Death of a salesman?

Question

I would love to know about your view point concerning the play, Death of a salesman and the stereotype you envisage about the characters and the reasons they behave like they do. What do you think is the main theme?

Answer 1

This is one of the greatest plays I have seen or read. This is in the same game as Hamlet, Who's afraid, Waiting. I think the main theme is the neglect of humanity. Under that there is a thousand sub topics. The rubber tubing symbolizes so much I can't see a stretch of it today with out shuttering.
Each character is a perfect by product of the nature vs nurture debate. Each one is caught up in the tornado of this mans life. The closer to it they more they are affected by it.
If you have to read this for a class project I implore you to do so. Even if you just see the movie that would be fine. You will find you self on ride. You will see greatness and it will affect how you see your own life.
I got a better understanding of my self after that. I realize that
"I'm a dime a dozen" and I am ok with that and work to better the life I have, not always trying to conqure the world.
B

Answer 2

For some reason I didn't like it. I found it hard to empathise with the sons, and the main character - with whom I feel Miller wants us to sympathise - was a bombastic, domineering man. Therefore, his failure to cope with modern life fails to concern me. His love of shooting animals is also something I find very off putting. If we compare the play to, say, the film The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue, which concerns a very similair theme, I can say I find the lead character much more sympathetic, which means the message of the play is sold on me. The message of both plays is that "the old" ways of life are being truncated in favour of hard-hearted modern materialism, yet the main character seems to me almost a personification of the harsh capitalist system Miller opposed. No doubt he has been hardened by his life, but I just feel it is unconvincing.
It is sometimes said he was called "Loman" in order to suggest "low" man, i.e. a common member of the exploited working class - but this adds an unrealistic layer. I'm afraid I had difficulty not switching off the film Death of a Salesman. Sorry.