Arthur Miller (1915-2005)

 

Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, New York, to a Polish and Jewish immigrant family. Isidore, his father, ran a profitable coat manufacturing business, and Augusta, his mother, was an educator and a voracious reader of literature.
After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the wealthy Miller family lost practically everything and had to relocate from Manhattan to Flatbush, Brooklyn. Miller did a couple odd jobs after high school to save enough money to attend the University of Michigan. He writes for the student newspaper and finished his first play, No Antagonist, for which he received the Avery Hopwood Award. Kenneth Rowe, a dramatist and lecturer, taught him as well. Miller returned to the East to pursue a career as a writer after being inspired by Rowe’s approach.
Miller’s career began with a significant barrier. His 1944 Broadway debut, The Man Who Had All the Luck, met with a fate that was the polar opposite of its theme, ending with several negative reviews after only four performances. A year later, Miller’s play on antisemitism, the focus was released. In 1947, his second play, All My Sons, was a huge success on Broadway, running for over a year and winning Miller his first Tony Award for Best Author.
Miller composed the first act of Death of a Salesman in less than a day in a modest studio he established in Roxbury, Connecticut. The drama, directed by Eliza Kazan, premiered on February 10, 1949, at the Morocco Theatre and quickly became a renowned theater production.
Death of a Salesman (1949)
The tragedy Death of a Salesman is about the contrast between the Loman family’s dreams and their reality. The play is a harsh criticism of the American Dream and late-war America’s competitive, materialistic society. Willy Loman, an ordinary human being who tries to cover his ineptness and failures beneath more delusional hallucinations as he tries to be a “success”, is the protagonist of the play.
The play’s idea came from a short narrative written by Arthur Miller, which he later abandoned. However, an uncle who was a salesperson grabbed his attention later on. The Broadway production of the play was a huge success. In 1949, it awarded Arthur Miller the Pulitzer Prize. Miller had already established his skills with his successful play. All my sons, by his time in his career. Miller’s career, however, was driven to new levels with Death of a Salesman.
Themes from Death of a Salesman, like all masterpieces, still strike today. Its severe critique of American capitalism may not be as alarming today as it was when it originally appeared, but we have a sense that every modern-day theatre member understands precisely what Miller is looking at.