Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

Résumé du document

Since the very beginning of the play, we realize the essential role of dreams and reminiscences in Willy Loman's life because he seems to live in his own world. Indeed, as soon as he comes back home, we learn that this day, he wasn't able to drive all the way to the place he was supposed to go working. In fact, the car kept going off on to the shoulder because he couldn't stop dreaming and didn't manage to be concentrated enough on the road. He explains that he was looking at the scenery and had strange thoughts. At this point, we can assume that even if he is disturbed by his dreams, he is conscious of the frontier between his dreams and reality. However, we quickly realize that this is not true because he confesses, then, that he is sure he was driving his red Chevvy this day, whereas he replaced this old car a long time ago.

Extraits

[...] What do you mean?”. At the end of the act, we can assume it remains a mystery between Biff and his father which could maybe further explain their relationship. Finally, we can analyse the way in which Arthur Miller uses flashbacks in the play Throughout the act, Arthur Miller uses a dual time structure. In the same place, one of the characters, Willy, keeps having flashbacks. During these dreams the characters don't enter through the stage door anymore but they are able to cross the walls as if they were transparent. [...]

[...] At this point, we can assume that even if he is disturbed by his dreams, he is conscious of the frontier between his dreams and reality. However, we quickly realize that this is not true because he confesses, then, that he is sure he was driving his red Chevvy this day, whereas he replaced this old car a long time ago. The entire first act sets during the evening of his homecoming and little by little, Willy is seized by his memories. He first talks to himself and then he lives again some scenes which come directly from the past. [...]

[...] Indeed, in the scenes of the past, they really get on well together and Biff admires his father as much as Willy is proud of his son. For example, Willy sticks up for his son whereas he stole a ball and didn't study his math exam. They always agree and support each other. They seems to have been so closed that we don't understand what really happened, as Linda questions at various point in the first act : are you so hateful to each other? Why is a fake? In what way? [...]

[...] Moreover, we learn that he often lies to his family about the money he really earns. At this point of the play, we could assume that his belief about the power of personal attractiveness and the lies he keeps telling about his real situation are totally linked with his constant returns to the past and his mind's troubles. Besides, we can notice that Willy doesn't seem to be the only one to be influenced by illusion because at the end of the act Linda seems to be trying to convince herself that his husband isn't going mad. [...]

[...] Trough the flashbacks, we realize in what extent Willy's vision of superiority and success affected Happy and Biff's behavior because the first one keeps repeating that he lost weight and Biff doesn't work hard and keeps stealing things. Besides, the relationship Willy had with his son at that time is so different compared to their actual situation that something must have happened. Moreover, flashbacks permit us to discover unconfessed acts and we can assume that Willy had an affair and that this hotel room scene has some consequences on the actual situation. [...]