Abstract

Death of a Salesman, the masterpiece of the famous American dramatist Arthur Miller, is a drama mainly about an ordinary salesman—Willy who gradually collapses both mentally and physically and eventually commits suicide under massive pressure of life and work. This paper begins with a brief introduction to the author and this drama, then makes an analysis of the major reasons for the hero Willy’s final tragedy, namely the weakness of his character, false values and wrong ways of realizing his dream, and finally draws the conclusion that Willy’s tragedy, to a great extent, is not accidental but inevitable. His story, like a mirror, reminds us every now and then of our own life and values as well as the reality and our future.

Key words:  Willy, tragedy, character, values, ways

摘 要

《推销员之死》是美国当代著名剧作家阿瑟•米勒的代表作，讲述了一名普通的推销员威利•罗曼在生活和工作强大的压力下逐渐走向崩溃并最终选择自杀的故事。本文从简要介绍该作品及其作家入手，进一步分析导致主人公威利最后死亡的三个主要原因，即性格的懦弱、价值观的错误导向和实现梦想的不正确方法，并最终得出结论，威利的悲剧在很大程度上不是偶然的，而是必然的结果。他的故事像一面镜子，时时提醒我们对自己的人生观和价值观加以思索，提醒我们正视现实，面向未来。

关键词： 威利；悲剧；性格；价值观；方法

1.    Introduction
As one of the greatest dramatists in the history of the American theatre, Arthur Miller is also recognized as one of the best-known playwrights in the world. Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and died in 2005 at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. For sixty years, he created one dramatic work after another. Miller won many awards for his plays. Among them were a Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics' Circle prizes and Tony awards. In 1984, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. honored him for his lifetime work in drama. Miller also created stories for movies, and was also a political activist for human rights. But it was drama performed in the theater that Miller loved most. Some critics say Miller was able to dramatize the emotional pain that average people suffer in their daily life, which can be best demonstrated in his most famous play Death of a Salesman. 
Death of a Salesman received the Pulitzer Prize，the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and so on. Winning so many awards，the play ran for more than seven hundred performances on Broadway. Today, the fame of this play still survives and more and more criticism focuses on this famous play. The central character in Death of a Salesman is sixty-year-old Willy Loman. He is a penniless and frustrated traveling salesman, always wishing his two sons Biff and Happy to stand out among fellows. His wife Linda is a traditional woman, considerate and understadable to his husband.