ANALYSIS OF A DRAMA ENTITLED “THE DEATH OF SALESMAN”
By:
ARTHUR MILLER
This explanation deals with structural elements in “THE DEATH OF SALESMAN”. The structural elements generally consist of:
1. Character and Characterization
There are two kinds of character, namely major character and minor character. Meanwhile, characterization is development of character within a particular work. It represents the qualities of the characters physically, mentally and socially. There are as follows.
a. Major characters
1) Willy Loman ; a traveling salesman who believes in the promises of American Dream. He is 61 years old. He is a poor and little salesman. He is arrogant per son, a person who has high self-confidence, talk active. And he is a dreamer but he has rigid spirit and hard worker.
2) Linda Loman; Willy’s wife. She loves her husband very much. A kind housewife because she want to accept the situation in her family. She is rigid person.
3) Biff Loman; the oldest son of Willy Loman. He was a star football player in high school. But now he has not a certain job, he has been moving from one job to another. Willy’s hopes akre centered on Biff. A nice son for his family, but he doesn’t evaluate himself very high, he is a hard worker too.
4) Happy Loman ; the younger s on of Willy. He works in a department store. Happy like Linda, really normally. He has a normal middle class life with regular world. He is very royal with his parents.
b. Minor Characters
1) Charley ; Loman’s friend. He is sincere and hard worker.
2) Bernard ; Charley’s son who was a childhood friend of Biff. He is successful lawyer now.
3) Ben ; Willy’s dead brother. He appears only in Willy’s dreams or illusions.
4) Howard Wagner ; the son of the former owner in the Wagner Company.
5) Miss Frances ; the woman in Boston who Willy has an affair.
6) Letta and miss. Farsythe; the two women that Happy picks up in the restaurant.
2. Setting
Setting of a literary work consists of two broader setting. Firstly, setting of time. Secondly, is setting of place.
a. Setting of time
The times fluctuate between the year in 1928 and 1942 means that it had just come out of WW II.
b. Setting of place
Setting of place happened in the Loman’s house in New York and Barnaby River, Boston, Restaurant; Restaurant where Stanley works where the Lomans were supposed to have dinner at the end of the play. Then, the hotel; The hotel where Willy stays while in New England for his business trips. This is where Biff catches his father in the affair.
3. Plot
a. Exposition
There is a family which has a head of household named Willy Loman. Willy has the problem is being able to separate illusion from reality. Willy has been a travelling salesman for the Wagner Company for 34 years. He likes to think of himself as being vital to New England territory and he believes in the false promises of the American Dream.
b. Complication
Most of Willy’s time live in a dream world in which Willy believes that he will be successful person, belongs to his son. Willy teaches his son that he will get success if he has a good looking and not to work hard. And Willy believes that Biff can do it.
c. Climax
It occurs when Biff forces the truth about himself and Willy, his father. In other words, Biff makes his father see that both he and Willy are failures. Biff makes his father realize the emptiness of their lives and Willy can’t accept this reality.
d. Resolution
It is a tragic ending in which Willy commits suicide in order to get financially provide for his family, especially for Biff’s future with the receipt of Willy’s twenty thousand dollar insurance policy.
4. Point of View
It is way the author tells the readers about his story by using narrators. In “The Death of Salesman” using the third person. Narrator is not mentioned directly, only telling the story.
5. Style
a. Grammatical structure
Based on the narration and dialogues of this play, it is using standard grammatical structure. The dialogue and narration is using present tense and past tense.
b. Sentence construction
The sentence construction in “the death of salesman” tends to be long sentence construction. It uses subject, verb, object and modifier too. There is also find some clause, phrase etc. The author usually uses language sentence construction in narration, when he describes some detailed information.
c. Diction
The choice of words are easy to understand. Mostly used as dialogues form. In this story, there is figurative language. It is irony in the death of salesman. There are several examples of irony in Death of a Salesman. For example, when Willy goes in intending to get a better job, he actually ends up losing his job. Happy’s name is ironic. It is also ironic how Bernard ends up being much more successful than Willy or his sons, when Willy had been so certain all it took to be successful was to be liked. Another example of irony is that Willy will buy stockings for his women in other cities, but can’t afford them for even his own wife. And the others ironic that by the time the house was paid for there was no one to live in.
6. Theme
The author does not state the theme explicitly. He just gives some clues, so the readers have to comprehend and predict through the whole of story to get the message. The theme is The falsity of the American Dream. In this theme has meaning that Willy Loman represents the primary target of this dream. So it led Loman to high dreamer in which he hopes to be successful person. Even it is false dreams.
Conclusion
1. Kind of Drama
The kind of drama can be related to “man versus society”. This reason is based on the story appears the activity that relate with the other person or society and in this story also describe the condition of the family that often we get in the common society. Then, the conflict arises because of Willy cannot be proper father for his family and as a man in his society he is failed.
2. Message
· Hard work is what pays off
Willy did himself and his family a disservice by putting too much emphasis on appearance and popularity, and not enough on the value of hard work. He wound up living in a daydream whenever things went wrong, and his sons were unethical (ex: Biff's stealing and jail time out West) and unsuccessful.
· Know your strengths and weaknesses
Willy should have chosen a career based on his skills and his interests, not on false perceptions and the opinions of others. He should have encouraged his sons to do the same.
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