he has always longed for. He is ecstatic that Biff “cried” to him (135). However, even after he is dead, he is still trying to manipulate reality. He views his approaching death as a sacrifice to put “twenty thousand dollars” in Biff’s pocket (135). However, his death came without self-realization and growth. He is elevating himself to martyrdom when in reality his suicide was motivated by his own self-interests. His struggles as a salesman and his difficulties separating fantasy from reality drove him to suicide, not his love for his family. It is exactly like the Willy of old to try and morph reality in order to extract gratification from Biff.
It is also interesting that it seems as though Ben is convincing Willy to commit suicide by persuading him to follow. I think it is important to remember, though that it is not Ben persuading, but Willy’s image of Ben. I think Miller is saying something about the visions Willy conjures. They seem to be carefully selected by Willy in an attempt to justify his existence. For instance, he will re-create images of Biff scoring touchdowns in his honor because he finds it more enjoyable to reconstruct the past than to fix the present. I think Miller points this out in the way all the envisioned characters emerge from darkness. It is also indicated by the way Ben (as imagined by Willy) literally leads Willy to his death, symbolizing a metaphorical death to those substituting their own visions into reality.
3b. See Irish Plays
Sarah Johnson
3rd
3a
So I’m having this crazy thought. I was just skimming through Death of a Salesman, and saw Biff saying “We should be mixing cement on some open plain, or—or carpenters. A carpenter is allowed to whistle!” (61). At first I couldn’t figure out why this was significant to me, since Biff is just expressing his frustration with everyone’s expectations for him. Then I remembered ,in something we recently read (unfortunately, I cannot remember exactly where, I feel like it was portrait of the artist but I can’t be sure), that the tortured main character was also considering carpentry, to keep his hands busy as n alternative to participating in the bustling society. This is a strange parallel, since I’m thinking that James Joyce and Arthur Miller didn’t hang out much… But that is what makes it so significant. This speaks to the nature of mankind, particularly males, to desire some physical challenge to engage in, so that they might ignore reality. It would be easier for someone in Stephen’s situation, for example, to attempt to learn a new trade involving physical and mental taxation, rather than grapple with the struggle it is to discover and maintain his identity in his reactionary society. (Although now I’m not sure it is Stephen…it was something! SOMEBODY REMIND ME WHO WANTED TO BE A CARPENTER, PLEASE!) And in the same way, Biff is looking for escape. He has come to discover his failures (I’m no good, can’t you see what I am? (113)), and he wants a way out of that society. He realizes, though Willy insists he was a revered salesman with Oliver, that Oliver doesn’t even know who he was, saying “No, Dad, I was a shipping clerk” (106). Willy insists that Biff played a significant role in Oliver’s business, and Biff believes him. He wants to badly to please his crazed father, and those around him, that he’s willing to buy into the lie. This is an important self-discovery that Biff makes: that he has been so eager to find success that he has blown off reality, and now he has nothing to fall back on. Willy is completely unwilling to hear this, and instead accuses Biff (“you didn’t see him, did you?” (109) of spiting Willy and ignoring his advice to see Oliver. Willy is stuck, he doesn’t want to see the truth. At least Biff is willing to acknowledge that he would be better off being a carpenter, instead of lying to himself and living this fake-life in the city. Biff’s incident with Oliver (going, discovering his own insignificance, stealing the pen, realizing the stupidity of that and resolving to change this) makes him a different person. He tried to explain to his father. Unfortunately, the dominant part of him is still the desire to please those around him. This results in his shift back to his old self, and he tried again in the restaurant to please Willy and pretend like things went well with Oliver. This back and forth confusion makes Biff crazy, and he explodes in the final scene with Willy (speaking of himself: “The scum of the earth, and you’re looking at him!” (124)). Willy is upset, and kills himself. This doesn’t go well for anyone really, and Biff is right—he should have been a carpenter.
3b
In response to Brian’s response to my response on his response…on my response?, I would simply like to say that I’m happy we now agree that Linda, as he says, “has a responsibility to enlighten her family and she does not”, which sounds very much to me like doing “little to help”. But I guess he could have misconstrued my meaning when I failed to say she exacerbated the situation, (which would imply that she was making things worse for Willy, which I don’t think is true, Willy brings most of this on himself). Although the way she babies him and makes excuses for him is unhelpful, and this is deconstructive and does not further him in his growth, it does not send him backwards. I have little doubt that without Linda, Willy would be a mess (responding to Biff, having the cheese, having the windows open, the “infinite patience (17), etc). She is the reason he gets up and knows which way the door is, and she should be given a little credit for that. I’m glad we have both come to agree, however, that she, among others we know in this play, “actively denies reality”. It’s become quite annoying, the commonality among these characters to simply ignore what is glaring in their faces. If Linda had ever outright accosted Willy about his job, would he have changed? What if Biff had told someone about The Woman? Would anything be different if Willy could admit he lost his job? Or that he’s crazy? Is Happy truly Happy? We have no way of knowing this. Reading through our blog, I think it’s pretty clear that Miller has used an artful talent to frustrate the reader into realizing that we can’t hide from reality. That cowardice will not only destroy us, but our families as well. And the pain of knowing you have hurt those around you can be just as severe as the pain of destroying yourself. In less dramatic terms… everyone should stand up to the things they fear most.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
Death of a Salesman
2a. Many of the previous comments about Death of a Salesman talk about the aggravation brought on from the characters. This is something I overlooked at first, but discovered while reading through the second act. I found a passage involving Willy that was most infuriating. Half way through the act, Willy is talking with his brother Charley; once again asking him for money. Charley instead offers Willy a job, working for him. This is too much for Willy because his pride is getting in the way. Charley sees his brother is in trouble and wants to help, but Willy is stubborn and stuck in his own reality, much different from the truth. Willy believes he has no problems and is still a well-liked wealthy salesman. Getting very frustrated, Charley wants to give him a dose of reality: “Charley: I am offering you a job. Willy: I don’t want your goddamn job! Charley: when the hell are you going to grow up?” (97). This continues onto the next page; Willy again refuses him of the job, “I just cant work for you, don’t ask me why?”(98). Charley calls Willy jealous, however, it seems that Willy isn’t jealous but lost in his past. He is far too busy thinking about the way he lived before to change how he lives at this moment in the play.
2b. Like Hannah, I was also not expecting the suicidal automobile accident for Willy at the end of the play. I read straight through act two almost forgetting that a “death of a salesman” would take place. This was a good way for Willy to end his life. He was given closure because he truly believed Biff loved him, and his son’s love was all he needed. “Isn’t that- isn’t that remarkable? Biff—he likes me! Linda: He loves you Willy!” (133). This was a simple idea he repeated until his death.
Ryan O'Connor
1a. Contrary to what most everyone else thinks, I actually really enjoyed Death of a Salesman. I think one of the most parts that stood out to me though, was Charley's speech in Requiem, on page 138. In his short speech, he tells Biff that he shouldn't blame Willy for all his faults, for he was a salesman, and he did what simply comes with being a salesman. Looking back through the book, it became apparent that everything Charley said was true; "He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back - that's an earthquake." As shown through the flashbacks, while Willy was never a huge success and being a salesman, his job was always a bit better when his customers knew who he was. However, now that everyone who used to know him is now either dead or gone, he gets much less business, and as Harold states, "That's just the thing."
1b. While I agree with Sarah, in that Willy hides from reality throughout the book, the same can be said for the rest of the Loman family. While Willy lives in denial about his job, convincing himself that he can get anything done due to his personality, he also is constantly lost in flashbacks, talking to his brother, separating himself from reality. Linda also rejects reality, coming up with ridiculous justifications for Willy's actions; even after he tries to kill himself multiple times. Biff, the Loman's oldest son,is constantly living in a fantasy of moving out west and starting his own farm, while Happy is always ignoring his family's issues, instead trying to lose himself in sporadic relationships.
2a. In Requiem, the play ends with Linda talking to Willy's grave, telling him how she can't mourn his death, ending the speech by saying how she finally made the final payment on the house, and that "We're free." While she is referring to the house of it's mortgage, it also applies to the rest of the family. For Willy, death was almost an escape for him, for in his suicide attempt, he was trying to care for Biff (by allowing the settlement from his life insurance to go to him), something he had always aimed to do. For Biff, his escape came about much sooner, when Mr. Oliver didn't recognize him when he went in for a job. When this happen, Biff realized that much of his life had been a lie, an exaggeration. By the end of the play, Biff finally learns to accept himself the way he is. For Happy, Willy's death is an escape for him, in that it serves to him like a reality check, making him realize what he must do in order to be successful, and decides to take up his fathers place as a salesman, stating, "I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain."
2. I agree with Brain, in that although Willy's suicide was an attempt at helping Biff, it was an overall selfish decision, made only to reach his own goals in life, one of which is to of course appease Biff. I can't remember where it says it, but at one part Willy says something along the lines of, "Isn't there anything I can do, anything I can give to you?" (I realize i probably butchered that quote. sorry). However, while Ben may be a way for Willy to justify his actions, he is willing to do what Ben suggests (or what he imagines Ben suggesting, if you will), because of his respect for him, and I think also out of his regret for not following Ben to Africa where he became rich.
Ryan O'Connor
3a. For some reason, Linda had a line in the very beginning of the book that caught my attention. "I don't know. I think he's still lost, Willy. I think he's very lost (16)." As I read the book, I could see how many of the characters could be described as "lost". Obviously Willy is one, a character so mentally lost he often loses himself between the past and present. However, Biff and Happy can both be described as "lost", both brought up and pressured by their father to follow in his footsteps, although it may not be what either one want to do, which causes them to "lose" their identity, and who they really are. Happy however, unlike Biff, decides to be a salesman at the end, and carry on his father's name.
