Why does Arthur Miller use time lapses in his play and what is he trying to tell us about Willy Loman by using them?

I am writing this essay on the subject of Arthur Millers play, “Death of a Salesman”. I shall be analysing the play, and looking into what Arthur Miller is trying to tell us about the protagonist by using time lapses in his story. I will be investigating the way in which Miller uses these time lapses to illustrate the lifestyle of Willy Loman and I shall look into when, where and why this reminiscence is used and what its importance is in the play.

The play by Arthur Miller is set in New York and shortly after the disaster of the great depression which began on October 29th 1929. I believe it is intended to show a struggling salesman in the mid-1940’s, attempting to bring up a family and live a stable life in an economically unstable America. The great depression was a huge crash in the American stock market and caused poverty and un-employment for millions of people across the country. The period in time in which the play is set was often dubbed- “the economic recovery of America” and the play merely demonstrates a struggling life during this time.

Time lapses are a part of the play which are of great significance as they bring a lot of very deep meaning to the story which is would be otherwise difficult to represent. Towards the end of the play the weakness in Willy Loman’s character is revealed to its full extent when he has suicidal tendencies but he cannot commit it on his own and is forced to seek support from someone else. He decides to talk to his older brother, Ben, about the problem as he is the only person that Willy has ever looked up to or seeked advice from but is faced with the problem that Ben is dead and has been for years. Willy knows this, but as Ben is the only person that Willy is prepared to talk to, as he has too much pride to seek help in the real world, he resorts to talking to a fictional imagination of Ben in his head. Ben of course is just a figment of Willy’s imagination and a sort of recollection of when Ben was alive but therefore he tells Willy exactly what he wants to hear as Willy is making him up. This does Willy more bad than good, but tells us, the audience interesting information about Willy. The scene shows that although Willy may play the big, strong, and independent business figure to the public he actually is a small man on the inside and he needs help to do a lot of things and even things that are supposedly self-less acts such as suicide. The most significant thing about this time-lapse, is that because of Willy’s pride he cannot ask real people for help and results in him creating fictional characters for support.

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Willy Loman is the protagonist in the play and lives a life of lies, deceit, and often boasts of untrue happenings in his work. The lies of his work can be shown near the start of the play, when boasting to his sons about being liked and respected in the business world, Willy says, “You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer, ‘Willy Loman is here!’ that’s all they have to know, and I go right through.” This is a big lie, and shows that Willy wants his sons to look up to and aspire to his standard of business, as fake as it may be, he just wants respect. Willy had always wanted to be successful, but now in his 60’s, is far from his peak. He still wishes to be that great business man he dreams to be but is to engrossed in his dream to realise that it’s too late. He also has a very altering character where he often creates fake illusions and can only pleasure himself by recollecting of old happenings in his mind just to uphold his sanity. He is also prone to contridicting himself for no apparent reason. An example of this is when Willy states, “Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built.” And shortly afterwards says, “That goddam Chevrolet, they out to prohibit the manufacture of that car!” This shows that Willy is unsure of himself and that he possibly has more than one personality. Symbolism is also used to illustrate the weakness in Willy’s character and can be found in many places in the play. A Good example of this would be at the very start of the play when the house of the Loman’s is described as towered over by tall buildings. This, although the audience will not yet be aware of it, represents the small and unsuccessful man that Willy loman is, compared to the rest of the world and shows the way in which he is just a small man attempting to live a big life. Finally I would say that Willy does not live in reality, but instead in his dreams and merely prides himself on what he is pretending to be.

In conclusion I will say that the play has many meanings and the reflection and analysis of the play requires careful thought and consideration of all the structural layers. I do believe that Miller has tried to mould the audience reaction to the character of Willy Loman in many ways and has tried to create a balanced mix of sympathy and repulsion towards him. He wants the audience to be unsure and varying in there feelings towards the character throughout most of the play so that he is able to give the audience a larger picture of Willy and his life. This picture is built up in layers of many different sides to the character including selfish acts, selfless acts and many different recollections. It is almost only until the play if finished that you are able to make total sense of Willy’s character and be clear on exactly what you feel towards him. In my opinion Miller has created the play in this way so that Willy’s motives in life, and his son’s’ aspirations keep the viewers immersed in the storyline right through to the end when the desperate Willy decides that to take his own life would be best for everyone. In my opinion, Sub – conceously Willy knows that the only person his death is good for is himself, but his life has been such a huge lie, that by that point in the play he almost has to much self pride to even admit it to himself and he dies believing it is for his sons. The play bases itself on the American dream and reality, two separate things for Willy, and shows how a normal man is only able to live the American dream in his mind whilst creating nothing for himself in reality. The character of Willy Loman is based on the ‘tragic hero’ which decended from Shakespeare and much earlier plays. This means that he is a character with a fatal flaw which leads him to death, in this case Willy’s passion to be respected and successful and the way in which he is never, throughout the whole play able to face reality.

By Dan Swift