Miller Arthur

« Arthur Miller I INTRODUCTION Arthur MillerAmerican playwright Arthur Miller began writing plays while a student at the University of Michigan.

His first big successwas All My Sons (1947).

Miller's best-known play, Death of a Salesman, won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for drama.Bernard Gotfryd/Archive Photos/Getty Images Arthur Miller (1915-2005), American dramatist, whose works are concerned with the responsibility of each individual to other members of society.

Simply and colloquially written, Miller’s plays sprang from his social conscience and from his compassion for those who are vulnerable to the false values imposed on them by society.

Somecritics regard Miller’s work as the most serious attempt in recent American drama to achieve the tragic force of ancient Greek plays. II EARLY YEARS Born in New York City, Miller was the son of a coat manufacturer who suffered financial ruin in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

After graduating from high school,Miller worked and saved money for college.

From 1934 to 1938, he studied at the University of Michigan.

As a student, Miller won awards for his comedy The Grass Still Grows. After graduation, he returned to New York City to write. Miller’s first Broadway play, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944) , opened to poor reviews and closed after four performances.

His first successful play was All My Sons, which the New York Drama Critics’ Circle chose as the best play of 1947.

All My Sons revolves around Joe Keller, the family patriarch, who has sold defective parts for war planes and allowed his partner to take the blame.

A study of the effect of opportunism on family relationships, it foreshadowed much of Miller’s later work.

Anotherof Miller’s early achievements was the novel Focus (1945), an attack on anti-Semitism that was well received. III DEATH OF A SALESMAN Miller’s Death of a SalesmanOne of the leading American playwrights of his generation, 20th-century dramatist Arthur Miller explored the plight ofindividuals suffering in a shallow and artificial society.

Miller’s most renowned work, Death of a Salesman (1949), tells thestory of a traveling salesman, Willy Loman, who experiences frustration and failure as he reflects upon his life.

AfterLoman kills himself near the end of the play, his friend Charley speaks these words over the salesman’s grave (recited byan actor).© Microsoft Corporation.

All Rights Reserved./(p) 1994 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved. Miller’s major achievement was the play Death of a Salesman (1949).

It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for drama, the 1949 Tony Award for best play, and the 1949 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play of the year.

It is considered a milestone in America drama. Death of a Salesman tells, in almost poetic terms, the tragic story of Willy Loman, an average man much like Miller’s father.

Loman is a traveling salesman who has. »