Drama and further texts: Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman (drama)

The idea

Death of a Salesman is a modern tragedy built around Willy Loman, a failing salesman who clings to the American Dream while his family fractures. Miller uses memory, flashback and expressionist staging so past and present collide on one set. Willy’s illusions about success and popularity clash with Biff’s failure to ‘make it’, and Linda’s loyalty exposes the gap between Willy’s self-image and reality. The play raises the tragic question of whether a common man can be a tragic hero. Study Willy’s contradictions, the pressure of capitalism, and the way Miller makes the audience feel pity and fear through structure, dialogue and symbol, including the flute, stockings and seeds.

What earns the marks

• Analyse how Miller’s use of memory and non-linear structure creates tragic tension between Willy’s illusions and his present failures.
• Examine Willy Loman as a possible tragic hero, weighing his flaws, his dignity and the social forces that shape him.
• Discuss the function of Biff, Happy and Linda in exposing or sustaining Willy’s self-deception and in widening the tragedy to the family.
• Consider how staging, lighting, music and set design carry tragic meaning, for example the flute motif and the shifting walls of the house.
• Explore the critique of capitalism and the American Dream, showing how material pressures contribute to Willy’s downfall.
• Connect the play to tragic conventions such as hamartia, recognition and catastrophe, while noting Miller’s modern adaptation of them.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Reducing Willy to a simple victim of society.

  Put it right by acknowledging his choices, contradictions and responsibility alongside social pressures.

• Ignoring stagecraft and treating the play as a novel.

  Put it right by analysing Miller’s directions, lighting, music and expressionist set.

• Quoting long speeches without close analysis.

  Put it right by zooming in on a short phrase and explaining how Miller’s language creates tragic effect.

Exam tips

• Anchor every argument in the text, using short quotations and precise references to staging and structure.
• Address the tragic genre explicitly, showing how Miller both uses and transforms classical conventions for a modern audience.
• Keep context purposeful, linking post-war American consumerism and family expectations to the play’s tragic vision rather than listing facts.