Lesson Content : Thursday 24th November : Past and Present

Arthur Miller said of Death of a Salesman that it ‘explodes the watch and the calendar’. The past lives of Willy and his family are mixed in with what is happening to them in the present and this can be quite confusing when you read the play for the first time. It is less confusing if you see the play performed.

When the action shifts into the past it is not just as flashbacks to past events, to let the audience know what happened in the past. All of the characters, and especially Willy, are deeply affected now by what happened in the past.

What we see of the past is a mixture of the events and conversations that happened and the characters’ view of the past as it affects them now.

Producer David Thacker, describes the complex structure of 'Death of a Salesman'. CLICK TO WATCH

Arthur Miller wrote about the play that he wanted to show that;

‘nothing in life comes ‘next’ but that everything exists together and at the same time within us; that there is no past to be ‘brought forward’ in a human being, but that he is his past at every moment and that the present is merely that which his past is capable  of noticing and smelling and reacting to.

I wished to create a form which, in itself as a form, would literally be the process of Willy Loman’s way of mind.’

Miller helps the audience to be aware of scenes from the past in three ways....

1. When the action is in the present, the actors stay inside the imaginary walls of the house on the stage. When they enter into the past, they step through the imaginary walls onto the front of the stage and scenes from the past are shown at the front of the stage.
2. The lighting changes to allow the house to look as if it is covered in the shadows of leaves.
3. A flute plays to suggest happier times in the past. Miller says it suggests ‘grass and trees and the horizon’.

The Title of the Play

Miller said that his first title for Death of a Salesman was The Inside of His Head.

1. Why do you think Miller consider using it?
2. What aspects of the play does it emphasise?
3. How does it relate to the structure of the play?
4. Find a quotation from what you have read so far that would justify the idea that the play is about ‘the inside’ of Willy Loman’s head and explain why you have chosen this quotation.