3b. In Meghan's post, she mentioned "the death of a salesman", and how the ending was appropriate to the title. However, this got me thinking. When Willy is arguing with Howard on page 81, he mentions another person, named Dave Singleman who "died the death of a salesman", in this case in "his green velvet slippers in the smoker of New York, New Haven..." This got me thinking, because since Dave's and Willy's deaths were so drastically different, which one of them truly died the death of a salesman?
Jacqueline Smith
1st (The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams)
1a. While a majority of the play takes place in one setting (the living room of the Wingfield apartment) the entire story is based upon past experiences of the family (Amanda: the mother, Tom: the son, and Laura: the daughter). Amanda, especially, seems to live in the past more than Laura or Tom, but Laura also seems to be disillusioned about the day in age. Amanda constantly worries about her children, and seems to constantly be stressed about their futures, conversely. The father of the family (who remains nameless throughout the play) seems to be the excuse for the family's time alternations. He left the family years before without any more than a note saying, "Hello...Goodbye!", leaving them all high and dry. From the first scene of the play, it is initially stated that the family lives in the past, but it is morphed more into imagery when Williams describes Amanda's clothing. She grew up in a prominent southern family, and continues to believe that her status remains unchanged, leading us into a state in which we cannot take her nagging personality any more seriously than it is presented. When Williams begins to describe Amanda's attire (Scene Two, page 151 [stage directions]), he uses the words "cheap or imitation" in describing her once fashionable, ratty-looking six year old hat. She wears a faux fur collar to top off her cheap, "velvety-looking" coat with her patent-leather purse. I found that when he was describing her appearance, I pitied poor Amanda for humiliating herself as she was trying her hardest to seem prestigious (I might also add that since this takes place during the great Depression, money is scarce and with only Tom providing for the household, money is tight). Laura, whom also yearns for the past, often passes her time sitting at the table (because she is crippled and walks with a leg brace) listening to her outdated phonographs and polishing her glass animal collection. On the rare occasions that she leaves the house, Williams states that her coat was once Amanda's and has been "inaccurately made over, the sleeves too short for Laura", which threw me into a state of emotional confusion because I was not sure whether to feel sorry for Laura and her family due to the absence of money even for necessary things, or if I should feel poorly for Amanda because of the wasted effort that she puts in to keep up with the social class where she still believes she belongs. On the other hand, Tom, who is also the narrator of the play, always looks towards an adventurous future and his appearance is very rarely described, only in the prologue in which he is said to be wearing a merchant sailor suit (which is complimentary to his dreams of one day traveling the world). Just as old clothes that we tend to toss in the back of our closets when they get outdated have a special meaning and memories to us, the clothing described in the play is even more so. While Amanda and Laura need the worn-out jackets to brace the cold winter of St. Louis, they also need the memories of the father that the clothes reincarnate.
2a. Animals seem to have a lot of prevalence throughout the Glass Menagerie. In the opening scene of the play, the Wingfields are sitting together eating dinner. Tom, who is in an unhealthy rush for a cigarette, is bantered by his mother about the way he eats. She describes his ways as those of an animal, and continues to go into great detail about the secretions that are produced in the stomachs of animals to help them to digest their food without mastication. Tom continues to finger his food into his mouth, almost inhaling it. She continues to hassle him about chewing, which is just a mere foreshadowing of the hassles to come. In Scene Four, Amanda and Tom have just reconciled after an argument and Amanda is trying to convince Tom to find a gentleman caller for Laura. As the conversation continues backwards until they succumb to the topic of which they were initially arguing(the fact that Tom goes to the movies for hours every night), Tom states that his instincts long for adventure and the movies provide him with such fulfillment. Amanda bickers back that only animals need to satisfy their instincts, while human beings need to fulfill their duties of becoming lovers, workers, and families. Also, Laura's glass collection consists of glass animals, but delicate and precious creatures such as unicorns and horses, rather than the savage animals that Laura describes when relating them to Tom. Does Amanda consider Tom to be an animal because he is willing to move on while she still wishes she could change her past?
3a. I really enjoyed this play because I was able to become emotionally connected to each character by sympathizing with them. Overall, I felt a sense of pity for all of the characters, especially Laura, due to everything from her crippled leg to her broken glass animal collection to her twice-broken heart by Jim O'Connor when she finds out that he is engaged to be married. Laura is hopeless, just as the rest of the family, but she is the only one unfortunate enough to lose hope altogether by the end of the play. While I pity Tom for being a prisoner in his own mind, he still retains his hope of travel and adventure up until the end of the play. Amanda is simply a hopeless character from start to finish, but tries to hide her imperfections and losses by staying in the mindset of many years before. As stated previously, I truly enjoyed the twisted and unique dynamics of the play, but the only thing I would change if I could would be to add in more emotion among each character rather than simply resentment and desperation. By the end of the play, I think it's safe to say that for a moment, I was utterly depressed.
Meghan C.
Death of a Salesman
1a. Although the majority of those who are reading Death of a Salesman do not like it due to frustrating characters, I am enjoying it. Maybe it is because the concepts are much easier to grasp than in Jane Eyre and Portrait. One particular point I have noticed while reading the first act is the repetition of Happy's dialect to his father Willy. Throughout the first act, Happy repeats the phrase, "I'm losing weight, you notice, Pop?"(29, 33) and rewords it towards the end of the act, "I lost weight, Pop, you notice?"(50) Each time Happy mentions this, he gets no response from Willy and the scene proceeds to move on. This is saddening, because it seems that all Happy wants is recognition from his father, but Willy shows no sense of pride in his son or any interest at all. A few pages after the first time Happy mentions his weight, Biff engages in a sweeter conversation with his father, "Biff: Gee we were lonesome for you." 'Willy, pleased, puts an arm around each boy and they come down to the apron: Lonesome, heh?' "Biff: Missed you every minute."(30) Willy being pleased that his sons missed him, could mean two very different things. He could either be happy knowing his sons love him or he could be seen as cold hearted for being pleased that they missed him because he does not outwardly return the feeling. Not expressing his feelings to his sons has a bad effect on them later in life. Later when Biff visits, his feelings towards his father are shown in a conversation with his mother Linda, "Linda: Biff dear if you can't have any feelings for him then you can't have any feelings for me." 'Biff: Sure I can, Mom.' "Linda: No. You can't just come to see me, because I love him. With a threat, but only a threat of tears:… I wont have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue… Either he's your father and you pay him that respect or else you're not to come here…" (55) Linda knows that Biff has lost all respect for Willy, but still hopes for the family to be together.
1b. I think Jaclyn's comment was most similar to my own. She talks about how Willy spent more time on Biff when they were younger because he showed more promise to succeed in life than Happy. It reminds me of the particular spots in the play that I mentioned when Willy ignored Happy's comments about losing weight. This was an accomplishment to Happy, but meant nothing to Willy.
Naomi N
1st (The Glass Menagerie)
1a. I at once noticed how unreal Amanda (the mother) was in The Glass Menagerie. She's always pretending that gentlemen callers are just going to drop in anytime on Laura, she pretends that she is as pretty and charming as she was when she was young, and she won't allow anyone to say that Laura is a cripple so that she can pretend she isn't. She seems to want Laura to be her. Amanda can't allow Laura to be herself, because she is too busy pretending that Laura is her. In scene five on page 40(New Directions Books) Amanda says, "I'll tell you what I wished for on the moon. Success and happiness for my precious children! I wish for that whenever there's a moon." It seems to fit Amanda's personality to wish for things on the moon. She seems to pretend that childish wishes on the moon will come true. When I read this, I actually thought the opposite would happen. I guessed that Amanda's silly pretending would never become reality; her children wouldn't become successful, because she childishly pretended that it would. Later on in scene six in the stage directions at the beginning of the scene the narrator comments that, "The dress [that Laura is wearing] is colored and designed by memory. The arrangement of Laura's hair is changed; it is softer and more becoming. A fragile, unearthly prettiness has come out in Laura: she is like a piece of translucent glass touched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting." Again I saw this as Amanda trying to make Laura into herself. The pretending shows that this radiance and beauty will not last; Amanda's pretending will not come true.
1b. I agree with Jacqueline that Williams does not allow the reader to dislike Amanda for her silly faults. I rather pitied her for her obvious want to be rich and successful and her inability to be so. I also pitied her because she obviously has never healed from her husband leaving her. She lives so much in the past. All of her memories seem to be of when life was better for her financially and when people loved her for her beauty. Her memories seem to tell the reader what she actually wants: money to spend and people to love her.
Naomi N
2nd (The Glass Menagerie)
2a. At the end of scene five (page 48) Tom says to Amanda about Laura that, "She lives in a world of her own--a world of little glass ornaments, Mother..." I was very interested in the theme of glass. It is obviously a very important theme since it is in the title. I thought it would be important to think about the qualities of glass, and to see how Laura was 'made of glass'. The first thing that I thought of was how glass is so precious and yet so fragile. She like her glass is precious, but very fragile. She needs to be taken care of and 'polished' to be made beautiful in people's eyes. But like the quote in my other post said, the beauty is not actual, not lasting. Amanda, her mother, tries to 'polish' her up nicely to show the gentlemen callers, but that beauty is not the kind that lasts. The thing that people cannot see is the side of Laura that is not like the glass she collects. The side that loves just as deeply as others, and that longs to be loved in return. But getting back to how Laura is like the glass she collects, I saw that glass is something that is very easily broken. In scene seven after Laura is dancing with Jim and they knock over the glass unicorn, Laura says, "Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are. The traffic jars the shelves and things fall off them." She like the glass gets 'broken' many times. I think she breaks because she has no father, she breaks every time Tom and Amanda fight, she breaks trying to fix the brokenness, she breaks when Jim tells her about his fiance. It isn't fair that Laura is the piece of glass that is constantly getting broken while other people are the traffic that break it.
