Death of a Modernist Salesman Essay -- Death Salesman essays

Death of a Modernist Salesman The modernist movement in writing was characterized by a lack of faith in the traditional ways of explaining heart and its gist. Religion, nationalism, and family were no longer seen as being infallible. For the modernist writers, a sense of aegis could no longer be found. They could not find any importee or order in the old ways. Despair was a general reaction for them. The dilemma they ran into was what to do with this knowledge. Poet Robert Frost phrased their question best in his poem The Oven Bird. Frosts narrator and the bird about which he is speaking both be wondering what to make of a purposeless thing (Baym 1103). The modernist writers attempted to mirror this despair and tried to superimpose meaning on it or find meaning in it. The old frames of role were no longer meaningful. lateer ones had to be sought. This belief gave them license to create advanced points of reference, which at least held some meaning for them, or to comment o n the remains of the old. These writers referred often to shattered illusions, feelings of alienation, and the fragmentation of the remains of tradition. Although society was do technological advances, many of these writers felt that it was declining in other ways. They saw this patterned advance as being made at the expense of singularity and the individuals sense of true self-worth. Arthur Millers writings are characteristic of this movement. Miller is a playwright whose works reflect the study themes of modernism. Death of a Salesman, which is perhaps his best-known piece, is a perfect caseful of this. In it, he addresses the common modernist themes of alienation and loneliness through both his portrayal of society an... ...l. Works Cited Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York Norton, 1994. Corrigan, Robert W., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, 1969. Costello, Donald P. Arthur Mil lers Circles of Responsibility A View From a tide over and Beyond. Modern Drama. 36 (1993) 443-453. Florio, Thomas A., ed. Millers Tales. The New Yorker. 70 (1994) 35-36. Hayashi, Tetsumaro. Arthur Miller Criticism. Metuchen, NJ Scarecrow Press, 1969. Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, 1982. Miller, Arthur. The Archbishops Ceiling/The American Clock. New York Grove Press, 1989. ---. Death of a Salesman. New York Viking, 1965. ---. Eight Plays. New York Nelson Doubleday, 1981.