PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Arthur Miller

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Arthur Miller¹
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Sunday, March 06, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Arthur Miller. Many theater critics believe he was one of the greatest American playwrights³ of the twentieth century.

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VOICE ONE:

Several plays by Arthur Miller will probably be performed for many years to come. That is because critics say Miller was able to dramatize the emotional pain that average people suffer in their daily lives.

A critic once described Miller as an activist⁵ for the common man. He demonstrates this well in one of his most famous plays, "Death of a Salesman." The main character is a man whose dreams of success in business have died.

But Miller's interest in the average man did not stop him from exploring major problems of society. In "The Crucible⁶", for example, he shows what happens when unreasonable⁷ dislike and fear cause people to accuse innocent people of horrible crimes.

Some other of his best-known plays include "All My Sons", "A View from the Bridge" and "After the Fall."

VOICE TWO:

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in nineteen fifteen. He died in two thousand five at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. For sixty years, he created one dramatic work after another. Miller won many awards for his plays. Among them were a Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics' Circle prizes and Tony awards. In nineteen eighty-four, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. honored him for his lifetime work in drama.

VOICE TWO (CONT):

Miller also created stories for movies. For example, he wrote "The Misfits" for actress Marilyn Monroe. Miller's television drama, "Playing for Time", told of an orchestra of prisoners at the Nazi⁸ death camp, Auschwitz, during World War Two. Miller was also a political activist for human rights. But it was drama performed in the theater that Miller loved most.

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VOICE ONE:

Arthur Miller grew up in New York. His father, Isidore Miller, manufactured clothing and operated a store. But the father lost his money in the great economic Depression in the nineteen thirties. The family had to move from a costly⁹ apartment in Manhattan to a small house in Brooklyn.

During the Depression, Arthur worked at many jobs to earn money for college. In nineteen thirty-four, he began studying English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor¹⁰. Miller won an award for writing plays while at school.

VOICE TWO:

Miller returned home to New York after completing his studies. He married his college girlfriend, Mary Slattery. They had two children before later ending their marriage.

In nineteen forty-four, Arthur Miller's first major play was performed on Broadway. It was called "The Man Who Had All the Luck." However, the play did not bring him good luck. It had only four performances. But his second Broadway play, "All My Sons", was a major success It won several awards in nineteen forty-seven.

"All My Sons" tells of a manufacturer who produces faulty parts for airplanes used in World War Two. One of his sons dies as the result of the father's crime. In the play, Miller examines the relationship between the pressure to succeed and personal responsibility.

VOICE ONE:

Miller's great play, "Death of a Salesman", opened on Broadway in nineteen forty-nine. He was thirty-three years old when he wrote it. "Death of a Salesman" questions the pressures in American society for people to gain financial success. The play also continues his exploration of the relationships between fathers and sons.

The central character in "Death of a Salesman" is sixty-year-old Willy Loman. The action opens on the last day of Willy's life. He has been dismissed from his job as a traveling salesman. He also recognizes that he has failed as a father. Willy thinks about killing¹¹ himself.

Willy's wife Linda understands that he is deeply and dangerously sad. But their son Biff criticizes his father's strange actions. She answers with some of the most famous words in the American theater:

((CUT ONE: DEATH OF A SALESMAN IN SPECIAL ENGLISH))

LINDA: "I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the papers. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person. You called him crazy…"

BIFF:"I didn't mean…"

LINDA:"No, a lot of people think he's lost his – balance. But you don't have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted¹²."

VOICE TWO:

Linda knows that Willy is extremely tired. He is tired of living. He kills himself before the play is over. Linda talks to Willy at his burial place:

((CUT TWO: DEATH OF A SALESMAN IN SPECIAL ENGLISH))

"I search and search and I search, and I can't understand it. Willy, I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there'll be nobody home…"

VOICE ONE:

"Death of a Salesman" had a big influence on the American public. Many people saw their own lives in Willy Loman, the victim of broken dreams. Americans discussed the financial worries of businessmen who were getting old. But Americans were not the only ones who identified with the ideas in the play. It has been translated into about thirty languages and performed around the world.

VOICE TWO:

Arthur Miller's criticisms of modern American life influenced another of his most important works. "The Crucible" was first produced in nineteen fifty-three. The nineteen fifties were a time of extreme fear of Communism in the United States. Sometimes this fear was unreasonable.

Miller examined this difficult period in American history by setting his play at another difficult time. "The Crucible" takes place in the seventeenth century. He based his play on trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Young women in the play accuse people they dislike of being evil witches. The innocent victims are put on trial and executed. The story shows the tragic¹³ results of uncontrolled suspicion and fear. "The Crucible" has been produced more than any of Miller's plays, both in America and around the world.

VOICE ONE:

Like the victims in "The Crucible," the playwright² himself became the object of suspicion. In nineteen fifty-six, a committee of the United States Congress ordered him to give evidence. In the nineteen forties, he had attended several meetings for writers organized by the Communist Party. The Congressional committee wanted the names of other people who attended Communist meetings.

Arthur Miller said he was not a Communist. But he would not give the committee any names. He was found guilty of disobeying Congress. Later, however, a court canceled that judgment¹⁴. Miller was lucky. Some people who would not answer questions before Congress served time in prison.

VOICE TWO:

Something else lucky happened to the playwright in nineteen fifty-six. Miller married the beautiful Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. But their marriage was troubled. Monroe had emotional problems. They had little privacy because the media followed the famous couple everywhere.

Miller wrote the nineteen sixty-one movie "The Misfits" for his wife. The movie explored the modern Wild West through the lives of three troubled people. Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe ended their marriage soon after the movie was completed. A year later, Monroe died of a drug overdose.

Miller wrote another play, "After the Fall," in nineteen sixty-four. Critics said it was the play most about his own life. They criticized him for portraying¹⁵ the wife of the main character as a woman who is dependent on drugs and kills herself. They said the character was based on Marilyn Monroe. But Miller denied this.

VOICE ONE:

Miller married for a third time in nineteen sixty-two. He and his wife Inge Morath, a well-known photographer, had one daughter. Morath died in two thousand two. Miller once said that even after he and Inge had been married almost forty years, people still asked him about Marilyn Monroe.

VOICE TWO:

Arthur Miller also wrote short stories and a book about his life called "Timebends: A Life." He once wrote that when he was young he imagined that with the possible exception of a doctor saving a life, "writing a worthy¹⁶ play was the most important thing a human being could do." Theater owners on Broadway agreed. On the day after he died, the lights of Broadway theaters darkened for a minute in honor of Arthur Miller.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt were the characters from "Death of a Salesman." Join us again for next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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1 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

2 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

3 playwrights   

n.剧作家( playwright的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We're studying dramatic texts by sixteenth century playwrights. 我们正在研究16 世纪戏剧作家的戏剧文本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hung-chien asked who the playwrights were. 鸿渐问谁写的剧本。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

4 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 crucible   

n.坩锅，严酷的考验

参考例句：

• The alliance had been forged in the crucible of war.这个联盟经受了战争的严峻考验。
• Put the required amount of metal into the crucible.把适量的金属放入坩埚。

7 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。

8 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

13 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

14 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

15 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

16 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。