Literary works including novels, short stories, narratives, plays and poems provide the reader with lenses through which he/she can see and understand deeply various cultural, social and political aspects of the society, which seem critical to his/her individual and collective well-being. Literary scholars use various literary devices such as literary motifs, an identifiable rule of thumb, allegory, imagery, symbols, a structure or a convention amongst others in order to bring out themes of their writings vividly (Shmoop 66).
Arthur Miller’s 1949 play titled “Death of a Salesman” qualifies as a fascinating must-read masterpiece and a perfect reflection of the late 1940’s life circumstances of the main protagonist Willy Loman and his family (Shmoop 3). Its subject centers on the diminishing days of a failing sales clerk. Although many literary devices are evident in the play, this paper narrows down to the use of symbolism, as brought forth in the play.
Use of symbolism in the play
Use of symbolism is common in virtually all forms of literary works. Death of a Salesman has a good share of symbols, which the playwright uses to communicate the themes of his great work creatively. First, Lomans’ home where the play takes place is symbolic. According to Shmoop, Lomans’ landscape where the play seems restricted is narrow symbolizing both mental and physical limitations of the characters (66).
The author contrasts the largely narrow setting of the play with the hugeness of Africa, Alaska, and American West. On the other hand, distant places signify the possibility of something better, freedom and escape (Shmoop 66). For example, Willy Loman’s obsession with faraway lands shows that he prefers a very different livelihood than the one he has now.
In fact, even though Willy himself refers New York City as a land of opportunity and success, his admiration of his brother’s ventures and expeditions in distant lands shows that he is not convinced of his claims (Shmoop 66). Furthermore, Ben, Biff and Happy constantly insists that the Lomans better fit into the physical and hard kinds of work, claims backed by their failure as salespersons.
The seeds that Willy intends to buy and plant are also symbolic. Apparently, Willy seems perpetually troubled by feelings of inadequacy and confusion (Shmoop 66). He appears certainly worried that just like his father before him, he may prove unable to provide for his sons, let alone raising them well and differently from the way that his father brought him up. Therefore, when he talks of nothing planted lamenting that he does not have anything in the ground; it stands out that he only talks about his sons and their future (Shmoop 66).
Willy seems concerned about leaving a legacy after he dies. For that reason, through planting seeds that he constantly insists on buying, he hopes to plant something that will grow and feed his family and others and remain when he dies (Shmoop 66). Interestingly, his planting of seeds also means to make up for his failure as a sales representative. Actually, Willy is better fitting to work with his own hands, to labor, and to farm just like Biff his son.
The stockings, which appear in various episodes in Death of a Salesman, are no more than symbolic. They signify a reminder of the woman Willy with whom he had an affair. This seems to anger him because the affair further prevents him from providing for his family well (Shmoop 66).
Consequently, Willy shouts at his wife Linda because of patching up her stockings in his sight since they easily remind him about the affair. Biff’s anger because of his father’s affair remains also directed into the stockings. Supposedly, they qualify as the cause of his anger.
Diamonds in the Death of a Salesman symbolize tangible wealth. They made Ben rich. Contrary to Willy’s sales work for which he has nothing concrete to show, the diamonds symbolize wholesome, pure material success. The reader sees them as a get-rich-quick short cut that is a solution to all of Lomans’ problems and worries (Shmoop 67).
When Willy considered committing suicide, he perceived himself travelling into the dark jungle to procure diamonds for his son. In fact, at one point in his suicidal thoughts he hears Ben telling him that the place referred to as Jungle in the play even though it is dark is full of diamonds (Shmoop 67).
Tennis Racket in the play which Willy sees when he was talking with Bernard in Charley’s office symbolizes Bernard’s success and Biff’s failure (Shmoop 66).. While in high school, Biff took part in sports while Bernard was a mere spectator, yet he is the one owns the tennis racket contrary to Biff’s and Happy’s hopes that they would make a fortune from selling sports equipment in future.
Conclusion
Based on the expositions made in the paper, it suffices to declare symbolism one of the apparent literary devices used in the Death of a Salesman. They have enabled the playwright to put across his message creatively. They also have assisted the readers to see beyond the text thereby understanding the times and society that the then Lomans lived in.
Works Cited
Shmoop, Tim. Death of a Salesman: Shmoop Literature Guide. Sunnyvale, CA: Shmoop University Inc., 2010.
It should be noted that Death of a Salesman is a book in which every character is unhappy in his or her way. It is indeed realistic in the way that each person experiences all kinds of losses throughout life and has to bear with the idea that his or her wishes might, in fact, never come true (Ackerman 51). However, one of the characters, whom I consider the most tragic, is the main hero – Willy Loman. It can be stated that he has the most tragic destiny due to numerous reasons, including his unfulfilled dreams and expectations, complicated family situation, poor career and, in general, the life he had never expected he would have.
General description of tragedy
It should be noted that as almost any tragic hero, Willy could never reach self-realization (Drakakis and Conn Liebler 101). Despite the fact that he was fully aware of his wishes and strivings, he had neither enough luck nor courage to achieve the career goals he set for himself and which the domain of American Dream brought to him. He reckoned that he would easily achieve anything he wanted with the help of his appearance while putting little effort into it, and he taught his sons the same, which led them to nothing but misery. Once he said, “America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people” (Miller 21). In the same manner, he taught his children to take life easy. Later, he told his wife that he could not succeed in sales because he was too talkative; however, he was able to understand the underlying reason only after it was too late to change anything. Thus, the illusions that the main character had resulted in poor life choices.
Tragedy in family life
Importantly, the core of the tragedy is that an adult person was living in-between the reality and his delusions (Young 248). He saw dreams in which he had a happy family, great career, and a loving wife. Moreover, he always perceived his brother Ben to be a great example of the achievement of the American Dream, and wished that his sons had a life similar to his. Nevertheless, Biff, who was always successful in everything he did, lost his vigor, and, when reached the age of 40, was changing his jobs constantly, did not have any promising prospects, and started resembling his father in a sad way. Therefore, the unreal life representations of the main hero were supported by the unattainable dreams about his sons becoming rich and successful. Thus, the tragedy of the story is connected to several generations when sons were to repeat the destiny of their father, and he was only able to realize that when it was late.
However, the reason for Biff’s failure was his father as well. Being a school student, his father always told him how successful the boy would be, and the young person with a fragile psyche believed in it. He did not have any reason to continue his education since the American Dream was supposed to do the job, and then, everything he believed in crashed when he saw his father with another woman (MacGregor Burns 332). It can be assumed that Willy being a delusional person himself influenced his son who was initially a talented person and made his double-ganger from an initially promising person. Therefore, it can be stated that the personal tragedy of Willy is also connected to his wrongful influence on Biff.
Meanwhile the second son – Happy – was a different copy of his father. Being a person who wanted to achieve everything through a beautiful smile, he gradually turned into a lying nonstarter who continued building castles in the air rather than going through thick and thorn to achieve his goals. Therefore, Willy made a mistake leading his children by his own example since he exposed his sons to repeating the same life that he used to lead.
