death of a salesman

1. Exposition

2. Rising action

3. Climax

4. Falling action

5. Catastrophe = requiem

First pages stage directions

Relationship to children

Affair

No hope

No way out

Suicide

Requiem

…to someone

Key to happiness in life?

• Friends, Family Health, Relationship, Leisure/Spare time activities, travel, Lifestyle

1. Names

2. Seeds

3. Diamonds

4. Stockings

5. Suicide

6. Flash backs

Arthur Miller

Play

Ttragedy, social commentary, family drama

1949

Biff and Willy Loman

Biff and Willy Loman, Society and the American Dream

“Today,” that is, the present; either the late 1940s or the time period in which the play is being produced, with “daydreams” into Willy’s past;

all of the action takes place during a twenty-four-hour period between Monday night and Tuesday night,

except the “Requiem,” which takes place, presumably, a few days after Willy’s funeral

According to the stage directions, “Willy Loman’s house and yard [in Brooklyn] and . . . various places he visits in . . . New York and Boston”

The American dream, abandonment, betrayal

Mythic figures, the American West, Alaska, the African jungle

Seeds

Diamonds

Stockings

The rubber hose