Reader-Response Criticism In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller
Introduction
When reading a play, it is fundamental to pay attention to details within the play for a script envisioned in more than one way. Moreover, discovering those critical items found in the play is important in helping one criticize the play correctly since; a critic is able to see the quality and mistakes found in the play. Likewise, the critic is also able to see valuable and critical things missed by the reader since as critics they looked at different functions within the play. With that said, this paper is going to explore two critical approaches seen in “Death of a Salesman” a play written by Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005). Those critical approaches are Reader-Response Criticism and Psychological (psychoanalytic) criticism.
Reader-Response Criticism is as important as the author is since; readers are active participants in literary works and has his or her own opinion, understanding and image of the work read. Even though the interpretation may look similar from one person to another, nonetheless, there will always be a slight difference in how it is perceived. According to Barnet, Burto, and Cain (2011), readers are to give a response that cannot be compared to the real life. “At one extreme are those who say that our response to a work of literature should be purely aesthetic- a response to a work of art-and not the response we would have to something comparable in real life” (p. 1745). Moreover, it is also important for readers to keep in mind that the
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