Light is not used to the same extent but on certain occasions, for example right in the beginning “an angry glow of orange” already gives a good idea of how the mood of the play will be before it actually starts. The use of non-realistic staging is a very important element of the play it is a good method of indicating to the audience what takes place in present and what is just a flashback into Willy’s past. On the stage the audience has to imagine wall-lines when action takes place in the present but whenever it skips back into the past these wall-lines are ignored and the characters can practically walk through them. From this can be derived that staging is mainly used to differentiate between present and past and in addition this makes evident how the mood differs during these two different times.
How does Arthur Miller achieve the blending of present reality with dreams of the past and with what success?
The protagonist of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman repeatedly has flashbacks into the past as his situation in the present reality worsens day by day. Miller used several techniques to make these two plains flow into each other rather smoothly. Not only through the staging which includes music, lighting and the non-realistic, Miller creates a smooth transition. He also uses the characters surrounding Willy Loman in order to slowly display how he fades from the present reality into his dreams or flashbacks, and several times these two cross in Willy’s mind. The staging also plays an important part in this blending, certain melodies are played for the different dreams or flashbacks he has and whenever he goes back into his past the imaginary wall-lines no longer apply and characters can walk through them. Several times, Willy flashes back during a conversation with one or more other characters, which of course creates much confusion. In some other scenes though, Willy goes back completely and does not realize what happens around him in the present reality. In these cases the audience finds themselves completely back in the past and even the staging changes. Miller is very successful in achieving the blending of present reality and Willy’s flashbacks of the past. Not only making good use of the staging such as music, lighting and the idea of the non-realistic staging but also makes use of other characters and their view of everything. In addition, the audience can observe two kinds of flashbacks, ones where present and past get mixed up and ones where Willy goes back into the past completely and therefore even the staging changes completely.
C. Summary
Write a plot summary of Act I
Willy Loman returns home from one of his business trips as a salesman. He seems rather exhausted and as he talks to his wife Linda he also seems confused. He drifts of into the past when his son Biff was very successful with playing football, this changed at a certain point in the past, the reason for this we get to know later in the play. The next morning his two sons Biff and Happy have also come home to visit and as they wake up they arguing on what is wrong with their father. Then they talk about Biff’s success in the business world and they come up with the idea to set up a retailing business. Biff plans to see an old boss of his in order to get the needed money. When they tell their father everything seems very optimistic.
Write a plot summary of Act II
Biff and Happy are supposed to meet their father in a restaurant after Biff has seen his old boss. We find out that Biff has failed in getting the credit as his old boss did not even want to talk to him. Willy meanwhile sees his boss to ask for a position in New York City but he practically gets fired. When Willy arrives to the restaurant he is haunted by flashbacks. While Biff tries to tell him what happened with his boss we find out why Biff gave up his success in the past. When Biff had failed math, he drove up to Boston to see Willy one day and he caught him with a woman that time. Back in the reality Biff and Happy leave Willy in his day-dreams at the restaurant. When they come back home their mother Linda angrily tries to throw them out of the house. Biff wants to talk to his father though and tries to talk him out of his misery. Willy though is caught in his mind and when everyone goes to sleep he takes the car and drives into the next tree.
D. Character Descriptions
Willy Loman
Willy Loman is the protagonist of the story and as it is typical for a tragic hero he does not achieve self-realization. He is in his sixties, loosing his grip on reality in the course of the play and eventually ends his life as a salesman by committing suicide. He worked for the same company for about forty years and still works as a salesman on the road. His family has of course realized that his career hasn’t been successful. He himself though is disillusioned and cannot accept it. In course of the play he gets confronted with the fact that he will never be successful in material terms and any he doesn’t see or doesn’t want to see any other plain he is successful in, for example in being a father to his sons Biff and Happy and a husband to his wife Linda. In retrospect he cannot live up to the expectations that he set himself based on the success of his brother. He also cheats on his wife on one of his business trips distorting the relation to his son Biff, who walks in on them.
Linda
Linda is Willy Loman’s wife; she unlike him is loyal and loving to him. She suffers very much under Willy’s problems, suicide attempts and his bad relation to their son Biff. Her character is very strong and she stays by Willy’s side and supports until and even after his death. She still spreads certain toughness and seems the most realistic.
