摘要

    阿瑟米勒是美国最具影响力的剧作家之一。他的代表作之一《推销员之死》于1949年在纽约首演成功后，震惊了整个美国戏剧界，同时也在国内外评论界引起了一场激烈的争论。 《推销员之死》是一部在现代社会的现实梦境中上演的生死悲剧。通过对过去生活场景的闪回以及时间和空间的自由转换，这部作品成功地将现实主义与表现主义完美地结合。也正是通过运用现实主义与表现主义相结合的手法，阿瑟米勒从整体结构，人物塑造和舞台设计三个方面着手，生动地刻画了主人公威利.洛曼，这位以推销为职业的小人物在奔波中空忙，并在梦想幻灭中走向死亡的悲惨一生。

关键词：推销员之死，现实主义，表现主义

Abstract

    Arthur Miller is one of the most influential playwrights in America. Death of a Salesman, one of his representative plays, achieved an immediate success after its first performance. Meanwhile it has aroused heated debates in the criticism circle both home and abroad. It is a tragedy played in the pressing reality and illusion of the modern society. Through the flashbacks of the past life as well as the free shift of time and space, this play successfully demonstrates a unique integration of realism and expressionism. Arthur Miller combines realism and expressionism in the aspect of structure, character and stage design, vividly depicting the tragic life of the protagonist Willy Loman, who is an unimportant salesman with no achievements in busy work and finally dead in the delusions.

Key words: Death of a Salesman, realism, expressionism

1. Introduction
    Arthur Miller was a very prominent playwright and essayist in American theatre for over 61 years. Throughout his entire life, he had written a wide variety of dramas, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955), All My Sons (1947), and Death of a Salesman (1949), which are studied and performed worldwide. Death of a Salesman is one of his most famous plays and considered as classic of American theater. When this drama premiered in 1949 on Broadway, it is an instant success, not only earning Miller both Tony award and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, but also securing his place as one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century. Death of a Salesman stems from Arthur Miller’s personal experiences, his reflections on American society, the theatrical traditions in which Miller was schooled and Miller’s own originality. The play recalls traditions of Jewish theater that focus family as the crucial element, reducing most of the plot to the confines of a family. By means of addressing the painful conflicts within one family, the play insinuates larger issues regarding American values. Much of this success is attributed to Miller’s facility in portraying the universal hopes and fears of middle-class American.