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Home > Books > Plays > D Plays > Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

User Reviews

for Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

Rating Summary based on 18 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		11
  • 4 Stars
    		7
  • 3 Stars
    		0
  • 2 Stars
    		0
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to similar works?
  • How does it compare to works by the same author?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 4.6
  		• 4.4
  		• 4.4
  		• 3.8
  		• 4.7

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Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 to 10 out of 18 Review(s)
  • 21 of 21 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of madchillie

    madchillie

    4 Stars Death of a Salesman- Miller's most famous play 18/02/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Intelligent literary play with scope for plenty of analysis

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Won't appeal to everyone

    Death of a Salesman is a play, written by the late, highly respected Arthur Miller. Miller was not a prolific playwright, and Death of a Salesman is one of his few but most famous works. The genre of the play is essentially a tragedy although not in the typical sense. Miller wanted to challenge the typical literary device of tragedy which has always been a person of high stature falling out of power because of a fatal flaw. Death of a Salesman showed that tragedy can happen to anybody in the world, no matter what their social class, which is why the play centres on Willy Loman; a salesman ... more
  • 61 of 61 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of heatherrr13

    heatherrr13

    5 Stars Society's Flaw 06/07/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages brilliantly written, extremely moving

    Disadvantages Disadvantages an intense read

    ‘Death of a Salesman’ was written by the playwright Arthur Miller in 1949. Although it is considered an American Classic, I had never really heard of it myself until I bought it. I only even bought it because the last time I was in New York I was trying to spend my change, and this caught my eye. It has been critically acclaimed many times over both as a written play and as a stage production, and won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1949. It made both Arthur Miller and his main character, Willy Loman, famous. The plot of the play focuses on Willy Loman and his family; his wife and two sons ... more
  • 9 of 9 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of DEMadison

    DEMadison

    4 Stars Death of a Salesman - The tragedy of a broken man. 15/12/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Literature at its finest, the rare tale of an anti-hero who just gives in

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Not for everyone

    I originally wrote this review in 2003, and have chosen to publish it again. Death of a Salesman is a play, written by the late, highly respected Arthur Miller. Miller was not a prolific playwright, and Death of a Salesman is one of his few but most famous works. The genre of the play is essentially a tragedy although not in the typical sense. Miller wanted to challenge the typical literary device of tragedy which has always been a person of high stature falling out of power because of a fatal flaw. Death of a Salesman showed that tragedy can happen to anybody in the world, no matter what ... more
  • 31 of 31 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of KEPP

    KEPP

    5 Stars Just Chose the Wrong Dream! Review with images 20/01/2005
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages So many hidden messages!

    Disadvantages Disadvantages None!

    Death of A Salesman is the only book by Authur Miller I have read, and I must say I was not dissapointed! When yuo have read my review I want you to go upstairs and search your books for it, and if you haven't got it go up the library and get it...but read my review first!! Now, this is the first book review I have done and am not sure how to go about it! So hopefully this is ok! Characters: Willy Loman - Willy is the central character, he is a Salesman, but he is also stuck in the past. He believes that all you need to suceed in business is to be funny and "well liked." How wrong he was ... more
  • 26 of 26 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of sandi84

    sandi84

    4 Stars Marilyn Monroe... 01/09/2002
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Plot, the clever use of characters, thought provoking.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Hard to follow at times, very depressing.

    ... ok so I lured you here. Just an interesting fact you may not know. Arthur Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe on June 29, 1956 in White Plains Court. Also "The Misfits" was written by Miller for Monroe, and was her last completed film. Let me just admit now - "Death of a Salesman" is NOT the kind of book that I would read of my own choice. I studied it in an A Level English Literature class and now I'm glad I did. I doubt you'll find anything to compare with it unless you've read Sophocles' "Oedipus The King." The story, set in depression era Brooklyn, depicts the life of the Lomans, more ... more
  • 20 of 20 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of bruffyboy

    Level 5 bruffyboy

    Member since 01/11/2008

    Reviews written: 188

    4 Stars A complex modern tragedy with a difference 28/01/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages great story

    Disadvantages Disadvantages chronological jumps

    I studied this on my degree, and am now teaching it at A Level. I remember it being a fantastic play, but not without its difficulties. Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller. The play follows the tragic story of Willy Loman and his dysfunctional family. We meet Willy as an old man starting to lose his mind, but through flash-backs discover he has always been inept as a father, husband, and salesman. In the cut-throat world of sales, not to mention parenting, Willy just doesn't have what it takes to succeed. The play is a tragedy, but turns Aristotle's concept of the fall of a ... more
  • 16 of 16 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of hayleylewis676

    hayleylewis676

    5 Stars The American Dream 28/11/2005
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Reads easily, even by yourself

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Thats hard...there arnt any

    This play was written to emphasize the state of America in New York at the time. There was the common misconception at the time that if you worked hard and had the right dreams then you could make something of yourself. The main plot of the play revolves around a man called Willy Loman. He has always envisaged himself as a top salesman earning amazing pay and really making something of himself. Instead he doesnt even earn enough to pay the bills and so is forced to borrow money off a more succesful neighbour called Charlie. This is a result of being taken off a salary and working on direct ... more
  • 13 of 15 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of fluffeeder

    fluffeeder

    5 Stars Death of the dream? 19/04/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A modern tragic hero

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Is this too real?

    This play is one which tends to be studied at A-level and degree and promptly forgotten. This does not do it justice. Arthur Miller is a phenomenal playwright who looks into the heart of working class America and draws from it modern tragic heroes. He brought us Eddie in A View from the Bridge, Joe Keller in All My Sons and of course Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. It is currently a bone of contention within the literary community as to whether he is a humanist or a Marxist and yet all agree that he is the greatest social dramatist of our time. The play itself is a poignant look at the ... more
  • 6 of 6 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of emmamate1

    emmamate1

    5 Stars Death of a Salesman 14/08/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Tragic story, excellent use of psychology to create characters, set in a familiar context

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Not much action, more about the characters

    Death of a Salesman is a pitying view of the American Dream and the effect it can have on individuals. The reader and audience follow the protagonist, Willy Loman, embark on a mental downward spiral in pursuit of the perfect American lifestyle. The play is beautifully written: the dialog and characterization are powerful, empathetic, and easy to relate to. The reader pities each character in turn - not only Willy, but also his wife Linda, and two grown sons Biff and Happy, as they helplessly watch Willy fail. Studied this a few years ago, but have since read it again for fun, have bought the ... more
  • 16 of 17 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of roseolihome

    roseolihome

    5 Stars The review that doesn't spoil the ending 22/05/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A poignant study of the failure of the american dream

    Disadvantages Disadvantages It's too widely known to be appreciated properly

    I tell a lie in the title to this review... the ending has already been spoilt by the title. But this is part of the point i would argue. The shadow that is cast by the prior knowledge that Willy Loman The Salesman, is going to die, means that the emphasis is not on the plot. And yet Miller manages to still create a sense of shock when he finally comes to die. In my experience of theatrical literature this play comes alive off the page better than almost anything that I have read. It is perhaps this accessibility that makes it such an a-level classic. But on stage it is something else, mostly ... more
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