I was also thinking about how the world in Laura's eyes is somewhat altered, like if you look at the world through a piece of glass. It would seem to reason that if her world is the glass than her view of life would be skewed. Her world is a world consumed with her own faults and with trying to fix the brokenness of her family, but like broken glass cannot be just glued back together, Laura cannot piece her family back together.
That's just a lot of thoughts. Maybe someone else has some other thoughts about what the glass imagery is in The Glass Menagerie.
Naomi N
2nd (The Glass Menagerie)
2b. I agree with Jacqueline that the characters in the play The Glass Menagerie were characters that the reader could identify with and sympathize with. With Laura, not all of us are crippled, but many people are shy because they don't want other people to see their faults. Other people don't reach out in love, because they are afraid of someone like Jim seeming to meet their dreams, and then dashing them. One can identify with Tom, because he is restless in the same job day after day. He longs to have adventures. He goes to the movies to see what other people have done. How many of us have one day seen a movie and thought, 'Wow, I wish that was me!' ? Though most people do not act on this ambition to have adventure like the movies, we can see that longing in ourselves. Amanda lives in the past. Isn't it sometimes easier to live in the past than to live in the now. Now is hard, and the past we can change to fit our liking. We can form our own memories, like Amanda does. She chooses only to remember the days when she was popular and she could have had any man in the county. We can see that same kind of behavior in ourselves, even if it doesn't run our lives like it does Amanda's. Tennessee Williams wrote his characters very well, because I liked each one and yet did not love the book. I think that I didn't like the book, because I connected with the characters, but I was left without hope for those same characters I had connected with.
Naomi N
3rd (The Glass Menagerie)
3a. I had a question about the book. All along in the book there is a "screen" that had many different things written on it throughout the play. It seems to be that things that are important to the progression of the play are written on the screen for the audience to see. Am I correct in assuming that the actors are not supposed to see this screen? Other than to let the audience know what pieces of the play are the most important, why would the author write this screen into the stage directions? I couldn't think of another purpose for the screen, but maybe someone else would have an answer. That's really all I had, not much insight there.
Sarah Johnson
2nd (The Glass Menagerie)
1a
I haven't made too many strong opinions on this play yet, because I’ve only read the first 3 scenes. So far I have mixed opinions. The most prevalent cause of my confusion is the opening monologue in scene one. Tom addresses the audience directly, saying “Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve.” This makes me nervous and uncomfortable, and I wonder if that was Williams’ intent. As I have expressed previously, I don’t like it when the narrator steps outside of themselves to explain things to the audience (ech, Jane Eyre), and Tom is very comfortable doing this. But reading on, I really enjoy Tom’s words. When he described the 30s with their “eyes [that] had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy,” I was suddenly bursting with gratitude to Williams for allowing Tom to share this with the audience. Thinking of the play being performed, I can’t imagine a way to explain this setting without saying these words, so I can understand the necessity of the monologue, and I’m actually excited that Tom gets to say these things. But then he loses my respect again when he plays Captain Obvious: “This is the social background of the play.” So I have this warring idea of what Williams was trying to get at, and that kind of got me started with this apprehensive feeling as I started reading. I think what I wanted was Tom’s monologue to not come from Tom, because I don’t like seeing him in the scenes, since he knows that we know he’s acting. It’s like he’s in a joke that the other characters don’t get to know about, and the audience is supposed to pretend doesn’t exist. I don’t know if this is productive confusion or not, or if it was at all what Williams was going for, but either way, I can’t trust Tom as a character throughout the book. I hate how he can jump from the role of narrator to player so seamlessly, like in scene three when he goes from speaking calmly to screaming at Amanda. And I know that’s part of theatre―I’ve seen enough to know that often times, characters directly address the audience , unbeknownst to the rest of the characters, but I just can’t get used to it here. Maybe I will become more comfortable as the play moves on.
1b
In response to Naomi’s question in 3a, I too have been confused with this screen. I can’t figure out if it’s off to the side, or behind the set, or if the characters are supposed to be aware of it (I wonder if Tom the Narrator is, but Tom the Player isn’t…), or even if it’s important. I would think so, since it often foreshadows important lines, probably to help the audience catch what’s important, to keep them looking for clues to the main theme (Scene 3, “You think I’m in love with Continental Shoemakers? “). It’s curious though, because some of them wouldn’t be that meaningful. It’s kind of like the music. I noticed at least twice that the title of the song playing is in direct correlation with one of the lines following shortly after. I don’t know if these are pre-existing songs that are written into the lines, or if the lines inspired the titles for these compositions. It would be interesting to know more about the music of the time, to help imagine the mood and sounds that accompany the lines, since it’s important (as Tom noted in the opening monologue).
Ali O
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
1a.
So I wanted to make the connection between the character Mary in O’Neill’s play, and Linda in Miller’s Death of a Salesman. When I started reading LDJIN and Mary (Tryone’s wife, Edmund and Jamie’s mother) was introduced I instantly thought of Linda from the Death of a Salesman. They both play the role of hiding from reality, not facing truth. It is implied that Mary has had a consumption problem once herself and has “recovered” and now Jamie seems to have become another victim of alcoholism. However “It is just a cold! Anyone can tell that!” Mary yells at her husband Tyrone. She tells him “you always imagine things!” Linda was also always coming up with excuses for her husband’s uselessness and lies. They both lie to cover up something painful and aching, and this connects the two character’s evidently.
2a. (Because no one has commented yet I’m just going to bring up something else that catches my interest)
Well, it’s bizarre to me anyway that Tyrone calling Mary “fat” is a compliment. However, I understand, to him, he's really saying how much healthier and how much more herself she looks since she’s been “recovered”. I feel like this is not that relevant to bring up, but it’s used so frequently from Tyrone towards his wife that I thought I’d mention it, see what other people have to say about it, or if anyone even does. Mostly, I don’t know what else to comment about andddd I haven’t read into the second act yet, so yeah.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
Fences [2nd play]
1a.
As soon as i started reading Fences, i noticed a connection to Death of a Salesman. Troy Maxson, like Willy from DOASM, is one of the most irritating father figures. One can tell that Troy loves his family, but it is even more apparent that Troy loves baseball. Throughout the play he uses baseball metaphors and analogy's to teach lessons to his kids, and he even tries to use this to fix his marriage with his wife, Rose. "TROY: I stood on base for eighteen years and i thought...well, goddamn it...go on for it! ROSE: We're not talking baseball! We're talking about you going to lay in bed with another woman..." (70). Troy drags on an explanation to Rose, twisting and softening the story with analogies. By doing this he only worsens the situation, continues to emotionally hurt Rose, and infuriates the reader. However, this isn't the only time Troy manipulates his stories. Many times, Troy will stretch the truth and exaggerate details and Rose must always put him back on his feet. Troy is still living in his glory, he thinks of himself as a baseball star and he uses these ideas in his simple life, which complicates and destroys his family's respect for him.
1b.
While reading over some of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man i noticed a small connection to Fences. Towards the end of Portrait, Stephen lists off the attributes of his father (241), even though they lack a good relationship. One of those attributes is being a storyteller, which is what Troy Maxson is throughout Fences. However, Troy stories drift and he often needs Rose to say things such as "Troy be talking that stuff and half the time don't even know what he be talking about." (12) Troy, similar to Dedalus, did not have a good relationship with his sons.
Sarah Johnson
2a
So I finished Glass Menagerie, and it seems to me the same kind of play as Translation (Friel), in that there is a message that isn’t quite on the surface, but if you look carefully for the clues, it’s easy to see. I think Naomi is spot-on with her musings about glass imagery in the play, and I absolutely agree that Laura is the delicate glass being rattled by bustling traffic and happy couples dancing obliviously by, giving her no though. What hits me the hardest about this play was that final scene with the gentleman caller. Laura was so shy, she wasn’t going to put herself in peril, but Jim made it easy for her to stop being shy. He gave her reason to believe that she was special, and worth knowing, an “old-fashioned type,” and that she simply has an “inferiority complex,” (80) but she really is the kind of girl “somebody…ought to kiss!” (88) Jim makes Laura see that even if she is glass, she is worth looking at, and that somebody can appreciate her the way she appreciates her glass collection. Unfortunately, she is breakable, just like glass. When Jim turns out to be in love, it breaks Laura, she “struggles visibly with her storm” and seems “far away” (90). It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t Laura’s first positive social experience, and with a boy she has liked forever. My own heart breaks for Laura when I think about this, and how Tom is going to skip out on them, because that will break Laura as well. When Amanda comforts Laura through Tom’s speech at the end, I’m almost sadder than if Laura were left weeping. She is being repaired, but falsely so. It’s like her mother is trying the old super-glu trick, but we know it won’t work (96). Williams makes the reader sympathetic towards Laura, without being annoyed by her lack of self-confidence (which should be frustrating). Williams, I think, was trying to leave us with hope in the end, that Laura and Amanda do have hope, but I can’t help feeling despondent about the bleak life they’ll face after the big letdown, especially with Tom gone. Does anyone else feel hopeful at the end? Or sad? Does anyone know what we should feel?
