A Level Tragedy Paper Section C

Death of a Salesman (DOASM) x Keats (Lamia, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil)

Shared Themes between DOASM and one, or more Keats Poems

• The danger of glorified imaginations - DOASM x Lamia

• The overwhelming power of passion/emotion (or lack of) - DOASM x Lamia x Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (Basil)

• Love, fantasy, and disillusionment - DOASM x Lamia

• The limitations of reality (Illusion vs Reality) - DOASM x Lamia x Basil

• Death - DOASM x Lamia x Basil

• Criticism of Capitalism - DOASM x Basil (Lamia can be arguable)

• Denial (stems from human cruelty, or a cruel system) - DOASM x Basil

Expand on the themes that aren’t shared between DOASM and one, or more Keats Poems + Quotes for each

American dream creates the belief of tangible wealth - DOASM:

• Red Chevy motif - the American dream that was once tangible in the beginning, but sprouted into something unattainable, hence why he almost crashes the red chevy.

• Dave Singleman green velvet slipper

  • "the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers"

  • "When he died, hundred of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral."

• Diamond forest

  • "The jungle is dark but full of diamonds."

  • "When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle and when I was twenty one I walked out by god I was rich!"

Common Man struggles - DOASM:

• Common man - powerful, because you vicariously live through them like Willy does with Biff. It makes it more personal, thus more memorable, a core of society shown through the life of someone else.

• Represented by mundane symbolisms

  • Shaving lotion: “The whole house smells of shaving lotion” "I can't get over the shaving lotion in this house!"

  • Coat: "You're my foundation and my support, Linda." [He starts putting on his jacket.] [taking the jacket from him.] - taking off his skin to his vulnerable self

Powerful tragic figures - Lamia:

• Lamia - “Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; / So that she seemed a serpent of Circe's isle,”

  • Hermes went to Lamia for help on finding the nymph = She explains that the nymph's "beauty [was] veil'd" by her power (invisible). This implies her power.

Expand on the theme “Glorified Imaginations” + quotes that fit

DOASM: Willy’s fixation on success and being "well-liked"

• “That’s why I thank almighty God you are built like Adonis.”

• Superficial nature of society = how dehumanised and materialistic they are.

• Appearance and charisma is more important for success. → Glorifies his sons, especially Biff.

• “He's liked, but he's not well liked”

• Flute plays in the background constantly since the beginning, “A melody is heard, played upon a flute” a ghost of lies of success and imaginations of his dad’s “success” to suppress his sadness

Lamia: Lamia hiding her true form, illusion of love

• “I love a youth of Corinth—O the bliss! / Give me my woman's form, and place me where he is.”

• Metaphorical representation of love and the romanticisation of grand gestures as a way to show devotion.

• Significant in representing her gravitating towards the impossible fantasy. Her cover as a woman can only hold together for so long.

Expand on the theme “Overwhelming Emotion” + quotes that fit

DOASM: Willy’s emotional breakdowns that create his flashbacks and delusions, Biff’s rage/love

• "Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop. Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more. I'm just what I am, that's all." - Diacope

• “I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” → Giving reality checks, Nihilism life is short, materialism gives no meaning (epiphany = significance of gold fountain pen)

Basil: Isabella’s grief leading to madness

• “And, patient as a hen-bird, sat her there / Beside her Basil, weeping through her hair.”

• Hair = presentation and beauty, often associated with innocence. She could not be bothered to worry about how she looks with the gory imagery of a head in a pot and her purity. → Uncontrollable consuming sorrow

Lamia: Lycius’ obsession + possessiveness with Lamia, Lamia’s overwhelming determination and love for Lucius

• “She writh'd about, convuls'd with scarlet pain:” → colour imagery paints her going through tangible pain, strong adjectives paint that. It is the build up to the ultimate tragedy of star-crossed lovers.

• "And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up, / Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup, / And still the cup was full”

Expand on the theme “Love, Fantasy, Disillusionment” + quotes that fit

DOASM: The play building up/seeing how a day with Willy is built up on dreams, Willy’s dreams collapsing, Biff disillusioned

• "Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be ... when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am." → Disillusioned

• "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive."

Basil: Isabella’s fantasy love with Lorenzo crushed by death (and her brothers)

• “With every morn their love grew tenderer,”

• “Enriched from ancestral merchandise / And for them many a weary hands did swelt / In torched mines and noisy factories.”

Lamia: Lycius and Lamia’s idealistic view of love (for each other and personal gains)

• Lycius learning about Lamia’s lie and dies from shock.

• "doubtful tale from faery land" - Narrator describing their love as idealistic, they live and trapped each other in fantasy.

Expand on the theme “The limitations of reality (Illusion vs Reality)” + quotes that fit

DOASM: Willy’s denial of reality, the flashbacks of the past, dreams, and wasted potential vs reality.

• Born to dream and be human, forced to go into labour and climb capitalism

• “I’m not a dime a dozen! I’m Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!”

• "The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell…A salesman is got to dream boy, it comes with the territory."

