Death of Salesman
(1949)
Expressionism
applied in Death of Salesman play by Arthur Miller
The
Concerns of the Author
Writers of
expressionist plays are almost always revolutionary in one sense or another;
that is, they see very clearly what they
feel is wrong with the world and want us in the audience to be aware of it.
They look at the dark and repressive side of things. Repression can come from
many sources. (A Student Guide to Play Analysis’ by David Rush page 218).
We
can be our own worst enemies. We are trapped by deep
feelings of guilt or evil and also historical pattern that we can’t escape. Death of Salesman shows that Willy Loman
(the main character) struggling around achieving the American Dream, for he
believed that once he had achieved it, he would become highly regarded,
"well-liked", powerful, and successful and finally, find happiness
and peace. However, in reality, reaching and achieving the American Dream is
not easy as it is. It is important to differentiate between idealism and
reality. This is what is happened in Willy Loman, he has an inner conflict with
his own self and finally he becomes the victim of his own dreams and obsession
with success. He was unable to accept the difference between his dreams and his
own life, which haunt him with a sense of failure; and lead him to his suicide.
WILLY: (talking to himself) “Yes, sir, eighty thousand miles –
Eighty-two thousand”
“Don’t get
your sweater dirty, Biff! What a simonizing job! No kiddin’, Biff, you got
date? Wonderful!”
Those parts of dialogue show how obsesses Willy Loman
to his own dreams and success. He talks to himself and imagines that Biff will
become success and achieve the American Dream, however, in fact, all of those
dreams end up being nothing but lies.
Some
element of society traps us. Death of Salesman premiered in 1949, a decade of unprecedented
consumerism and technical advances in America, besides that, the society
started to use American Dream in their daily life. For some people, ‘owning a beautiful house, means they have
achieved the American Dream’ (American
Ways; an Introduction to American Culture), and after they can achieve it,
they will be highly regarded. This is the reason why Willy Loman really
struggles to reach his dreams, because he is surrounded by the societies who
use American Dream as their measurement of success and he is also trapped by
it.
BIFF: “they’ve laughed
at Dad for years, and you know why? Because we don’t belong in this nuthouse of
a city! We should be mixing cement on some open plain or – or carpenters. A
carpenter is allowed to whistle!”
Those parts of dialogue show the situation and
condition of the life of Willy Loman’s family. They just live in a small
apartment when the others live in their own housel; and that makes Willy Loman
becoming a victim of his own dreams and obsession with success.
The
Point of View of the Author
Expressionism
takes
subjectivity as fast as it can go. The author does more than simply take sides
but actually takes us inside the mind of one person and shows us the world as
that person would perceive it. When we speak of having a subjective position, we mean that we are in the middle of the
experience, seeing it through only one set of eyes and thus getting only a
limited idea of what’s happening. (A Student Guide to Play Analysis’ by
David Rush page 185 and 219)
In Death of Salesman, Miller tries to take
us inside the mind of Willy. Miller wants to shows us how the world is through
Willy Loman’s eyes and mind. In that time, as we know, the society started to
use American Dream; they also have high measurement of success. Miller
wants to make us see how huge Willy Loman’s dreams, obsessions and future
expectations through Willy’s behavior which finally led him to a sense of
failure and his suicide. Miller wants us to show how fake the American Dream;
because in reality, reaching and achieving the American Dream is not easy as it
is. It is important to differentiate between idealism and reality.
The
Comprehensibility of the World
For the expressionist writer, the
world may be crazy, unfeeling, and destructive, but somehow, in a short
topsy-turvy manner, it does have some sort of logic to it. Once you see the
world through the subjective eye of the window character, your challenge is to
understand what that attitude is. Many expressionist plays begin in what might
be called the normal, or objective,
world, in which we get enough clues about the central character. (A
Student Guide to Play Analysis’ by David Rush page 220)
The play is
begun with the description of the situation of the society around Willy Loman’s
life. On that time, the society where Willy Loman lives in is a decade of
unprecedented consumerism and technical advances in America, besides that, the
society started to use American Dream in their daily life. For some people, ‘owning a beautiful house, means they have
achieved the American Dream’, and after they can achieve it, they will
become highly regarded. As these following sentences describes how the world
situation is on that time.
“..As more
light appears, we see a solid vault of
apartment houses
around the small, fragile-seeming
home. An air of
the dream dings
to the
place, a dream rising out of reality..”
The
Construction of the Plot
Sometimes an
expressionist play will bounce back and forth between a more normal world and
forth between a more normal world and distorted one. (A
Student Guide to Play Analysis’ by David Rush page 222). In most of the play, we see Willy Loman struggling
with life. But every time he faces a crisis, he retreats into his memories. It
can be seen, when Willy was arguing with Biff about ‘whistling in the
elevator’, Willy defense himself by using his past memories about his dad.
BIFF :
“a carpenter is allowed to whistle!”
WILLY : “Even
your grandfather was better than a carpenter. You never
grew up. Bernard does not whistle in the
elevator, I assure you.”
It also
can be seen when Willy said to Howard that he was tired to travel and he wanted
to work in the town, however Howard refused it.
WILLY : “God
knows, Howard. I never asked a favor of any man. But I was with the firm when
your father used to carry you in here in his arms.”
Sometimes the play’s overall pattern is often that of a journey or a
quest. The protagonist is trying to discover something that is unclear or
missing. In Death of Salesman, Willy is trying to discover and reach the
idealism of American Dream for he believed that once he had achieved it, he would
become highly regarded, "well-liked", powerful, and successful and
finally, find happiness and peace.
Sometimes the agent of action is
trying to escape the consequences of a crime and to reach a place of safety.
In Death of Salesman, it happens when
finally Biff apologizes to Willy and promises that he will change the way he
lives by going to some places to look for a job. Willy is so happy to hear
that, and then he thinks that he needs to contribute and help Biff in reaching
his success. He finally decides to do suicide by crashing his car in order to
get insurance fee of himself than the money can be used to help Biff in
reaching his success. It is showed that Willy is trying to reach a place of
safety by doing suicide. He thinks by doing that, it will change his family’s
life into happiness and peacefulness.
The
Substance/Texture of the Characters
The characters in expressionist plays
are not meant to be lifelike. When they are given names, however, the names
often have symbolic associations. Essentially, all that we said about symbolist
characters applies equally well to expressionist ones. In Death of Salesman, the names of the main characters have symbolic
associations. Willy in Willy Loman is
actually the abbreviation of Will He?;
it shows the characteristic of Willy who has big dreams and obsessions of
success. Loman (Low Man) in Willy
Loman represents
the low social status of Willy and his family. Besides that, Biff in English means to hit or strike.
It shows that, in the play, Biff always has conflict with Willy; he always
strikes back at Willy.
The Setting
In a sense, all expressionist plays
have the same location: the inside of the central character’s head. Some
element in the outside world has driven the central character out of her mind
and caused her to escape into hallucinations and distortions. (A
Student Guide to Play Analysis’ by David Rush page 226). In Death of Salesman, many
scenes take place inside Willy’s head. For example, every time Willy confuses
and faces crisis of his life, he directly escape into his hallucinations. He
retreats his memories by imagining speaking to his son, Biff.
WILLY: (talking
to himself) “Yes, sir, eighty thousand miles – Eighty-two thousand”
“Don’t get
your sweater dirty, Biff! What a simonizing job! No kiddin’, Biff, you got
date? Wonderful!”