It should be emphasized that the tragedy of the protagonist is ambiguous. It simultaneously accumulated various problems. The fate of the sufferer is the absolute evidence of sensibility to the American Dream. As Willy said “when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am” (Miller 113).The strong belief in the inevitability of success in a society of equal opportunities firs ruined the life of Willy, and later – of his son.
Internal conflict
In addition to the tragedy of the main character reflected in complex family relationships and an uncomplicated career, the hero had a permanent inner conflict. This problem could be revealed in the idea of a little man who was humiliated, insulted, and crushed by life (Young 246). Nonetheless, despite the hardships and illusory representations of himself, he remained a loving, hoping, and suffering person wishing the best to his family, but not knowledgeable of the ways to help.
Notably, this idea is the ideological orientation throughout this play, which is best expressed by the protagonist. Thus, the essence of the tragedy is a dream of a little man to become great. The American Dream could not give him the opportunity to open up; it overshadowed his infantilism and belief in miracles and, that is to say, the illusion in which Willy was living. Such infantilism spawned moodiness and levity, as is the case when he refused to eat cheese or forbade his son to study mathematics. It was close to the end of his life when he stated, “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (Miller 104). Thus, the internal conflict inherent to Willy throughout the play did not allow him to make informed decisions. Moreover, as it is known from the text, gradually, the lifestyle and thinking of the hero led to a serious illness. Needless to say, he found a solution to his problems in killing himself so that his children and wife would get the insurance money.
Conclusion
Willy’s problem lied in the fact that he chose the wrong way, which led him to a situation in which he was incapable of making any proper career success, building a strong family or trusting relationship with his children. As a result of his misconceptions, he was unhappy and influenced the children in a way that they were at a loss as well. Initially, a man who was not too smart, not too prudent, but naive and gentle, was supposed to become a seducer and a seller of illusions. However, he was lured resting in his illusions, while trying to escape from reality. Thus, it can be stated that Willy Loman is the most tragic character in the play. Despite the fact that his children were unsuccessful and unhappy, it is always a tragedy for a parent, in the first place, to realize that the children were brought up with wrongful perceptions and the parent was the only one to blame. In addition, Willy could not tell the dream from the reality and killed himself to help his family, being incapable of changing anything. It was a weak, infantile person who suffered from his weaknesses and the realization of helplessness when, in fact, anything could have been changed as long as he was alive.
Works Cited
Ackerman, Alan. A Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller. A&C Black, 2013.
Drakakis, John, and Naomi Conn Liebler. Tragedy. Routledge, 2014.
MacGregor Burns, James. The Crosswinds of Freedom. Open Road Media, 2012.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Young, Julian. The Philosophy of Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Is Willy Loman a tragic hero? Why did he kill himself? Find here the answers! This essay focuses on the essay Tragedy and the Common Man in which Artur Miller gave the reasons why Willy Loman should be considered a pathetically tragic character.
A tragic hero is person who usually appears in romantic literature. To make it clear, it should be mentioned that the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is created in Romanticism genre as the main character has visions which divide his life into two parts, real where Willy Loman and his sons are unable to achieve success in sales, and unreal, where everything is great. Willy Loman’s family got used that he talks to himself and do not react to this anymore.
There is a statement that Willy Loman is a tragic hero according to Arthur Miller’s definition of what a tragic hero is in his famous essay Tragedy and the Common Man. To make the situation clear, we are going to discuss the main features which confirm the statement and make Willy a tragic hero.
Is Willy Loman a Tragic Hero?
The essay Tragedy and the Common Man written by Arthur Miller presents the main characteristics of a tragic hero in romantic literature. One of the main features is the referencing of a hero to a common person. Miller states that “the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were” (Miller ‘Tragedy’ 1461).
Willy Loman is a simple person who used to work as a salesman, but due to age and health problems he wants to settle less active life. This is the first argument which proves that Willy Loman is a tragic hero.
Arthur Miller also believes that a hero becomes tragic when he is “ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing – his sense of personal dignity” (Miller ‘Tragedy’ 1462).
This is exactly what has happened with Willy when he got to know that all he was trying to reach (to make his children be successful by means of making them good salespeople) was ruined, he did not manage to achieve this goal. Thus, he understands that he is not a person, that he has not fulfilled his life goal. “Nothing is planted. I do not have a thing in the ground” (Miller ‘Death of a Salesman’ 122).
Saying these words, Willy means that all his life is spent in vain and there are no results of it. Willy understands that salesman is not the best profession and his desire to sacrifice his life for the benefit of his family is nothing but the desire to save his dignity and do not declare in public that all he has been planning was ruined. This is the second argument in support of the idea that Willy Loman is a tragic hero.
Arthur Miller is sure that one of the main characteristics of a tragic hero in the play is the understanding of the difference between real and unreal worlds. He says, “The quality in such plays that does shake us, however, derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world” (Miller ‘Tragedy’ 1463).
The main character is a tragic hero as he has been torn away from the world of illusion where his sons are successful salespeople and has been put in the reality where they have failed to become wealthy and have nothing to do.
He realizes that he was a bad father, except for the imaginary world where he was the best. The tragedy of the hero is characterized by the fact that he was torn from his imaginary world and put in cruel reality where his dreams were not realized. This is the third argument in support of the fact that Willy was a tragic hero.
Reading an essay Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller, it is possible to state that concluding statement about a tragic hero is exactly what can be seen in Willy Loman, a character of his play Death of a Salesman.
The author writes that the main essence of a tragic hero is “intent upon claiming his whole due as a personality, and if this struggle must be total and without reservation, then it automatically demonstrates the indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity” (Miller ‘Tragedy’ 1464). This is the main characteristic feature which shows Willy as a tragedy character, as searching for something in his life, he has failed to become a personality.
Conclusion
To sum it up, it should be mentioned that the ideas Arthur Miller presents in his essay Tragedy and the Common Man are perfectly reflected in his play Death of a Salesman. The main character of the play, Willy Loman, is a tragic hero as it is stated in the author’s essay.
All the reasons the author provides in the essay are confirmed by the character’s description in the play. It seems that the author tried to reflect all this ideas about a tragic hero in Willy Loman to show the reader that such characters exist.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York, NY: Penguin, 1998. Print.
Miller, Arthur. “Tragedy and the Common Man .” Discovering Literature. Eds. Hans P. Guth and Gabriele L. Rico. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. 1461-1464. Print.
Thousands of people who are truly committed to the American Dream often find themselves shattered against the tragic realities of life. Such stories are not uncommon, since the American Dream has nothing to do with personal attractiveness and chance but implies that hard work is the direct prerequisite for continued success. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a heartbreaking story of a quest for self-realization and personal happiness.