Biff
Biff is Willy’s 34 year old son and therefore the older one of the two. He follows up on his father’s path up to a certain point. He took up Willy’s idea of success and tries to be successful in his father’s eyes. At a certain point though he frees himself from this and confronts and accepts the miserable reality about his and Willy’s lives. He realizes that he is not made for business but wants to work with his hands. A major turning point in this was when he caught his father with another woman. This destroyed all he believed in and he gave up university. He also tries to pass his newly made philosophy back on to his father but instead of considering it, Willy commits suicide.
Happy
Happy is Willy’s 32 year old younger son. His relation his older brother, Biff, seems very good as Biff showed him many things for example how to flirt with girls. Happy seems very superficial and even though he repeats several times that he wants to marry soon, he is a ladies man. He is rather little involved with his family because he always lived in the shadow of Biff. Working as an assistant in a department store, he regards himself as important and only waits for his boss to die in order to step up.
Bernard
Bernard is Charley’s son and a very successful lawyer. In the flashback’s Willy mocks Bernard because he studies hard while his sons are popular in High School. Bernard is still wanting be in good terms with Biff and Happy especially as he regards Biff as his hero. When Willy talks to Bernard in soon becomes very clear how successful Bernard now is, which is very hard for Willy to accept.
Charley
Charley is Willy’s neighbor and gives him money to pay his bills. He owns a successful business and his son, Bernard, as well is successful as a lawyer. Even though Willy seems jealous of Charley’s success he regards Charley as his only friend.
Uncle Ben
Uncle Ben is Willy’s wealthy older brother, who has died recently. He appears several times throughout the play but only in terms of the flashbacks. For Willy Ben is everything he wants to achieve, a complete success. Ben though, is displayed as a very ruthless character.
Howard Wagner
Howard Wagner is Willy’s boss, who inherited the company from his father. Willy sees him to get another job but Howard treats him with disrespect and at last fires him regardless of allegation of having given Howard his name at his birth.
E. Essays
All the principle character in the play are trying to understand what is driving Willy to suicide. What is your understanding of this?
Usually suicide is the last measure a human being would take when he or she sees no way out of a situation. Willy Loman, the protagonist of the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, appears to be attempting suicide several times before he succeeds at the end of the play. His family does not seem to understand what is driving him into suicide until very late, as there seem to be several reasons.
Behind the word success Willy Loman does not seem to see anything more than material possession. Self-fulfillment is nothing else than earning a lot of money to provide a good standard of living for one’s family. This ironically is Willy’s ideology, even though he is a salesman with a low salary who can barely pay the upcoming installments. Willy’s view of the world is based to a large extent based on two men. His brother Ben, who made a fortune by finding diamonds in the jungle, and an old salesman called David Singleman, the salesman he aspires to become. Willy desperately tries to believe that he is a success, something he always tried to tell his sons. But of course at the age of sixty-three, near retirement, he has to realize that he cannot achieve what he was longing for. He starts going back into his past and seeing his brother Ben, who he thinks has all the answers. His life lies in ruins in front of him and he starts realizing that according to his ideology he is a failure.
Materialistic things are everything that count for him is how it seems. Therefore he cannot see what he has in his wife and two sons, who stand behind him by the end of the play. The idea that his life insurance money could help his son to set up his business prevails for him. He had always wanted his sons, especially Biff, the elder one of them, to be successes. At the age of thirty-four, though, Biff has still not settled down, as he wants to be a success in the eyes of his father but on the other hand realizes that he is best at working with his hands. This of course would mean not making much money but would probably give him a feeling of self-fulfillment. By the end of the play Biff realizes exactly this but is not able to make Willy drop his views. These views prevent Willy from doing what he also shows talent in, which is construction working. Only materialistic things are what count in a man’s life.
