Rating: 
Summary: Great American Tragedy
Review: On ~Salesman's~ first opening night, when the curtain dropped at the end of the performance, something strange occurred, something that had never been seen before in American theatre: the audience, a full house, did not applaud, but sat motionlesss in their seats in silence. As minutes passed, a few people stood up to put on their coats, but sat down again, turning and discussing their lives. This strange behaviour continued on for some hours. Miller sat backstage, his head in his hands, not wanting to confront the possibility that his play had been a flop - this was far from the case, ~Salesman~ was a runnaway hit, and continues to be the emblematic portrayal of personal tragedy combined with cultural crises.~Salesman~ is about many things. It is a tragedy about the collapse of the notion that personal success is measured by one's financial prosperity. Willy Loman's tragedy is really two-fold: the need of most people to make a 'mark' in their lives either through financial success or merely being loved by one's friends and family. In the end, Loman comes to realize his son Biff loves him; however, ironically, this realization only propounds his material failure which consequently, leads to his final attempt at 'success', ending in his tragic suicide. This superlative play is a dramatic lesson in the individual tragedy of a man pursuing materialistic success at the expense of the higher values of personal, emotional growth and fulfillment that can only be achieved by truly knowing oneself. ~Salesman~ is a moralistic play. It teaches us that Willy Loman is Everyman. We're all part of a system that pushes the lie that materialism measures the worth of people, but to exclude basic human values, knowledge, community, and love, is to court disaster, and in poor Willy Loman's case, self destruction. This play is the great American tragedy and a valuable lesson for us all.
Rating:
Summary: The Life and Times of Willy Loman
Review: Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," while confusing when just read through the text alone, is an awesomely crafted play that takes drama to the next level. Now being interested in plays, I decided it was time to read this one, being that this is considered a classic by many (which I could easily see why). Reading this play makes me want to write plays. Reading something like this makes me believe that I can some up with something great too. I am glad that I finally took the time to read it. The story is about a broken-hearted salesman, Willy Loman. He is a man no longer living in the real world but is mostly trapped in his own delusional world. He can't let go of the past no matter how hard he tries, and it's eating him up inside. He wants to believe that his family is a shoe-in for greatness, no matter how lonely and sad his wife is, or how much of a player/swinger his youngest son is, or how confused and anti-business his oldest son is. You put all of this together and you get a glimpse of an American tragedy that is so powerful and sad that it makes you think these things happen all the time. From Page 1 you know it's not going to end on a happy note, but you decide to take the path anyways. And a path worth taking it is. I admit that I was confused at certain points, because through the text alone it is very hard to separate Willy's reality from his imagination. There are places where Willy departs from reality and goes back to the past and it makes it very hard for us to figure out what is going on if we're only reading it. When I saw the movie version after reading this, I was able to appreciate the play more. I understood what confused me and I was able to figure out what was happening. Despite some confusing moments it is still a tremendous play that is very involving from start to finish. You are able to sympathize with the main character, and with the rest of the characters as well. You know a writer has done the job right when you are able to feel or care for every single character (or at least almost all of them, being there will be a few minor characters you're really not supposed to care for that much. This is something that always happens in the world of fiction and is to be expected). Arthur Miller did an amazing job of writing such a realistic and emotionally driven play. The characters were realistic as well as the dialogue. "Death of a Salesman" is more than just simply a stunning play; it is a beautiful portrait of a family dealing with hardships and troubles. As soon as I began the play I was unable to put it down until it was finished. If you want to read a great play and are interested in great works of drama, this is the one for you. (Note: If you are confused by the play, see the movie afterwards. It really helps.)
Rating: 
Summary: This book is horrible
Review: This book has no action in it whatsoever. And I dont mean gunfighting, high-speed chases et cetera. I mean action as in rising action, climax, falling action. The foundation for stories we all learned about in school. But rather, the main character, Willy Loman's climax in life most likely took place when he was in school learning about those things too, and this book only touches upon the falling action of the falling action in his existence. The fact that all it contains is a story of a fairly old man blinded by his dreams and ending up dead is what killed it. I agree with what appears to be popular opinion, this book does show problems of today in that people dont have dream-come-true lives all the time. But if I want to read about people who fail in life but have no fault in their demise, I can read the newspaper about employees of companies being fired and having their salary lowered. I would only recommend this book if you are like Willy Loman in that you live only on dreams, so this book could act as a slap in the face and expel you from your ideal-fantasy world. However, if that applies to you, reading about the sad truth of where your life will go isn't very enlightening. Either way avoid this book as much as possible. Im sure you'll thank me if you dont read it.... I send my condolences to those who have.
Rating: 
Summary: if you're interested...
Review: The drama "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller is about the unsuccesful fate of the Loman family, their desperate struggle to achieve a good living and the final attempt of Willy Loman, the mentally disturbed father of the family, to achieve their goal by sacrificing himself.
The drama takes up the thesis of the American Nightmare, the dark side of a system offering everybody to become succesful just because of skill and hard labor. It describes the life of a family whose disadvantage is the lack of social security. The drama succeeds in creating a vivid image of a long hidden side of U.S. life. Overall it is a drama easy to read and understand, which leaves a lot of interpretation to the reader by only hinting at many points.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Review by Deidre Iannelli
Review: Death of a Salesman is about an old salesman by the name Willy Loman. Life has not been that easy for him, especially now. Both his sons have returned to the house and he doesn't get along that well with one of them, Biff. And every time he visits they end up in a big fight ending when Biff takes off again. But the problems with Biff are still only the least of Willy problems. Over the past few years his worth as a salesman has declined, he's not making enough money so he's been borrowing some each week from a friend, and then to top it all off he loses his job. With all that is happening he feels that he has failed at everything in life and he starts losing it. Willy has been hallucinating about his past and as his problems get worse so does his grip on reality. But through these hallucinations the reader finds themselves within the mind and past of an old salesman.
