Additional Information
Motif in Arthur Miller’s play
Death of a Salesman
The American Dream is one of the central themes in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, a mediocre salesman, dreams of success but it is his brother Ben who “has made it”: “That man was a genius, that man was success incarnate.” (A. Miller, Death of a Salesman, Stuttgart: Klett, 2001, p. 28) While Ben embodies success, Willy is a low-man, a failure. To escape from reality, he often retreats into a dream-like state lost in his memories of Ben. Often carrying a valise and an umbrella (pp. 31, 60) Ben is/was clearly a widely-travelled man. His appearances on stage invariably follow a fixed pattern:
- Idyllic music can be heard, which is referred to as “Ben’s music” in the stage directions (pp. 31, 60).
- Ben never has time, always having to catch a train or a ship thus he is a constant reminder of the passing of time.
- The words “When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I as twenty-one I walked out. […] And by God I was rich” (p. 33) are a phrase repeated whenever Willy thinks of his brother.
Together these elements form a recurrent motif highlighting the differences between the two brothers and exploring and varying the theme of the American Dream.
Themes in Aldous Huxley’s novel
Brave New World
Since Brave New World is a novel of ideas Aldous Huxley discusses a number of themes in exploring abstract concepts such as
- science and technology
- experimenting with human embryos and genetic engineering
- mass production and consumerism
- totalitarianism: stability and the freedom of the individual
- propaganda
- conditioning human beings
- advertising
- drugs
- love and sexual satisfaction.
