SONG OF THE UNSUNG ANTIHERO: HOW ARTHUR MILLER'S DEATH OF A SALESMAN FLATTERS US
The sober treatment of a lowly, unheroic protagonist in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman flatters the audience. The more obvious way that it flatters us is by alienating us from the protagonist in his downfall so that we watch his destruction from a secure vantage point. Less obviously, the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
1998
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 1998, Volume: 12, Issue: 2, Pages: 205-216 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The sober treatment of a lowly, unheroic protagonist in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman flatters the audience. The more obvious way that it flatters us is by alienating us from the protagonist in his downfall so that we watch his destruction from a secure vantage point. Less obviously, the form of the play, like other modern tragedies of its kind, romanticizes the protagonist with whom we identify, romanticizes him through what I call the audience's paradox, that tension created when a serious work or literature employs an obscure, lowly character as protagonist and so makes that obscure person the centre of our attention, makes him famous. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/12.2.205 |