Overall I thought this book was ok. If I didn't have to read it for school I would have never read it. I found it hard to follow and didn't really figure out who was who until I was nearly finished with the book. I can't say I totally dispised the book, tt was one of the better school assigned books I've read. And I can sort of see why this book is forced upon High Schoolers, it does have a good lesson to it. So if you are interested in reading plays or have to choose a schoolbook to read I would recommend "Death of a Salesman" to you. But if you can't stand plays or aren't forced read the book I would have to say think twice about picking this book up, there are better ones out there to spend your time reading.
Rating: 
Summary: willy's a saleman
Review: I love the book, i was a good page tuner,and the charactes where great. you had the wife that was supporttive in the book and the father wanting his sons to follow him was natural for it to happen. everything was gerat how they had him daydreaming as the book goes on. It was a grat book that you will want to read over and over.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Play, Easy to Read as a Book
Review: Death of a Salesman is one of those rare plays that are equally riveting whether you see it in a theater or read the script in a book. The book tells the story of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, and his wife and two children. The "present day" in the story is about Willy near the end of his career. He is getting too old to travel around and to hustle to sell products. He also appears to be not quite right in the head any more. His oldest son has returned from the West where he has been doing odd jobs but not making much out of his life. Everyone is worried about Willy, including his neighbor and his boss. Unfortunately, Willy's boss is more concerned with the profits of the company. The story flashes back to earlier times in several scenes. These stories mainly tell the story of more triumphant times for Willy. He is a good salesman and he's adored by his wife and children. One gets the sense that he is ready to hit it big. He rejects his brother's plan for a get rich quick scheme because he is doing so well in sales. We are never quite sure how much of Willy's past is accurate. Like many good salesmen, Willy is used to promoting his products with little exaggerations. It seems that Willy's talent in sales bleeds over to his personal life, so that he is always doing a little worse than he says he is. It is unclear how much worse in these earlier days. However Willy is doing, it seems that his life has taken a turn for the worse. His oldest son is also doing much worse. He was the star quarterback in high school and is headed for great things with a scholarship to college. But he has lost his way at least as much as Willy. The play answers some of these questions. Many of them are answered by the fact that life is hard sometimes and we make bad choices. Others seem to be answered by nothing besides fate. Also, as you can see by some of these reviews, the answers are different for different people. It is easy to pull some things out of this play when you are done, but it is almost impossible to figure out everything. In any event, I strongly recommend you read this book and see the play live or on video. You will love them both.
Rating:
Summary: Good Play!
Review: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman basically revolves around 'the American Dream' which was based on the 'Declaration of Independence':'Men are born with the inalienable rights--life, liberty and most importantly the pursuit of happiness. Willy Loman, the main character of the play, had the pursuit of this faint dream of wealth, power and respect he figured he would achieve in the business world because he believed he was 'well liked'. I don't really blame his pride as his downfall, because afterall, it's not his pride that leads to his suicide. He's more obsessed with making something of himself and his sons, like his brother Ben...which is a good example of someone who has achieved the 'American Dream'. 'I walked into the jungle and came out rich'is expressed by Ben a number of times throughout the play, although in truth, Ben has emptiness inspite of his success and wealth. 'Death of a Salesman' contains much that is critical of modern American society. But, this was not Arthur Miller's sole purpose in writing it.
Willy's misjudgement of his failure in life is demonstrated in 'Death of a Salesman'. He feels as though he has failed because he has nothing to show for his years of work, in either his or his son's names. To kind of make up for it, Willy kills himself believing that he has done something right by helping Biff become someone with the insurance money that they get from his death. Sometimes 'a man is worth more dead than alive'. But what he has truly failed in is his family life, and his married life. That is the corruption of the true 'American Dream'.
Rating:
Summary: Better the second time around
Review: While I never read this book in Highschool, I was forced to watch the movie starring Dustin Hoffman. At the time I felt the same way a lot of people felt "why the hell are they teaching us this [garbage]." It wasn't until a few years later that I was told to read it in college that I could fully appreciate its meaning. It's about a run-down old man stuck in a dead end job trying to live the american dream. But his dreams are shattered in the end by one of his sons, Biff. Willy put so much pressure on his sons to succeed that they felt like failures no matter what they did, and that ruined them. They were not a success to him, "being well-liked" no matter what they did. Also, Willy's cheating ways contributed to Biff being a disillusioned teen full of angst. Biff thinks he "knows himself" but he thinks he knows what he wants, because what he wants is not to become his father, but in the end they are the same because Biff who would rather work on a farm outdoors is still at the mercy of a system that he has no control over. They are both products, Willy sells products and in turn is a product himself, trying to sell himself to the highest bidder, while Biff may become as down-trodden as the bushels of hay he has to rake up. All in all this was a good read and it made me sad. I felt sorry for the entire family, which is representative of most families today.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I read Death of a Salesman simply for pleasure as I like to read the odd 'classic' that I didn't read in high school without the bias of teacher/intellectuals 'breathing down my neck'.
However, the story of a 'loser' did not appeal to me and I felt no sympathy for the character or his family throughout the story. I fail to see why this is called a 'classic'. Who decides this? I would hate to impose this book on high school students.
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