Beauty is in the Eye of the Audience Scott Korte Theatre as an art form is meant to communicate something, anything, that a playwright is trying to say. The playwright may intend for a message of social rebellion, one of familial love, or one of simple retrospect. However, that message, no matter how apparent, is not always the same clear-cut focal point when looked at by audiences from different cultures. Arthur Miller’s play describing the life and fall of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is no different than any other play in this regard. When viewed by audiences and performed by actors outside of its native culture, as seen in Britain and China, Death of a Salesman will place emphasis on different aspects of the show’s subtext than originally intended by Miller, while still managing to retain its core themes and finding commonalities in other cultures. At home, Death of a Salesman is a classic work of the Twentieth century that finds its way into most, if not all, high school English programs. American culture has long introspected on itself, arriving at the same questions time and time again: What is the American dream about, who does it benefit, and how far is one willing to go in order to attain it? Most will argue that the play is about the exhibition of the “American dream” in its most raw form, with Willy constantly combating the specter of success that many around him have achieved; fortune, a stable family setting, success for their children, and respect above all. Additionally, many people believe that Willy is representative of the millions that try to reach that success, and his eventual death highlights the realities that many faced in order to try and reach it. Not everyone is able to achieve dreams, no matter how hard they work, and the failings of this dream are evident in the play. Once this point is made about the Loman family, however, the intricacies of the play are
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