Transcript Unit 14 Arthur Miller &Saul Bellow

Unit 14 Arthur Miller &Saul Bellow
1915——2005
Aims of Teaching:
Introduce the two writer to students
Familiarize students with ideas of the work
and the language the writers used
Give them some knowledge of American
drama and American Jewish Writing
Key Points to Teach:
Miller’s life and artistic achievements
Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Features of drama
Bellow’s life and artistic achievements
Bellow’s Looking for Mr Green
Features of Jewish Writing
I. Arthur Miller
1. His Life:
1915. born in Manhattan, the son of a comfortably middle class The family
moved to Brooklyn during the Great Depression which plunged his family
into financial straits and influenced many of his plays.
1938. Graduated from the University of Michigan where he has all sorts of jobs
to help pay for his education and also began to write plays.
1940. His marriage to Mary Grace Slatter ended in divorce. (Two children--Jane
and Robert)
1956. His marriage to Marilyn Monroe entailed great notoriety, also ended in
divorce.
1962 Married photographer Ingeborg Morath with whom he still shares his
Connecticut home. (One daughter--Rebecca married to actor Daniel-Day
Lewis).
He died on 10 February2005.
Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
2. His Achievement
American playwright who combined in his works
social awareness with deep insights into personal
weaknesses of his characters'. Miller is best known
for the play DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1949),
or on the other hand, for his marriage to the
actress Marilyn Monroe. Miller's plays continued
the realistic tradition that began in the United
States in the period between the two world wars.
With Tennessee Williams, Miller was one of the
best-known American playwrights after WW II.
Several of his works were filmed
3. His Major Plays
1944. The Man Who Had All the Luck --closed after 4
performances
1947. All My Sons, opened at the Coronet (1/29) and ran for 328
performances--Miller's first major success.
1949. Death of A Salesman, opened at the Morosco (2/10) for
742 performances.
1950. The Enemy of the People, adapted from Ibsen's play,
opened at the Broadhurst (12/28) for 36 performances.
1953. The Crucible. Opened at the Martin Beck (1/12) for 197
performances.
1956. A View From the Bridge, one-act version paired with
another one acter, A Memory of Two Mondays. Opened at the
Coronet (9/29) for 149 performances.
1956. A View From the Bridge, two-act version) opened at
London's Comedy Theater
1964. After the Fall, opened at the ANTA Washington Square
(1/23) for 208 performances.
1964. Incident at Vichy. Opened at the ANTA Washington
Square (12/3) for 99 performances.
1972. The Creation of the World. The comic retelling of the
story of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel stories intended to
make a philosophic statement opened at the Shubert and closed
after just 20 performances.
1974. The Price. Opened at the Morosco ( (2/07) for 425
performances.
1977. The Archbishop's Ceiling. Opened at the Kennedy
Center in DC (4/30).
1980. The American Clock, adapted from Studs Terkel's Hard
Times, opened at the S.C. Spoleto Festival Spring 1980 and at
the Biltmore in New York (11/21).
1991. The Ride Down Mt. . Opened in London and at the
Williamstown Theatre Festival (Summer 1996).
1993. The Last Yankee (1/05) at Manhattan Theater Club (to
be revived 1/98 at Signature Theater).
1994. Broken Glass. Opened at the Long Wharf in New
Haven (3/01/ and at the Booth (4/24).
2005. Resurrection Blues, Miller's last play.
4. key dramatic devices
The idealist who pays too much for his
inability to compromise.
The Great Depression.
The theme of man's responsibility to his
fellow man.
The Guilt of the survivor.
An ordinary man's tragedy doubling as
symbol of a larger societal flaw.
A Penchant for Big Operatic Speeches.
5. The Death of a Salesman (1949)
Douglas Henshall as Biff and Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman
6.Quotes From Miller Plays
He's not the finest character that ever lived. But
he's a human being, and a terrible thing is
happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's
not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old
dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to
such a person
-- Linda Loman, Act 1, Death of a Salesman.
You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away-a man is not a piece of fruit!
Willy, Act 2, Death of a Salesman.
(A Salesman) He's a man way out there in the blue
riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they
start not smiling back--that's an earthquake!
Charley, Requiem, Death of a Salesman.
There are times when you want to spread an alarm,
but nothing has happened --Alfieri, A View from the
Bridge, Act 1.
A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by
the thumbs; the big ones become ambassadors
--Joe Keller in Act 2, All My Sons.
Once and for all you must know that there's a
universe of people outside, and you're responsible to
it. --Chris Keller (to his mother) in Act 3, All My Sons
Since God made everything, and God is Good,
why did he make Lucifer?---Arthur Miller
The only thing you can do today without a license is
you'll go up the elevator and jump out the window -Gregory Solomon in The Price, Act 1 Solomon, the
character who brings the play its light touch, thus
amplifies his statement that he is both registered and
licensed as an appraiser
He allowed himself to be wholly known --Alfieri in
Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, Act 2.
II.Saul Bellow ——Winner of the 1976
Nobel Prize in Literature
1. His Life
Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of
Montreal, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He
attended the University of Chicago, received his
Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937,
with honors in sociology and anthropology, did graduate
work at the University of Wisconsin, and served in the
Merchant Marine during World War II.
2. His Major Novels
The Victim (1947)
The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
Seize the Day (1956)
Henderson the Rain King (1959)
Herzog (1964)
The Last Analysis (1965) (play)
Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970)
Humboldt's Gift (1975)
The Dean's December (1982)
More Die of Heartbreak (1987)
The Theft (1989).
Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories (1968) + Him
with His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories (1984)
(short stories)
3.Looking for Mr. Green
 It provides a good introduction to Saul Bellow's
fiction, particularly in its concern for the
experience of contemporary man in search of his
own identity.
 two different levels

