Reflections on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

The modern crisis of the person in the West is the focus of Gil Bailie’s 1990 Reflections on Authur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Though written in the late 1940’s the story of Willy Loman’s life reads like a classical Greek tragedy, however without the protagonist ever coming to the knowledge of his fatal flaw. Mr. Bailie’s analysis displays his then recent exposure to René Girard’s mimetic theory bringing anthropological as well as psychological and spiritual insights to the text.

“The more people think they are realizing the utopias dreamed up by their desires, the more they will in fact be working to reinforce the competitive world that is stifling them.” – René Girard