2b
Jackie’s comments on the animal motifs in the play were very insightful, and I’m curious about Williams’ intent with them. I’m also interested in exploring her question about Amanda thinking of Tom as an animal because he is willing to move on, while she is stuck in the past. It is safe to say that Amanda is stuck in the past, what with wearing that awful-sounding yellow dress with the Jonquils (are these just flowers?) (54), and always reminiscing about her gentleman callers. But I don’t know that this is the reason she considers Tom an animal. I think Amanda’s fury with Tom stems from her desperate fears for Laura , saying as soon as Laura finds someone to take care of her, he is “free to go wherever” (35). It would seem animalistic to her that Tom would care more about pursuing his dreams and evading reality than taking care of Laura. Amanda already knows what it’s like to be forsaken by her caretaker. Especially knowing that he was a drunkard, I think he can infer that the father was not always focused on things of the “mind and spirit!”(34) This makes Amanda wary of those wayward men, and she is quick to want to squelch Tom’s desires to ditch on the family, to indulge in his instincts for self-preservation. It is sad but true, and Amanda’s efforts are indeed needed as we find out, because Tom does ultimately indulge in his instincts to find adventure, love, or a fight (34).
Naomi N
1st for second play
Fences
1a.
Again, I was thinking about the title of the play: Fences. The title shows up 18 times in the play. I thought that instead of thinking about it after I was done the play that I would track it throughout the play. There seemed to be three different way that people talked about fences whether it was physically or metaphorically. The first was to keep people protected, a simple measure of protection. The second was to keep people inside. In the play fences, Troy's wife Rose is having him build a fence. Bono, Troy's best friend comments that "Some people build fences to keep people out...and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. She loves you." Rose sees that her family is moving their seperate ways, and she wants to keep them all with her. The last reason that people build fences it to keep others out. Rose wants to keep her husband Troy by her instead of by other women, but when Troy cheats on Rose, the fence changes meaning. Troy won't build his fence until everything in his family starts to fall apart. When his son Cory decides to leave the house, Troy tells him that if he tries to come back, his stuff will "be on the other side of that fence." He, unlike Rose, doesn't really care to keep his family close. He wants everyone outside of his fence to stay out and to let him be alone. I think that the fence at first means a protection...Rose wants to protect her family. Then it changes, because she wants to keep her family not only safe, but clost to her. Then Troy takes over the meaning of the fence to keep everything out of his life.
Sarah Johnson
3a
After completing GM and having had a chance to reflect on it, I was struck by the subtle parallels between this play and Death of a Salesman. While there is no specific line or theme that connects the two plays, the whole family-situation is similar. It is also striking how strong the theme of denying reality is as well. As my classmates assiduously pointed out in DOAS, all of the characters are all too frightened of reality to embrace it, and suffer in their own feuding worlds. In GM, each character again has their own little world. The same way that Willy was “well-liked” by all of customers, Amanda has been talented enough to have once receive “seventeen gentleman callers” in one day (8). Whether this is truth or exaggeration is irrelevant, because either way, Amanda is living in this thought to avoid thinking about the other ones. She also claims to be selfless, wishing “success and happiness for my precious children!” (40) with or without the moon, but the reader can see that she is too caught up in her own frivolous fantasies of cotillions to stay present. This is just like the situation with Willy, when he would bring everyone’s memory back to Biff’s glory days in high school, but refuse to acknowledge the fact that he was now unemployed, because he wanted people to see that he reflected well on Biff. Laura is passive and delicate, and doesn’t even bother denying reality, she just straight up hides from it, kind of like Linda who just lets everyone around her keep being space-cases and quietly cries in the corner and gets left behind. Tom is very post-illusion-Biff. When Biff becomes aware of his condition and starts trying to tell people, this is Tom. Tom knows what’s up. He knows his mom is crazy and lives in the past, and that Laura will never break out of her shy little glass collection without some serious help. He despises his father for leaving, and for inspiring him to do the same. I think Tom is tortured in the way biff was, in that he wants to please his family (stay at the warehouse, work back in the city), but the only way to be successful is to disappoint them (join the navy, work out west). Tom, as Amanda points out, is “restless” (33), and discontent with his reality. I am beginning to understand further Williams’ decision to have Tom as the narrator. His honesty is startling when he talks about leaving his family, and it’s the same kind of startling honesty that gets Biff into trouble in DOAS. I wonder if Tom is a greater symbol throughout the play?
3b
I’m interested in Meghan’s thoughts on Fences in relation to Portrait. Fences sounds a lot like DOAS, and I’m sure that isn’t exactly a day-brightener, it seems to relay an important message about humanity. Just to throw some assertions out there: in all of these 20th century American Plays, the author wants the reader to feel a little guilty, or maybe just be more aware of the tensions that exist in seemingly-functional families. It appears that humanity has this fixation with being perfect, but since so few of us meet the mark, we try to hide our imperfections and compare ourselves to others. This is bad, and we lose out on the opportunity to love and support each other when we selfishly worry only about ourselves and our furtherment in society. This is the paradox: that in order to travel in society, we must be comfortable with ourselves, but to be comfortable with ourselves, we must believe in ourselves, be believed in by those around us and believe in them in return. This very rarely works out. I think you could argue that in DOAS, POTAYM, GM and Fences, the family unit is flawed, and because they do not believe in each other and build each other up, they forfeit the chance to improve themselves in any way. I’ll leave you all to do the arguing….
Naomi N
2nd of the second play
Fences
2a.
I was thinking about the play Fences as a whole, and I think that one of it's points is that people become like their parents whether or not they would wish to. I like how the only characters are either related to Troy or his best friend. The people who interested me most were his son Lyons, Cory, and Raynell. Troy wants his sons to be like him, but at the same time he sees that he has messed up (especially when he was young) and he doesn't want them to follow in those footsteps. I think that two of the passages that interested me the most were two passages where Troy describes himself and then where Troy describes Cory. Troy says first of himself, "But...you born with two strikes on you before you some to the plate. You got to guard it closely...always looking for the curve-ball on the inside corner. You can't afford to let none get past you. You can't affor a call strike. If you going down...you going down swinging..I fooled them Rose. I bunted"(69). Then on page 72 he warns his son, "Alright. That's strike two. You stay away from around me, boy. Don't you stike ot. You living with a full count. Don't strike out." He moves his son into the position that he himself said he didn't want to be in. He puts his son in the position that he himself wanted to keep away from. Then I also thought it was interesting the similarities between when Troy ran away from his father and when Cory ran away from Troy. He says, "Now it was my turn to run him off. I picked up them same reins that he had used on me. I picked up them reins and commence to whupping him...I don't know what happpended. WHen I woke up, I was laying right there by the creek...I thought I was blind...the only thing I knew was the time had come for me to leave my daddy's house"(52-53). Then the fight that Cory and Troy have go like this: "Cory and Troy struggle over the bat. The struggle is fierce and fully engaged. Troy ultimately is the stronger, and takes the bat from Cory and stands over him ready to swing. He stops himself"(88). They almost seem like the same person as their father. Troy physically overpowers Cory and drives him away, and Cory runs away after this happens. It fascinates me how much the parents in this play affect their children.
I also really liked the quote from Rose about how children are like their parents. Talking about Raynell, Troy's daughter, she says, "Like I'd been blessed to relive a part of my life. And if the Lord see fit to keep up my strength...I'm gonna do her just like your daddy did you...I'm gonna give her the best of what's in me."
Naomi N
3rd post for second book
Fences
3a.
I thought it was interesting how Troy talks about how he's wrestling with death all the time. One time he says, "It seem like he kinda fell back when I said that, and all the cold went out of me. I reached down and grabbed that sickle and threw it just as far as I could throw it...and me and him commenced to wrestle...I wrestled with Death for three days and three nights and I'm standing here to tell you about it"(11-12). Troy says he's wrestling with death all the time. Then Gabe, his brother, is always talking about being in Heaven with St. Peter and blowing the horn, opening the gates and the book of life. He says, "One morning St. Peter was looking at his book...marking it up for the judgment...and he let me see your name. Got it in there under M. Got Rose's name...I ain't seen it like I seen yours...but I know it's in there"(26). I just thought it was weird that Gabe is so obsessed with life, and Troy seems to be so obsessed with Death. I'm not quite sure what it means though. I was also wondering about the significance of the end of the play, after Troy has died. What does it mean when Gabe can't blow his trumpet? The narrarator describes Gabe like this: "Gabriel, with great fanfare, braces himself to blow. The trumpet is without a mouthpiece. He puts the end of it into his mouth and blows with great force, like a man who has been waiting some twenty-odd years for this single moment. No sound comes out of the trumpet. He braces himself and blows again with the same result. A third time he blows. There is a weight of impossible description that falls away and leaves him bare and exposed to a frightful realization. It is a trauma that a same and normal mind would be unable to withstand." I was just wondering quite what it meant that Gabe can't blow the horn. Does it mean that Troy doesn't get into heaven? Or that he messed up in life?
Hannah B.
(LDJIN)
1a) I like Long Day’s better than Death of a Salesman. In comparing the two, both share the similar characteristics in that the family acknowledges there is an issue, but will only talk about it as opposed to acting on it. In Long Day’s it seems that the family is more supportive of each other, even when conflict arises between parent and child. The stage directions give so much more to the play emotion-wise, making the words that are harsh seem a little less (p 38 & 39). Though both plays highlight American life perfectly in that no one really wants to accept the fact that there is something wrong with a loved one, but LDJIN has more family emotion. Death of a Salesman had the same constant bickering between father and son, but it also seemed like it came from a place of true dislike, which is uncomfortable, at least for me. In LDJIN, the father-son duo bicker frequently but it is fueled by passion and love for their mother rather than selfish motives as Biff and Willy so frequently showed (p 78, 79). It’s obvious that Tyrone, Jaime, and Edmund all struggle with their mother’s addiction, but are too scared to do anything about it. However the fear and anger towards each other seems to come from a good place where they want to really just help their mother/wife, and that is much better than a family who argues because they are annoyed with the issue at hand.
