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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Alan Adjei

Alan Adjei

Miller's Death of a Salesman - 5 views

Death of a Salesman Miller
started by Alan Adjei on 26 Jan 11 no follow-up yet
  • Alan Adjei
     
    Arguments: In H.C. Phelps Literary Criticism Phelps's examines the uncertainty regarding Biff's love for Willy in the play. Phelps's also faults critics for easily accepting Biff's affection as the impulse of Willy's suicidal Death. He argues that Biff's statement was a tepid and ambiguous expression of concern. Phelps's also states that Willy suicide must have been caused by the last series of futile misguided gestures that made up his life.

    Evidence: "If Biff does indeed not love his father, Willy's suicide must be regarded as just the last in the series of futile, misguided gestures that made up his life." (Phelps). ""Biff--he likes me!" To which Linda and Happy quickly respond with enthusiastic reinforcement: "He loves you, Willy!" and "Always did, Pop" (Miller, 133). "Linda and Happy are repeatedly shown to be among the most deluded, obtuse, and mendacious characters in the play."(Phelps). They mistake Biff's love. Other critic's thoughts of Biff's love ""Willy Loman determines to commit suicide because his older son Biff has at last openly and unequivocally declared his "love" for his father (e.g., Aarnes 104; Bigsby 123; Hynes 286; Dukore 39)." (Phelps)

    Thoughts: Phelps's focuses on not Biff's love but his concern. According to Phelps's most other critics take Biff's concern for love. They feel like this act of concern summarizes Biff's love for father and that is what determines Willy's suicide, but instead he says that Willy's death was caused the collection of events that Willy lived his life by and that ultimately lead to his death.
Alan Adjei

Family Issues in the Death of a Salesman. - 7 views

Miller Death of a Salesman Secrets
started by Alan Adjei on 25 Jan 11 no follow-up yet
  • Alan Adjei
     
    In L. Domina's Literary Criticism of Arthur's Miller Death of a Salesman, Domina exclaims how the lack of trust in the Lohman's household created a countless amount of issues included the death of the anti-hero Willy Lohman. Domina analyzes how the ability to tell the truth and communicate had a grave effect on each of the members of the Lohman family. Each member had a secret but what they did not know that their secret was having an effect on another. Domina asserts her claim by pointing out how the lack of trust was constant throughout the novel. All the textual support used in Domina's essay strengthen her argument because she was able to portray the Lohman family issues that they tried to avoid, but which needed to be address in order for them to move on with their lives. Domina focuses on the fact that the family was broken but in order for them to protect their name and also to keep Willy Lohman for feeling ashamed, they brushed all their problems to the side and put on a facade that everything was going great in their lives. Domina came to a conclusion that the secrets in the Lohman household were not the literal ones that are stated in the novel but those secrets lead to Willy's failure as a salesman and also the subsequent failures of his sons. The assumptions made in her essay were probably formulated by the fact that Willy claims that his family is a strong family but their flaw exceed that of most strong family's which lead to the failures that occurred with him and his sons.
Alan Adjei

Literature Resource Center - Document - 0 views

  • is an anti-hero, indeed the most classic of anti-heroes.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Anti-hero is a main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage.
  • In this play, the themes of guilt and innocence and of truth and falsehood are considered through the lens of family roles.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The themes in this novel are all connected to the Lohman family
  • .” Although he is ordinary and his life in some ways tragic, he also chooses his fate.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Most hero's fate are bestowed on them but unlike Willy he decided his fate, which fits into the role of anti hero.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • play's qualification as genuine tragedy,
  • Although Willy is dead by the end of the play, that is, not all deaths are truly tragic. The other characters respond to Willy's situation in the ways they do because they have different levels of access to knowledge about Willy and hence about themselves. An analysis of the relationships among these characters' insights and their responses will reveal the nature of their flawed family structure.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Willy's death was not considered tragic because of how the other characters responded to the situation.
  • iff, the older son of Willy and Linda, is the clearest failure. Despite the fact that he had been viewed as a gifted athlete and a boy with a potentially great future, Biff has been unable as an adult to succeed or even persevere at any professional challenge.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Biff is considered the failure as he wasted all the gifts he had been giving.
  • Yet Biff shares this knowledge with no one; instead this secret becomes the controlling element of his own life.
  • When Biff does attempt to tell the truth, not about Willy's affair but about his own life, Willy and Happy both resist him.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      They restrict him for letting out his feeling even though those feelings are holding him back
  • This inability to acknowledge the truth affects the family on many levels but most particularly in terms of their intimacy with one another and their intimate relationships with others.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Trust is a major dilemma in the Lohman household and it prevents them from letting in new people into their lives.
  • The most profound secret of the play, however, is of course Willy's apparent obsession with suicid
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The lack of truth in the household eventually lead to secrets and then death because Willy could not share his secrets about suicide.
  • but she forbids them from addressing the subject directly with Willy, for she believes such a confrontation will make him feel ashamed.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      In not talking about his problems lead Willy to his death.
  • Willy. When he does finally succeed in killing himself, his act can be interpreted as a culmination of secrets, secrets which are compounded through lies because they have been created through lies.
  • they also include his failure as a salesman and the subsequent failures of his sons.
Alan Adjei

