Death of a Salesmen

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Death Of A Salesman: Willy and Biff

The play Death Of A Salesman, the brainchild of Arthur Miller was transformed and fitted to the movie screen in the year 1986. The play itself is set in the house of Willy Loman, and tells the melancholy story of a salesman who is in deep financial trouble, and the only remedy for the situation is to commit suicide. In the stage production of this tale that I saw last summer in Wisconsin, the specific lighting, set, and musical designs really gave the story a strong undertow of depression. For example, when Willy was alone in his room talking to himself, they would only use a spot light and would focus more of it on his face causing a shadow effect on his eyes, making him look even older. Logically the screen and stage productions both differ greatly in regards to the mood they set. Moreover the movie production can do many things that just cannot be done on stage, with reference to the setting of course. For example in this case a stage production cannot flash back without having to reset the stage or reset the scene with different characters whereas in the film production they could just fade out and reshot the next scene without the audience seeing this. To generalize, the play gives us a good hard look at the great American Dream failing miserably through the character Biff and Willy Loman.
Death of a Salesman specifically focuses on four characters, the first being the main character Willy Loman, and his wife Linda, and their two sons Hap and Biff Loman. As mentioned, the focal point of this play is Willy Loman, a salesman in his early sixties. Throughout the story we are told the hard life, emotions and triumphs of Willy the salesman. Early in the play we learn that he has recently been demoted to working for commission, which later in the play, translates into Willy getting fired. As the plot unfolds we discover that Willy had a rich brother who recently died named Ben, who...