猶太裔的美國劇作家亞瑟 · 米勒因其真實地揭露美國資本主義社會之下小人物的命運，其道德勇氣深受推崇。他的巨構《推銷員之死》確立了他在美國戲劇界的地位。到底一個小人物是否能成為悲劇人物一直是評論家主要的爭議，而少有專注於探討米勒的戲劇與他的猶太裔根源之間的關聯。本論文嘗試為米勒的猶太根源與其《推銷員之死》一劇中人物建構提供可能的關係性。為了明瞭米勒的人物建構，需仔細檢視米勒的家庭背景及當時社會氣氛，特別是1929年美國的經濟大蕭條的衝擊。

　　第一章將介紹米勒的生活及時代背景，我們發現米勒的猶太根源不僅影響其對藝術的看法；同時，他的人物塑造直接反應出猶太米勒的美國經驗。第二章將致力分析研究《推銷員之死》的主要人物，威利 · 羅門的人物塑造；我們發現這個人物依多人形象及事件塑成，包含了虛構與真實的人與事。第三章將分別闡述威利 · 羅門的家人，包括其妻玲達、與他的兩個兒子畢輔與快樂。第四章查里及其兒子伯納來自典型的猶太人形象。而班 · 羅門更是何瑞修 · 艾爾格傳奇的翻版，活盤托出猶太移民的美國夢。最後，我們可以說米勒的人物建構雖大量採用其個人的經驗及其對美國社會的觀察，但卻不失戲劇藝術普遍性的意義。

　　Arthur Miller, a Jewish –American playwright, has been honored as a moralist who is skilled in exposing the little man’s slice of life realistically in modern capitalistic America. No doubt, his masterpiece, Death of a Salesman, helps him to reach the pinnacle of his writing career. Most of the critics have tended to debate whether a small man is qualified to be a tragic hero or not, but they have paid less attention to the relationship between Miller’s plays and his Jewish origin. This thesis is intended to make a comprehensive study of Miller’s building of the characters in Death of a Salesman in the light of his Jewish family background and the influence of social environment, especially the impact of the Great Depression.

　　In Chapter One, I would like to introduce the author’s Jewish origin, which is a vivid impression of Miller’s Jewish -American experiences. In Chapter Two, I would like to discuss the building of the character, Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman who is molded on many models and events both real and unreal. In Chapter Three, I would like to discuss the building of the characters, Linda, Biff and Happy. In Chapter Four, the characterization of Charley and his son, Bernard, are patterned on the typical Jewish father and sons. As for Ben, he is depicted as the Jewish immigrant’s fulfillment of American dream as an incarnation of the rags-to-riches in Horatio Alger’s legend. Finally, I should like to point out that although Miller uses a great deal of personal experiences and observations to pattern his characters in Death of a Salesman, it does not lose its universal meaning for the audience.

Balakian, Jan. “Beyond the Male Locker Room: Death of a Salesman from a Feminist Perspective.” Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed.

Matthew C. Roudané. Ser. 52. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995. 115-24.

Bates, Barclay W. “The Last Past in Death of a Salesman.” Modern Drama 11 (1968): 164-72.

Baum, Charlotte, Paula Hyman, and Sonya Michel. The Jewish Women in America. New York: New American Library, 1976.

Bell, Arthur H. ed. American Literature: 1930 to the Present. New York: Barron’s, 1994.

Berkowitz, Gerald M. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. New York: Longman, 1994.

Bigsby, C. W. E. “Arthur Miller.” A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama 2: Tennessee Williams,

Arthur Miller, Edward Albee. (1984):173-86. Rpt. in Willy
Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 99-111.
---. “Death of a Salesman: In Memoriam.” A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama 2:

Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee.(1984).
Rpt. in Modern Critical Interpretations of Death of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1988. 113-28.
---. Introduction. The Cambridge Companion to Arthur

Miller. Ed. Christopher Bigsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1997. 1-9.
---. Modern American Drama: 1946-1990. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1987.
---.“ Time Traveller.” “The Salesman Has a Birthday”. Ed. Stephen A. Marino. New York: University Press of America, 2000. 1-18.

Blood, Harold. ed. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House Publisher. 1996.

Brown, John Mason. “Even as You and I.” Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 205-11.

Callow, Heather Cook. “Masculine and Feminine in Death of a Salesman.” “The Salesman Has a Birthday”. Ed. Stephen A. Marino. New York: University Press of America, 2000. 65-78.

Carlisle, Olga, and Rose Styron. “The Art of the Theatre Ⅱ: An Interview.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 85-111.