As Willy slowly seems to comprehend how much he failed, according to his narrowed views, a process begins in him, which many of the other characters would describe as confusion. It is much more than that, though, he looses his touch with reality and gives up his will to live. On his long journeys in his car he deliberately tries to crash and at home he connects a plastic attachment to the gas pipe in his cellar in order to suffocate himself. This not only shows that he has given up but also that his family is not enough reason for him to continue his life. This cannot be explained simply by saying he does not love them but it is that he thinks he is unworthy of living with them when he cannot provide them with money. Therefore his line of thinking continues with the idea that in his death he can give them a lot more financial support than he could in his life time. Following his logic this is to say that he is a much better husband and father, dead than alive.
In the play there is a rather optimistic part, where the future of the Loman family seems rather good. Willy is about to see his boss for a non-traveling position and his sons have the plan to open a sports article retailing business. All of these hopes for a better future get crushed at once and the way to Willy’s suicide is free. In a last vision of Ben, Willy sees a new hope at least for his sons in his life insurance money and therefore his death. Ben encourages him in this unspoken intention Willy takes the last step and drives into the next tree.
Willy Loman, husband and father is driven to his suicide by a perverted version of the American dream. His view of success and self-realization has reduced to a materialistic meaning. All he can see is his failure in providing his family with a good financial situation. His real failure, though, is not to see what he has in his family and what else he can give them besides money.
How far would you apportion the blame for Willy’s suicide between Willy’s own character and the society in which he lived in?
Willy Loman is often referred to as a tragic hero, which can be explained by him being a victim of the American society of the 1940’s. But is he really the victim of the society or is it more his own fault that he buys into the ideology of this time, which at last drive him into suicide?
Already in his childhood Willy was confronted with a rather distorted picture of the world, since his father left him early in his life in order to go to Alaska. Willy bases his views very much on two individuals, his brother Ben and a salesman called David Singleman. His older brother Ben made a fortune by finding diamonds in the jungle giving Willy his first ideal. Ben was a very ruthless character already displaying what it takes to be successful. David Singleman is the most successful salesman Willy ever got to know, he was known everywhere he went and when he died at the age of eighty-four everyone he knew came to his funeral. These two are what Willy aspires to become and lay the basis of Willy’s ideology. While David Singleman still is a good example of the self-made man and the success of the American Dream, the character Ben already in certain ways is a criticism of these ideas. Everything that counts for him is the materialistic things in life and with this comes ruthlessness against anyone around him. Willy though does not see the flaw in this and assumes it.
Even though Willy seems to be very talented in working with his hands, especially carpentering, he decides to work as a salesman because he thinks a carpenter would not be looked up to. The example of David Singleman has very much impressed him and he aspires to become like him even though he has to give up what he is good at. At this point he has already obtained a wrong understanding of self-realization. What other people think of him has become more important to him, than what he personally likes best. But this is only the first step he takes towards his suicide under the pressure of the society or what he made of it.
Willy’s brother Ben initiates the second much more extreme change in his ideology. Willy does no longer see anything else than materialistic things. Success and a good financial position become one thing for him. He thinks that a house, “well-advertised” machines, a big car and money will open him the way to heaven, which seems rather ironic with his bad financial situation throughout his career. Family values no longer seem to count for him and if he cannot provide his family with enough money he is a loser. That is not how the society displays it, though.
The capitalist system of the time the play is set into had an ideology many people did not fit in, Willy, however, tries his best to fit into this society and concentrates very much on popularity and success. All of this Willy never achieves and he sees his dream falling apart. Even though he tries to believe he is a success, narrowed ideology tells him other. It also does not allow him to see what he actually still owns in his life - a family that loves him as a person and not because of the money that he provides them with. Even though Biff, Willy’s elder son, who realizes that his whole family has been living in a web of lies, tries to change his father’s views, he is unable to because Willy can no longer comprehend it.
A great flaw in the modern society is that people are mostly judged by what they possess. Therefore it has become natural for a person to gather material items in order not to be judged as unsuccessful. Willy Loman however has taken this to an extreme, through his distorted ideology he lost everything, including his life. The corrupted version of the American Dream he followed, which his brother Ben had shown him led him into suicide. Willy of course misinterpreted the ideology which the society displayed but in many ways both the society and what he got out of it, had the flaw of materialism in them. Therefore one could say that the society somewhat inspired Willy to create the ideology that drove him into suicide.
