Deat of a salesman Klausurfragen 13. Klasse Gymnasium

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Hallo, ich habe einíge für mich unlösbare Fragen zu death of a salesman.
Wer kann schnell helfenfür meine Klausurvorbereitung.
1. Discuss Willy´s skill at revising incidents, list actual incidents and what he turns them into.

2. List and discuss the ways men compete in the play, sports, money , women, possessions, success or their children.

3. Why does Biff say he is mixed up? How much of it is his father´s fault?

4. Contrast the characters of Biff and Happy. Would they make a good team?

5. What different things do Willy and Biff learn about themselves?

6. Discuss the elements of Happy´s nature that come from each of his parents.

7. Why is the character of Ben in the play?

8. What does Willy have to remember? Why now?
9. Discuss the form of the play as a reflection of Willy´s state of mind.
10. Analyze transitions from present to past and back to present.

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

MI · Administrator Anmeldungsdatum: 22.01.2005 Beiträge: 1080 Wohnort: München

Weißt du, warum du auf die Schnelle keine Antworten gefunden hast? Weil du etwas vergessen hast! Nämlich deine eigenen Ansätze.

Du kannst mir nämlich nicht erzählen, dass du z.B. zu den Punkten 2 und 4 nichts, aber auch gar nichts findest - das sind nämlich nur "ich habe das Buch gelesen und muss noch die richtigen Stellen finden"-Fragen. Dafür musst du noch nicht einmal etwas ANALYSIEREN. Wenn du einige Stellen nennen würdest, dann würde dir bestimmt auch jemand helfen die Liste vielleicht zu erweitern.
Zudem sind viele der Fragen einfach schwammig gestellt, denn du gibst keine Textstellen (z.B. zu 8 - die Frage ist so einfach unverständlich).

Außerdem fügst du das Wort "schnell" ein und "pushst" den Thread dann auch noch (was übrigens nicht erlaubt ist - zumal völlig unnötig, da er ja noch nicht einmal von der Startseite gerutscht ist, was für mich den Anschein erweckt, dass du MORGEN die Klausur schreibst! In DEM Fall, hätten wir dir sowieso kaum helfen können, da deine Fragen wirklich GRUNDLEGENDE FRAGEN ZUM BUCH sind, nichts spezielles - und dazu meist noch nicht einmal schwer! Z.B.: die Frage: "Why is the character of Ben in the play?" Wer das Buch gelesen hat, der weiß doch, dass Ben von Willy in seiner Jugend nicht ernst genommen wurde - für den "großen Geschäftsmann" Willy war Ben doch nichts anderes als ein Streber - jedoch schafft es Ben - im Gegensatz zu Biff und Happy - es zu etwas zu bringen (immerhin "darf" er als Anwalt einen Fall vor dem Supreme Court behandeln - wenn ich mich richtig erinnere). Daraus lässt sich doch ziemlich einfach ein grundlegender Sinn für Bens Existenz im Stück ableiten.
Das alles lässt deine Hilfsanfrage nicht gerade "seriös" erscheinen. Es könnte leicht der Gedanke aufkommen, du suchest nicht "Nachhilfe" sondern "Abhilfe" bei deinen Aufgaben - und das wird Einige davor abschrecken, zu antworten!

Nichtsdestotrotz: Viel Glück bei deiner Klausur (und falls sie nicht morgen ist, dann kannst du ja mal deine Ansätze posten und bekommst sicherlich Erweiterungsvorschläge)
Gruß
MI

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Hallo, tut mir leid aber ich bin das erste Mal im Board.
Also zu Ben ist zu sagen, dass es Willys älterer Bruder ist. Er existiert nur in Gedanken Willys. Er hat es ebenfalls zu etwas gebracht. Für Willy ist er ein Berater. Es ist nicht der Sohn Bernard von Charly.

Natürlich habe ich mir Gedanken gemacht, ich will die Antworten mit meinen vergleichen.

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Für Frage 21 Why is Ben in the play?
habe ich folgende Antwort:
Miller uses Ben as a contrast to Willy and Ben plays the role of an adviser.
Ben is Willy´s brother, he was successful and represents the American Dream. He has died and only exists in Willy´s head, that is divided into past and present.
He serves Willy as a guide through his whole unseccessful life, an older brother who appears to Willy every time when he is most desperate. Willy turns to him for advice and at the end Ben supports Willy to commit suicide.