Centola, Steven R. “ “Condition of Tension” : Unity of Opposites as Dramatic Form and Vision in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.” “The Salesman Has a Birthday”. Ed. Stephen A. Marino. New York: University Press of America, 2000. 53-64.
---. “ “The Will to Live.” ” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 343-59.

Choudhuri, A. D. “Death of a Salesman: A Salesman’s Illusion.” The Face of Illusion in American Drama.(1979): 94-111. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 66-78.

Clurman, Harold. “The Success Dream on the American Stage.” Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 212-17.

Cohn, Ruby. “The Articulate Victims of Arthur Miller.” Dialogue in American Drama (1971): 70-79. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 50-7.

Cook, Kimberly K. “ Valentin and Biff: Each Unhappy in His Own Way?” Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 16 (1995): 47-52.

Cook, Larry W. “The Function of Ben and Dave Singleman in Death of a Salesman.” Notes on Contemporary Literature 5.1 (1975): 7-9.

Corrigan, Robert. “Arthur Miller: Interview.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 253-57.
---. Introduction: The Achievement of Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller: a Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Willoughby Corrigan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice House, 1969.1-22.

De Crévecoeur, John. “Letters from an American Farmer.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. 4th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1989. 657-84.

De Lange, Nicholas. Altas of the Jewish World. Ed. Graham Speake. New York: Facts on File, 1992.

Driver, Tom F. “Strength and Weakness in Arthur Miller.” Arthur Miller: a Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Willoughby Corrigan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice House, 1969. 59-67.

Dukore, Bernard F. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1989.

Evans, Richard I. “The Writer and Society.” Psychology and Arthur Miller. Ed. Richard I. Evans. New York: Praeger, 1981. 83-116.

Feron, James. “Miller in London to See Crucible.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané.

Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 83-4.
Freedman, Morris. “The Jewishness of Arthur Miller.” American Drama in Social Context. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1971. 43-58.

Gardner, R. H. “Tragedy of the Lowest Man.” Splintered Stage: The Decline of the American Theater. New York: Macmillan, 1965. 122-34. Rpt. in Contemporary Literature Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale,1973. 319-21.

Garland, Robert. “Audience Spellbouond by Prize Play of 1949.” Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 199-201.

Gelb, Philip, et al. “Morality and Modern Drama.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 35-51.

Glazar, Nathan, and Daniel P. Maynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot: the Negro, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City. Cambrige: M. I. T. Press, 1970.

Gordon, Lois. “Death of a Salesman: An Appreciation.” The Forties: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. Ed. Warren French. 1969.
Rpt. in Contemporary Literature Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 322-24.

Hadomi, Leah. “Fantasy and Reality: Dramatic Rhythm in Death of a Salesman.” Modern Drama 31.2 (1988): 157-74.

Hawthorn, Jeremy. “Sales and Solidarity.” Multiple Personality and the Disintegration of Literary Character: From Oliver Goldsmith to Sylvia Plath. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 90-8.

Hayman, Ronald. “Interview.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 187-99.

Hertzberg, Arthur. The Jews in America. New York: Columbia University, 1997.

Hoeveler, D. L. “Death of a Salesman as Psychomachia.” Journal of American Culture 1.3 (1978). Rpt. in Modern Critical Interpretations of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1988. 77-82.

Jackson, Esther Merle. “Death of a Salesman: Tragic Myth in the Modern Theatre.” CLA Journal 7.1 (1963). Modern Critical View of Arthur Miller. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 27-39.

Jacobi, Martin J. “The Dramatist as Salesman: A Rhetorical Analysis of Miller’s Intentions and Effects.” Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Ser. 52. New York: Modern Language Association of America. 1995. 63-73

Kintz, Linda. “The Sociosymbolic Work of Family in Death of a Salesman.” Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Ser. 52. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995. 103-14.

Levine, Peter. “ “Attention Must be Paid”: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.” “The Salesman Has a Birthday”. Ed. Stephen A. Marino. New York: University Press of America, 2000. 45-52.

Laungsberry, Barbara. “ “The Woods are Burning”: Expressionism in Death of a Salesman” Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Ser. 52. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995. 52-61.

Martin, Robert A. “ “All in a Boiling Soup.” ” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 291-306.
---. “The Creative Experience with Arthur Miller: An Interview.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 177-86.

Mason, Jeffery D. “Paper Dolls.” Feminist Rereadings of Modern American Drama. Rutherford: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 1989. 103-15.