The feelings of pain and sorrow lead readers into believing that Willy Loman is a tragic hero who fails to withstand the pressures of life. In reality, Willy Loman is too pathetic to be tragic. He fails to achieve the level of self-analysis needed to become a tragic hero. The difference between tragedy and pathos in Miller’s play is too obvious to ignore. In a nutshell, the life of Willy Loman is just a pathetic picture of a loser, who cannot reconcile with the changeable realities of life.
At times of Aristotle, tragedy exemplified and reflected a complex process of a noble’s hero downfall, mostly through the will of gods. A tragic hero would encounter numerous barriers in his (her) way to self-realization and success. A tragic hero would have to recognize that most, if not all, his problems and failures were due to a tragic mistake or his character. More often than not, a tragic mistake would lead the hero to the ultimate point of self-disruption.
However, before it happened, the hero would necessarily have to undergo a profound change in his self. Pathos, in turn, was used as an instrument of emotional persuasion – an effective way of generating sympathy and sorrow in the audience. While tragedy must necessarily include pathos, pathos alone can never create tragedy (Morris 207).So, what is there in Arthur Miller’s book that makes people believe it is a tragedy?
Willy Loman is believed to be a tragic hero, since he fails to achieve his purpose and encounters numerous barriers in his way to self-realization and happiness. He is deeply committed to the philosophy of the American Dream, which throws him into a spiritual and moral abyss. He cannot adjust to the new conditions of doing business in America.
He is convinced that his employers and clients do not see his talents: “If old man Wagner was alive I’d been in a charge of New York now! That man was a prince, he was a masterful man. But that boy of his, that Howard, he don’t appreciate” (Miller 14). Willy Loman’s character is a serious impediment to his professional progress. He constantly feels that his fate does not favor his achievements. He experiences the lack of recognition at work, while his family is being shattered against the new realities of life in America.
Nevertheless, Willy Loman can hardly be a tragic hero. He fails to realize the tragedy of his own mistakes. His failures are entirely the result of his professional and moral blindness. He feels it is high time he changed but consciously refuses to accomplish this difficult mission. He tells Linda that more people are ruining his country (Miller 17).
He believes that American population is getting out of control (Miller 17). He realizes that professional and business competition is maddening (Miller 17). Simultaneously, he lives the life of an old man, whose heart and mind was left in the past: “Nineteen twenty-eight… when I had that red Chevvy…” (Miller 19).
Willy Loman fails to achieve the degree of self-analysis needed to make him a true tragic hero. His suicide cannot answer his questions, nor can it help him to resolve his dilemmas. When Willy Loman commits a suicide, he breaks the image of a tragic hero and turns into a pathetic loser, who fails to attain peace and reconciliation with the reality of his life.
The difference between tragedy and pathos in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is too obvious to ignore. Willy Loman is pathetic, because he is unable to pursue self-development and inner growth. Unlike tragedy, which reveals human strength and endurance, pathos is the sign of Willy Loman’s weakness.
He blames his fate and the surrounding reality for his mistakes. He is surprised at the fact that things get broken and need to be repaired (Miller 36). He does not want to pay for the carburetor, because, in his opinion, the manufacture of Chevrolet should be prohibited (Miller 36).
He does not want to realize that life has changed. The American Dream is nothing, if a man cannot work hard to achieve his professional goals. His suicide proves this point. That Willy Loman kills himself means that he does not develop. He is a hero who encounters barriers to his happiness but does not undergo a spiritual or mental change. Unlike a tragic hero, Willy Loman does not want to improve his life.
Suicide is an easy way to avoid responsibility for his failures. Willy Loman does not develop awareness or revelation of his own fate. He fails to see that he is nothing but a dollar per hour, a hard-worker landing in a can of ash (Miller 132). Undoubtedly, Willy Loman is not a tragic hero but a pathetic loser who generates sympathy and compassion but fails to reconcile with the reality of life.
Conclusion
At times of Aristotle, tragedy depicted a complex process of a noble hero’s downfall, which happened either through the will of gods or as a result of some tragic character flaw. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is often considered an excellent example of modern tragedy, with Willy Loman playing the role of a tragic hero.
However, the life of Willy Loman is just a pathetic picture of a loser, who cannot reconcile with the changeable realities of life. He lacks the degree of self-evolution and consciousness needed to be a tragic hero. Willy Loman blames the environment for his failures. He fails to look beyond the obvious. Unlike a tragic hero, Willy Loman does not develop but chooses to commit a suicide.
He does not undergo any spiritual or mental change. His pathos is too apparent to ignore, and suicide is just an easy way to avoid responsibility for his failures. Willy Loman cannot be a tragic hero, since he fails to recognize the tragedy of his own life. As a result, pathos is just a sign of human weakness in the face of circumstances.
Works Cited
Miller, A. Death of a Salesman. NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.
Morris, D.B. Illness and Culture in the Postmodern Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Print.
In thinking about the metaphor from which to construct the production matrix I was struck by the image from my memory of children playing Blind Man’s Bluff. Willy is the bland man and the others are unwilling to teases, and, at least, half-blind themselves. The boys each have their own reaction to Willy. Happy is almost an accomplice as he believes the illusions his father created about his own importance. Biff seems to know that his father is, and may always have been self-delusional, but he wants no responsibility for helping. Linda has a stake in the delusions. However, they have become so bad that she is afraid she will lose Willy, who is her reason to live. She has always been a co-dependent in the same sense as with an addict or an alcoholic. Linda knows that he has tried to commit suicide and that he has been unable to make enough money, but she does not confront him. Willy’s blindness can be symbolized by giving him a white cane or by using a blindfold. Other characters can each wear a patch over one eye with Linda wearing large, thick-lensed rose-colored glasses. This doesn’t need any explanation; it is simply a loaded image. Other characters need no patches or glasses, because their vision is stark and clear and does no matter anyway.
The house, which is the central object for Willy and this play is not in correct proportion to the human body. Of the many visual symbols, it is the most important, according to Mieltziner1, who used it differently, creating movable pieces and lighting. My set is more static, but illusory and a bit surreal. In my production, it is larger, but surrounded by skyscrapers painted to the ceiling and disappearing in clouds on either side. Lights will be projected when the skyscrapers are visible. The main room is the kitchen and the appliances, cupboards and tables and chairs will all be somewhat larger than they should be in reality in order to convey the image of the people being smaller than they should be. This adds to the tragedy, since these people are just common ordinary people, and not really important to anyone. The set will have one main room above a tiny space for the garden, and small bedrooms will be above the kitchen, just enough room to accommodate the number of characters. The hotel room, the bar and the office will all be above these and proportionately smaller, except that the edges of the room of the office at the top with the hotel room and bar, both on the same level below, will not be visible, giving it an illusion of limitless vastness. All will be connected by two or three steps. The last scene will take place on the lowest level, the garden, which will be transformed into a graveyard by the rising of gravestones and the projection of a mausoleum in the background of the house. When it is garden, it is bare, except for a Greek statue on a fountain, perhaps of Prometheus. Bound.
