Explore how Miller utilises dramatic structures and devices to help the audience fully appreciate the magnitude of Willy Loman’s tragedy in Death of a Salesman.

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Arthur Miller was born in 115 on October 17th in New York City.

The play “Death of a Salesman” was first called “The Inside of his Head” and Miller established the success of the play in 14 when it first came out. From 156 onwards he was a major dramatist, so Death of a Salesman really brought him his fame for life.

“Death of a Salesman” was and still is a very popular play and has been an enormous success for Arthur Miller because it’s popularity has never gone down hill.

Most of Arthur miller’s ideas for the play we believe came from his own childhood. For instance, in 1(the Great Depression) he remembers being visited by many of his boastful salesman uncles. In the play Willy Loman is a salesman and we find that his brother Ben (uncle to Biff and Happy) is very boastful of his success in becoming a rich man for the rest of his life.




Another example of when Miller may have used his childhood as a link to the play is that he spent most of his younger life doing various jobs to pay for his college fees when really he wasn’t all that bright and was far more of an athlete (like Biff because he tried to get on with college but it didn’t work for him as he is much more athletic and sporty).

The play is very sad and Miller we know had a very sad life because he was brought up around post World War II atmosphere and the Great Depression so the play sort of reflects his life and his feelings at the time.

“Death of a Salesman” is a tragedy because Willy Loman is the cause of his own death and the tragedy of the play is built up and up to make it more of a definite sad death and finish to the play. The Requiem really rounds this whole idea of death and tragedy off.

The American Dream I feel also has some kind of Millers feelings on his own life in it because Miller’s success only really came when he changed what he was doing to what he realised he was good at. I think that Willy Loman is also a reflection of what Miller feels he could have turned out like himself if he had carried on the way he was before he began to write plays. Also, Miller didn’t get much support from his father (e.g. to pay college fees) and nor did Willy because in fact he doesn’t remember his dad. Miller is trying to it across that for Willy it was actually quite like having no father at all and the same for himself.

Arthur Miller has shown very clearly that his play is a tragedy because Willy Loman has spent his whole life trying to live up to his older brother and gets nowhere at all in the end. Ben tells Willy again and again that he needs to do something to get somewhere. But Willy continues to waste time trying to become a highly respected and fairly wealthy salesman, even though it is quite clear that he is getting nowhere. Willy refuses to see this though. He knows that it’s true because whenever anyone tries to talk to him about it he gets angry and upset. He won’t accept it though. He believes that if he just carries on doing what he is doing then maybe there still will be some hope that he will do well. Then he can prove to everyone that if you keep at something sometimes and work hard to get what you want, you finally get it even if it’s not straight away.

The other characters in the play begin to see he’s loosing it and is never going to succeed along time before Willy does. Charley tries to talk to Willy about it but Willy thinks too highly of himself to listen. Charley offers him a job and says, “I don’t see any sense in it. You don’t have to go this way.”

But Willy just answers back, “I got a good job.”

Willy doesn’t see past what he does and what he has always done. He doesn’t even try to see himself doing anything else

Linda also tries to talk to Willy about it. She doesn’t want him to necessarily get another job she just thinks that he should be closer to home so that he doesn’t have to keep doing as much. Linda doesn’t say this because she’s worried about Willy but doesn’t want him to know this. She also misses him a lot and that’s why she would like him nearer to her. In the conversation between Willy and Linda she says, “Well you’ll just have to take a rest, Willy, you can’t continue this way.”

She says, “…Talk to them again. There’s no reason why you can’t work in New York.”

Willy says, “They don’t need me in New York. I am the New England man. I’m vital in New England.”

Linda replies, “But you’re sixty years old. They can’t expect you to keep travelling every week.” Willy just dismisses this comment from Linda. Linda tries again, “Why don’t you just go down to the place tomorrow and tell Howard you’ve simply got to work in New York?…”

Willy just gives excuses why he should keep at the job and that it’s only because of the old manager left so he can’t be moved up into a higher working atmosphere.

Because of all this Willy is feeling sadder and more depressed in the last two days of his life and this is what finally brings him to his death. It all gets to him and he just can’t take it anymore. This makes it clearly a very tragic death and is made even more so in the requiem when only four people turn up.

I think that the structure of Arthur Millers’ play is very clear because, he has structured the acts well.

In act one all of the action is in the Loman house in Brooklyn. We learn all about the ‘Loman Family’ in this scene and close friends (Charley).

We can see in this scene how the characters act around different people and what their habits are. Like when Willy and Linda talk about ‘the cheese’ Linda says, “Willy, dear, I got a new kind of American-type cheese today. It’s whipped.”

Willy replies, “Why did you get American when I like Swiss?”

Linda tries again, “I just thought you’d like a change � “

But Willy continues to argue, “I don’t want a change! I want Swiss cheese…”

This shows that Willy doesn’t like things to be different. He prefers things just the way they are. He can’t handle change, it confuses him too much. I think that this is why when Charley offers him a job it’s not just because he’s too proud to take it, it’s also because he wouldn’t be able to handle the different atmosphere it would all be far too much for him to take on.

We see in act 1 also that Willy has flashbacks and we see the contrast between the past and present. We see why Willy is so nervous and gets angry with himself around Linda for being like this. It is because of the affair with the woman. Little things set off his feelings like this e.g. Linda is darning the stockings and it reminds him of when he bought some for ‘the woman’ and he feels guilty seeing Linda do this when he knows he should have bought her them, not ‘the woman’.

We can also see in this act very clearly how Willy prefers Biff to Happy, yet we are unsure why.

In Act two the Loman family a bit further on from the flashbacks.

Howard is successful and Willy is not. Ben begins to appear more, but only to Willy and not as a flashback. Willy confides in Ben a lot in this Act.

