Death Of A Salesman

English Bookreview 'Death of Salesman'

1)Structure

The play is chronologically presented but it has a whole lot of flashbacks which make it confusing. While watching it, you get the impression that months, maybe even years, pass but actually from the beginning to the end, the play only cover 2 days and one night; Act One being the first day (and night) and Act Two the second (and Willy's last) day. But all the memory scenes, flashbacks and hallucinations in between make it look much longer and make it hard for the spectator to puzzle a complete picture of the story without messing up past and present.

The past plays a very important role in this play because it forms the basis of Willy's depression and the start of his scattered dreams and bad relationship with Biff. If we wouldn't know anything of what happened between father and son, it is virtually impossible to understand the play.

The constantly changing atmosphere during the play is also mainly decided by flashbacks or memories to the past that seem to always influence his mood.

Although all flashbacks have in common that they are happening in Willy's mind and that he usually plays the central character in them, we can defer different types. First there are the memories; these are times during the play where we stay in the present but Willy seems to suddenly remember certain things from the past and sort of dreams away thinking about it, but the scenery doesn't change.

Willy: 'Me? I didn't. (He stops.) Now isn't that peculiar! Isn't that remarkable - (He breaks off in amazement and fright as the flute is heard distantly.)

Linda: 'What dear?'

Willy: I was thinking pf the Chevvy. Nineteen twenty-eight...when I had that red Chevvy - (Breaks off) I coulda sworn I was driving the Chevvy today.

Secondly there are the 'real' flashbacks in which Willy is so caught up in his dreams that he takes us back in time and the whole scenery changes. These are usually crucial moments (e.g. when Biff walks into Willy's hotel room in Boston to find him with the woman) or happy family moments when the future still looks prosperous, especially for Biff.

Often, Arthur Miller uses a combination of the first and second type of flashback to accentuate Willy's problem; first his thoughts fade away and drift to the past, and slowly the whole scenery changes.

Willy, smiling broadly to a kitchen chair, is gradually addressing -physically- a point off stage, speaking through the kitchenwall...A Young Biff appears on stage;..

This clearly shows Willy's confused mind, longing back to the past.

Then there is a third type of flashback, which is actually not a flashback but more of a hallucination. Here Willy imagines himself talking to his brother Ben as if they were in present. Ben represents a sort of advisor here, someone who is there to point out to Willy that he has to make himself a future. These hallucinations don't have much to do with the structure though, but they can be confused for flashbacks, which they aren't.

Overall, the play has a complicated time structure which changes every few pages, but makes the story more interesting to read because we want to find out more about Willy's past.

2) Foreshadowing

Already in the first scene we take notice of Willy's depression as he talks to Linda about his bad experiences on the road and his hate towards this concrete city. As soon as we confront him mumbling to himself, the audience notices that there is something seriously going wring in his mind. This thought continues as he tells his boys (in his flashback) that he is a great salesman, loved by everyone, to contradict himself a bit later to Linda, admitting people ignore him and seem to not take on him. We can expect from this flashback that this man has problems with his personality, accepting himself as he is and not as something greater, and with his dreams.

Linda also talks to Biff and Happy about the rubber pipe she found in the cellar. This prepares the audience that something horrible might happen, suggesting suicide, as Willy seems to have tried it before or has wanted to do so.

From the start on we know about some kind of tension between Biff and Willy, but it is not quiet clear what has caused this. The audience knows about Willy and this woman, but we don't know that this is Biffs problem. Only from small remarks we notice that this secret about this woman might be not known by Willy alone. For example when Linda tells her boys about a woman on the street saying Willy deliberately smashed his car into a railing, Biff immediately reacts to the word 'woman' as if he was scared that his mom might know anything about this secret affaire. (p.46) This is a very small remark, but the play contains many of these 'hidden' references which, if you read the play carefully, give quiet some foreshadowing.

3) Technical elements

Before having seen the play I really wondered how they would make these flashbacks come out clearly without confusing the audience. I have to say that I think that all stage effects were very very well done and I loved the way the floor segments turned, showing different parts of the house or subtly bringing characters into or out of sight. Concerning the flashbacks, I think that his also was very well brought forwards, showing the spectators that Willy is losing himself in his mind and that we are not in present time anymore. This was mainly done by fade lights, half-see-through curtains and a bit of smoke. Also the mysterious music made it clear that something unusual was about to happen. Of course it helped having read the play on forehand and I'm not sure whether I would have been able to follow all of it without having known anything on the play and the characters. But it seemed to me all pretty well worked out and I thought that all special effects were very well done.

Especially the turning stage and the see-through curtains gave the play that little extra which probably wasn't possible in the time that Arthur Millers play was performed for the first time.

Of course the flute music plays an important role in the setting also because symbolises Willy's past and therefore better times. Every time he gets a flashback, we hear this flute in the background. This also is one of the things you don't notice on stage if you haven't read the play on forehand. But overall I think that the technical effects made the play much more interesting.