Argumentative essay with thesis, supporting examples, and works cited

Death of a Salesman

Expressionism is an artistic movement created in the early 20th century which sought to express human emotion through artistic media. While it may have began with painting, it quickly spread to other forms of artistic expression including poetry and literature. In the form of literature, expressionist plays were a very popular form of expressing the struggle of the protagonist against difficulties of life and cultural expectations. These plays often dramatized the emotional, or psychological, sufferings and eventual enlightenment of the main character. Expressionist dramaturgy also makes use of rapid scene changes, tremendous stage and lighting action, as well as a non-regular storyline which jumps around and often confuses the audience. However, all these elements are brought together in order to allow the audience to "ride an emotional rollercoaster" while viewing the play. One time-honored example of this type of literature is Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. This play uses the artistic mechanisms of expressionist dramaturgy to convey to the audience the personal conflicts, sufferings, and emotions of the characters, primarily the main protagonist Willy Loman. (Weisstein, 202)

Willy Loman is a not-too successful traveling salesman who is at the end of his career and facing the fact that he views his life as a failure. In expressionist dramaturgy, this type of conflict is common as the main character must usually re-evaluate his personal beliefs and ideas, "…to discover his true self and his place in the cosmos." (Rogers, 15) In this case, what Willy Loman must evaluate is his life, his idea of what a "success" should be, as well as his expectations for those around him. At first his examination of his life is riddled with inaccuracies and wrongly remembered events, but eventually he comes to the conclusion that, because he has not gained personal likeability and financial wealth, that his life has been a failure.

Another example of expressionist dramaturgy is in the style and order in which the events of the story take place. Willy is often confused, perhaps suffering from early onset of Alzheimer's disease, and his attention, as well as that of the audience, is often skirted away to other events in different times and places. Willy's confusion over events that happened long ago, as well as his personal "memories" of these events, often act as a mechanism to convey the emotions of Willy to the audience. For instance, Willy's guilt takes the form of a flashback to the time when his son caught him with another woman in a hotel room. (Miller, 116-121) Also Willy's memories of his own successes are often exaggerated versions of the truth, as with his so-called relationship with Bill Oliver.