Miller, Arthur. “Arthur Miller Talks Again.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 128-36.
---. Death of a Salesman. Rpt. in Arthur Miller’s Collected Plays. New York: Viking Press, 1981. 130-222.
---. Introduction. Arthur Miller’s Colleted Plays. New York: Viking Press, 1981. 3-55.
---. “The American Theater.” HolidayⅩⅤⅡ (January 1955), 90-104. Rpt. in Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 51-155.
---. “The Shadows of the Gods.” The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. Ed. Robert A. Martine. New York: Penguin, 1978. 175-94.
---. Timebends: A Life. London: Minerva, 1978.
Moss, Leonard. “ “The Absence of the Tension.” ” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 315-31.

Mottram, Eric. “Arthur Miller: Development of a Political Dramatist in America.” Arthur Miller: a Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Willoughby Corrigan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice House, 1969. 23-57.

Murphy, Brenda. “Personality Wins the Days: Death of a Salesman and Popular Sales Advice Literature.” South Atlantic Review 64.1 (1999): 1-10.
---. “The Tradition of Social Drama: Miller and His Forebears.” The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Ed. Christopher Bigsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 10-20.
---. “Willy Loman: Icon of Business Culture.” Michigan Quarterly Review 37.4 (1998): 755-66.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Death of a Salesman.” Michigan Quarterly Review 37.4 (1998): 612-14.

Överland, Orm. “ Action and Its Significance: Arthur Miller’s Struggle with Dramatic Form.” Modern Critical View of Arthur Miller. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 51-64.

Parker, Brian. “Point of View in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.” University of Toronto Quarterly 35.2 (1966). Rpt. in Modern Critical Interpretations of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1988. 25-38.

Phelps, H. C. “The Fat and Lean Years of Biff and Bernard: An Overlooked Parallelism in Death of a Salesman.” Notes on Contemporary Literature 25.4 (1995): 9-11.

Popkin, Henry. “Arthur Miller: The Strange Encounter.” Sewanee Review 68:1 (1960): 48-54. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 10-13.

Porter, Thomas. “Acres of Diamonds.” Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Ed. James J. Martine. Massachusetts: G. K. Hall & Co., 1979. 24-43.

Ross, George. “Death of Salesman in the Origin.” Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 259-64.

Roudané, Matthew C. “An Interview with Arthur Miller.” Conversations withArthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 360-75.
---. “Death of a Salesman and the Poetics of Arthur Miller." The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Ed. Christopher Bigsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 60-85.

Schlueter, June. “Re-membering Willy’s Past: Introducing Postmodern Concerns through Death of a Salesman.” Approaches to Teaching Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Ser. 52. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995. 143-54.

Schumach, Muuray. “Arthur Miller Grew in Brooklyn.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 6-8.

Shaw, Patrick W. “The Ironic Characterization of Bernard in Death of a Salesman.” Note on Contemporary Literature 11.3 (1981):12.

Silberman, Charles E. The Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today. New York: Summit Books, 1985.

Spaulding, Peter, ed. Death of a Salesman. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989.

Spindler, Michael. American Literature and Social Change: William Dean Howells to Arthur Miller. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983.

Stanton, Kay. “Women and the American Dream of Death of a Salesman.” Feminist Rereadings of Mosern American Drama. Ed. Jane Schlueter. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP. (1989): 67-102. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 129-56.

Sylvester, Robert. “Brooklyn Boy Makes Good.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 9-18.

Vogel, Dan. “Wiily Tyrannos.” The Three Masks of American Tragedy. (1974): 91-102. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 58-65.

Wager, Walter. “Arthur Miller.” Conversations with Arthur Miller. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1987. 137-51.

Walden, Daniel. “Miller’s Roots and His Moral Dilemma: or, Continuity from Brooklyn to Salesman.” Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Ed. James J. Martine. Massachusetts: G. K. Hall & Co., 1979. 189-96.

Weales, Gerald. “Arthur Miller: Man and His Image.” American Drama Since World War Ⅱ. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. (1962), 3-17. Rpt. in Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Weales. New York: Viking Press, 1977. 350-66.

Williams, Liza McAlister, ed. Barron’s Book Notes:Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. New York: Barron’s, 1984.

Williams, Raymond. “Arthur Miller: An Overview.” Modern Critical Wiew of Arthur Miller. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 7-16.

Wilson, Robert N. “The Salesman and Society.” The Writer as Social Seer. (1979): 57-71. Rpt. in Willy Loman . Ed.

Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1991. 79-
89.

Wong, Ya-Yin. “The Shifting Images of Women in Arthur Miller’s Plays.” M.A. Thesis. Providence U, 1994

Irving Home著 王海良等譯 父輩的世界 上海市：學林出版社，1995