Arthur Miller(1915--2005)is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists (剧作家) of the 20th century. Miller’s father had moved to the USA from Austria-Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”. However, in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 the family lost everything. As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. At college he worked several jobs to pay for his tuition (学费).
Miller’s most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with his worth. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment (多愁善感):If he can’t do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
【小题1】Why did Arthur Miller’s father move to the USA?| A．He failed to manage his family business. |
| B．He hoped his son would be well educated. |
| C．He experienced severe financial difficulty. |
| D．He was attracted by the “Great American Dream”. |
| A．exposes the cruelty of the American business world |
| B．focuses on the skills in performing successful business |
| C．introduces employees’ proper behaviors in the company |
| D．explains the reasons for the death of American salesman |
| A．family | B．play |
| C．death | D．marriage |
