Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller
Dreams
Isolation
Loss
Failures
Identity
Falsehood
Being Trapped
Denial
False Hope
Regret
“An air of the dream clings to the place, a
dream rising out of reality.” Act One Willy Loman
“The way they boxed us in here”/ "They've boxed in the whole goddam neighbourhood" 1.6/ Act 2 Willy Loman
“I don’t want a chance”- to Linda
then- Your not worried about me,
are you sweetheart?” 1.6/7 Willy Loman
“I’m telling you, I forgot I was driving" 1.3 Willy Loman
"I’m vital in New England” 1.4 Willy Loman
“The trouble is he’s lazy” 1.5 Willy Loman
“Lotta dreams and plans” 1.pg9 Billy Loman
“He said Biff, come to me” 1.pg14 Billy Loman
“I’d like to find a girl” 1.pg13 Billy Loman
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'I am building something with this firm'
"maybe we could buy a ranch"
American dream influenced by western movies --> Billy and Happy have their father’s optimism about America, as well as his tendency to create unrealistic expectations.
"The world is an oyster but you don't crack it open on a mattress" 2. Willy Loman
Metaphor indicates Willy’s perception that there are lots of opportunities which you get through hard work; I.e. not by sleeping --> The world is a closed shell that need a lotta work to get it open
"You can't eat the orange and the peel away- a man is not a piece of fruit" Act 2 Willy Loman
Willy is reacting to be cast aside by the company he has served for years. Ironic because you do throw skin away, just as he is now useless to company.
"Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground" Act 2 Willy Loman
Metaphor: ties in with nature/business dichotomy. Willy refers to future plans and savings; he has no back up plan.
Metaphor suggests that possibilities are curbed in this society. Willy can’t do anything and isn’t progressing unlike his surroundings.
Willy's frustration at feeling trapped in his own home only shortly before his suicide reflects his profound desire for freedom and escape. Does his suicide provide that escape, or is it just the biggest trap of all?
"Yeah, like being a million miles from the city." Act 1 Linda Loman
Linda and Willy's reflections reveal their craving for escape from their urban neighborhood. Urbanization and commercialism are linked to ideas of confinement.
Whereas the first act is full of dreams and expectations, the second one is full of truths and reckonings → the first act in building up the idea of success which is so dear to Willy and the second act showing it being destroyed.
"Why didn’t I go to Alaska with my brother Ben that time! Ben! " Act 1 Willy Loman
Willy feels trapped in his life of financial struggle in New York and longs for escape. He assumes that escape from the city will also mean escape from his current failures at work.
"But he's only a little boat looking fro a Harbour" Act 2 Linda Loman
Metaphor for Willy; comparison to small boat in stormy seas; he is distressed and in serious trouble looking for safety.
loss of any fixed identity. In a sense, the exploded house, with its transparent walls, its scrims and curtains is an objective correlative (a concrete, practical, tangible image) for an exploding consciousness, in which spatial and temporal fragments get intertwined.
the stockings = the double meaning of self indulgence or household drudgery
Stockings were, at the time, highly prized and difficult to obtain, hence they represent a genuine concern for a woman. To give them to someone else implies a lack of regard for Linda
Biff is particularly moved by the fact that Willy gives his mother's stockings to his lover.
tape recorder → shrieking, unpleasant tones of a child recounting meaningless phrases
how awful it is for Willy to have to live with an accurate account of the past such as this. This is a vivid expression of his unconscious desire to repress the accurate facts.
The flute is reminiscent of Willy's father and his relatively carefree existence
At one point, as Willy begins to move from contemplating the present to evoking the past →, his vision gradually becomes fixed on a point off-stage to indicate this.
realist and Expressionist styles
Arthur Miller resorts to theatrical techniques that enable us to have a privileged glimpse into his mind
Past creates a montage effect and enables us to see how Willy's mind is connecting ideas. When, for example, he discovers that Biff has walked off with Bill Oliver's pen, thereby ruining any chance of clinching a business deal with him, Willy hears sounds from the Boston hotel where Biff found him with another woman:
BIFF: I never intended to do it. Dad! OPERATOR'S VOICE: Standish Arms, good evening! WILLY [shouting]: I'm not in my room! (p. )
Willy has earned the respect that has been paid to him but he is not clear-sighted and does labor under delusions → Willy Loman is sometimes full of contradictions, overly ambitious, blind to his vanities and unsympathetic towards those who love him. At other times, however, he is courageous, determined to the point of fanaticism, and almost a martyr to his family. It is this combination of seemingly incompatible qualities that makes Willy Loman a realistic and fascinating character
'I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!'
Arthur Miller's own position is that he is neither blaming society alone, nor presenting a pathetic character who is the author of his own misfortunes. The play, according to Arthur Miller, offers something between these two extremes - it is a study of how man and society interrelate;
Characters speak as American people of this era actually did (long, articulate speeches about their innermost motives)
These two factors help to make us believe that we are watching something that corresponds with reality. At times, this can make the dialogue almost banal
In the Requiem, a poignant scene, Charley says of Willy, 'He was a happyman with a batch of cement'.
At such an emotional time, his might seem an inappropriate remark, yet ordinary people do not speak in poetic language.
Setting
There are references to actual historical characters, such as Red Grange. Willy, for example, buys a punch bag for the boys with Gene Tunney's autograph on it. Funney was a world-standard boxer, famous at the time. The scene changes are subtle and attention is not drawn to them
he only moment in the play where there is a breach of the 'fourth wall' separating audience from player is when Willy looks towards the audience as if they were the people in the stands at Biff's football game. This can have the dramatic effect of accentuating his breakdown, but its impact is much greater because it is so unexpected. It does not destroy the overall illusion
confuse time zones→ switching of time is to allow us to see Willy's statements in an ironic light.: Willy returns in his thoughts to a discussion with Ben when he decided quite firmly not to go to Alaska → The cruel irony, of course, is that we have just seen all that he built destroyed
Past and Present
Miller’s aim in Death of a Salesman is to erase any gap between a remembered past – that would be evoked through words – and a present that would be performed on stage. In Death of a Salesman both past and present are given theatrical representation.
Hallucinations
Double exposure--> The action unfolds simultaneously in the past and in the present, through Willy’s split consciousness. The effect is achieved through a montage dialogue.
[34-36] The card game scene in stichomythic dialogue. It prepares the shift into the past. As soon as Charley leaves, we enter the past: “through the wall line of the kitchen”.
Spectators do not lose sight of the present context but are made to understand that suddenly Willy has lapsed into a mental vision and therefore cut himself off from his immediate environment.
(64] in Howard Wagner’s office, Willy stares at the empty seat and addresses Frank, who is of course absent, long dead and gone…
Subjective characterization
Willy spends most of his time on stage, in a continuous flow of words. He engages in conversations with characters who, like his sons or Charley, belong to his real, immediate environment. But he also discusses with figures who surge up from the inner world of his consciousness
Ben represents an ideal figure that stands closer to reality. In Willy’s consciousness, Ben bridges the gap between the realm of fancy and the reality level. toughness, unscrupulousness and implacability in the pursuit of gain
Willy’s father is part mythic, part allegorical figure that belongs to his very earliest and vaguest childhood recollections: he is a fantasized image, a romanticized Father figure, or the paradigmatic embodiment of the heroic pioneer.