death of a sales man

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By Daniel Smart 1

Y10LP English Essay

How does Miller’s portrayal of the past in the dramatic structure of ‘Death of a Salesman’ enrich the audience’s understanding of the character of Willy Loman?

In the play, ‘Death of a Salesman’ the past is as relevant and important as the present.  Arthur Miller uses the past to help us understand Willy Loman as a character and why and how he got into his present situation.  Also to help us understand his development and personality change through his experiences.  This is quite an unusual and interesting concept but not quite so as the way Miller changes from past to present.  ‘Surrounding become covered with leaves.’  He does this by having Willy talk to himself, the lights changing, the scene adapting and a flute playing softly in the background.  Some versions of the play may start the scene at one half of the stage and move them to the other side.  This shows that we are moving from present to past or past to present, changing era/tense.  ‘Music insinuates itself.’  The flute relates to Willy’s father who made flutes, sold them and earned enough from this to look after his family.  This is significant because the flute shows going into the past and Willy’s father is part of Willy’s past, but at the same time it is ironic because Willy’s father was everything that Willy isn’t – a successful businessman.

The structure of the play resembles a stream of consciousness account, with a number of different situations happening at the same time.  This makes it hard to fit any past along with the present.  Miller achieves this by discussing one subject in the present then one in the past – relating to the present situation. Thus the structure’s pattern is present/past/present, etc.  This is unusual compared to other plays, books and stories in which they have all their present together in one section and all their past in another section – usually starting with the past.

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Act One, pages 15-21 is the initial time that you as the reader/audience experience Miller’s going into the past, and begin to understand from the written play how it is performed and grasp the effect of the stage change.  The characters involved are ‘Biff’, Willy’s first-born, or so the play suggests, ‘Happy’, Biff’s younger brother and ‘Willy’. It is set about twenty years ago.  Outside, Happy and Biff are simonising Willy’s expensive red Chevrolet. This is slightly confusing the first time you read

By Daniel Smart 2

this because you already gather from the conversation about profit, ...

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