Ist das so korrekt?
Die anderen Antworten gebe ich auch noch ein.

Übrigens, die Klausur schreibe ich erst in 1 Woche.

Gruß Steibi

MI · Administrator Anmeldungsdatum: 22.01.2005 Beiträge: 1080 Wohnort: München

Wenn du noch Zeit hast, umso besser, dann können wir deine Dinge gemeinsam durchgehen (bei der ein oder anderen Sache weiß ich vielleicht auch nicht mehr gut genug Bescheid, da hilft dann sicherlich auch jemand anderes).

zu Ben (ich muss wohl gestern Abend schon etwas müde gewesen sein - ich verstehe nicht, wie ich darauf komme, dass Charly's Sohn Ben ist grübelnd

).
Ich schreib mal auf Englisch, dann üben wir weiter Augenzwinkern

:

Basically, I would agree with you. Ben is Willy's elder brother, who - unlike Willy - has been successful. This is also the most important point: He has been, what Willy wants to be - or else: he represents Willy's dreams (your reference to the American dream in this context is very good, however one should add that, for Willy like often in reality, this "dream" only consists in becoming rich and popular, which is a very incomplete, deluded picture of "success").

It is also correct that Ben does not live anymore and is now an "advisor" for Willy. Only some scenes, where Ben appears, can possibly have happened (i.e.: when Ben "appears" during the card-game with Charly, saying he would leave the US to make money in Africa).
As the "advisor" for Willy, who deeply admires his brother for his success, Ben appears often in those moments, where Willy is most desperate - this is also correct. Willy asks Ben for advice in parental issues, as well as when he thinks about committing suicide, because he himself fears to take a wrong decision (he is a "burdened" perhaps even "broken" man). However, he thinks that Ben can only take the right decisions as he was so successful and thus, he leaves the decisions to him. Thus I also think, we have a very good example of "illusions" in the play, here. Willy just feels stronger after a conversation with his imaginary brother, although Willy is really "creating" Ben's advice.

I guess, until soon:
MI

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Hello, you are right I´m here again.
Vielen Dank für die Hilfe, die ist sehr wichtig, da ich in Englisch nicht so gut bin und ich einfach besser werden will.
Für die Frage 4
Contrast the characters of Biff and Happy. Would they make a good team?
habe ich folgendes ausgearbeitet:
Biff: Willy´s favourite son, doesn´t live in a conformist manner, unsuccessful by lack of orientation (he lost his orientation by finding out that his father has an affair), a man without discipline, he is a go-getter,
he believes in what he says, he feels pity for his father and wants to do something but he can´t, he develops and grows up.

Happy: he is rejected by Willy, lives in a conformist manner like his mother, unsuccessful because he doesn´t take responsibility, he avoids confrontations, his motto of live is striving for pleasure, he is a dreamer like his father, he has an inferiority complex, he is a boaster and sees women as objects, he lies deliberately like Willy, he doesn´t feel pit for his father , he is uninterested in his father, he is an egoist, he doesn´t develop.

Summing up you can say that they would not make a good team because both are losers and they cannot support each other to make it. Happy calls Biff a poet and Biff doesn´t see Happy seriously. Happy keeps on dreaming the wrong dream and Biff develops and grows up
but Biff cannot help him and he couldn´t also help his father. He is too weak.

Ich gebe die Fragen nacheinander ein, für den besseren Überblick für mich.

Vielen Dank im voraus
Gruß Steibi Tanzen

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Frage 3 sieht bei mir wie folgt aus:
Why does Biff say he is mixed up? How much of it is his father´s fault?

Biff feels "mixed up" because he is confused, uncertain, as though he is wasting his life. This is Willy´s fault because Biff has to fulfill his father´s expectations, namely to be a star athlete in high school, well - liked, but education isn´t so important for Willy. He laughs at the neighbour´s son Bernard who doesn´t like sports and who is a book worm, but good at school. Bernard does Biff´s homework, Willy knows it. Also he doesn´t punish Biff for stealing a football from school, he lets him drive without a license. Biff idolizes his father and when he fails a math exam he believes that Willy can talk to his teacher, he can´t , he is together with the Woman, Biff catches them and he is schocked. After that he has realized that his father has an affair, Biff gives up on himself and on his father. Through that he refuses to grow up.