The set conveys the impression that this house and its inhabitants have been left behind, overshadowed by progress. That the garden becomes the graveyard symbolizes the fatal flaw in Willy. He puttered uselessly in a barren garden where the sun never reached, much like he lived his life, ineffectual, living in a dream and never accomplishing anything, In the end, in his attempt to pay off the house he deeply and finally hurt the only person who ever loved him unconditionally.
The entire set is behind a scrim curtain to help control the very critical lighting. Lighting and fog will make the difference between current action and memory. For remembered scenes or imagined dreams, the lighting will change from what has been designated for each scene and fog will be emitted around the edges. There are no really flashbacks, as everything is in Willy’s mind. 2 The lighting in the garden will change from normal to dark amber for remembered scenes. The lighting in the bedrooms for remembered scenes will be dark green for the boys and dark purple for Willy and Linda. The hotel room lighting is dark rose and the bar is dark with candles and flashing neon as the only real light. The office lighting is bright on a stark, empty space that has fogged edges. Whenever we are in the past the skyscrapers will fade away as their projected lights will go out. Only the room being used will be visible. The rest of the set will be dark.
The idea that the office is higher than the rest is a psychological clue. The office, more or less, controls the action, even though most of it takes place elsewhere, since that is where the authority lies which takes his job and the last vestige of what Willy dreamed. It took his last hope of paying off the house and actually accomplishing something. Howard, his boss, calls him :kid: which seems rather demeaning. When Willy says he doesnt want to travel Howard fires him, and does not allow him to change his mind. While Willy has fatal flaws of character, being too kind and not being able to see reality, which causes his downfall, the loss of the job and the juxtaposition of Willie and the cold and calculating Howard, who just has no room for Willy, not even for one additional month.
The sound should incorporate something which mimics the chorus of the Greek tragedy in places and plays soft blues in others on piano in the bar and the hotel room and saxophone or clarinet in others. The play actually fulfills Aristotle’s requirements for a tragedy, with six the elements required, listed in order of importance: 1) Plot; 2) Character; 3) Thought or Theme; 4) Diction, sometimes called voice; 5) Song or Melody and 6) Spectacle. 3The plot is a classic tragedy that the characters conspire to bring about and cannot escape. They each suffer from some degree of blindness or inability to change. The house, surrounded, symbolized their imprisonment in the circumstances of their own making. Willy cannot change or see the truth. Ben is the muse and part of the chorus as is Charley, the voice of reason. Biff is the only one who actually learns something from the play. Happ is the son who tried to fulfill his father’s dreams and not his own, and even at the end is still caught up in the idea.
HAPPY: All right, boy. I’m gonna show you and everybody else that
Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have — to come out number-one man.In the end we still see that Willy was trapped by his dreams.
LINDA: He was so wonderful with his hands.
BIFF: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.
HAPPY (almost ready to fight Biff): Don’t say that!
BIFF: He never knew who he was.
Linda is the tragic heroine, doomed by her faithfulness and love to be alone in the end. That she knows full well where everything is leading is the classic character of the Greek Tragic heroine. She wants everything to be like it was when the boys were children, in harmony, before their real dreams were forgotten.
Act 1: BIFF: Shouldn’t we do anything?
LINDA: Oh, my dear, you should do a lot of things, but there’s nothing to do, so go to sleep.
…..
LINDA: It’s when you come home he’s always the worst.
…..
BIFF (evasively): I’m not hateful, Mom.
LINDA: But you no sooner come in the door than you’re fighting!
BIFF: I don’t know why. I mean to change. I’m tryin’, Mom, you understand?
The rest of the characters are chorus, fulfilling the requirement for “song”, each saying something different, but explaining the action. The overall theme is progress versus humanity, and progress wins. Willy grew up in the time of relationship salesmanship, and he failed to change with the times. Progress overshadowed everything he did, just as the skyscrapers enclosed the house. The voice is the oracle, he who cannot change is doomed to become obsolete. The spectacle is the play, especially the arguments, and the artistic portraits of crumbling stone figures. The garden music should be a soft blues harmonica. Music should be barely audible until near scene endings or time transition, where it can get louder to signal change.
Root Actions
The play is about progress and death, love and need. These elements oppose each other in this play as progress leaves Willy behind and his only alternative is death, because he cannot change. He cannot admit that he did anything wrong, not even in his allowing Biff to see him and the buyer with whom he slept. He cannot separate his daydreams (delusions) from reality, or take any responsibility for his own fate. The needs of the characters often obscure their love and defeat its expression. If Willy had loved Linda more than he needed her and needed for her to need him he could have taken the job which Charley offered and the house would have been paid off and Linda would have had everything she needed, which was her place as his wife in a house in security and happiness with Willy. The boys are both trapped in their own needs. Happy needs to feel important and Biff needs to understand his father and free himself from the mistakes of the past which were built upon that one incident with the buyer in the hotel room.
Aristotle points out, the most important element “is the arrangement of the incidents, for tragedy is an imitation, not of men but action and life, of happiness and misfortune”4 This play symbolizes all the Lomans of the world, ineffectual, trapped by their own illusions, frozen in place by their needs. The real tragedy of this play is that it is repeated over and over by people who fail to take control of their own lives and fail to see reality and deal with it. It is progress that surrounded and dwarfed the house, obscuring the garden so that ho sun ever reached it. Progress made Willy obsolete as a salesman. New management and new ways of doing business left him behind. Progress made his brother a rich man, which seemed to haunt Willy, as if it were only luck. Progress even changed his employer as the son of his boss took over the business. There are always those who cannot change with progress and are doomed to be under the train. Just as the trains brought permanent change to the old west, cities and skyscrapers brought change to neighborhoods. Those who did not either adjust to progress and make use of it or , at least, get out of the way were run over by it.
Thematic Subject: Those who cannot change are doomed and those who cannot see will stumble in the dark. Willy cannot change and he cannot see the reality of the world. His son Happy is exactly the same, and he will end his life alone because of it. Linda is trapped by her love for Willy even though she can see reality. She cannot escape, because she has nothing else.
Production Matrix
This play is a game of Blind Man’s Bluff, where one blindfolded person stumbles around trying to touch the other players, as the characters stumble through their lives not knowing where they are going or, in Linda’s case, not wanting anything else. IN the worst-case scenario of a game of Blind Man’s Bluff, all the players are blindfolded and none of them ever find any of the others. The only winner among these characters is Biff, and he wins only his freedom, not necessarily happiness. He cannot recover what he has lost, but he can finally get away and build his own life. The outcome is predetermined just as in any Greek tragedy where the gods have already decided. In this case the gods are progress and wealth.
Initial Ideas
Performers
The fates of the various characters are sealed though only Linda knows this. Linda knows that Willy is living in a dream world, that he is losing his mind, but she does not know what to do, and she is afraid that she will lose all of him if she tries to do anything.. The will stumble through their parts blinded to truth and reality or partially so, and still arrive at their designated end. The house, which is almost a character itself, will sit smothered by progress where no sunshine reaches and become a mausoleum for Linda. Happ will continue in his father’s footsteps and Biff will escape.
