Warm-up (课前准备)：

1) Shakespeare’s tragedies are heroic. The characters are nobles and other people with high social status. However, what about the ordinary people?

2) Do you think the tragedies of common people will be as shocking as the nobles?

An Overview (本章概览)：

This play is written by Arthur Miller, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights. Arthur Miller explores the grave questions of conscience, the torments and tragedies of ordinary men and women striving for dignity, respect, security in an increasingly industrialized and impersonal world.

Death of a Salesman is Miller’s most critically acclaimed work which portrays the tragic story of the emotional collapse of Willy Loman, an aging salesman, husband and father who has come to symbolize the American Dream gone away. He finally committed suicide hoping that the insurance money can be the start money for his son to open a business.

Objectives (学习目标)：

Through textual analysis and learning, the students should

1) Get the plot of the story

2) Grasp the theme and the historical significance of the text

3) Acquire new words

4) Recite the text

Knowledge Structure (知识结构):

In this unit, we will analyze part of the text of Death of a Salesman. Summarize the characteristic of Willy and dig into the inherent meaning of this play.

The text can be roughly divided into three parts.

I. Making the decision of suicide

II. Arguing with his son and reconfirming his suicide decision

III. Committing suicide