Ich hoffe, es geht in Ordnung mit meinen Eingaben so nach der Reihe.

Besten Dank im voraus

Gruß steibi grübelnd

steibi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.10.2006 Beiträge: 22 Wohnort: Ludwigshafen

Frage 5 What different things do Willy and Biff learn about themselves?

Willy learns the negative aspects of the American Dream like the benefits which only count or the lack of the values of a more human society.
He notices that the good old days are over when business was based on respect, comradeship and gratitude.
Regarding his favourite son he recognizes that he loves him (he cried!, he cried!) but he feels that he never will be a good father.

Biff learns that he is an ordinary man, just like everyone else. His wish is to confront the truth and knows step by step the importance of the individual. Furthermore he realizes thathe is the object of his father´s desire for success, that Willy projects all his dreams into him. But he develops and grows up in that form that he has to give up his father´s wrong dream.

So, die restlichen Fragen muss ich mir für Morgen vornehmen, ich habe noch ein paar Fächer für heute zu erledigen.

Danke und bis bald
steibi

Schläfer

MI · Administrator Anmeldungsdatum: 22.01.2005 Beiträge: 1080 Wohnort: München

Ich denke, dass mit den verschiedenen Posts für die verschiedenen Fragen ist schon in Ordnung. Der "Lesefluss" soll ja auch nach jeder Antwort kurz unterbrochen sein, und das wäre ja auch ein Megapost, wenn alles in einem wäre...

Zu allen Fragen kann ich heute nichts mehr sagen, aber für eine habe ich noch Zeit (morgen oder übermorgen dann mehr):

zu 4:
It is right what you say about Biff being the favourite son of Willy. It is also right that he lost his orientation when realizing that his father was "cheating on his wife" (not very formal expression though Augenzwinkern

). This is also the reason for his undisciplined behaviour. But does he reallly believe in his words? He is a man that is very unsure of himself, since his father, whom he had admired and loved, has disappointed him so much. In fact, Biff is the only one of the three (Happy, Willy and Biff), who is able to look at reality and see it as it is. And the moment he realizes that he is nothing special ("a dime to a dozen"), he tries to explain this to the other two - who don't want to hear this (final argument).
In fact, I see Biff as the counter-part to Willy. His idea of the American Dream is to buy a ranch somewhere in the countryside to work and live on it like he wants. Money and popularity, on the other hand, aren't worth very much in Biff's eyes. He alone has realized it and wants to share this with his brother and his father, whom (I believe) he still loves (read carefully the final argument between the two. I think it becomes clear that Biff, who has loved and admired his father in the past, has still some of his love hidden inside him).

Happy, on the other side, is very much like his father. His inferiority complex is the outcome of Willy's constant attention for Biff, who has a bit forgotten his other son, thus I believe that you are right. I also think that Happy (as I have already expressed) is somebody who doesn't see reality. But he tries to avoid it by building a perfectly fine world around him. He avoids conflicts, he doesn't take responsiblity for anything and he only dreams of happiness (I believe that his name was not given by chance!). He also has different feelings towards his father than Biff has, because Happy has only experienced indifference and not love. In addition to this, I believe that an insane father also doesn't fit in Happy's "perfect world", thus he cannot support his father like this.
So on the whole, I think your description includes the main facts.

I also think that your summary is not bad. It is quite right that the two of them have quite contradicting ideas of reality as well as success (which I think you should mention and describe more explicitly) and it is also right that Biff has not the strenght to really change his father or brother, but nevertheless, he tries to do so, because he loves them.

However, I would like to correct two rather serious English mistakes, I observed in your summary, as far as you permit me to do so Augenzwinkern

.
I think you must write "He doesn't TAKE Happy seriously" - I have never heard the expression you used, which doesn't mean that it does not exist, I am only a school boy. However, I am sure that it is incorrect to say "He couldn't also help his father". I would put the "also" at the end of the phrase, changing it into an "either" --> "He couldn't help his father, either".

More tomorrow (or wednesday) Schläfer

MI