Open Prompt 3

1975 Also. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

     While tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth are often hailed as some of the greatest in literature, others may not come across so obviously. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the great tragedy of the play comes slowly, building as the characters realize what kind of world they live in. Character contrasts, interactions and setting all subtly manipulate the reader to respond in confusion and only slowly build an understand of the occurrences in the play. 

     Morals and goals provide excellent juxtaposition between the characters in the play, especially between related characters such as Granda and Mommy or the young man and his twin. The old woman and her daughter share few no to values; where Mommy obsesses over the exact color of a hat she only wanted to impress others, Grandma takes care of a blind dog that will never provide her with anything, but holds deep sentimental value. Sentiment vs. material may provide the main conflict between them, but mixed in is a fight between personal pride and popular perception. Grandma quickly shows a lack of arrogance; when she won a competition, she entered in a fake name so nobody would know she'd won. Mommy, in the meanwhile, cares only for what others think. She likes Mrs. Barker only for her popular and powerful role and uses empty threats against Grandma to give the impression of having more power than she really had. These contrasts added to the idea that the characters represented ideas linked but essentially opposites; the clashing of the old traditions and the new ways of materialism. The young man and his twin had a much simpler contrast, though its power rang deep and became one of the most important cornerstones of the play. The twin, imperfect from birth due to being human, was sentimental, flawed and potentially richly rewarding. It was through his dismemberment that the young man changed to become what he was. Shallow, emotionless and only in it for the money, the young man was the child's opposite. Through this, the young man's role as the new "American Dream", and by extension the child's role as the rejected dream, become uncomfortably clear.

     Characters, however, cannot send messages simply through existing alone. Instead, they must be active, acting and reacting to others. Once again, Mommy and Grandma take this and run with it. In every interaction with Granda, Mommy is childish and controlling. She can't stand Grandma speaking up or criticizing, instead using force- often through Daddy- to stop her. Shutting her up by threatening to break her TV or call the "Van man" hints at the idea that materialism does not stand for the old traditions cropping up again, but what power does it have to really stop them? Mommy similarly shows a high level of control over Daddy, who she treats like a small child, manipulating and mocking viciously. It's when she loses this control that she gets truly angry and controlling. Mrs. Barker played the role of the woman competing for Daddy's loyalty, and when she won, Mommy refused to let Mrs. Barker exercise any further freedoms in her household, refusing to let her smoke even though she'd offered her the ability only seconds before. Materialism and the consumer must be in control. 

     The home that the characters interact in is another important hint at the meanings within the play. When introduced to the play, the first thing the reader is told to see is a plain apartment. There is no detail; the walls, floor and furnishings, beyond two bland chairs, are left unmentioned. Clearly, the apartment they live in has no personal touches or sentimental objects. This leaves the home vague and undefined, like it's anyone's home, or everyone's. As the play continues, it's made clear that even this simple home is a maze; Daddy claims he can't even find Grandma's room, and Mrs. Barker gets lost within to such an extreme that she can't hear people shouting her name. The home of the classic "new american" family is less simple than it would seem, a labyrinth on the inside.