Dramatic Technique in Death of a Salesman

In the first act, Miller introduces Willy Loman (salesman), and Linda Loman (Willy’s wife) first. In this scene, Willy comes home early from the road and claims he wasn’t feeling. Linda fixes him something to eat but when he sits to eat he ends up talking to his flashbacks. In the flashbacks, He is in a hotelroom with another women. The women is revealed to be his mistress when they kiss and he hands her a pair of stockings. Willy uses this mistress to become “well-liked”with the buyers connected to the mistress. Then Willy comes back to reality and finds his wife mending old stockings back together. This makes him mad and begs Linda to stop mending them in front of him. After he cleans up his meal, he daydreams about his sons, Biff and Happy, who had just finished washing their father’s car after Willy has just returned from a sales trip. When Biff tells Willy that he “borrowed” a football from the locker room to practice, Willy laughs at him and whispers that “he will soon open a bigger business than his successful neighbor Uncle Charley because Charley is not as “well liked” as he is.” Willy is very happy in the flashback because he believes that his son is “well-liked” and will do well in the

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, bashes at the problems created by Willy Loman. He struggles to live a satisfying life and portrays a dysfunctional state of mind that negatively affects his family as a result of his bipolar disorder. This failed salesman dreaming the American dream can barely think for himself, let alone dream a dream. As supportive as Willy’s family can be, they prove to have hardships when Willy is unstable and constantly going through mood swings. To make matters worse, Willy also experiences delusional thoughts that act as a disturbance to his daily life. In Death of a Salesman, Willy portrays the symptoms of bipolar disorder, establishing

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

In the play “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, the primary theme can be seen as a conflict between man and society. In which the ambition to achieve the “American Dream” controls the life of Willy Loman and the influences he has. When success is not reached, sends Willy’s mind on a mental ride.

“Death of a Salesman “ by Arthur Miller is interpreted differently by many people.  In the critical review titled “Family Values in Death of a Salesman” by Steve R. Centola, he characterizes Death of the Salesman as am a modern tragedy. He draws more focus on the family core values and self-exert.  In his analysis, he states that as the humans try to be competitive, they have dehumanized the American dream and have turned it into an urban nightmare. He claims that the author simply tells a story of a dying man who wants to justify the purpose of his life before he meets his death. He states that the consequences of his choices are a challenge he has to overcome to attain what he needs. Centola points out that through the realization of what Willy Loman values, it is easy to discover the reason for the conflict between him and Biff. He refers to Death of a Salesman as a tragedy of a human struggle that is rooted in the metaphysical and also based on the social and psychological concerns. He also asserts that by discussing the values of Willy Loman, readers will be able to identify the reasons behind Willy’s agenda to perform suicide.

Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I

Willy is offered help by his friend Charley, a successful Business man, Willies all time friend and only friends he has left, when Charley offers Willy a job, yet willy full of pride and envious of Charley rejects it yet does not rejects it but continues to borrow money from him. This is due to Willies flaw in his desire of being higher in society than anyone else.Willy cannot let go of the past and continuously refers to 1928, when his career was at its peak. His withdrawal into the past is a defense mechanism as he refuses to come to terms with his failure as a salesman. His illusions of grandeur lead to fierce exaggerations of himself. He tells Biff to "Go to Filene's go to the Hub, go to Slattery's, Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!" (Miller, 62). He refuses to realize his personal failures and falsely believes that he is successful. Memories of a happier past Willy losing a grip on reality and on time escapes into the past. Despite his desperate searching through his past, The deep probing of dreams and memories in Death of A Salesman where quite important in illustrating Miller's point. Willy is a man stuck in the past reminiscing about times when things where good fabrication of those times really were as good as he imagines them to be? Like his inflated dreams of the future, the past may well be embellished by Willy's wild imagination. It seems

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

The lives of the Loman’s from beginning to end seems troubling, the play is centered on trying to be successful or trying to be happy, and the sacrifice which must be made of one to achieve the other. The environment that these characters live in encourages them to pursue the American dream, which can be said to devalue happiness through the pursuit of material success. Death of A Salesman written by Arthur Miller has several themes that run through the play, one of the most obvious is the constant striving for success. Willy Loman put his family through endless torture because of his search for a successful life. Willy, Biff, and Happy are chasing the American dream instead of examining themselves

A major theme and source of conflict throughout Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is the Loman family's inability to distinguish between reality and illusion.  This is particularly evident in the father, Willy Loman.  Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family.  In this world, he and his sons are men of greatness that "have what it takes" to make it in the business environment.  In reality, none of them can achieve greatness until they confront and deal with this illusion.

    In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, Miller probes the dream of Willy Lowman while making a statement about the dreams of American society. This essay will explore how each character of the play contributes to Willy's dream, success, and failure.

Arthur Miller wrote many plays in his time, but one in particular, written in 1947 and directed in Beijing in 1983, was the “play that established him as a great American playwright” called “Death of a Salesman”. This play was about the difference between a New York family’s life in reality and what they dreamed it would be. An old man, by the name of Willy valued popularity and his friends way more than skills or even a real personality. His goal was to die a man that had all of these things, and he ends up killing himself in the end. Miller’s goal was to “take the audience on an internal journey through the mind, memories, fears, anxieties of his central character.” “Death of A Salesman” has been very popular for over a decade, performed internationally, and was even produced into movies (Kristofoletti). Many people remember this play because of how inspiring it was, also because it did not compare to any other of the ones he had ever written.

Arthur Miller begins his play with an excellent description of the setting of the play. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves actually watching the play and causes the reader to be able to better relate to the play. Because Death of a Salesman can be considered an emotional play, it qualifies as being a timeless work of literature, especially because it has the ability to touch the human heart. Willy Loman is a salesman, who lives in New York City with his wife Linda. From the beginning of the play, Miller makes it obvious that Willy struggles with many obstacles, such as anger and even confusion since there are many times throughout the play where Willy becomes severely confused. Many characters throughout the play,

  In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy is depicted as living in his own world. The play centers around the end of Willy’s life, when the real world comes crashing through, ruining the false reality he had created for himself and his family. Throughout the play, Willy Loman uses the concept of being well liked to build a false image of reality, as shown through his teachings to his son, what he considers successful, and his reasoning for committing suicide.