Dramatic Technique in Death of a Salesman

Discuss the dramatic techniques in stopping point of a Salesman. From a technical point of view, miller was welcomed by those involved in the practical craft of theatre. In his playfulnesss, we discern ch anyenge and convention, confidence and caution, daring technical experiment and poetic negotiations. In destruction of a Salesman , his innovative dramatic techniques- un practical screen blanketground, medicine, lighting, etc. -all generated a sense of transformation of elderly forms and conventions. Death of a Salesman concentrates on resulty Loman, an exhausted middle elderly salesman, who has failed to realize his inspiration of economic success and is enclo catch outd as existence on the verge of a nervous break low.Failure also engulfs his wife Linda and twain sons- punch and Happy. The play is divided into three main parts, act 1, act 2 and the requiem. Each section takes place in the testify day (spring 1949). locomote 1- night time Act 2-various times t he next day Act 3-several geezerhood later The play is largely a re instauration of what takes place in his mind during the last two days of his life. In fact, Willys reminiscences abide us to understand what happened in the late(prenominal), and why things atomic number 18 how they are at posit in the present day.Miller says The salesman image was from the beginning absorbed with the ideal that nothing in life comes next but everything exists together and at the uniform time within us. The story is told on two antithetical levels. There is a public storyline (realistic) which begins late adept night and conclusions twenty- 4 hours later. Parallel with this, there is the private storyline (non-realistic) inside Willys mind, which corresponding our own minds, does not always work logically and chronologically but mixes up memories and imaginings with what is in truth taking place in the present.Miller was interested in expressionism but didnt want to abandon the conven tions of realism. He used, like O Neill, a dramatic form that combined the subjectivity of expressionism with the illusion of objectivity afforded by realism. The firm reality of Ibsens method acting remained, but it was banded with the dream sequences or flashbacks of past life real in the present. In All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, Miller adopts Ibsens retrospective structure in which an explosive situation in the present is both explained and brought to a crisis by the gradual revelation of something which has happened in the past.In theatre, expressionism has been defined as a mode of writing and production in which the aim is to depict inner meaning rather than outward appearance. For writers, this whitethorn imply the use of poetic or stylized language and symbolic characterization. For producers, it implies the use of non-realistic scenery and effects. In expressionistic plays like Death of a Salesman, the following effects are likely to be used 1) The put to death whitethorn flow without interruption from hotshot time period to another. to a greater extent than one time period may co-exist.In Death of a Salesman ,the audience bring in present and past action at the same time when Willy talks to Linda and sees the woman(past) in the same room, when he talks to Charley and Ben(his cold brother) at the same time. 2) The action may be presented as a dream or vision by one of the characters. In Death of a Salesman, this style is most obvious in the use of flashbacks or dream sequences . Much of the familys history and past events are revealed by means of Willys flashbacks. This is done by narration, dream sequence and memories.All these scenes, in which we have flashbacks, start in the present and then the character lone(prenominal) visible to Willy appear. Most of the flashbacks take place during the summer later on Biffs senior year at high school when all the problems began. Biff saw his father with another woman and muzzy religious bel ief in him. Before this, his father was a hero to him, direct he is a fraud. These flashbacks explain the current conflict among father and son. We see the second flashback while Willy is playing card game with Charley.hither we see how the flashback appear gradually, usurping the present bit by bit . He is actually talking to the remembered Ben and the real Charlie simultaneously. When Charlie finally realizes that Willy is absent-minded, he makes an exit. Here we see Willys too much obsession of the past over present. Miller expound Willy as literally at that terrible morsel when the voice of the past is no longer distant but sort of as jazzy as the voice of the present. He didnt see Willys internal sequences as flashbacks.Miller says, There are no flashbacks in this play but solitary(prenominal) a mobile concurrency of past and present .. because in his desperation to justify his life Willy Loman has destroyed the boundaries between now and then. 3) The action may take pl ace in more than one location simultaneously. In the kitchen when Willy starts talking to young Biff and Happy in the past, Linda enters the room and asks Willy about the car. 4) The Setting must be non-realistic or part realistic. One part of the act may be set with realistic scenery, such as the kitchen atBrooklyn in Death of a Salesman ,but this may have an empty open stage area in move of it into which a single piece of furniture or other peak may be brought to suggest a location, or the area may be left empty and used for variety of purposes, such asIn the empty space, Howard Wheels on a table with his wire record-keeper and his office is rapidly set up. To create a restaurant, Happy and the server bring on the chair-table the garden at Brooklyn. The plays setting contributes to the understanding of the theme. In Death of a Salesman, the realistic set is the backyard of a middle degree family.We see Willys small, fragile-seeming stead with one dimensional roof, dwarfed by apartment blocks. Miller says An air of dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality. The world outside Willys home seems oppressive and menacing, threatening to swallow up an economic failure like Willy. Here we see the use of stream of sense