Language
The language is a mantra and chorus following a set pattern like an ancient narrative poem. The characters use the words which symbolize their own traps. The words illuminate only for the audience. The characters never hear them, they only speak.
Set
The set is very important as it provides clues to the tragedy and the symbols for the play. The set is the carved place for these characters, as solid as any stone wall, and they are trapped within it. Even when they move into the past, they are still trapped within the same walls. This shows how the characters are trapped in the tragedy, as in all classic tragedies. The set is almost another character in the person of the house, which is all that Linda has left at the end of the play.
Space
The space is all wrong, not fitting the people quite right. They are too small in a very small house which is obscured by the progress of a growing city. The main space is the kitchen, where the furniture and the appliances are just a bit larger than they should be. The space starts with few props, symbolizing the coming of emptiness.
Sound
The sound is of ragged voices, a chanting chorus and blues played softly to remind us that all is lost. There is no exciting music and no wonderful truths revealed in this script, only inevitable loss.
Conclusions
This play relies mostly on its characterization and script. The setting is another character, and it changes as the needs of the script are required. The setting is a symbol of the status of the Loman family, frozen in time while the world went on. The characters are all either actors or classical chorus as this is a modern Greek tragedy. All of these factors make the play both timeless and durable since one can see it performed over and over and still enjoy it while knowing everything which will happen.
Footnotes
Death of a Salesman. The Broadway Production. p. 19.
Elia Kazan. Preparation for Death of a Salesman. p. 261.
Aristotle. Aristotle’s Poetics. Trans. George Whalley. Ed. John Baxter and Patrick Atherton. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1997.
In both of these works: The Lesson by Tony Cade Bambara and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller the main character is living a life insulated from reality. In the case of Willy Loman, the world has simply left him behind, and he lives with illusions of past glory as a top salesman. In The Lesson, Sylvia is one of a group of poor black children in 1930s Harlem, who go on an outing to Schwartz’s toy store in Manhattan with a local spinster retired teacher. This world and the one they live in are a universe apart and the children had not been out of their own neighborhood before and did not know of the huge differences and inequalities. While the main theme of Death of a Salesman is the inhumanity of progress, and the main theme in The Lesson is the inequality of American culture, the minor theme of living separated from other reality runs through both works, especially the reality of the American Dream, which is an illusion for the characters in both works.
Willy Loman is a salesman who was of the old school where relationships were what mattered. Willy lives in his own fantasy world where tomorrow he will make that one big sale and his boss will learn to value him. He believes that his son, Biff, still has a chance to be a success. He keeps sending him to new interviews to get him a job. His second son, Happy, is a shoe salesman, which Willy considers as a failure. Near the beginning of the play, Willie loses his job, because he just cannot learn new ways. He owes only one payment on the house for which he has paid for thirty years. He could have borrowed the money, but his pride would not let him. He commits suicide so that his whole life will pay off. His widow, Linda, is devastated because all she really ever wanted was Willy. The theme of being separated from reality runs through the entire play as an undercurrent and the reason why Willy failed so miserably in everything, even in death. He never let go of his dreams for his eldest son, even when they were passed any hope of attainment. He also never stopped believing he would prove that his way of selling was the right way and he would make a huge sale to make his boss see this.
Willy believed in the American Dream, the classic happy and successful family and he believes that being likable and creating relationships are the way to get this (Peck). He dreamed his son Biff could be a football star. He actually thinks that he will become successful himself as a salesman. However, these have no more chance of coming true than do the seeds that Willy plants in his back yard have any chance of growing without any sun, which cannot reach the yard, because the tall buildings around it block the sun.
At the beginning of the play, we hear Willy talking to himself, and act one ends on that note. Will talks to illusions, his absent son Biff and his brother Ben, who went to Alaska and got rich in Africa. In the second act, Willy “remembers” the past and his family as perfect and happy, and he wonders where he went wrong that this happiness and promise remains unfulfilled. He simply cannot understand that being handsome and well-liked is not enough for success. In Act Two the boys invite Willy to dinner, but they abandon him after an argument while he babbles in his delusional memory in the bathroom. Throughout the play, he slips into fantasy more and more often. When the boys finally shake him out of it, Willy takes the car out for the last time. The funeral had only the family and two friends in attendance. Linda wonders where all of Willy’s friends are before she finally ends the play by telling Willy that she made the last payment on the house and there will be nobody home. This is Willy’s final failure. In his suicide, he has deprived his wife of the only thing she ever wanted.
In The Lesson, Miss Moore, a retired teacher who has returned to Harlem to live, takes a group of children to an upscale downtown toy store. These children have never been out of Harlem before and have never ridden in a taxi. Sylvia is given five dollars to pay the taxi fare and a tip, and she is told that she may keep what is left. When they arrive at Schwartz’s Toy Store they see wonderful toys that cost more than any of their family’s annual income.
Sylvia still has four dollars, so she is planning how to keep it. She refuses to let Miss Moor know that she has learned anything, but her friend Sugar betrays her and voices anger that Miss Moore was trying to get them to feel and express at the inequality of life. None of these children actually knew there were people who would, or could, pay more than a thousand dollars for a toy sailboat. Their reality is totally separated from places like Schwartz’s. They would likely not have believed her if Miss Moore had told them about this. But seeing it makes it real. It’s just not their reality and they really do not understand why.
The other reality that separates the children and the Schwartz’s is the idea that they can do anything to change a reality they do not like. At first, the reader might assume that Sylvia has learned the lesson Miss Moore intended. However, this may not be the lesson Sylvia learned at all. All through the story, she calls Miss Moore a stupid bitch and other synonyms. If we understand, as Graves suggested(Graves 214-217), that the narrator is an adult recounting a childhood memory then we have to question this. Why would she still be calling Miss Moore such names if she actually learned the intended lesson, which was to change society by collective action? What we know from the story is that Sylvia understood the intended lesson. We also know she considered the teacher stupid, so we might extend this to the lesson.
If these ghetto children can change reality through collective action then would Sylvia still be so bitter? Perhaps the lesson Sylvia learned was not the one Miss Moore sought to teach. To try to find the answer we have to look at other clues. The first would be the story itself. Why did Slyvia tell this story? Why did she tell it now? What are the possible consequences of the Lesson? Broadly they number five:
Sylvia learned what Miss Moore wanted and became a political activist, successfully changing her world, Harlem and its kind, for the better.
Sylvia learned what Miss Moore wanted and became a political activist, failing at changing her world.
Sylvia learned nothing at all and wishes she did.
Sylvia learned a different lesson, and it has changed her life.
Sugar learned the lesson and Sylvia didn’t. Sugar became a political activist and was changed by it, but left Sylvia behind.
