Dramatic technique or art in Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller was a great American dramatist of his times obviously a political minded and socially conscious dramatist. Dream technique, the technique of blending, the matter of past and present are nicely found in Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller’s drama provides us with a beautiful social picture of contemporary America. Conflict between individual and

society clearly portrayed here. According to Miller, there is no past at every moment and the present is merely that which his past is capable of noticing and smelling and reacting to.

In Miller’s opening stage directions, he says that the stage design should do its best to give the impression that the events on stage are like a ‘dream’. This direction is very much in keeping with Miller’s central theme: the dream-like nature of Willy’s wife in particularly and everyday American life in general. Death of a Salesman allows us to follow Willy’s mind in its wanderings, transporting us back into the past in an attempt to understand the life that he has led. The more we see, the more we start to understand that Willy is more a product of a mass illusion, the belief that anyone can get ahead in American society as long as they try hard, are well liked, and are a success in business.

Willy Loman, the hero has some dream and that dreams occupy nearly half of the play. They are the dreams of the entire world of happy, hopeful past and also the inescapable dream of the past guilt. The recollections are not straight flash back like cinema, but they are distorted and speeded up by repetition and selection. These recollections are merged with the present reality but they are at the same time distinguishable from present reality.

During dream sequences, Willy seems unable to distinguish between truth and fantasy, between past and present. Losing himself in recollections he interpreting a conversation with Charley his neighbor to address his uncle Ben, losses all sense of the present in a restaurant toilet when he recalls his past exposure by his sons. Willy is a sick man and his dreams are an amount of schizophrenia and they deepen the pathos of the situation.

 In the first dream sequence, Willy warnings Biff against making any promises to the girls and urging him to look at his ‘schooling’. Willy is very when he knows that Biff does not spend anything, the girl on the other hand pay for him. We hear Biff having stolen a new football from the school locker-room, and Willy did not say anything for the theft. Willy thinks that Biff is an extra ordinary boy and he needs a ball to practice with.

In the next dream sequence, actuality and fantasy co-exist because Willy talks to both Charley and to Ben. This sequence is followed by a long dream sequence in which we learn much about Willy’s family background. Willy’s father was a manufacturer and seller of flutes and he use to drive his wagon in different territories to sell his flutes. We get idea of Ben that Willy has always envied Ben who had walked into the jungle at the age of 17 and come out as a rich man at the age of 21.

The final dream sequence shows us Willy seeking Ben’s support for his plan to commit suicide. Ben expresses some doubt about the propriety of Willy’s intention but ultimately approves of it by saying: “Its dark there, but full of diamonds”; and “A perfect proposition all around”. Thus Ben, a dream figure contributes to Willy’s final disintegration and deepens the tragedy of the play.

Despite the dramatic technique of letting the play drift away from the firm moorings of naturalism. Death of a Salesman is an excellent portrayal of a real American family, and Miller delves into his own past to create believable and likable characters. Willy is a victim of American false dream and also a victim of the relentless social system, which drives people to frantic, all consuming dream of success. Willy is doomed not only by the grandiose nature of the dreams but also by their inherent contradictories.

To conclude we may say that Arthur Miller used dreams as a flash back technique of blending past and present- shows how man suffer for false dreams. Dream here personified three different figures- Ben, Willy’s father, and Dave Singleman.