a realistic depiction of a relief worker's
dedicated attempt to search for an unemployed,
crippled black man in the slums of Depression
Chicago in order to deliver a welfare check

a symbolic quest to discover the relationship
between reality and appearances.
4.Issues Raised in Looking for Mr Green
1. Money as a formative influence on the creation of
identity.
2. The problem of the noncompetitive in a highly
competitive society.
3. The clash between idealism and cynical "realism,"
between the noble idealist and the cynic.
4. The quest of a stubborn idealist in an irrational
world.
5. Racism and stereotyping.
5. Historical Issues and Themes
How does society help the downtrodden (in this
story an unemployed, crippled black man) in bad
economic times (e.g., the depression)? The story
also examines the problems of race, class, and
gender. Other issues that the class might focus
upon are: the plight of the noncompetitive in a
capitalistic, highly competitive society; how
money influences character; the alienation of the
urban black man.
6.Personal Issues and Themes
How does an idealistic humanist (i.e., the typical
Bellow hero) reconcile noble ideas with the harsh
facts of the human condition? Is man essentially a
victim of his situation or is he the master of his
fate? What is Bellow suggesting about the problem
of human suffering and evil? The relationship of
the individual to his society? The relationship of
appearance to reality? The clash between the
human need to order and make sense of life
according to moral principles and life's amoral
disorder, discontinuity, irrationality, and mystery?
7. Questions for Reading and Discussion/
Approaches to Writing
(a) What is the purpose in the story of Grebe's supervisor
Raynor? What is Bellow's attitude toward Raynor's
cynical "wisdom"? Is concern for the individual
anachronistic? For philosophical studies?
(b) What is the purpose of the encounter with the Italian
grocer who presents a hellish vision of the city with its
chaotic masses of suffering humanity?
(c) What is the purpose of the Staika incident in the story?
Raynor sees her as embodying "the destructive force"
that will "submerge everybody in time," including
"nations and governments." In contrast, Grebe sees her
as "the life force." Who is closer to the truth?
8. Discuss the theme of appearance versus reality
(a) Bellow ends the story with Grebe's encounter with the drunken,
naked black woman, who may be another embodi- ment of the
spirit of Staika. Why does Bellow conclude the story this way?
Has Grebe failed or succeeded? Is he deceiving himself?
(b) David Demarest comments: "Grebe's stubborn idealism is
nothing less than the basic human need to construct the world
according to intelligent, moral principles." Discuss.
(c) Believing that "Looking for Mr. Green" needs to be seen "as one
of the great short stories of our time," Eusebio Rodrigues
argues that the Old Testament flavors it. This story is "a modern
dramatization of Ecclesiastes." Discuss