“GRIEF AND RESILIENCE LIVE TOGETHER”: AN ASSESSMENT OF ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Philomena Ama Okyeso Yeboah (Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.)
Paul Otoo (Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana)
James Gyimah Manu (Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana)
Philip Kwame Freitas (Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana)

Jurnal Celtic
Vol. 9 No. 2 (2022): December 2022

The present study was carried out to assess Mrs. Obama’s assertion, “grief and resilience live together”, in Miller’s tragedy, Death of a Salesman, from the theoretical perspectives of Marxism and Psychoanalysis. Using a qualitative content analysis, the paper finds that even though the protagonist meets his tragic end through his sufferings and disillusion, he displays unparalleled courage, resilience and optimism, as a common man, in a battle with the capitalist society. The paper affirms the afore-said statement and limns the defects of capitalism and its consequences on its victims – more so their psyche and mental state. With this paper, the researchers seek to expose the ills of capitalism and its devastating effects on the working-class members of the society.