1b) As Ali O. pointed out, Tyrone frequently calls Mary “fat” as a term of endearment, which may not be a pivotal or important part of the play but it did strike me as odd. The only thing I could think of is that when she was giving in to her addiction she became sickly causing her to look frail, detached, and unhealthy. When he calls her “fat” it is like she looks alive again. Seriously, models are hot, but they are gross looking and I bet she just looked gross. Also, he may have met her fat and wants her to be back to the woman he loved instead of the one he did not recognize. However, my favorite conclusion is that Tyrone could see that she was uncomfortable, the reason she was giving in to the drugs, and he must relate that to her being thin. When she is “pleasantly plump” she is what he feels confident. She is not as nervous and does not need to use in order to feel okay. I’m happy Ali brought this up because I really thought the play was going to be more of an abusive husband-wife relationship based on that pet name.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
Fences
2a.
While reading Fences, like Naomi, I noticed the title showing itself in the play on many occasions. I’m very glad Wilson added this motif into his play because it adds to the characters, and really tells the reader about the family. One scene that really stuck out to me was a song Rose was singing as she was hanging up clothes in the early morning: “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way. Jesus, be a fence all around me every day.” (21) This is the first mention of fences within the play. Rose sings a song of protection, having a fence in her yard is like having Jesus around her always. Troy is supposed to be building a fence, however, he had not been keeping his promises. “Rose: Where you going off to? You been running out of here every Saturday for weeks. I thought you was gonna work on this fence? Troy: I’m gonna walk down to Taylors’. Listen to the ball game, I’ll be back in a bit.” (28). After Troy leaves, his son Cory returns home, Rose warns him that Troy was upset that his chores remained undone. “Rose: He say you were supposed to help him with this fence. Cory: He been saying that the last four or five Saturdays and then he don’t never do nothing…” (29). It wasn’t until I re-read this section that I realized the significance of this scene. Later in the novel, the reader learns that Troy has been cheating on his wife. In the above-mentioned scene, Troy lies to his wife, and sneaks off with another woman while he should be working on the fence; the fence that represents the protection and love within their family. Well, that’s ironic.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
Fences
2b.
I completely agree with Sarah’s assertions about how the families within the 20th century American Plays are flawed, yet they try to hide this and portray themselves as epitomes of perfection. Troy, the most imperfect person in his family, continues glorify himself and he constantly compares himself to baseball players in the major league. When the truth is Troy has spent time in jail, has children with three different women, he is trying to hold back his son’s dream of becoming a professional football player, and cheated on his wife after 18 years. Troy was like a shadow that sunk deep into family, mentally ruining them, yet, they all manage to continue to live together and hide their flaws. It isn’t until after Troy’s death where his son Cory takes a stand. “Papa was like a shadow that followed you everywhere. It weighted on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap around you and lay there until you couldn’t tell which one was you anymore… That shadow trying to live through you… I’m just saying I’ve got to find a way to get ride of that shadow mama… I don’t want to be Troy Maxson, I want to be me.” (96-97). Troy only worried about Troy, and this was not good enough for his son. If Troy paid more attention to his son’s needs instead of his own, and gave him the support a father should give, then maybe Cory could have amounted to something more than a boy destined to follow in his fathers footsteps.
Naomi N
Fences
1b.
I agree with Meghan that it seems to be a theme within the American plays that the families are messed up but the characters of the play don't want to admit that they are. In the two books I read it was the parents who began the cycle of brokenness by opting to live in the past instead of the present. Amanda from The Glass Menagerie lives in the past by constantly telling stories of the years when she had many gentleman callers who would come to her door all the time. Even when Jim comes over she acts like she would if she were a young girl again. Similarly, Troy from Fences is constantly talking about how he was better at baseball than all the major leaguers. He also pretends that he is a good guy even after he cheats on his wife. I think that both the authors argue that the cycle of deformity in families come from the parents of the family.
Naomi N
Fences
2b.
I also, like Meghan, was thinking about the first mention of fences in the play Fences. I think that she is right about the fact that Rose wants to build the fence around her to keep her family in, to keep them safe. Troy doesn't care about the fence, because he doesn't pay much attention to keeping his family safe. I think that the fence shows the difference in the feelings of each of the people in the house about their family. It shows that Rose wants to keep everyone together, and that keeping the family together and caring about each other isn't that important to Troy.
2A. I feel like there is so much conflict going on in the family, but nothing is really approached or portrayed in depth. O'Neill kind of just gives a situation but then it is casually dismissed by the characters. I feel this way because there are often little battles between the family members, and hurtful words and remarks are said back and forth, but all the sudden the subject will be dropped or changed and the issue casually "ends", or just gets burried under all their baggage each carries. In Act Two Scene One I noticed it a lot betweeen Mary and her son Jamie's conversations. On page 66 Jamie accuses his mother of getting herself back into the same old trouble again, he lets her know he's aware what she is up to again and his mother of course gets upset with him for "insinuating i don't know what" as she put it when explain to her other son Edmund. She said "he should be ashamed of himself" all the while her offended attitude proving Jamie right, making the truth that Mary pretends isn't there to shine through. After getting upset with Jamie and yelling about him to his brother Edmund and saying hurtful things, she then notices Tyrone finally coming in to eat and this is her way out of the conflict. "There;s your father coming up the steps now. I must tell Bridget." There are many situations where an argument breaks out and is just dropped, but still lingers in the air is the unanswered questions and solutions.
2B. Along with Han, I like that this play shows more consideration and concern from a good place for each other. Though it could be argued that it was also present in Death of a Salesman, in this play it just gives you a better feeling that when it comes down to it, they all just love each other and want everyone to be ok. Behidn their hurtful words and accusations is fear for each other and helplessness. In this play I feel like the character's at least act on their helplessness by at least addressing their situations and saying how they feel. Though none of them have solutions, they have all touched up the reality of teh situation, unlike in Death of a Salesman where some character's I felt went the whole book without really recognizing the overall tragedy or conflict they were being exposed to.
3A. Ok so I didn't wanna forget to bring up how mad I was at Jamie on page 56 when he knows Edmund was trying to sneak a drink and instead of getting upset or preventing it from happening, he acts lightly about it and end up disquizing it the alcohol mixing it with water. This really dissapointed me about Jamie because all along I did and still do despite this believe he is trying th best he can to face the truth and have everyone else face it with him. He knows how vulnerable and easy to persuade Edmund is with alcohol especially right in this moment and he just feeds it. This just made me sad for Jamie, because I want him to keep using his voice and power in HELPING the situation and facing it fully along with everyone else, and any hope I felt was pu ton the edge right here.
3B. I don't know what else to comment on right now...buttt though this is kind of personal for somethign on the blog but whatever. One of my Mom's distant cousins that we see once and a while during the Holidays or what not is an alcoholic. And what made me sad about reading this two plays and knowing somethign that does have a drinking problem in my life I realize it is more liek teh Death of a Salesman situation in the sense that no one is TRYING to come up with solution. It;s just accepted, and is what it is beacuse it hasn't gotten any "worse". It's just been like maintained, or just somethign that he/she can seem to manage. I learned in Health Issues this is called a "functional alcoholic". Anyway so there is definatly emotion and caring for this person like there is in the family of LDJIN but there doesn't seem to be enough seeking for solution or an end to it, and that's scarying to me than having tried and failed than not having tried at all.
Hannah Benson
(LDJIN)
post 2 & 3
2a) Something that sparked my interest in this play was the relationship between home and family. In this play Mary looks to blame Tyrone for her problem, which she in turn will not accept, by blaming him for never having a proper home for her. If she had a home she would have friends to relate to and talk to rather than using and abusing herself (p 75). She is constantly blaming him for his frugality but then says something about baby Eugene which makes me believe that she still struggles with the loss of her baby due to her home-situation. This may be why she takes morphine. It is obvious from her glazed expression she is somewhere else, and by the end of the play you can really see that she goes to a far away place, far from the present time.
2b) In comparing Mary and Linda, they share very similar characteristics though they are physically plagued with two different issues. Both seem to always be in denial whether it is about themselves or others. As previously stated by Brian, “However, Linda repeatedly makes excuses for Willy, offering “The Studebaker,” his “glasses” and his need to “take a rest” as possible explanations for his wandering mind (13). By creating excuses for Willy, Linda is preventing his self-criticism and therefore his own self-realization and growth.” Linda may or may not actually be in denial, but by encouraging Willy’s behavior she is not accepting the truth. Mary, however seems to be in constant denial about herself. She has a problem, and when confronted by all three men in her life (pages 61-72) she constantly shrugs it off or acts as if she were offended they were even thinking such things as her. She knows it’s bad but I do not think she can accept that it is bigger than her. Something interesting that Ali O. pointed out that started this whole comment was that Mary protects Edmund from Jaime and Tyrone as Linda protected Willy. I had yet to make that connection, but now it seems obvious. Linda made excuses for Willy like the car and his glasses, while Mary is constantly reminding everyone that Edmund just has a bad cold, when it is blatantly obvious that he has more than that. In both cases the women say things aloud so that they can be true when in reality that does nothing to help.