I discount number one because she is still unhappy and number three because she would not have told the story were this the case. Number two is improbable since she would likely tell us more in this case. That leaves four and five, which are [possibly two parts of the same answer. So, I looked back at the text to see what I could find and also at Bambara’s biography seeking any evidence there.
Goodwin gives us a clue when he suggests that we know that Sylvia learned the true lesson because we hear her internal thoughts at the end: “ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin (Bambara 96)”. He reasons that the lesson is about life since she is in a footrace and not running. However, there is another possibility. The lesson might be referring to herself and how she sees things. Goodwin writes:
““anomie,” a sociological term generally credited to Emile Durkheim 129 (Crutchfield and Bates 164). The Encyclopedia of Sociology explains anomie: “[W]hen there existed within a society a disjuncture between the legitimate goals that members of a society were aspiring to and the legitimate means of achieving these goals, then that society was in a state of anomie” (Crutchfield and Bates 165).”
It seems that she has learned that she doesn’t have to play fair. Early in the story she and Sugar discuss things like whether or not they can steal. Then Sylvia keeps the money meant for a tip to the taxi driver. Finally, in the end, Sugar wants to race to Hascombs. Sylvia starts in that direction, causing Sugar to run on ahead, while Sylvia takes her time since she never actually said she was going there. “I’m going to the West End and then over to the Drive to think this day through.” (Bambara 96) Has she learned that winning this war will require more than commitment and more than the standard issue of ammunition? Has she learned that maybe sometimes the end does justify the means?
The final attempt to decode this line was to look up Tony Cade Bambara’s biography. This story was her early work, and she simply published it to get it out of her way. “Bambara told Claudia Tate in an interview published in Black Women Writers at Work that when her agent suggested she assemble some old stories for a book, she thought, ‘Aha, I’ll get the old kid stuff out and see if I can’t clear some space to get into something else.’” We can see that this was early and probably not as mature as her later work. Perhaps she was not yet committed to black and feminist activism. This last line may be an indication that the seeds were there. What it does connect to is Sugar’s earlier statement about equal access to the American Dream. She said it was not fair.
Works Cited
Bambara, Toni Cade. “The Lesson.” Gorilla, My Love. New York: Random, 1972.
The play ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller depicts the affairs between gender associations and dysfunctional family conducts. From the play, failure in relationships is witnessed between Linda and her husband. In this case, Linda acts as if to be concerned about her husband but in actuality; favors to kill him so as to live an easier life. This is because of the way she was being mistreated by him as can be seen from the conversation between Linda and Biff in Act 1. “Things are beginning to change”, Linda told Willy; on another instance; “It seems there is a woman….” Linda says thinking that her husband was having extra marital affairs.
On the other hand in her short story the ‘Weekend’, Ann Beattie outlines one of the key vital disagreements between the key qualities of Lenore and George. In this case, failure in relationships is depicted by the fact that George and Lenore have a kid together and live in the same shelter; yet they have no noticeable relationship. Based on this, the characters of George are depicted as a drunkard old man who seems not to mind anything around him while on the other hand Lenore is portrayed as a ‘simple’ wife who allows her husband outshine her with younger girls. It can also be argued that, even though Lenore is as simple as she could be seen by her husband; she has a lot of feelings within her but does not always show them out. Based on this from the story it can be deduced how Lenore felt; where “Lenore feels that she is like Julie: Julie’s face does not betray emotions even when she is interested and even when she deeply cares”.
Additionally, in the John Updake’s short story ‘Separating’, the author creates a textual depiction of the biased experience of family division. From the story it can be seen that, Richard and Joan have been living with problems for a long time and the only solution to their problems was through separation. It can further be seen from the story that Richard revealed a comment to Joan saying that, “they never questioned the reasons we gave. No thought of a third person”. In this case, Richard articulates his respite that may be their children did not suppose the fact that, one of their parents was unfaithful.
From his novel ‘The Slaughterhouse-Five’, Vonnegut explains the importance of wars in humans’ life. In this case, the novel outlines that wars and tragedies are everywhere where the universe is destroyed in the attempt of testing spaceship fuels. It is indicated in the novel that people ignore wars because they are part of their lives. From the Vonnegut’s statements in chapter, “writing a book on antiviolence is like writing an anti-glacier book”; which meant that warfare is inevitable. It can further be argued from Vonnegut’s statements that the belief in violence is inevitable and that ignoring violence is improper, when humans are guided by their free will. Importantly, wars and violence are used as a punishment to wrong doers through horror, death and destruction and hence America cannot stay without wars. One of the main themes in the Vonnegut’s novel is fatalism which explains that violence and wars are subjugated to fate and not free will. In this case, Vonnegut outlines that American violence is inevitable since it is brought about by inevitable predetermination. On the other hand Mamet in the ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ portrayed the violent and frantic sales strategies used by a group of salesmen; to press on valueless Florida real estate on unwary buyers. In this case, one of the Goldman vending necessitated working under the gun to vend collateral as the window on the market for security arrears compulsion was speedily closing. This can be used to indicate that, violence in America is for gain and cannot be evaded as long as one has to gain something.
Further in the Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Vladek clarifies to his son the process for ‘Selektionen at Auschwitz the horrifying episodic bodily assessments; in which prisoners were arranged according to those who seemed competent for executing further slave labor. In this case, those who were considered to be weak were killed in the gas chambers. Based on this novel it can be argued that, the past still affects the present as it is indicated that survivors would not want their children to face the same problems they had. This is because one compares the past with the present, where the visual representation of a current site of oral recitations of the precedent to a visual representation of the narrated moment of the past itself. From the story it can be seen that, there was linkage of the two episodes between the past and the present inform of narration. This can be used to indicate that, the past still affects the present. In this case, the two characters of Vladek as young and old come into view to illuminate the differences between the past and the present. It can further be argued that, the past affects the present because in the narration; visual representations distinguished the disparities between Holocaust experience and the modern lives of the survivor and his son. In this case, the comic images of the Maus more willingly than obviously distinguishing the past and the present; add to a problem in which the past and the present are closely unified. Further, it seems hard to disconnect the present and the past as the past is exposed as constitutive of the present and the present makes burdens on the ways in which the past is portrayed.
Additionally, ‘the Negro Speaks of Rivers’ poem of Hughes talks of rivers that are elements of God’s body and are connected with the black olden times. In this case, the way blacks were treated during slavery indicated that they should die; but the analogy of the rivers represents the blacks as enduring forever. Based on this, the black man has witnessed the rise and collapse of all societies from the ancient times and is bound to survive even in America. It can further be argued that, ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ poem signed the survival of a spiritualist amalgamation of negroes in every country and every age. From this it can be argued that, the Negroes present still reminds them about their past and hence their past affects their present in America. In this case, this poem reminds the Negroes about their past in Africa where there were no racial differences among the blacks and the whites. Based on this it can be argued that, the blacks’ past where there; where there were no racial differences remembered in their present.
