Death of a Salesman (1949)
Ageing salesman Willy Loman, his wife Linda and sons Biff and Happy; Pulitzer Prize
Literature · Playwrights
Arthur Miller
1915–2005 · American
American realist drama; social tragedy
Arthur Miller was one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century, writing about guilt, responsibility and the pressures of the American Dream. Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949, and The Crucible used the Salem witch trials as an allegory for McCarthyism. He famously refused to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was married to Marilyn Monroe.
How to spot them
- ▸Willy Loman, the failing travelling salesman; 'Attention must be paid'
- ▸The Salem witch trials of 1692 as a parable of McCarthyism; John Proctor and Abigail Williams
- ▸Married Marilyn Monroe (1956–1961) and wrote The Misfits for her
- ▸Refused to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956
- ▸Essay 'Tragedy and the Common Man'
Key works
The Crucible (1953)
The Salem witch trials; John Proctor refuses to sign a false confession
All My Sons (1947)
Joe Keller knowingly shipped faulty aircraft cylinder heads in wartime, causing pilots' deaths
A View from the Bridge (1955)
Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie Carbone's obsession with his niece Catherine; narrated by the lawyer Alfieri
After the Fall (1964)
Memory play whose character Maggie was widely read as a portrait of Marilyn Monroe
The Price (1968)
Two estranged brothers meet to sell their dead father's furniture
The Misfits (1961)
Screenplay for John Huston's film starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe
Key ideas
- 'Tragedy and the Common Man' (1949): the ordinary person is as apt a subject for tragedy as kings
- Individual conscience against social and political pressure (The Crucible)
- The corrosive effect of the American Dream and the family's hidden past (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman)
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in New York City on 17 October 1915; died at Roxbury, Connecticut, on 10 February 2005
- •His father's clothing business was ruined in the Depression
- •Studied at the University of Michigan, where he won Hopwood Awards for playwriting
- •Death of a Salesman won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- •Convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957 for refusing to identify others at communist meetings; the conviction was overturned in 1958
- •Married three times: Mary Slattery, Marilyn Monroe (1956–1961) and the photographer Inge Morath
- •His daughter Rebecca Miller is married to the actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in the 1996 film of The Crucible
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Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Arthur Miller
- Arthur Miller — Timebends: A Life