STRUCTURAL ELEMENT OF THE DEATH OF SALESMAN DRAMA By Arthur Miller

Nama : Vidya Mulat Safitri
NIM : A 320 080 121
Kelas : D

Here is the Structural Element of The Death of Salesman, there are five characters of every person in this Drama and they are different with each others. And here the explanation of the characters of the actor and actress in the Drama “Structural Element of The Death of Salesman”.





Character
1. Willly Loman Willly Loman is a 63 year old, an elderly salesman lost in deceitful hopes and illusions. The sales company he works for no longer pays him salary. Working on straight commission, Willy cannot bring home enough money to pay his bills. After thirty four years with the company, they have spent his energy and discarded him.
2. Linda Linda is Willy's wife and is the arbiter of peace in the family. She is always trying to stand between Willy and her sons to reduce the tension. She is caring of Willy. She knows that Willy is tired and in hopelessness. She wants him to be happy even when the reality of the situation is bad. Linda knows that Willy has been trying to commit suicide, but does not intervene because she does not want to embarrass him. She lets it continue because she is not one to cause trouble.
3. Biff Loman Biff Loman is Willy's son and it is the conflict between the two that the story of the play revolves around. Biff was a star football player in high school, with scholarships to two major universities. He flunked math his senior year and was not allowed to graduate. He was going to make the credit up during the summer but caught Willy being unfaithful to Linda. This shock changed Biff's view of his father and everything that Biff believed in. Biff then became a drifter and was lost for fifteen years. He was even jail for stealing a suit once.
4. Happy Loman Happy Loman is the Loman's youngest son. He lives in an apartment in New York, and during the play is staying at his parent's house to visit. Happy is of low moral character and constantly with another woman, trying to find his way in life, even though he is confident he's on the right track.
5. Charlie, Bernard & Uncle Bens. Charlie is the Loman's next door neighbor, and owns his own sales firm. He and Willy do not get along very well, but they are friends nonetheless. Charlie is always the voice of reality in the play, trying to set Willy straight on the facts of Willy's situation, but Willy refuses to listen. Bernard is Charlie's goody two shoes son who was a childhood friends of Biff. Bernard always studied and eventually became a successful lawyer, something that Willy has trouble dealing with. Uncle Bens is Willy's dead brother who appears to Willy during his flashbacks and times of trouble. Ben was a rich man who made it big in the diamond mines of Africa. Willy once was given the chance to become partners with Ben, but refused and instead choose the life that he currently lives.
The explanation of The Plot from The Drama of “Structural Element of The Death of Salesman”.

Plot
1. Initial Situation :Willy and Biff are both home again
Willy Loman returns home after an unsuccessful business trip. Frustrated at his lack of success, his wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss Howard Wagner to allow him to work in his home city so he will not have to travel. Willy comes home early from his work trip because he is not longer able to drive and he can’t do his job. Biff is home after working as a farm hand for many years in the West. But with the contrasting seeds of conflict buried here, this initial situation isn’t bound to last long.

2. Conflict: Willy is deteriorating and suicidal; Biff is told to get serious
Here comes the conflict, right on schedule. Willy’s mental wanderings are getting worse; he is anxious with Biff’s aimlessness and inability to find success in business. Linda informs her sons that Willy has been trying to commit suicide and tells Biff that his father’s life is in his hands. Biff needs to get a job and get serious or take the blame for his father’s actions.

3. Complication: Willy gets fired and Biff doesn’t even get close enough to a job to get fired
On the same day, both Willy and Biff’s high expectations are dashed to the ground. Willy goes to his boss, Howard, to try to get a non traveling job but ends up getting completely fired. Meanwhile, Biff waits for six hours to see Oliver, only to be reminded that he is a no one in the man’s eyes.

4. Climax: Biff gets honest and destroys Willy’s dream; Willy finally realizes that Biff loves him.
This climax earns its stripes in two different ways. The first is psychological: Biff realizes he and his entire families have been living a lie. The second is more of an action based climax, and takes the form of the huge blow out argument between Biff and his father. This is followed by much shouting and crying, and at last Willy finds out that Biff really does love him. That would be great and we’d probably have a happy ending if it weren’t for the small fact that we hadn’t gotten to the suspense stage yet.

