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ABSTRACT The work of Death of a Salesman has high value of literature and art. Its expressionist technique breaks through the time and space constraints and makes the psychological realism come true. The combination of performance and realism makes a very good drama. Death of a Salesman is a typical tragedy to reveal the problem in American society. 46090
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In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller makes a successful use of symbolism, which helps him to shape the character and express this drama’s theme. Ben is a symbol in this play. A contrast is a great gap between Ben’s success and Willy's failure so that Ben frequently appears on Willy’s illusion. Based on the researches on the drama, this paper is to analyze the functions of illusionary image “Ben” in Death of a Salesman clearly. Ben appears in the drama a few times to show Willy’s inner world. And he has a close relation with the theme and the structure in this play. The illusion character represents the hero Willy’s American dream. Willy hopes to become successful like Ben. In fact, they become a striking contrast.
It is to adopt a textual analysis and comprehensive analysis from different aspects to present the character of Ben in Death of a Salesman. The focus of the research lies in two main parts: the first part is to analyze the character of Ben in this drama, the second part is to talk about the relations between “Ben” and the main character “Willy”, the theme, the “American dream”, the story line in Death of a Salesman. This secondary character plays an important role in this drama, and the illusionary image makes this drama full of color.
Keywords: Death of a Salesman; American Dream; Illusionism; Ben
摘 要《推销员之死》这部作品有很高的文学和艺术的价值。可以说它是戏剧中的一个里程碑，表现和现实主义的结合造就了这一部精彩的戏剧。作者米勒所采用的表现主义技巧突破时间和空间的限制,将这部戏剧的主人公心里完美的表现在舞台之上。基于之前学者们对于这部戏剧的研究,本文采用文本分析和综合分析,从不同方面介绍人物“本”在这部戏剧中的作用。本是一个出现在威利脑中的幻影、并且以魂魄的形式出现在戏剧中,所以可以说“本”这个人物的安排与刻画是该戏剧的重要亮点之一。该研究的重点在于两个主要部分:第一部分是介绍《推销员之死》这部戏剧的基本内容,第二部分是谈论“本”和主要人物“威利”之间的关系，他对这部戏剧的主题表现,“美国梦”的化身,以及本在《推销员之死》这部戏剧故事线上的体现与作用。本文从戏剧幻象人物“本”入手，系统有条理的分析研究了《推销员之死》的主题，人物，组织结构，艺术手法，以及次要人物所发挥的重要作用。
毕业论文关键词：推销员之死；美国梦；幻象；本
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 An Introduction to Arthur Miller 1
1.2 An Introduction to Death of a Salesman 1
2 Literature Review 2
3 An Analysis of Ben in Death of a Salesman 4
3.1 The Image of Ben in the Drama 4
3.2 The Symbolic Meaning of Ben in the Drama 4
3.3 The Appearance of Ben in the Drama 5
4 Functions of Ben in Death of a Salesman 7
4.1 The Relation between Ben and Willy 7
4.2 The Relation between Ben and the Theme 9
4.3 The Relation between Ben and the American Dream 10
4.4 The Relation between Ben and the Story Line 11
5 Conclusion 13
References 14