3a) One of the things that makes this play so intense is the fact that it happens over the course of the day. Things fall apart and life-long issues come together within a matter of hours that it is seemingly unrealistic. At breakfast everything seems happy, and as it meshes into lunch with a small argument between Jaime and Tyrone you can see it start to decline. Edmund leaves his mother alone, and it is later found that she begins on her addiction. After waiting for lunch and a few exchanges with the boys, Tyrone enters and the whole family is thoroughly disappointed with Mary. In the middle of lunch, it is found out that Edmund is indeed sick with consumption. This however is still kept from Mary even though she is already gone. By Dinner, Jaime is out with whores, Tyrone and Edmund are drunk and Edmund knows he is sick. Mary is delusional. By Midnight, it is a drunken drug fest to say the least. However, as we see Mary at her worst, we see Jaime realize who he is, Edmund accept his fate, and Tyrone begins to deal with the situation. Maybe I just gave a terrible summary of the play, but I just wanted to share how odd it was that all of this happened in less than 24-hours. I wonder how they have lasted so many years.
3b) Like Al said, there is a lot of little fighting that goes on in the play. This may be short and a flimsy post, but I think the reason for this is to feel something but not the obvious. Each character has tension and feels it, but they don’t want to express it because it is a big part of all of them. The addiction to Morphine for Mary is huge, but do any of them look at the own problems a lot? The bickering is constantly in threatening and insulting each other but that is probably just an outlet for all the tension accumulating from the larger problems at hand. The tension of it all causes all sorts of little outbursts.
Brian Hand
Glass Menagerie
1a. I, like Sarah, was thrown off by Tom’s soliloquy (I bet that’s wrong) in the opening of the play. I initially viewed it as a cop out by Williams, a way to fill in the audience without having to think of insightful ways to convey exposition. It seemed as though Tom was just going to be a device William’s used to tell us that Tom is “the narrator of the play” and to introduce us to “other characters” (5). However, I now believe that William’s use of Tom is actually more meaningful. This, to me, is indicated by his line “I give you the truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion,” (4). To better understand this quote, I like to think of it kind of like Chief Bromden’s final line of chapter one that reads something like “It’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.” I feel as though Tom’s line relates similarly to Chief Bromden’s. As Tom says, “This play is memory,” so the play we are reading is seems to be Tom’s memory, and not actually how things happened (5). But if we remember Chief’s quote, what happened and the truth are not always the same. Or rather, the truth can be described in relation to one’s perception, in this case Tom’s. So in this “memory play,” everything the audience sees has been processed through Tom’s mind, yet still maintains its “truth.”
I also think the distinction between Tom the narrator and Tom the character is an important one. While Tom the narrator is detached from the “not realistic” play, Tom the character is an emotionally attached to the events unfolding around him (5). He fights back against his nagging mother when he says, “I haven’t enjoyed a bite of this dinner because of you constant directions” (6). I feel like the difference in the two Tom characters is William’s way of throwing off the audience, forcing them into a more focused read and closer attention to Tom’s storytelling.
2a. I was interested in what Jacqueline said about Amanda and her tendency to live in the past. I agree with this, and think that living in the past is Amanda’s way of escaping reality. She readily recalls memories of when she got “seventeen!” gentlemen callers (8). Her means of escape live on through her daughter, when she wants Laura to stay “fresh and pretty” for gentlemen callers (7). Through her daughter, Amanda expresses her desire to escape from her life and unbearable reality.
Brian H
2a. I think that Amanda’s true character is shown in scene 2. When she walks in on Laura playing with her toys, she immediately begins being dramatic in “a bit of acting” (11). This is an important scene because it reveals that Laura has not been going to school that her mother paid for. This forces Amanda to face the reality of a life different from the one she envisioned, and through this her true character is revealed.
As is customary in this play, the struggles of reality forces Amanda to seek comfort in her memories and through Laura. Seeing Laura’s failures causes Amanda to seek comfort in her daughter’s future by keeping hope alive for a gentleman caller. By dramatizing the event with her acting, Amanda is worsening it; she is making a travesty out of an inconvenience and increasing the need for her reminiscent escapes.
But I think it is important to note that Amanda is not all about denial of reality; her need to better Laura’s future comes from a very real place. Amanda shows what that place is in scene 2 when she confronts the “pitiful cases” of women who “aren’t prepared to occupy a position” (16) This thought of realism, paired with her fears for Laura’s future causes Amanda to seek refuge in illusion once again. She refuses to allow Laura to call herself “crippled” (17). She tells Laura that she must “develop charm” to compensate for her “defect” (17,18). By instructing Laura to change in this manner, Amanda demonstrates her attempts to alter the future to escape her intolerable life.
2b. Naomi’s comment about the glass got me thinking about other symbols in the play and motivated me to look for other ones. I started to think about the images that flash on the screen and why Williams would choose to throw an image at the beginning of each scene. Specifically, I was concerned with the blue rose and how it related to Laura’s story about Jim calling her “blue rose” in favor of “pleurosis” By identifying Laura as the “blue rose” Williams is creating meaningful symbolism that relates to Laura. Naomi’s comment about how Laura is like the glass ornaments made me think Laura could be the blue rose as well. While blue roses are beautiful, they don’t exist naturally and so are cut off from reality. Laura too, is isolated from reality, demonstrated by her playing with the glass ornaments.
Meghan Ciaramitaro
Fences
3a. In my previous comments, I mentioned that many of the characters were very frustrating. However, there is one character who stuck out the most. Gabriel Maxson was Troy’s younger brother. While at war, Gabriel was injured, and became brain damaged. He is introduced at the beginning of Act 1 Scene 2: “He carries an old trumpet tied around his waist and believes with every fiber of his being that he is the Archangel Gabriel.” (24). During his appearances in the play, Gabriel speaks of St. Peter and the time they spend together in heaven. One scene in particular, Gabriel talks about seeing the list of names of people who will be going into heaven. “…and he let me see your name. Got it there under M. Got Rose’s name … I aint seen it like I seen yours … but I know its there.”(26). Earlier, Naomi mentioned that she believed Gabriel trumpet didn’t make a sound when he blew it in the end because Troy may have not gotten into heaven.
One more thing I noticed about Gabriel is the love he receives from his family members. In this dysfunctional family, Gabriel is always welcomed with open arms, even though he is completely crazy. Troy not only cares about his brother but he respects him: “What you wanna lock him up for? Man go over there and fight the war… get half his head blown off…” (28). Troy wants Gabriel to be free and live his life, no matter what crazy things he will do. He believes if a man loses so much defending his country then they shouldn’t be locked up.
3b. It wasn’t until after I wrote my response that I noticed I used the same quotation as Naomi. Sorry! I do agree with her though, Gabriel is carefree and all about life, whereas Troy is constantly mentioning death. He even told his son Lyons, a story of how he “wrestled the devil for 3 days and 3 nights.” Maybe if Troy had not fixated on death and glory then he could have enjoyed a simple life with his family, instead of ruining it and eventually dying himself.
3a. I think it is interesting to think of Glass Menagerie not as William’s play, but as Tom’s play. Ever since the beginning, Tom was the one who introduced the audience to the characters and settings—all products of Tom’s memory. Throughout the play, Tom looked for ways to escape his dull life and his nagging mother. Tom initially attempts to escape by his nightly trips to the movies. In scene 5, he answers the tension of a heated discussion about Laura by going, once again, “to the movies” (48). One particular show that seems highly symbolic occurs in scene 4 when Tom describes a magician and the tricks he performed. “But the wonderfullest trick of all…we nailed him into a coffin and he got out without removing one nail” (27). This trick is so appealing to tom because it epitomizes everything he wishes to do. He wishes to escape from the coffin, his current life, without removing a nail. When Tom discusses “instinct” with Amanda, their differences become apparent. While Tom believes instinct is something every individual should play into. Amanda views instinct as animalistic and something that must be avoided. Through this, Tom seeks to escape from his apartment in the city like his father. Amanda relates instinct to Toms father as well and is therefore scared of it because it can be potentially hurtful.
But Tom soon realizes that going to the movies is just watching people have adventures and not experiencing any of his own. As he tells Jim, “I’m tired of the movies…People go to the movies instead of moving!” (61). He understood that he was using movies to compensate for his dull life, instead of actually embarking on his own adventure.
Because Tom is an avid reader and poet, it seems interesting to think that Tom is actually creating the play with his memories and associations. The play itself is Tom’s ultimate escape, a liberating attempt to spill all of his thoughts and memories in order to create something artistic.
3b. I disagree with Sarah in her comparison of GM and Translations. This may be just a matter of opinion, but I think that all the themes and symbols in Glass Menagerie are very explicit. The characters even directly address the images of escape, illusions, and isolation. Tom frequently addresses his desire to escape from this life, saying, “there is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two by four situation” (27). Even the glass symbolism (as stated by Naomi) seems to be very clear (pun), such as when Tom and Amanda are discussing how Laura is isolated at the same time Laura is playing with glass. To me, Translations was a play about people and their actions and words. It didn’t really need the obvious symbolism (such as the images flashing on the screen before each scene). It was just people and how they behave in certain situations. Glass Menagerie seemed very different form that.
Jacqueline Smith
2nd play (Death of a Salesman)
1a. Compared the last play I read (The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams), Death of a Salesman (by Arthur Miller) appeared to be more annoying. While I did get quite aggitated by Amanda in The Glass Menagerie due to her seemingly evident superioirity complex when describing her younger years to a young, naive, and unsure Laura, Willy in DOAS annoyed me even moreso. Willy seems to be a very week character in that he constantly puts on a front with his sons Biff and Happy in order to gain their respect. He later on admits to his wife Linda that he feels as if no one who he works with likes him. Between the pages 30-36 of the first act, Willy often judges other characters such as Uncle Charley and says that he is "liked but not- well liked." Due to influence he has on his sons, a flshbacks relives the memory of Biff talking about his cousin Bernard when Willy states that he must not be well liked because he is always nagging people. Biff (a young high school football star) then tells Willy that Bernard, too, is "liked but not- well liked." While it seems like a younger, cockier Biffhas the same superiority complex instilled within him as Willy does throughout the play, it does not seem as if Biff carries this on to his future, and Happy doesn't display such a characteristic until later in his life. This one particular line that was found almost instantaneously in the beginning of the first act really shaped my opinion of the characters throughout the rest of the play, and I think it ultimately ruined my perspective of the play in its entirety.
