Death of a Salesman
(The Inside of His Head)
Arthur Miller
1949
The dramatist is an artist whose medium presents him with some
severe limitations, especially compared to the novelist or poet. While
the latter two have the advantage of voluminous description, narrative
progression, direct comment, and penetration into the characters’ minds,
the dramatist must use his setting, his characters and their
language, and the force of direct conflict to properly guide the
audience’s response to the play.
Presumably, Miller intended to portray to the audience
the process by which Willy Loman achieves self-realization and
consequently, commits suicide. This over-riding concern lead Miller to
choose an expressionistic setting to complement his use of real memories
as opposed to flashbacks to control the audience’s awareness of the
inner workings of Willy’s head. The play was originally titled The Inside of His Head.
As Miller said, “I wanted to create a form which would
literally be the process of Willy Loman’s mind. Not flashbacks.”
Again, Miller said, “The structure of the play was
determined by what was needed to draw up Willy’s memories like a mass of
tangled roots without end or beginning…If I could make him remember
enough, he would kill himself.”
In order for us to understand the techniques Miller used
to help us get inside Willy’s head and thus accompany him on his strip
down memory lane to death, we need to look at several aspects of this
play. We could spend many days on such a complex play, but to save
time, we will use groups to explore different areas. Each group will be
responsible for several different aspects of the play. After using the
play to explore these aspects, we will come together to discuss how
Miller took us along with Willy as he came to a full realization of who
he was and wasn’t.
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