• The build up in Act 1 about how great Biff was as a kid to where he is, wanting to be on a farm. “sculpted by Adonis”

Basil: The reality of classism disrupting and ultimately killing Lorenzo and Isabella, Isabella’s dream of Lorenzo’s ghost = symbolic

• “Enriched from ancestral merchandise, / And for them many a weary hand did swelt / In torched mines and noisy factories,”

• "Go, shed one tear upon my heather-bloom, / And it shall comfort me within the tomb."

Lamia: The border between reality of Lamia as a snake and Lycius being a human, Lamia’s beauty = illusion

• “I love a youth of Corinth—O the bliss! / Give me my woman's form, and place me where he is.”

• "purple-lined palace of sweet sin"

Expand on the theme “Death” + quotes that fit

DOASM: Death of passion, lost of innocence, Dave Singleman’s funeral, Willy’s suicide

• "the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers"

• "When he died, hundred of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral."

• Stockings motif - faithfulness, lost of a blissful childhood

• “I'm tired to death [The flute has faded away]” - foreshadow in Act 1 + car crash

• "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive." = Self view of his own value

Basil: Lorenzo murdered, Isabella mentally destroyed (wrecked)

• “For Isabel, sweet Isabel, will die; / Will die a death too lone and incomplete, / Now they have ta’en away her basil sweet.” - they can only be together at death.

• “The thing was vile with green and livid spot,” - Lorenzo’s head

Lamia: Death of blissfulness and ignorance

• Lamia disappears (perish), and Lycius dying from heartbreak or shock when Apollonius exposes her.

Expand on the theme “Capitalism Commentary/Criticism” + quotes that fit

→ It’s dehumanising

→ Forbids/Prevents true love for others (people, life, jobs)

→ Confines people to gender roles

DOASM: The whole play

• “You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.”

• "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive."

• "You're my foundation and my support, Linda."
  [He starts putting on his jacket.] [taking the jacket from him.]

Basil: Lorenzo killed by capitalist brothers, the whole reason why Isabella and Lorenzo couldn’t be together.

• “Enriched from ancestral merchandise, / And for them many a weary hand did swelt / In torched mines and noisy factories,”

• “Why were they proud? Because fair orange-mounts / Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs?” - narrator mocks their greed and lack of humanity

Expand on the theme “Denial & Cruelty” + quotes that fit

DOASM: Willy denies Biff’s true identity, Linda’s blind support, the whole play is rooted in denial of individual authenticity in a conformist capitalist society.

• Willy lives in an idealised past. He is trapped in his own guilt and perceptiveness of how Biff views him right after his affair. He suppresses reality, rejecting Biff’s own epiphany to insert his own illusions.

• "Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be ... when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am."

• “Pop, I’m nothing! I’m nothing Pop! Can’t you understand that? There’s no spite in it anymore. I’m just what I am, that’s all.”

Basil: Isabella and Lorenzo was denied from fully expressing their love for each other, Lorenzo died a cruel death, Isabella denied Lorenzo being dead.

• “Into a forest quiet for the slaughter.” - Deception + its mourning the loss of innocence, untouched, blissful love, that is unconditional. Keats wanted us to YEARN for a love like that, and see the beauty and ache to love someone forever.

The destructive consequences of societal pressures and the dominance of reason over emotion on individual fulfillment and the human spirit.

DOASM: "When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle and when I was twenty one I walked out by god I was rich!"

• God is not capitalised creating religious irony.

• It seemed that Willy's brother walked out of the jungle and it was fate and God's will to make him rich.

• However, since God isn't capitalised, it shows the loss of humanity by showing the decay of religious belief and tradition, instead materialism and decadence is prioritised.

Lamia: Lycius lives for the glory and achievement of a man fulfilling society’s expectations, to have a beautiful wife.

• "What mortal hath a prize, that other men / May be confounded”

• “Deafening the swallow's twitter, came a thrill / Of trumpets” - Olympian games used trumpets, Lycius unconsciously yearned for the glory of a free man.

Shared Tragic Elements

• Hamartia

  • Willy’s ambition for unattainable success, his hopes and dreams he tried to make a reality (instead of lies) to his family. To be a better father than his own (flute mocks him). He refuses to throw away his dignity to be right.

  • Lamia, Isabella, Lycius, Lorenzo: love

• Catharsis

  • Isabella and Lorenzo reunited in death.

  • Lamia = arguably none.

  • Charley’s understanding of Willy’s intentions.

• Fate vs Free will

  • Death of a salesman: “fate” was more linked to hard work and honesty.

• Epiphany

  • Biff at the staircase when he saw the sky.

  • Isabella when she meets Lorenzo’s ghost in her dreams.

• Anagnorisis

  • The whole play in death of a salesman, as it is 24 hours before Willy’s suicide.

  • Lycius before he dies of shock.

  • Isabella finding out about Lorenzo’s death.

• Every character suffers

  • Not the brothers and Apollonius = traditional tragedy has a main antagonist.

• The downfall of the “hero” (lead character, or the person the character looks up to/idolise/trust)

Common man tragedy vs Traditional tragedy = Common traits

• Sacrifices/Death to uphold their personal sense of dignity

• Focus on social and psychological commentary