Death of a Salesman: Overview
Tragedy in the Modern World
Context
o Arthur Miller
o sig modern (20th Century) American playwrights
o born: 1915
o dead: 2005
o Jewish-American parentage
Parents business collapsed in the Great depression (1930s)
We are able to pick up links from this traumatic event and the themes in his
plays
o His 1st broadway play: The Man Who Had All the Luck
Had a whopping 4 performances before closing
o More of his pieces
All my Sons (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
The Crucible (1953)
A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956)
And an autobiography – Timebends (1987
Note: modernity is not modernism
o Modernity: state of being modern (perpetually renewed)
o Modernism: time-bound movement of the 20th Century
o Beings in Europe and makes its way to America
o ±1890s until post WW2 (post 1945)
o Umbrella term for movements such as symbolism, impressionism, post-impressionism,
imagism, expressionism and surrealism
o Didn’t only occur in literature but also in other arts – painting, sculptures and music
o Characteristics
o Opposition to traditional forms and to the aesthetic perceptions associated with
those forms
o Writers and artists didn’t want to be bound by the rules that had established other
time and governed the arts. They wanted to try new and different ways of writing
novels, poems or dramas or of composing music or painting pictures
o ؞making it very experimental, especially with regards to form(structure)
o Different disciplines characterised one another
o Writer’s influence: development in psychology (especially the work of Sigmund
Freud), in anthropology (re-discovery of significant myths), and even physics
(Einstein’s theory indicating possible manipulation of time)
o Transcends hegemonic, Western theorisations of the ‘the Modernism Movement’
o Various geographical settings and variants
o Decolonial African Modernism
o African American Modernism of the Harlem Renaissance
o Chinese Modernism of the so-called ‘New Sensationists’
, o Due to all these factors, Morden texts are often difficult to read and understand
because of the experimental nature of the work – authors trying to re-define the
experience of reading
o Set after WW2, Europe is in ruins, and America is on the rise, its path to becoming a
superpower
o Explores what it means for a family to be trapped and miserable within a system that they
think reps freedom and happiness
o They are in a space of ruthless competition
o System that functions off of built-in inequality
Act One
A melody is heard, played upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling of grass and trees and the horizon. Commented [NTM1]: Not what we expected. Not the
The curtain rises. sounds associated with the American Dream
Before us is the salesman’s house. We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind it, surrounding
it on all sides. Only the blue light of the sky falls upon the house and forestage; the surrounding area
shows an angry glow of orange. As more light appears, we see a solid vault of apartment houses Commented [NTM2]: Indicating that they are under
around the small, fragile-seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out threat. Orange is a bright colour, like fire
of reality. The kitchen at center seems actual enough, for there is a kitchen table with three chairs,
and a refrigerator. But no other fixtures are seen. At the back of the kitchen there is a draped
entrance, which leads to the living-room. To the right of the kitchen, on a level raised two feet, is a
bedroom furnished only with a brass bedstead and a straight chair. On a shelf over the bed a silver
athletic trophy stands. A window opens on to the apartment house at the side
[…]
[From the right, Willy loman, the Salesman, enters, carrying two large sample cases. The flute plays
on. He hears but is not aware of it. He is past sixty years of age, dressed quietly. Even as he crosses
the stage to the doorway of the house, his exhaustion is apparent. He unlocks the door, comes into
the kitchen, and thankfully lets his burden down, feeling the soreness of his palms. A word-sigh
escapes his lips—it might be ‘‘Oh, boy, oh, boy.’’ He closes the door, then carries his cases out into
the living-room, through the draped kitchen doorway. Linda, his wife, has stirred in her bed at the
right. She gets out and puts on a robe, listening. Most often jovial, she has developed an iron
,repression of her exceptions to Willy’s behavior—she more than loves him, she admires him, as Commented [NTM3]: Willy is not to be relied on, he has a
though his mercurial nature, his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as ‘mercurial’
sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him, longings which she shares but lacks the
temperament to utter and follow to their end.]