Arthur Miller's 'Weight of Truth' in The Crucible - 6 views

Truth Crucible Miller Arthur
started by Alan Adjei on 20 Jan 11 no follow-up yet
  • Alan Adjei
     
    In Stephen Marino Literary Criticism about Arthur's Miller novel The Crucible, Marino highlights the importance of Miller's use of the word "weight" at crucial moments of The Crucible, claiming that "the word supports one of the play's crucial themes. Marino purpose of writing the essay was to trace the repetition "weight" in The Crucible and reveals how the word supports one of the play's crucial themes: how an individual's struggle for truth often conflicts with society. Marino's essay remains consistent as it analyzes the effect word "weight" and its connection to the theme. The constancy remains during the book because Marino uses logical facts from the book and from other scholars to support his argument, Throughout his studies of the book and other scholars works Marino examines that Miller also uses other constant words to portray other theme. The textual evidence in the essay is abundant as it show the reader the amount of times the word "weight" has been used in different forms to squeeze the truth out of the characters in the drama. Marino came to the conclusion that the Miller's use of "weight" in The Crucible does highlight the overall theme of how an individual's struggle for truth often conflicts with society. Marino is able to conclude this because of all the different denotations for the word "weight" which is all leading up the truth and if whether the truth is beneficial to society of not. Marino also examines the way one interpret weight in the play whether it has to do with law, religion or authority. Marino states that "the play is based on the clashes of truth between those characters who profess to speak it, those who profess it, those who live it and those who die for it." (Marino, 488). So the truth is trying to be forced out of these souls but one could only get truth if the character falls in the right category.
Alan Adjei

Literature Resource Center - Document - 0 views

  • Tracing the repetition "weight" in The Crucible reveals how the word supports one of the play's crucial themes: how an individual's struggle for truth often conflicts with society.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The thesis of the essay to connect the word "weight: to the theme of the book.
  • Marino highlights the importance of Miller's use of the word "weight" at crucial moments of The Crucible, claiming that "the word supports one of the play's crucial themes: how an individual's struggle for truth often conflicts with society."]
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The purpose of Marino writing this essay was to highlight how the use of the word weight in the crucible highlights the individuals struggle for truth and the conflict with society
  • the play is based on the clashes of truth between those characters who profess to speak it, those who profess it, those who live it and those who die for it.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The play is about who speaks the truth and who does not
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Similarly, Miller's thematic use of weight is intimately connected to the conflicts that occur when an individual's struggle to know truth opposes society's understanding of it
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Society's understanding of the truth is different than that of the individual.
  • Selz argues that truth is at odds with the very people, the judges and ministers, who are supposed to discern it.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      It is hard to recognize the truth.
  • Murray examines how in The Crucible Miller "in a very subtle manner, uses key words to knit together the texture of action and theme." He notes, for example, the recurrent use of the word "soft" in the text.6
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Another Author notices Millers repetition of words and the connection to the theme in this case "soft" is the word
  • On one level, Parris's use of weight as "importance" or "seriousness" appeals to Abigail on a personal level, since her uncle's ministry and her cousin's life are at stake.
    • Alan Adjei
       
      The word is used to manipulate the truth out.
  • Parris invokes his ministry in connection with the "weight of truth," the religious connotation is clear.
  • If Abigail felt the weight of religious truth, she would confess to Parris about the abominations performed in the forest, thereby releasing her from the heaviness of falsehood, sin, guilt, and the power of Satan.
  • his mission is equally connected to the same religious "weight of truth"
    • Alan Adjei
       
      Hales mission is to take the "weighted books" and find out the "weight of truth" of witchcraft.
  • In this line, "weighty" possesses all of the figurative connotations of both law and religion. Clearly, the exposure of witches to the community is the work of God and religion, but it is equally the work of the community in its legal entity to dispose of such witchcraft. Thus, the "weight of truth" that Parris uses in all its ramifications and the "weight of authority" that Hale so reverences are both dispensed by the weight of the law.
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