Arthur Miller wrote brilliant plays which reflected the world of the middle of the twentieth century. He managed to reveal vices and virtues of people who lived in the American society of those days. Admittedly, Death of a Salesman is one of his best works.
One of the central themes in this play is the life of little people and “the tension between little people and big issues” (Popkin 35). Many critics agree that the protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, is one of these little people who fail to solve big issues. Martin agrees that Loman is a little man who tries to solve big issues (97).
However, the researcher argues that this little man is capable of heroic deeds (or at least one heroic deed), which can help him to solve the big issues (101). Nonetheless, this is one of the biggest miscomprehensions as Willy Loman cannot be regarded as a hero. His final act cannot be regarded as a heroic deed as it can only be seen as an attempt of a little person to find the way out which is as little as the little man himself.
Merits of Martin’s Arguments
It is important to note that Martin does state that Miller’s protagonist is a little person struggling against the cruelties of the world (99). The researcher also claims that this is one of the most significant peculiarities of Millers works.
Miller was one of those who changed perceptions of the heroes. In ancient times (as well as in the following centuries) only heroic deeds and courageous people were glorified (Martin 97). More so, only such people were regarded as worthy characters for literary works.
However, Miller reflects the world he lives in. Admittedly, the society consists of little people. Thus, Popkin stresses that Miller makes sure that his people are “sufficiently small” and the protagonist of the play under consideration is “labeled a little man by his name” (35).
The society of the twentieth century is revealed in the play. Miller mentions that Loman is “past sixty”, he is “dressed quietly” and “his exhaustion is apparent” (Miller 12). The playwright depicts one of the major characteristics of little people who are tired of the struggle as they can hardly win.
It is necessary to note that the littleness of the protagonist is obvious and no critic can ignore it. This is also one of the major features of Loman’s character. Therefore, all critics should (or even have to) agree upon the fact that Loman is a little person.
Martin dwells upon Loman’s littleness in detail and this is one of the major merits of the critic’s article. Nonetheless, Martin argues that Loman is one of those little people who manage to win as they perform a heroic deed (97).
Did Loman Perform a Heroic Deed?
Martin states that Loman does act heroically as he sacrifices his life to help his sons to succeed (101). The researcher claims that
Willy’s death serves to underscore the point that the capacity to act is considered more noble and heroic than one’s limited capacity to live in harmony with a mechanistic society that eventually destroys by entropy. (Martin 103)
However, suicide cannot be regarded as a heroic deed as it is more likely to be the least effortful act. These effortless acts are usually done by little people who do not see another way out. In the very beginning the protagonist states: “I’m tired to death” (Miller 13). Of course, this can be seen as a figure of speech.
However, these words reflect the inner world of Willy. He is already prepared to die. He admits that he is (figuratively speaking) at the death’s door. Thus, it is possible to state that he does not come to the decision to sacrifice his life through some psychological struggle. He already sees his death as one of the ways out. Notably, there is little to be done to die. Death presupposes fewer movements than living and struggling, and eventually succeeding.
It is also important to note that the playwright gives various hints throughout the play. These hints suggest that Loman, being a little man, cannot accept the reality as it is. He strives to live in an unreal world of his dreams and memories. Of course, these memories and even dreams cannot be productive.
One of these hints is the light. Thus, Willy contemplates his son’s sport achievements and his glorious times. He dreams and articulates: “God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star that, magnificent, can never really fade away!” (Miller 68).
However, Miller recreates the reality with the help of the fading light which shows that little people, even if they occasionally become stars, disappear leaving only some memories behind them:
The light on Willy is fading. The gas heater begins to glow through the kitchen wall, near the stairs, a blue flame beneath red coils” (Miller 68).
This idea of Willy’s inner world is another confirmation of the fact that he is none of hero and he is incapable of performing heroic deeds. Willy talks to his diseased brother. He is surrounded by his memories which enter his consciousness now and then. Miller creates the randomness of memories and dreams with the help of the characters’ appearance on the stage as they enter Willy’s house without using doors.
He is incapable of any actions in the real world any more. He chooses to wonder about and think of his past and dream of his sons’ future. He does not see himself as a part of their future. He is distant. Willy could perform some heroic deeds as he could try to encourage his sons to listen to their hearts instead of trying to follow someone’s dreams and adopt someone’s ways. However, he chooses another simpler way.
He simply abandons his family, the real world. Of course, he leaves some financial aid to his children. However, he fails to give them something more important. Even though they could become heroic little people, Willy does not give them useful tips to succeed. He chooses the simplest way – just to die without necessity to be the support and model for his children.
Conclusion
It is possible to note that Martin reveals the major characteristic feature of Willy Loman. This is one of little people who lived in the middle of the twentieth century. However, the researcher states that this little person performed a heroic deed when he sacrificed his life to help his sons to succeed. However, his suicide should not be seen as a heroic deed as he simply chose the easiest way. His death was not a heroic deed.
On the contrary, a heroic deed would be living his life trying to encourage his sons to choose the right path. This heroic deed could help his sons to be happy little people. What Loman achieved was sorrow of his wife and his sons who were still unable to use the “prize”.
Works Cited
Martin, Robert A. “The Nature of Tragedy in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”.” South Atlantic Review 61.4 (1996): 97-106. Print.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism. New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1971. Print.
Popkin, Henry. “Arthur Miller: The Strange Encounter.” The Sewanee Review 68.1 (1960): 34-60. Print.
Death of a Salesman revolves around the life of Willy Loman, who lives with his wife and two sons, and works as a salesman (Miller 2). His career has been very successful, and he is one of the trusted salesmen in his company. The play starts with a tired Loman heading home from a business trip. He informs his wife that he has returned home earlier than expected as he had canceled his trip. He offers no reason as to why he canceled the trip.
Loman is disappointed to still find his son, Biff, at home. He had many expectations for Biff, who, however, failed mathematics in high school and, in turn, missed placement in college. Loman believes that Biff has wasted time and money, and is throwing his life away. He dreams that Biff becomes a successful salesman like himself. Biff, on the other hand, has an unclear hatred towards his father. Loman challenges him in front of his brother, Happy, accusing Biff of being lazy. To defend himself, Biff lies to his father that he has a potential business meeting the very next day. As they are talking, Loman drifts off daydreaming. His sons believe that he must be losing his mind.
The next day, Loman and Biff both leave home at the same time. Loman heads to his workplace while Biff goes to a former employer to look for work. Loman ends up getting fired from his job as a salesman as his bosses believe he can no longer represent the company well (Miller 72). He is informed that he is not focused and has become very indecisive, characteristics that have affected his ability to sell any product from the company. Loman is disillusioned. He always thought he would be the best salesman of all time, but his dream was shattered when he got fired. At the same time, his son fails to secure a business loan and partner.