1b. I really do strongly agree with you, Sarah, in your first blog post about DOAS. I do agree that the play is well written, but in such a way that seems to intentionally compel the reader to dislike Willy, but I am unsure about the other characters, because there were times when I got frustrated with the naivety of Linda, too. I enjoyed the play, but only because it brought out such strong emotions of annoyance with the characters.
2a. While continuing on with the topic of the level of emotion that Miller is able to stimulate within his readers, I would like to say that when it comes to Linda, she is a mesh of characteristics. In the very beginning of Act One, I first percieved her as almost stupid because of the way she doted on Willy and her sons and cuoldn't seem to understand that the flaws that they displayed (and were clearly evident to everyone around them) and although I am not a mother so I cannot sympathize with the unconditional love she has for them despite this, I felt that this caused her to have little respect among the other three. From Biff's theft of a ball and his inability to pass his math class to Willy's affair (not sure what or who the other woman was, but all signs point to an affair) with another woman and his imaginary conversations with Biff make Linda seem completely blind. Closer towards the climax of the play, towards the last several pages of Act One and the first few pages of Act Two, Biff and Happy (both older in this scene)confront her about his conversations, and she then tells them about his attempt at suicide, which only angers the boys and causes Biff to admit that the respect he had for his father is now fading because his constant hot and cold attitude only prevents the family from truly being happy and successful. While poor Happy seems to be stuck in his own angry world in the background, Linda now seems to be the strongest character of all because she has dealt with teh everchanging moods of both her husband and her sons. At this point, Linda certainly gained my respect as a reader as she and the boy try to reconcile the difficult circumstance with Willy's inability to accept the future by promoting more one on one time with his sons, just as he did in the past.
3a. In Act Two, Miller allows all of the characters to finally show raw emotion. Biff, Happy, and Willy all seem to just get uncontrollably angry with each other, which I personally thought was a corny way to end a tragic play such as this. Once again, it did bring about a sense of hopelessness in me that I have never been able to attain with any other play. All of the issues once at hand never seem to resolve themselves, and I never understood why, but rather embraced this aspect that Miller incorporated into the play. Most other conventional pieces seem to always tie up at least some loose ends, but this one left the anger layed out on the table and as an infinite and inevitable aspect to the relationship between father and sons. Before Willy's "death", we see Biff as the only one to display a raw emotion other than anger. Biff gets so upset and disappointed with his father's career situation that has left everyone in the family hanging by a thread fir so many years only to be let down that he starts to cry because he realizes that all of the respect he thought he had for his father was all completely fake throughout his entire life. He feels like a failure for trusting his father with such admiration. Linda and Happy seem to just sit back and watch this scene because it is a hopeless cause to try to resolve anything at this point. Willy's feelings that no one likes him or respects him are brought forth once again when very few people (compared to what the family expected) attend his funeral, only deepening the wounds among the family members because now not only do they feel that Willy had failed them, tehy also feel that they had failed Willy. This really moved me to think about teh respect and appreciation I have for those closest to me, and as angry as this poem got me personally, it did teach me to appreciate the blessings of each member of my family that I have. Although I know these characters are not real, I do wish that Miller had given them a chance for a somewhat "Happy" ending.
Jaclyn Arnold
2nd Play
The Glass Menagerie
1a. When I began the book, Scene 1 left me a little confused. It was simple enough to understand what had taken place, but I felt annoyed with Amanda. When she recollects about her days when 17 gentlemen callers called upon her at one time, I just felt bad for Laura. When Laura offers to get up to do something, Amanda instructs for her to remain seated, in case any gentlemen callers come. I thought this was strange. I felt like it just reminded Laura that she is not as popular as her mother once was, and I felt sympathy for her. Then, Laura’s concern was revealed when she vents to her brother, Tom, regarding her nerves about never having a gentleman call upon her. The strongest thing I took from the opening scene was pity for Laura.
1b. I identified most with Jackie’s earlier post where she noticed the way Amanda lives in the past. I thought this was insightful, and it definitely holds some importance in terms of the family’s dynamics. Everyone is a little too concerned with things from the past, particularly Amanda. This causes some upset for her daughter, as I wrote about above.
Jaclyn Arnold
2nd Play- The Glass Menagerie
2a. At the beginning of the play, I found one particular line interesting because of it’s substance and placement. At the very end of scene 2 after Amanda finds out that Laura has not been going to business college and has been walking around other places instead, Amanda tries to persuade Laura that she will find success by using charm. Amanda says, “When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it- develop charm- and vivacity-and-charm! That’s all you have to do! One thing your father had plenty of-was charm!”(p.17-18). I found the fact that the scene closed with Amanda’s reminiscence of her husband important. Previously in the scene, Amanda recalls him in a negative tone, saying, “Eternally play those worn-out phonograph records your father left as a painful reminder of him?”(p.16). I found it interesting how Amanda’s attitude about her children’s father changed throughout the scene. Originally referring to him as a painful memory, Amanda ends up complimenting him on his charming personality. She suggests that Laura use this trait (charm) to be successful. Again, this touches on the issue of Amanda living in the past, and I thought it was important to note.
2b. I liked what Naomi said in her first post about The Glass Menagerie. She explained how Amanda really wants Laura to be like her, and that’s an important assertion. We keep revisiting the issue concerning Amanda’s desire to return to the past, and bask in her old glory when she was clearly a happier individual. In what I posted about above, it seemed as if Amanda was now suggesting Laura be more like her father, by using “some charm!”. It’s appealing to see how Amanda uses other people as examples of how Laura should be.
Elizabeth MacDougal
1st (yes, my first)
Death of a Salesman
1a
(Note: My book is a different version, thus the citations are a bit off page-wise)
I actually really enjoyed this play. It blended subtle and not-so-subtle ideas in the story, some of which were intentionally integrated, whereas others seemed to show up merely as the product of characters’ interactions, as the majority of characters within were made so life-like. One of the ideas which I believe to be intentional is (forgive the alliteration) the theme of impossible ideals. Willy especially focuses on ideals he believes to be reachable if one is “well liked.” In the flashback beginning on page 20, for instance, there is an interaction between Willy and Biff that demonstrates this:
WILLY: Bernard is not well liked, is he?
BIFF: He’s liked, but he’s not well liked.
[...]
"WILLY: That’s just what I mean, Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him ... [T]he man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. 'Willy Loman is here!' That’s all they have to know, and I go right through." Later, it becomes clear that this idealized vision of his job does not hold true in the present. On page 23, Willy discloses to Linda that he seems to be laughed at, and that the customers “just pass me by. I’m not noticed.”
Because Willy based almost everything on being well liked, and did not foresee what would happen if he allowed his son to flunk math, Willy cannot accept the fact that Biff is a failure in the present. I understand that part of the problem of flunking was because of Willy’s affair, and part of the reason he cannot accept it is due to guilt, but Willy did not encourage Biff in academics previous to the scene with the Woman.
1b
“This was a good way for Willy to end his life. He was given closure because he truly believed Biff loved him, and his son’s love was all he needed. ‘Isn’t that- isn’t that remarkable? Biff—he likes me Linda: He loves you Willy ’ (133). This was a simple idea he repeated until his death.”
As Meghan said in the above, Willy savors this idea of being loved by his son. It is funny that he dies out of reality, though only after confirming that what he wants is now in fact a reality – Biff loves him. Willy was unsatisfied with his dream of being “well-liked,” which, even when it was achieved, did not bring him the success he imagined befitting to a salesman. Also, the fact that he is loved is only shown after people stop denying reality, come out of the mind set that they are okay as long as they are liked, and confront their problems. Biff knows he’s not the ideal son his father often pictures, he admits “I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop....There’s no spite in it any more. I’m just what I am, that’s all,” (106) and begs his father to “take that phony dream and burn it before something happens.”
Jaclyn Arnold
2nd- The Glass Menagerie
3a. In scene 5 of The Glass Menagerie, I found Amanda to be restless and I was confused by her reactions to Tom’s news that he was bringing a friend home for Laura. It seems that Amanda is a pessimist, tending to look at everything that’s bad about a situation. This goes along with her tendency to live in the past. It was strange how all she seemed to desire in previous scenes was a gentleman caller for Laura, and once she has one coming, she focuses on coming up with questions that might pinpoint any defects he might have. All throughout this scene, Amanda is criticizing Tom, and even after he does her a favor, I felt like she kept annoying him about anything she could. I feel that Amanda has some gap in her life that she can’t seem to fill, and she gets by on living in the past, and focusing on other insecurities. This makes her feel like she is accomplishing something.
3b. I identified with one of Brian’s posts where he mentioned how Amanda “seeks comfort in her daughter”. Although she picks apart everything, trying to fix these imperfections seems to comfort Amanda. If she had nothing to complain about and then try to perfect, I don’t know what her character would do. She keeps living in the past, but it seems to give her more comfort than anything else will.
Sarah J
“hiding from reality”: Since “hiding from reality” is the inverse of “hiding reality” the problem you identify in Willie’s life is one that is endemic to selling (salesman, advertising, marketing, etc.) In other words the salesman, advertiser, marketer has the job of “hiding” (or, more kindly, “spinning”) reality and so such a person might be especially skillful at and (unless particularly self-aware) prone to hiding reality (or “selling” a version of reality) to himself and his loved ones.
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Emily C
“I assume that money is a recurrent theme throughout all of the plays.” Hm…I wonder what others from the non-Ibsen category would say about this assumption. Intriguing.