Things to note
o We learn about LINDA (50s housewife vibes)
o A woman who is dependent on her husband
o Must think of herself only in term of her husband’s needs
o Key words: Repression, supress
o Bigby (1998:xii-xiii)
[…]
[dialogue starts]
Linda [hearing Willy outside the bedroom, calls with some trepidation]: Willy!
Willy: It’s all right. I came back.
Linda: Why? What happened? [Slight pause.] Did something happen, Willy?
Willy: No, nothing happened.
Linda: You didn’t smash the car, did you?
Willy [with casual irritation]: I said nothing happened. Didn’t you hear me?
Linda: Don’t you feel well? Commented [NTM4]: Concern
Willy: I’m tired to the death. [The flute has faded away. He sits on the bed beside her, a little
numb.] I couldn’t make it. I just couldn’t make it, Linda.
Linda [very carefully, delicately]: Where were you all day? You look terrible.
ACT ONE 3
Willy: I got as far as a little above Yonkers. I stopped for a cup of coffee. Maybe it was the
coffee. Commented [NTM5]: excuse
Linda: What?
Willy [after a pause]: I suddenly couldn’t drive any more. The car kept going off on to the
shoulder, y’know?
, Linda [helpfully]: Oh. Maybe it was the steering again. I don’t think Angelo knows the Commented [NTM6]: another excuse
Studebaker.
Willy: No, it’s me, it’s me. Suddenly I realize I’m goin’ sixty miles an hour and I don’t Commented [NTM7]: he has to state it directly
remember the last five minutes. I’m—I can’t seem to—keep my mind to it.
Linda: Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses
Things to note
o Course language – at the time it would have been shocking in the realism
o To modern audiences it isn’t that unusual
o Text is open to criticism because it is not set as sacred, there is a belief that the readers have
their own moral compass
o There is a clear trend
o Willy is trying to share some serious news, and Linda is already trying to supress the
knowledge of this news (scared maybe??) both recommend superficial remedies
(steering of the car, glasses)
Willy: No, I see everything. I came back ten miles an hour. It took me nearly four hours from Yonkers.
Linda [resigned]: Well, you’ll just have to take a rest, Willy, you can’t continue this way. Commented [NTM8]: more excuses, maybe you’re tired
Willy: I just got back from Florida.
Linda: But you didn’t rest your mind. Your mind is overactive, and the mind is what counts, dear.
Willy: I’ll start out in the morning. Maybe I’ll feel better in the morning. [She is taking off his shoes.]
These goddam arch supports are killing me.
Linda: Take an aspirin. Should I get you an aspirin? It’ll soothe you. Commented [NTM9]: asking permission
Willy [with wonder]: I was driving along, you understand? And I was fine. I was even observing the
scenery. You can imagine, me looking at scenery, on the road every week of my life. But it’s so
beautiful up there, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm. I opened the windshield and
just let the warm air bathe over me. And then all of a sudden I’m goin’ off the road! I’m tellin’ ya, I
absolutely forgot I was driving. If I’d’ve gone the other way over the white line I might’ve killed
somebody. So I went on again—and five minutes later I’m dreamin’ again, and I nearly—[He 4
DEATH OF A SALESMAN presses two fingers against his eyes.] I have such thoughts, I have such
strange thoughts.
Linda: Willy, dear. Talk to them again. There’s no reason why you can’t work in New York.
Willy: They don’t need me in New York. I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England.
Linda: But you’re sixty years old. They can’t expect you to keep traveling every week. Commented [NTM10]: another excuse, you work too far
Willy: I’ll have to send a wire to Portland. I’m supposed to see Brown and Morrison tomorrow
morning at ten o’clock to show the line. Goddammit, I could sell them! [He starts putting on his
jacket.] Commented [NTM11]: You can see the imaginative part
of him taking over his external reality again, excitement
picking up.
He starts putting on his jacket, in his mind he already has to
go see Brown and Morrison