In this Act we can finally see why characters acted as they did in Act one around different people e.g. we find out that Biff knows about Willys affair and that is why Willy favours him more than Happy because he don’t want Biff telling Linda. We see that the Loman family lie to each other all the time (dramatic irony) and that is why there is so much tension between them all. Part of the reason why Willy kills himself is because he knows he is just living a lie and ‘the truth hurts’.

In the requiem we can see who really did know Willy Loman the best, because Linda (who thought she knew him best) actually sees herself, that she obviously didn’t because, she has no idea why he did it.

We can also see, what they are going to do now, what paths they are going to take e.g. Happy wants to live up to Willy, but Biff is going to stop doing this.

Arthur Miller has made the play very clear on where the past and present are. This was obviously his main idea because if it weren’t clear, then when the play was acted out, it would not be easy to understand, the contrast of past and present.

An example of ‘melting together of past and present, is where Willy has a flashback of ‘the woman’ in the past, when they are in the car. ‘The woman’ says, “…and thanks for the stockings. I love a lot of stockings…”

Then Willy comes out of the flashback and sees Linda darning stockings in the present. He immediately feels guilty because here is his dear, kind, loving wife Linda mending her old stockings and Willy knows that its her he should have been buying stockings for, not ‘the woman’.

This shows how selfish and uncaring he has been towards Linda and how bad he feels about it now, in the present when he realises it. Also ‘the woman’ says, “…I love a lot of stockings …”

Suggesting she has a lot of stockings, when we can see that Linda has only one pair that she needs to keep, because of this.

Another example is where Willy has a flashback, when he has been with ‘the woman’ again and Biff catches them. Before Biff sees ‘the woman’, he tells Willy, that he has come to him for help, because he knows he is going to flunk Maths. He comes to Willy because he trusts him and believes that his father will help him. Now Biff sees that his father is not trustworthy and that is why they don’t get along in the present.

I like the way that Arthur Miller has ‘melted together’ the past and present using lighting and sounds. You can always tell when a flashback is coming on in Act one, because the flute would start playing (a clear memory that Willy has of his father, perhaps the only memory).

In Act one when a new person is speaking (usually in the house) the lights would dim on the people who were first speaking and light up on the new speaker.

When we are experiencing a flashback of Willy’s leaves appear and buildings disappear to create a clear image of what it was like in the past.

When we watched the play the ‘melting together’ of past and present was made clear by Willy looking in a mirror and turning around to find himself back in the past (a flashback). We found this very clear and easier to understand than in the play written in the book.

Almost every prop in Arthur Millers’ play you could say represents something.

I think that Miller is very cleaver to do this and it’s only when you look more specifically at the play that you begin to notice them more. They are quite hidden and I think that Miller did this purposefully so that we would learn something from it. The props that Miller has used as symbols are pen, table, watch (fob), roads, cars, boats, trains, trees/ plants, leaves, weather, seasons, buildings, countries, tools and success. I think that most of these are really about time, because Willy has spent most of his own lifetime trying to become rich and he hasn’t dome anything else apart from being a salesman to do this and so he has wasted time.

The buildings have changed in time. The trees have gone in time. Ben always says to Willy, “Time Willy time”. Ben took the time he had to become wealthy.

I notice that even though it is nearly all males in the play anyway it is only the men who use the props really.

Biff uses the props above all the characters the most. His two most significant props are the football and the pen, as both did not bring him success, but are about success and achieving your highest goal.

The most important part of the stage design is that when Willy is having his imaginings he always comes to the front of the stage (the apron).

Another property of the design of the stage is that in Act 1 the boys look down on Willy as if he is Low, because he is feeling low or maybe because he is of a low standard in his job. Also the name Loman could also mean something about the lowness of Willy Loman in personal and in financial ways Willy Loman is a low man.

The way that the Loman house is situated and designed also gives us clue of the kind of life they lead even when we first look at it. The tall buildings surrounding the house loom over it also making it seemed cramped and of a lower standard than the flats that are owned by higher and more wealthy people and that’s why they are so tall and lean over Willy making him seem smaller and more unsuccessful. The fact that the Loman house is so cramped makes it seem that all Willy’s problems are making him feel more cramped and crushing him to his death.

In Franks Chop House the boys (Biff and Happy) keep bringing on more alcohol even though Willy is already in a bad state of mind because he is confusing the past with the present. The fact that this scene is set in Franks Chop House makes it seem more real because the boys don’t realise that what they’re actually doing to Willy is bad and he’s practically dead already because they’re not paying any attention to Willy all they’re interested in is ‘the girls’. The scene may also have been set here because this is a good place for Biff and Happy to meet the girls and be distracted by them so that they forget about Willy.

From the title “Death of a Salesman” I can see that Miller was trying to say something. The word “Death” is put first as if to say that the best thing for Willy was for him to be dead because he was getting nowhere. The word “Salesman” is put last to give the impression that the last thing Willy should have been was a salesman.

The audience are captured by the magnitude of “Death of a Salesman” and the tragedy of the piece because most of the incidents that happen in the play actually are everyday things that happen to us as well so the audience find it easy to put themselves in the characters shoes and therefore it is easier to understand and experience the play.

The way that the stage is designed also makes it seem more like you are actually experiencing Arthur Miller’s tragedy yourself because the concept of the whole play is clearer if we can see living conditions and the type of area the Loman family live in.

The Requiem I feel is the most important part of the whole play because it rounds the tragedy off in a kind of way. In the requiem we can all evaluate the meaning of Willy’s life for ourselves.

I think that Arthur Miller’s moral of the play is “Live your life to the full but take a good look at what you are doing to make sure it’s the right thing for you otherwise you will see your whole life go to waste.”



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