technique. The play begins and end in one basic setting, the Loman home and the flashbacks in stream of consciousness style presents Willys present dilemma that is closely connected to the past.Harold Clurman says The play dramatizes Willys recollection of the past, and at times switches from a literal presentation of his memory to imaginary and semi-symbolic representation of his thought. Miller shows the contrast between Willy as a salesman and Willy as a man. Willy does not actually go back to the past. It is the past, as in a hallucination, that comes back to him. Each time when he is frustrated, guilty or accused by his sons, he will be in a dream and the past appears in his mind.It shows Willys unconscious mind desire to avoid pain and to repair the bitterness, frustrations and humiliations of daily life at the present. In order to use this technique more smoothly, Miller chooses Linda and Charley, to present the whole, complete Willy what he was, what he is, and what he will be. Broken poking says, Will you let me go for Christs sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens? The time shifts in the setting shows Willys stream of consciousness. The set is designed to minimize the boundaries between past and present.When we see Willys present, the characters follow the rules of stage direction, entering only through the stage door to the left. When Willy visits his past, the characters openly move through walls. As Willys mental state deteriorates, the boundaries between past and present are destroyed and the two start to exist in parallel. So the stage setting expresses Willys divided consciousness as the reality of the field walls can be breached. The transparency of t he setting represents the fragility of Willys cut back on reality.Miller sees Willy as living at the terrible moment when the voice of the past is no longer distant but quite as loud as the voice of the present. Miller uses the lighting so that the scenes could change much faster and without the actors leaving the stage. The lighting reflects the basic modal value of each act and shows the mobile concurrency of past and present. It keeps moving from one scene to another scene-The light on Willy and Lindas bedroom fades down when the scene ends and the light comes up on the boys bedroom for another scene. A blue light of sky falls upon the house.The surrounding area shows an idle glow of orange, symbolizing the anger of the helpless middle class people in a money minded society. The light in past scenes is brighter than the present scene. It means that past was far better for Willy than present. In an expressionistic drama, music and light might be used to signalize a characters state of mind. Here music is a contrivance for the dissolution of time and distance limitations. Biff and Happy, dressed in high school football sweaters, are accompanied with the gay music of the boys.The melody of flute at the beginning evokes the spacious area of old west, where Willys father, an inventor, sold flutes . It symbolizes a lost freedom and a lost ideal. When Willy claims to be tired to the death, the flute fades away, as if unable to have it away with the pain of Willy. When Willy commits suicide, Miller says As the car speeds off, the music crashes down in a frenzy of sound, which becomes the soft pulsation of a single violoncellos string. By using the form of confession, Miller makes us have in mind about, who is to blame?Why is biff at the age of thirty four a failure? Why biff and happy still curiosity? Symbolism is another feature of expressionism. Lindas mending of stocking, flute song displaced by childish nonsense from a wire recorder, wifes praise era sed by a whores laughter etc, are some beautiful symbols. Willy, the symbol of average American citizen, is trapped by the money-grabbing American society. The planting of seeds symbolize Willys meaningless attempt to give something positive for his sons. One athletic trophy symbolizes the fragment of Loman familys dream.Here we see that the real characters like Biff, Happy, and Charley cant fulfill Willys expectations. On the other hand, the imaginary presences or the characters from the past are ideal, brave figures who embody Willys unfulfilled dream. Here we see subjective characterization. We get under ones skin a strong imagery when Willy says, the woods are burning. Willys brother Ben compares the influence of success-building to entering a jungle. Ben says When I was I was seventeen, I walked into the jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out And by God I was well-situated The jungle was the locale of Bens success, but for Willy, the forest is burning and there is smallish time left. The burning woods image is symbolic of Willys feeling that he cannot bear the pressure of time, debts, human relationships. Even the apartment buildings in his region are closing in on him. He wants to commit suicide. When Willys mind wanders back to the happy days of his sons youth, the entire house and environs become covered with leaves. The present time is marked by the fade of these leaves. After Willys death, The leaves of day are appearing over everything.We find dialogues of typical New Yorkers, realistic, full of repetition, hesitations and contradictions. The language of stage direction, dialogue of the characters are very poetic. Willy says Funny you know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive. The title, the use of the requiem and Willys dialogue everything foreshadow Willys death. We also find dramatic irony. Willy portrays himself as being at the top of his game in sal es with countless admirers, after thirty years of experience.The biggest irony lies in the fact that at his funeral, nobody except his family members and Charley were present. So the dramatic techniques in Death of a Salesman impresses us as a theatrical triumph and provides us a new example of modern tragedy Miller didnt use all the timeswitch or the mixture of realist and expressionist technique simply for their own sakes . Actually, this was the outdo way to tell the story with the minimum of delay and repetition. Naturally, to be moved(p) by the play and to realize it thoroughly are two antithetic things.