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All American Literature Videos 200 videos
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Death of a Salesman Summary 79510 Views
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Description:
A salesman dies—sorry to ruin it for you. But in addition to giving away key plot points in the title, Arthur Miller also liked to make some pretty weighty points about the American Dream. What is it, and who gets a shot at it? Only your hairdresser knows for sure.
Transcript
- 00:05
Death of a Salesman, a la Shmoop The name’s Willy Loman… traveling salesman
- 00:11
and family guy extraordinaire.
- 00:13
I’m not exactly… around anymore… may I rest in peace. But I’m about to tell you
- 00:19
the story of a man…a great man…
- 00:21
…the kind of man you should be if you want to be remembered like this!
Full Transcript
- 00:25
Yeah, I like to think I was living the dream back when I was… living… in the 1940s…
- 00:32
Sure, being a traveling salesman came with a few roadblocks …
- 00:35
…a boss that just couldn’t see how valuable I was to the company …
- 00:40
A…uh, little problem on the side…
- 00:49
And the occasional vision or two of what my life could have been…
- 00:55
But in the end I had it all – a great job, a beautiful wife and two sons who wanted to
- 01:01
be just like their old man…
- 01:04
…businessmen….fathers…visionaries…!
- 01:06
Well, Biff and I had our issues… for a second there, he wanted to be a farmer, ha!
- 01:18
But I think I put him on the right path when I gave him the best present a father could
- 01:21
give his son…
- 01:22
…I gave him my life. Okay, okay, I know it sounds a little psycho
- 01:30
when I put it that way, but listen –
- 01:32
Biff had so much potential to become everything I wanted him to… I mean, he himself wanted
- 01:38
to be…
- 01:39
All he had to do was believe!
- 01:40
…and get a little money.
- 01:42
That’s where the whole “have father commit suicide-collect insurance money pass GO”
- 01:47
thing came in.
- 01:48
I just…drove into a tree. A man’s got to make some sacrifices for his family, right?
- 01:55
Before I died, Biff kept trying to tell me that I was lying to myself, that the American
- 02:02
dream was actually a nightmare….
- 02:05
….but he was just going through a phase. I’m sure he’s grown out of it by now and
- 02:12
is everything I’ve ever wanted him to be...
- 02:13
He’s probably gotten that loan from the boss who loved his work…
- 02:13
He’s forgotten about our little…problem…
- 02:13
And he’s taken advantage of everything America has to offer every single one of us, so long
- 02:17
as we work hard, believe…
- 02:20
…and occasionally kill ourselves.
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