Loman decides to visit his neighbor, Charlie, who helps him get life insurance. Loman openly admits that being dead is worth more than being alive. Charlie is shocked by the revelation but does not inquire further. As he speaks with Charlie, he realizes that it is his past mistakes that encouraged Biff to become a failure. Charlie reminds him that Biff found him having sex with his assistant back when Biff was in high school. Loman had lied to his family that he would be away for a business meeting. The trauma made Biff hate his father. He did not want to turn into his father, so, he failed in high school so that he could not go to college and be a salesman like his father.
In the evening, Loman, Biff and Happy meet for dinner, where an argument between Biff and Loman ensues (BookCaps Study Guides Staff 1). Biff and Happy leave Loman and return home with two girls. At home, their mother is angry that they left their father alone. When Loman arrives, he and Biff decide to talk things through. By the end of the talk, Loman believes that Biff has forgiven him. He feels terrible that he ruined his son’s life and made the decision to kill himself, and direct his life insurance money to Biff. The last scene of the play is Loman’s funeral. He committed suicide, and the life insurance money was given to Biff.
Works Cited
BookCaps Study Guides Staff. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. BookCaps, 2011.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Dramatists Play Service, 1980.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie were created with an interval of 9 years. Besides this, these two plays have much in common in terms of their subject and composition. That is why it is interesting to compare the details of the two stories, and the peculiarities of both dramas’ actions.
Both plays touch on the issues of losing sense of reality and living in the bondage of wrong dreams and illusions. Although it is often said, that one has the right to be what he wants, tough reality forces an individual to adapt his dreams and goals to the general flow of life. If he fails to do it, the life “rubs him off”.
The action of both plays is focused on the destinies of such “dreamers” and their families. Protagonist of the Miller’s play, 63-year old Willy Loman lives inside his memories and dreams about his son’s future. His life is devoted to eternal financial struggles, where he shows his incapacity all the time. Willy was terminated after thirty-four years of working, which confirms that during all his life, he did not manage to achieve anything and to build a stable future for himself and his family. He meets his old years in misery and despair, struggling for survival.
Amanda from The Glass Menagerie seems to be a pragmatist, a self-confident and reliable mother. In some incredible way, she combines these features with complete helplessness, having lost her touch with reality. She is eager to find a suitor for her daughter and puts strong efforts to do this.
Willy’s incapacity affected the destiny of his children, who initially showed big potential, but in effect did not achieve much in their lives. As well, Amanda’s son tried to escape from his boring reality, spending free time watching movies. Her daughter Laura was also influenced by Amanda’s unusual personality, having become a shy, weak-willed dreamer. Her glass unicorn is a symbol of their helplessness and fragility.
Another issue that makes the two plays similar is the protagonists’ diligent and eager attempts to survive and help their children. From the outside, they both seem entrepreneurial and smart. Amanda makes her best to settle her daughter’s personal life; Willy also works hard to deal with his problems. However, the attempts of both characters seem miserable, as they imply only chaotic useless actions with no result.
What makes two protagonists different is their attitude to their failures. Amanda stays confident in her rightfulness and looks to the future; Willy plunges into his memories and tries to analyze what we did wrong:
No wonder Willy shouts out his name. He is listening for an echo. No wonder he researches desperately back through his life for evidence of the moment he took a wrong path… (Miller VII).
The characters’ attitude to time has been embodied in the composition of both dramas’ actions.
Time is performed in two plays in somewhat different ways. The play of Williams is “a memory play”, where the present and the past are separated. The whole story is devoted to the young years of the narrator, Tom.
We can also see some information about the family’s life before the moment of the story; however, it is shown mainly through the characters’ dialogues. The past is performed in the play as a shadow, a kind of background that makes the audience better understand the characters.
In Death of a Salesman, the past has filled the whole space of Willy’s thoughts and his real life. This includes the stages of Willy’s memories, and his dialogues with his invisible interlocutors.
This has defined the difference between organizing space in two performances. In Miller’s drama, space is used to “delimit” the past and the present:
Whenever the action is in the present the actors observe the imaginary wall-lines, entering the house only through its door at the left. But in the scenes of the past these boundaries are broken and characters enter or leave a room by stepping ‘through’ a wall onto the forestage (Styan 118).
The action in Death of a Salesman is a flow of the protagonist’s consciousness: the audience watches his story not from the outside, but as with his own eyes. This makes the storytelling persuasive and clear.
Miller’s playsets a task for the director and designer to make the space of the stage flexible and easy, fulfilling a role of conductor of Willy’s thoughts. Not accidentally, Miller remarked that while writing the play, he imagined the stage as an absolutely empty space (Murphy 10).
Despite the story told on the stage is limited by 24 hours, Miller’s play implies transformations that are difficult to fulfill: first, the action is not limited to Willy’s house, it takes place in the graveyard, hotel room, business office; at the same time, several stages show Willy’s house many years ago. Some performances of the play were organized as follows: Willy’s house occupied the whole background, and other scenes were placed at the forestage (Murphy 17).
In Williams’s play, the space of narration is limited with the characters’ flat. At least two of three classic unities of drama, unity of space and unity of action, are followed in the play. In The Glass Menagerie, the space is organized more traditionally. In some performances, the walls may disappear when it is necessary to show the action in the neighboring room or outside the flat.
Amanda’s dialogues are full of self-confidence. She manages to put all the responsibility for their miseries onto others’ shoulders:
That’s right, now that you’ve had us make such fools of ourselves. The effort, the preparations, all the expense…Go to the movies, go! Don’t think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job! Don’t let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure… (Williams 95).
Willy’s dialogues with his family members show him to the audience as an aggressive man. He often shouts at Linda, especially in the presence of their sons. However, before calling Willy a cruel person, it is necessary to understand his initial motives. He has spent all his life trying to make the destiny of his family better. Seeing no result of his effort, Willy becomes annoyed and desperate, shouting at his closest people. As a result, it seems that his wrongdoings outweigh the good things he has done for his family. Nevertheless, his aggression differs from Amanda’s self-confident exclamations: he shouts helplessly, understanding personal misery. The tone of Willy’s dialogues to his family changes according to his mood, as he is “a bleeding mass of contradictions” (Miller XVI).
However, Amanda’s and Willy’s dialogues have much in common: both characters are full of eagerness to help their children and to be good parents in their eyes:
My devotion has made me a witch and so I make myself hateful to my children! (Williams 30).
Williams shows the peculiarity of the relations between a mother and a son through the contrast in their phrasing: the mother’s speech is emotional and full of exclamations, while Tom’s answers are short and dry.
Not accidentally, in the preface, Amanda is described as a woman who has “endurance and a kind of heroism” (Williams XVIII). No doubt, both characters deserve this title of heroes owing to their efforts and devotion.
Bibliography
Miller, Arthur, and Christopher Bigsby. Death of a salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York, NY: Penguin, 1998. Print.
Murphy, Brenda. Death of a Salesman. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.
Styan, J.L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Expressionism and Epic Theatre. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Print.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.