¶ … Death of a Salesman
The three principle ways that one can experience a drama are through reading it, watching it on stage, and watching film adaptations. All three of these media present a unique experience for the reader or viewer. Reading a play in a book, for instance, offers no visual elements. Watching a play on stage provides a lot of visual elements, while watching a play in a movie provides even more visual elements. Still, it largely appears that there is an inverse relationship between a drama's visual elements and its main focus -- words. In some ways, the plentitude of visuals can detract from the simplicity and power of the words of a drama. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, it greatly appears as though the focus of visuals and other elements provided by the film and the onstage version detract from the focus of the very powerful prose that Miller wrote, as an examination of the characters, scenery, and time shifts in this tale readily indicates.
Perhaps the main way in which the visual elements of the onstage and film version of Death of a Salesman are incomparable to the superior words of the written version is in the characters. One of the strengths of the written version is that the characters could be anyone. They are not simply the people one is looking at on stage or on a screen. In a play about the loss of the American Dream, this characteristic is extremely helpful because it helps to reinforce the idea that the problems that Willy Loman goes through could happen to anyone. However, in the onstage version, it is too easy for the viewer to get caught up in the individual playing Loman, and spotting instances of good acting and bad acting that interfere with the viewer and the actual character. This same concept applies to watching the film version. Some of the characters do good jobs in the film version -- for instance, Loman's wife is very convincing on screen. But in general, the written version resonates more...
In the written version, of course, there is no scenery. The vast majority of the play is the dialogue that takes place between characters, as well as monologues. There are some sparse descriptions of the elements that are supposed to be onstage, but for the most part it is up to the reader to use his or her imagination to visualize the scenery surrounding the characters. By utilizing one's imagination, the words themselves become more vivid and the scenery becomes less important. The opposite of this notion is true in the onstage version of this work. The viewer can actually see the various settings -- there is time between scene to prepare the stage and adjust the setting, and the vivid power of imagination that is so prevalent in the written work is greatly reduced. Watching the on stage version of this work almost makes the viewer dependant on the scenery, which while the reader is not dependent on it at all. This concept certainly applies to the movie, perhaps even more so than onstage. Whereas there are certain physical and temporal limitations with the scenery on stage, there are no limitations to it on film because the producers have all the time in the world to get the scenery just right. In this respect, it is better to view the film than see the on stage version. Still, the reader uses his or her imagination with the written version, which is preferable to either of the other two choices.
Finally, one of the main differences between these three different modes of experiencing Miller's work pertains to the element of time and the flashbacks that take place. This part of the written version is handled very tastefully, with the reader aware of time slips and the thought process that takes place for Loman. Much…
Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is about a sad salesman, Willy Loman has spent his entire adult life in sales, with little success, but always believing affirming that a man who is well-liked is always successful. There have been many film and television versions of Miller's play since its first performance in 1949. The 1966 version directed by Alex Segal and starring Lee J. Cobb has
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Specifically it will compare and contrast the character of Willy Loman, the main character in the play. Willy is a salesman who is getting older and losing the advantage he had in his business. On one side, Willy is a volunteer, because he brings his problems on himself. On the other side, Willy is a victim of society; his problems are not
Amanda Wingfield and Linda Loman Comparing and Contrasting Mothers in Tennessee Williams's the Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Two plays from the 1940's, Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), although much different in tone and content, both have female characters who want only the best for their families, yet live completely in the past. Amanda recalls her youth filled with
Arthur Miller's Play Death Of A Salesman (1949) Thematic Analysis One of the central themes in the Author Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is the concept of the American Dream. The concept of the American Dream has been one of the fundamental beliefs of the American community since the country's inception. The basic concept is fairly egalitarian in nature and states something to the effect that if an individual truly devotes
Drama is tragic not only because of Willy Loman's suicide, but because he has left his family with nothing, and his sons with no hopes and abilities of their own. Brief overview of the play Miller's work Story Characters Obstacles Argument for tragedy Aristotle's definition Pro argument for tragedy Con argument against tragedy Own conclusions What the critics say Death of a Salesman as Tragedy This paper analyzes the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Specifically, it discusses the definition of
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Homer in Hollywood: The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film adaptation of the Odyssey is actually at the center of the plot of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, and the Alberto Moravia novel on which Godard's film is