Why do you think that Miller allows us to see Willy drifting from reality into illusion and what impact does this have on the play?
Family, Betrayal and Abandonment There are many frequent emotions that dominate this play; for example: those of guilt, innocence, truth and lies are all explored through the lens of the family and the character’s role that they play in the family. Willy loves his family very much, but has become obsessed with raising the ‘perfect’ son which highlights his inability to understand reality or to communicate and listen to his sons own dreams and desires. In Willy’s mind, Biff is the embodiment of promise; he is attempting to live his life through Biff. However, when Biff discovers the affair, he is very quick to abandon his father’s ambitions for him. In Willy’s eyes this was abandonment, and we can chart Willy’s life throughout the play as being punctuated by rejection after rejection, each time leaving Willy in a greater state of distress. Willy becomes fearful of abandonment and this fuels his desire to make sure he and his family conforms to the American Dream. We can pinpoint Willy’s stages of abandonment throughout the following stages in the play: • • • •
His father left Willy and his brother Ben when they were very young leaving them no financial or historical legacy on his departure. This made Willy determined that he was going to make sure he left something for his sons. Ben departed to Alaska, leaving Willy with a warped vision of the American Dream. Willy was sacked from his job leaving Willy feeling unproductive, old and worthless. Willy was at the stage in believing that Biff was almost ready to succeed but Biff got fed up with his father not listening to what he had to say and he and his brother left Willy in the washroom. This reflects Willy’s inability to sell on the American Dream, the one product that Willy believes in wholeheartedly. Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him and his way of life whereas Biff feels that his father is a fake and has betrayed him with his endless stream of lies.
As a director how would you present the relationship on stage between Willy, Biff and Happy to illustrate the tension that lies between father and sons? Daniel E. Schneider in Play of Dreams states that the play is really about a man and his sons. Do you agree that the primary theme of Death of a Salesman is the conflict between father and son and between first-born and second-born sons? Support your opinion.
Relevance to today’s society Death of a Salesman is still a classic text and appears yearly on examination syllabuses, it also continues to be programmed into theatres across the world. We can acknowledge why theatre-goers continue to be moved in the same way that 1948 audiences were. For example, we can see how ecologically Willy’s ravings about over population, builders chopping down trees in favor of office buildings and blocks of flats still resonate for a 21st century audience. Economically, Willy struggles to pay the mortgage and the bills that pass through the door far too frequently, this too resonates with today’s audiences who are feeling financial pressures exacted upon them by an increasingly capitalist 17