5. Suspense: Willy starts chatting with the imaginary figure of his brother and considers killing himself.
Now that Willy has realized that Biff loves him, he wants to do anything he possibly can to make his son successful. In his mind, Willy hears Ben saying that "the jungle is dark but full of diamonds," but sadly ignores the "dark" bit while he shoots for the "diamonds" part. The suspense, of course, is that we’ve heard this suicide song and dance before, so we’re not sure if he’ll actually go through with it.

6. Denouement: Willy commits suicide.
And now for the horrible things Willy’s death was actually a foregone conclusion. The play’s title and Linda both predict it. What was unsure earlier in the play was why Willy would commit suicide. And the why, as we have discussed, is the real kicker.

7. Conclusion: Biff rejects his father’s misguided dream, but Happy runs with it
At the conclusion of the play, it is totally clear that Willy was wrong about himself. Not that we ever thought otherwise, but practically no one comes to his funeral. Biff now realizes that his father didn’t know himself and picked the wrong path. He will certainly not follow in his father’s footsteps. Happy, on the other hand, defends his father’s misguided dreams and decides to take them on himself.

Setting
Most of the action is set in Willy Loman's home and yard in Brooklyn, New York City. Because of recent population growth, the Lomans' house is boxed in by apartment buildings.

There are a few scenes that don't take place at the Lomans' Brooklyn home. We see Willy get fired in an office in Manhattan, and he also meets his sons at a Manhattan restaurant. There's also the scene where Biff learns of Willy's affair, which happens in a hotel room in Boston.
The time period also has a big effect on the action of the play. It's the late 1940s, meaning that we have just come out of WW II.

Point of view
Though all works of literature present the author’s point of view, they don’t all have a narrator or a narrative voice that ties together and presents the story. This particular piece of literature does not have a narrator through whose eyes or voice we learn the story.

Theme
Throughout the play the Lomans in general cannot distinguish between reality and illusion, particularly Willy. This is a major theme and source of conflict in the play. Willy cannot see who he and his sons are. He believes that they are great men who have what it takes to be successful and beat the business world. Unfortunately, he is mistaken. In reality, Willy and sons are not, and cannot, be successful. Certain lines in the play point to this character flaw that is present in Willy, Happy, and Biff. For example, Willy believes that to be well liked is the means to being successful. This is an illusion that Willy lives in. Also, on the literal level, Willy very often lapses into a flashback and appears to be reliving conversations and situations that occurred years ago. This is an inability to see reality.

This reality versus illusion problem eventually brings about Willy's downfall. In the end, Willy believes that a man can be "worth more dead than alive." Charlie, always the voice of reality tells Willy, "A man isn't worth anything dead."

Style
The style and devices Miller uses enhances Willy’s mental state. By using flashback and reveries, he allows the audience to get into the mind of Willy Loman and brings us into a sense of pity for him. Miller also uses a lot of motifs and repeated ideas through the play to give the viewers an idea of what Willy and his situation is all about. Personal attractiveness is an often repeated motif. It shows that Willy believes that personal attractiveness makes one successful, but his belief is shot down by the success of Charley and Bernard who, in his mind, are not personally attractive. Other motifs are debt which sadly the Lomans escape after Willy dies, stealing which Willy condones, even encourages, the boxed in feeling of Willy, the idea that Willy’s life is passing him by, expressed in the quote, “The woods are burning,” and Ben’s success and the qualities that brought about his success.

Conclusion of The Death of Salesman
The death of salesman is a tragedy drama. The story tells the life of a family with a father, Willy, a man that has dreams larger than his standard life can offer him. It is the story of a misguided person sets out to accomplish something that he thinks is the right thing, but ironically it is that very thing that causes pain and anguish to himself and everyone around him. In the end, the people that truly care are the ones whose admiration usually goes unnoticed.

From the drama, in face of life the man must be the wise. Experience being able to recognize the mistakes when make them again. Sometime, happiness is like a butterfly, the more chase it, the more it will elude. But if the men turn the attention to other things, it will come and softly descend upon the shoulder. But then it is not mean that the men just fold the hands. Success doesn’t come to the men, but go to it. Everything must be the balance. It is a fact of life.