Death Of A Salesman Imagery Analysis

How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).

Willy promises to take his boys on business and show them all of the towns in New England and introduce them to the finest people. This shows how there once was a time when Willy payed attention to what his kids were doing and had a realistic plan for himself but as time went on his plan drifted farther away from his grasp. The significance of this flashback is to point out Willy’s tragic flaw and how it affects his daily life and his family’s daily life. This shows how Willy thinks his responsibility is to make his family think he is going to make it big but his weakness is that he cannot reach that dream because he is not well-liked. Another flashback Miller uses is when Willy talks about is his brother

Miller being a modern writer, he did use imagery in his style of writing. In Death of a Salesman, while reading the book, we encounter images over some acts that help us in a better understanding of the themes. These images also help show characters’ personal belongings and features, as well. Willy Loman, being the main character obviously is the one our main character, is obviously the one who had been portrayed with most images in the play. One of the most noticeable ones is the image of the car. This was the period when cars represented the symbol of being wealthy, but Miller used the car to symbolize his career. Willy’s job is mostly based on driving, which means that hos life depends on that. We can see how much effort Willy puts on his job as a salesman when his wife says that “he drives seven hundred miles” (40).

In the story "The Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck, imagery is important in the development of his characters. The man who drives the wagon and fixes things is a perfect example of imagery. "His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark, and they were full of the

Willy undermines her authority with the boys. He denies any negative comments out of her mouth when their children are discussed. He interrupts her. He shouts at her. Linda reacts with veiled hostility to Willy?s disrespect. She laughs at the idea of planting a garden, pointing to Willy?s past failures at growing a garden. Every time Linda pokes at his failures, she is retaliating against Willy?s failures and the fact that she has been pulled into Willy?s dead end dream against her will.

Imagery is one of the components that were used by Edwards to make his story more persuasive. As the short story begins, the first sentence was an example of imagery. Edwards wrote when men are on God’s hands and they could fall to hell. “…natural men are held in the hands of God, over the pit of hell…” Knowing that you might fall into hell at any moment should scare you. God decided to save you until he wants to let you fall into an eternity of burning

In Theatre Mitu’s “hyper-theatrical” production of “Death of A Salesman” by Arthur Miller many aspects were added to heighten the messages and morals of the story about the American Dream. One major choice was the use of objects to signify characters as well as add to characters. Willy carried a empty, open briefcase. Linda carried a sun parasol. Biff carried football gear. All the other characters are objects themselves. Happ is a punching bag. Charley is a refrigerator door, and Bernard is a bug repellent light. The Women is a fan. Ben is a big light, and the waiter is a champagne bucket. Almost all of the characters excluding Biff, Willy, and Linda are recording voices which creates a degree of separation from the outside world. Happ is somewhere in between by being an actor with a microphone.

        Willy is like an impetuous youngster with high ideals and high hopes.  Children always have high hopes for their

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses motifs and symbols to express some of the problems of the main character, Willy. Miller motivates Willy to start a garden in the backyard of his apartment, even though the garden won’t grow. This showed Willy to be the type who does not accept defeat, as he believes he can grow a garden, but to the reader, it’s obvious that he can’t. Although filled with the desire to grow a garden in order to start anew, Willy is unable to do so due to his apartment and his thoughts.

The play begins with Willy as the antagonist, fighting with his wife Linda and a generally mean person. He insults his sons and scolds Linda for buying the wrong cheese. Willy shows his biggest personality flaws early on in the story; contradicting his own thoughts, being verbally abusive, and showing his over developed sense of pride. Willy loses

Willy is also fired from his long time job. He feels abandoned by his boss and snubbed after all his long years of hard work. Perhaps the most damaging abandonment in Willy’s life is from that of his sons. All these factors combined attribute to Willy’s feelings that a he is worth more dead than alive. Consequently Willy makes many failed attempts at committing suicide. Ironically he does so many times by inhaling gas through a rubber tube. This is ironic being that gas is used to provide an essential element of comfort he struggles to provide his family. Willy is metaphorically and literally being killed by the gas particles. In the end Willy is successful in his last suicide attempt. He has reached bottom low and feels he is truly worth more to his family dead than alive. Throughout this play, Miller uses Willy’s failed goal of reaching the American Dream to show the effects of abandonment on the ability of Willy to decipher reality from fiction, the toll on his family, and his fragile emotional state.

In the play once Willy realises he has failed he puts all his hope in

Willy’s obsession with success leads to the start of him living in his own fantasy world. He lives in the past, for there was hope for him then, but now he is completely subject to failure. Willy’s demise could have been avoided had he changed his dream, and had he not conformed to society. In the end his dream did not pay off, and he ultimately fell victim to the American Dream, and the deceitful ideals of freedom that factored into the

Imagery plays a big part in describing the character’s appearance and actions in order to show what a character is like and how they respond to differing situations. It can also shape the story and reveal to the reader the background of a person, place, or thing. In Krapp’s Last Tape, the only character is given much detail and description in order to start the play at a point where the reader already knows some information about this elderly man. The literary convention of imagery provides insight into the character that will lead the play.

Willy wants to be well-liked and successful as he used in the past. As he says to his sons " bigger than uncle Charley! .Because Charley is not liked. He is liked, but not well liked". Also, he is searching to find the right path and the problem is that there is no right path. Moreover, he suffers from a mass of contradictions. This is so declared through his speech " I `m very well liked in Hatford, the trouble is, Linda, people don`t seem to talk to me" (I.45). Howard refuses to provide Willy with a job in New York, so he protests" you can`t eat the orange and throw the peel away a man is not a piece of fruit"