Death of a Salesman Flashbacks

Death of a Salesman

Flashbacks in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Why flashbacks are important in Death of a Salesman

Why Miller wanted to call Salesman 'in his head'

How flashbacks advance the plot

Flashbacks: from Willy's point-of-view and audience's point-of-view

Ben: Easy promise of wealth in diamond mines

Biff: Early promise lost, devastation to Willy's self-esteem

How to characterize Salesman

Why play is naturalistic (flashbacks) not realistic

Why it is not a tragedy

Flashbacks in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller originally wanted to call what eventually became Death of a Salesman "In His Head." Although he chose another title, the interior nature of Miller's conception of the dramatic action is evident in the final version of the work. Using flashbacks throughout the play, Miller deploys a novelistic device to help the viewer understand why Willy Loman decides to kill himself and why it is so important to Willy that his family gets his life insurance money. Willy finds it difficult to communicate with his sons and his wife, so without the use of flashbacks, Willy would be a cipher to the viewer.

The flashbacks are clearly told from Willy's point-of-view, although they also show the limits of his point-of-view. Consider Ben, Willy's brother, who intrudes into the action to talk about the money he made in diamond mines. Willy's fantasy of making a large amount of money becomes clear: Ben 'struck it rich,' so Willy believes he is owed a living in the same fashion as well. Willy believes in the American dream that even a 'low-man' like himself can make his fortune, provided he finds the right scheme.

Unlike Bernard, who is encouraged to work hard and becomes a lawyer, Willy's sons Happy and Biff are not taught to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Instead, they are encouraged to avoid hard work, and to cheat and try to find ways 'around' the system to succeed. Biff, until he is crushed upon learning of his father's infidelity, tries to plead his way out a failing math grade -- Happy blames his boss for his failure to advance in his current position, not his own lack of initiative. The viewer can see how Ben planted the idea of easy success in Willy's mind, but can also see the foolish, unrealistic, and self-destructive nature of Willy's false version of the American dream. The sons' early hubris and success at being 'popular' in high school, particularly Biff's on-stage embodiment of the ideal high school football star in a flashback, do not translate into lasting success. The viewer witnesses the present-day Biff's sense of unhappiness and purposelessness.

The flashbacks also reveal critical aspects of the past, like Biff's encounter with Willy in a motel room. The flashback is more meaningful to Biff than to Willy. Willy relates the flashback as it flashes through his mind, but the viewer can also see by Biff's later reactions that he decided to forego college because his image of his perfect father was crushed. Willy relives the painful memory, but does not accord it the same weight as Biff. The inability of Willy to understand Biff is one of the central conflicts of the play. Even after the father and son have their show-down, when Biff insists to Willy that he is "nothing," and that it doesn't matter to him, Willy can only marvel that Biff likes him. Unlike in a Greek play, no deus ex-machina comes from above to explain to both father and son why they have suffered so much for so many years, and why their relationship is so problematic. The scene goes on, and Happy is just as much an 'enabler' of his father's delusional view of the world even after the climatic confrontation of Biff and Willy.

Willy falls back and forth from past to present, from memories of life in the office to the actual moment in time on stage, in his house. This conveys a kind of hyper-realism, as the viewer sees more of Willy's life and suffering than he or she might be if the work were presented solely as a kitchen sink drama, and conforming to the unities of time and space. The spare sets needed to convey this gives naturalism, rather than realism to Willy's life as characters and scenes from the past and present drift on and off the stage.

The story of Death of a Salesman, the psychological drama of Willy Loman, may be tragic in the sense that Willy's story is sad and common, but it is not a tragedy. Willy lacks any real insight into the nature of his condition: that he has sacrificed his life for a lie. Happy has no moral compass; Biff has not realized his early promise. Willy has betrayed his long-suffering wife. And he has given the best years of his life to a company that discards him like a piece of rubbish when he is no longer of use.