This suggests that illusions are being used as a coping mechanism for Willy- a factor that is also seen in his fixation on the past, missed opportunities and brushes of success. The common threads between these two statements are important factors in Willy’s creation and maintenance of illusions he is trying to cope with the difficult reality of letting his family down and not being the salesman he planned, and his family (with the exception of Biff) defends his use of illusions. For example, in defence of why their father holds on to these illusions while Charley remains grounded in reality, Happy says to Biff “Charley never had to cope with what he’s got to.” Another is Linda’s defence of Willy’s inclination to talk to himself: “And what goes through a man’s mind, driving seven hundred miles home without having earned a cent? Why shouldn’t he talk to himself? Why?” The explanation of why he generates these illusions emerges through the comments of Happy and Linda. Willy’s life, and furthermore, the play, are centred around the illusions he generates to cope with reality. Perhaps the most obvious link to the context are the illusions that are created and challenged throughout the play. More importantly though, let’s look at the big ideas of Whose Reality which emerge from Death of a Salesman.
The play does not have a narrator and while Willy is undeniably the central character he is not always not always on stage and we sometimes hear from other characters without Willy present. For example: repetition and exclamation are common features of Miller’s dialogue writing when characters are distressed. In the play, often the way a character speaks indicates their emotional state. Miller often uses vivid and descriptive metaphors to give an insight into how a character views the world. Miller’s stage directions are extremely detailed, often giving information that is not just used to tell the story to the audience but also information that the actor could use in their depiction of a character. This text engages extensively with the ideas of ‘Whose Reality?’, particularly in relation to illusions and the implications of holding on to a warped view of reality. Make sure you’re not watching videos for texts that you’re not studying.Īlright, onto Death of a Salesman. There are four possible texts you could be studying for Whose Reality?, this is one of them. If you haven’t watched our video on Whose Reality yet it might be helpful to watch that first before coming back to this one. Year 12s, today we’re discussing Death of a Salesman which is a play by Arthur Miller in relation to Whose Reality. It focuses specifically on the relationship between the text and the context Whose Reality?. This article refers to Death of a Salesman (play) written by Arthur Miller.
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