‘How does miller establish character and setting in the opening

moments of DOAS?’

The opening of ‘Death of a salesman’, we are introduced with stage directions to define the
setting of the first scene such as “small and fine” flute piece “telling of the grass and trees
and the horizon”. This almost tranquil illusion of the start of the play as the curtain rises
creates a heartwarming and inviting scene for the audience to grasp a possible joyful story,
which is later seen as a juxtaposing idea to the tragic intent behind the play and the
foreseeable tragic events to come. This idea then feeds into when the curtain finally rises
and reveals “solid vault of apartments around small, fragile seeming homes” which creates a
conflict between the harmonious flute creating imagery of nature and the claustrophobic
urban setting miller envisioned. We are also seen to have a setting of a kitchen on stage and
are told that the whole setting should be “wholly” yet some places to be “partially
transparent” eluding to a sense of blurring of imagination and reality, which we come to see
later in the play with Willy Loman’s memories and snap to reality. These conflictions of
setting early on in the play could be Miller’s vision of Willy Loman’s internal and external
conflict he faces.
We are then introduced to our first two characters in the Play, our Protagonist Willy and his
wife Linda who seem to also be a conflicting pair in their mannerisms towards each other.
Linda is directed to be “careful”, ”delicate” and “resigned” when talking to Willy where he
seems to be directed to be “irritated”, “worried” and “angered” establishing the setting
between the two. Linda is then portrayed as a submissive character to Willy almost seen to
be fulfilling the role of an expected housewife eluding to a theme of what was seen in the
1940s as the American dream and a servant to his inconsistency with emotions and Inherent
pessimism with her relentlessness to please him even after his disregard. However, if we
look further into the introduction of Willy’s character we see he is a slave to this idea of the
American dream, possibly his Hamartia, and how it is slowly making him deteriorate
mentally and as a person. Willy states he is “tired to the death.” Showing his inevitable slow
and gradual death mentally caused by the system, which leads to his actual death which is a
suicide. This could be brought back to Arthur Miller’s thought of original title of the play
“inside of his head”. We again see this deterioration of Willy when he stutters “I’m – I can’t
seem – keep my mind to it” encapsulating a broken and fragmented man. Nonetheless, we
also see a sense of hubris in him as he claims he is “vital in New England” showing us he
feels important and almost feeds on human conditions.