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Death of a Salesman
Remember to keep in mind what the author is doing with the characters. What is Miller trying to show?
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Brian H
“However, Linda repeatedly makes excuses for Willy” It’s productive to think about Linda’s behavior in terms of the importance of dignity. As in “I/you may not have much but I/you still have my/your dignity.” Dignity is as important in this play as it is in Miller’s The Crucible: “Give me my name.” Here it might be: Give me my illusions or give me the way it was (or the way I thought it was).
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Sarah
You defend yourself very well in the face of Brian’s withering attacks :-)
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“Happy happily explains that they were out with girls, and confirms that Willy had a “great time” with them (124).” Notice how much of a “salesman” Happy is. Happy is more like his father than Biff is. (In the end Happy wants to pick up his father’s dreams and achieve them in Willy’s name. Biff rejects these dreams.) At the root of Biff’s rejection of his father is catching his father in the affair. This—and Biff’s experiences in the west—help explain why Biff ultimately wants to speak the truth whereas Happy, still seeking his father’s approval, indulges in easy lies and salesmanship even when talking with his own mother.
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Ali O
“Willy: “Then what have I got to remember?” Right here, I got a sudden sad feeling. For who and what I don’t know, I just felt like there was some slight regret in Willy’s words. Almost like despite how he's failed at being a father and a person there’s nothing else to him but his boys.” Spot on, Allie.
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Hannah B
“She is a woman like Linda, but she does not make excuses for him, which he finds appealing.” Is there evidence of this in the text?
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“hopefully Biff can learn from it rather than ignoring his life”: in the “Requiem” he rejects his father’s view of the world, so Miller suggests that Biff does learn from his father’s death whereas Happy does not. Happy wants to redeem his father by succeeding as a salesman though Willie failed.
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Brian H
“she has a responsibility to enlighten her family and she does not.” Linda, however, sees that her responsibility to Willy’s dignity is greater than her responsibility to expose the truth. It seems significant that she feels “ashamed” to confront W. although she has done nothing wrong; W.’s failures are her failures; his shame is her shame. I’ll also suggest that because she is fully aware her burden is greater (because her responsibility is greater).
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Jaclyn A
“Willy talks about buying a house in the country.” You’re onto something here. Willy, like Biff, yearns for open spaces. (Willy laments the coming of the apartment buildings. He tries to plant the garden but the conditions are no longer right.)
Also, Miller suggests throughout the play that Willy would’ve been better off building with his hands—making something tangible—than selling. Selling is not making. In fact selling is intangible. It’s about personality. It’s about perception rather than truth. (If a buyer thinks the product is better that is more important than if the product actually is better.) (Sarah talks about this in her 3a post.)
Brian H
“I think Miller is saying something about the visions Willy conjures. They seem to be carefully selected by Willy in an attempt to justify his existence.” Brian, I think “carefully selected” suggests agency on Willy’s part of which I don’t think he is capable. They are perhaps visions that he is compelled to see in order desperately to make something of the mess of his life. I do not, however, see him cynically conjuring the images in order to justify his actions. He’s too desperate, too out-of-control for that. I might be splitting hairs here but in terms of empathy and tragedy I think the distinction between “carefully selected” and “desperately compelled” is important.
Sarah J
Carpenter?
“I think it’s pretty clear that Miller has used an artful talent to frustrate the reader into realizing that we can’t hide from reality. That cowardice will not only destroy us, but our families as well. And the pain of knowing you have hurt those around you can be just as severe as the pain of destroying yourself. In less dramatic terms… everyone should stand up to the things they fear most.” Yup, there’s the heart of the matter.
Ryan O
“Charley's speech in Requiem, on page 138. In his short speech, he tells Biff that he shouldn't blame Willy for all his faults, for he was a salesman, and he did what simply comes with being a salesman” As I’ve mentioned quite a few times in my comments I think it’s worth considering what Miller suggests about how the nature of “selling” might infect one’s being.
“Biff, the Loman's oldest son,is constantly living in a fantasy of moving out west and starting his own farm,” but you must admit, Ryan, that Biff confronts this fantasy and confronts his father with the truth about the family.
“which one of them truly died the death of a salesman?” Good job making the connection Ryan. Seems Miller presents both as true deaths of salesmen. One remains well-liked to the end; the other is forgotten and broken.
Naomi N
“How many of us have one day seen a movie and thought, 'Wow, I wish that was me!' ? Though most people do not act on this ambition to have adventure like the movies, we can see that longing in ourselves.” I appreciate the empathy you express with these words. We, too, are implicated in the human condition. Sometimes when analyzing works of literature we too easily remove ourselves and place ourselves above the characters whose lives we observe from a privileged distance.
“Am I correct in assuming that the actors are not supposed to see this screen?” The “actors” may see the screen but the “characters” do not. The screen devise is often used in Brechtian theatre (theatre influenced by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht). It helps create something Brecht called the alienation effect. Hopefully we study this soon when we read Brecht’s play Galileo (as long as the books arrive!)
Sarah J
“I’ve seen enough to know that often times, characters directly address the audience , unbeknownst to the rest of the characters” You are perhaps the #1 opponent of the “aside” in contemporary America. (I’ll be interested in your take on Brecht’s alienation effect.)
“Does anyone know what we should feel?” Should feel?
Naomi N
Tracking the title yielded fruitful results with both plays. Looking for it from the beginning seems to have been especially fruitful.
“people become like their parents whether or not they would wish to.” This is one of the parallels this play has with Death of a Salesman. Your whole analysis in this section (2a) is thorough and convincing.
“Does it mean that Troy doesn't get into heaven? Or that he messed up in life?” The later we can know. The former we can’t. But the gesture remains evocative in exactly the ways you explore here. For artists ambiguity is often productive.
Meg C
“Troy lies to his wife, and sneaks off with another woman while he should be working on the fence; the fence that represents the protection and love within their family. Well, that’s ironic.” Ironic? Or appropriate?
Ali O
“they have all touched up the reality of [the] situation” I’m interested in this assertion. Where does each character touch on the reality of the family situation?
Hannah B
“but I just wanted to share how odd it was that all of this happened in less than 24-hours.” Another way to approach this oddity is to ask “why might the author have structured the play this way?” Might he have had reasons other than realism?
Brian H
“Chief Bromden’s final line of chapter one” It would be helpful to let us know you’re talking about One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest here. :-)
“I feel like the difference in the two Tom characters is William’s way of throwing off the audience, forcing them into a more focused read and closer attention to Tom’s storytelling.” Wow, Brian. This is an excellent explication of the “alienation effect” which Williams learned from Bertolt Brecht and which I mentioned in a couple of previous comments.
“I think it is interesting to think of Glass Menagerie not as William’s play, but as Tom’s play.” It is probably worth noting that Tennessee’s given name was Thomas.
Jacqueline S
“While it seems like a younger, cockier Biff has the same superiority complex instilled within him as Willy does throughout the play, it does not seem as if Biff carries this on to his future, and Happy doesn't display such a characteristic until later in his life.” I think you’re right on here. Well done.
“…make Linda seem completely blind” She often knows more than she lets on, which is something Sarah J and Brian H have shown in previous posts.
Elizabeth M
“This was a good way for Willy to end his life. He was given closure because he truly believed Biff loved him, and his son’s love was all he needed.” This is a very generous and empathetic reading. You have entered the character and seen his end through his eyes. It is tempting only to look at Willy from a privileged distance outside the narrative.
Elizabeth MacDougal
2nd
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Big Daddy is surrounded by denial. It is a culture that people have created, in the hopes that what they create will be in their control; thus, in their minds at least, they have a hold on a situation which would otherwise be beyond their futile reach to turn it to their benefit. It is this grasp for control that causes those around Big Daddy to drop acknowledgment of reality, and thereby lose the little control they have–how can one control what she or he does not accept? Big Daddy is sick of denial and pretense, and has turned his focus to Brick, who doesn’t pretend to think or feel or be what he is not. Brick, unlike his brother and sister-in-law, doesn’t cater for Big Daddy’s attention or approval. His defeated charm that makes him so “enviably cool” attracts others to him; since he accepts his defeat instead of choosing to cover it up with falsehood or fight it with unattainable dreams, his resulting indifference in a chaotic world attracts others, including Maggie, to him.
Maggie also refuses to pretend her situation is what it is not, but rather than feeling defeat, she holds out like a “cat on a hot tin roof,” until she gets what she wants. “What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?–I wish I knew. . . . Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can. . . .” Since neither Margaret nor Brick depends on others, others are drawn to them – in a way, they are like reverse poles on a magnet, the dependent and the not. Mae, Gooper and Big Mama, on the other hand, find that Big Daddy will not bother with them, as they will tell him only what he wants to hear, or what they wish to believe. It is that one thing Big Daddy is looking for is truth, and knows that Brick, who hates mendacity, is the only way to get it.
Both Brick and Big Daddy, however, are trying to deny something: in Brick’s case, he is trying to drown out the memory and motive of Skipper’s death, after he had already refused to face the truth that Skipper was sexually attracted to him. In Big Daddy’s case, he can’t face that his abdominal pains are anything more than a spastic colon, and thinks that by ignoring their existence he can rid them of their portent.
This play made me recall DoaS, mostly because of Big Daddy’s and Big Mama’s relationship: in both books, the mother puts herself out for her husband, and is put down by him in return.
So long as people are denying reality, they are forfeiting control – by trying to control so much, we lose any hold we try to keep. It’s as if one were to stand on a stool, and believe one could tread it like a stage if one only closes one’s eyes and believes it is such: in the end, everyone who does so falls down.
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