Drama Essay GuidelinesLength: 2-3 pages of text (750-1000), double spaced with an additional works cited page of 1-2 sources.Format: Use MLA manuscript format. For more about MLA Format, see the Cours
Fabulous 1Andrea Fabulous
Professor Sarah Kiewitz
LIT 22 20-501
15 December 201 2
Death of a Story
The d ifferences between the text of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and the 1985
film by same name are small, but change the story significantly. The play is an exploration and a
condemnation of a flawed worldview: the idea that goodwill and beauty can be the foundation of
success . “Be liked and you will never want” ( 1305 ). This is the key belief, a nd the principal
mistake that forms the life and death of Willy Loman , the main character, and it is also
fundamental to his family’s misery. The CBS movie, however, shifts and deletes tiny detail s
which, seem insignificant, but combine to reduce the subject of the play to no more than the
story of a man’s infidelity destroying his s on’ s life and, ultimately, his own. The original story is
still there -- nearly all of the dialogue and all but one scene match the text -- but the shape of the
story is different. These changes are the most apparent in the casting, in the set design, and in the
actors’ additions to and deviations from Miller’s stage directions . Nearly eve ry aspect of the film
is different in some subtle way . The CBS film attempt s to maintain the feel of the original play ,
but it is not enough to prevent the loss of Miller ’s core message.
The set design is the most controllable, and least faithful element that the film adapts.
Miller’s play is supposed to be performed on a cramped set. The set is of a small house, with a
bedroom above an unseen living room and another one the opposite side. A small kitchen is in
the middle, with a table and chairs taking center -stage . The film could have duplica ted the details
of the set, but they didn’t have to. F ilm is a free medium when it comes to se ts, so there was no
Comment [KS1]: Not her real name and this is A++ work. Look to this as a model to shoot for in terms of careful thought/construction, not a base -line expectation. It’s over the length requirement , uses more passages from the text than strict ly necessary , etc.
Comment [KS2]: Remember this as a possible thesis helper —pointing out problems of a character’s world view.
Comment [KS3]: Something that could be added here is the director’s name , though it is included on the Works Cited page . This information is available at imdb.com . This writer lists it in her works cited.
Comment [KS4]: But this is the thesis —an evaluation of how the film does at capturing the text. Fabulous 2
need t o adhere to the space restrictions of a stage. Nevertheless, the filmmakers pull the camera
back early in the first act to show that the y are filming on a stage. It shows a break in the house
set which is probably a tribute to the theatrical roots of the play , but it is also clearly a metaphor
for Willy Loman’s fractured mind . It fails though, because it seems out of place with the rest of
the film. The filmmakers couldn’t bring themselves to continue violating the conventions of set
design, and this is a problem because t he main point of Miller’s stage is to allow the space of the
rooms to be violated by Loma n’s memories . “The entire setting ,” Miller writes, “ is wholly or, in
some places, partia lly transparent . . . Whenever the action is in the present the actors observe
the imaginary wall -lines . . . But in the scenes of the past these boundaries are broken, and
characters enter or leave a room by stepping ‘through’ a wall onto the forestage ” (1293 ). More
than a just mere metaphor, this creates an atmosphere of a dreamlike unreality . Ideas and
thoughts and dialogue can drift in and out of the space as easily as the actor s do. In the film,
however, the hard walls and frequent set changes make the story seem more normal. This lessons
the sense of isolation and Loman’s painful limitations, but worse, it encour ages the viewer to
become comfortable with the setting . In the pla y, though, another person or another memory
might come from anywhere at any time . Nothing in the play is certain. The film uses edits and
sudden set changes to try to produce this feeling of uncertainty, but it fails precisely because it is
a film, and edi ts like that are common in the film industry.
Casting is anothe r area where film is different from the play. Little attention was paid to
Miller’s instructions for how the characters looked and acted. The 48 year -old Dennis Hoffman
does a very good job as Willy Loman, but he is just not old enough to depict real age. He totters
theatrically in an exaggerated way that an older actor would not. The casting of minor characters,
such as his wife, and Charley, is not very relevant. They could be almost anyone and it would not
Comment [KS5]: The stage directions in the play are in italics, so Fabulous maintains that here. It helps distinguish those passages from passages spoken in the play.
Comment [KS6]: This writer uses page numbers in her citations instead of line numbers. This is, in part, because she’s citing things that have no line numbers —the stage directions —frequently. Then her citation method remains consisten t throughout. If you’re only citing lines from the play, choose that structure. Fabulous 3
take away from the feel of the original play. But the sons were very important and they were
completely miscast. The 32 year -old John Malkovich is almost acceptable as Biff, but he is
hardly “well built ” like Miller sugges ts and he is not an “Adonis” as Willy suggests ( 1305 ). He is
also not particularly beautiful like he should be. The fact that he is rather average instead of
astonishingly good looking takes a great deal away from the story. Even more than Biff, his
brother Happy must also be beautiful. He is described by Miller: “ tall, p owerfully made.
Sexuality is l ike a visible color on him, a scent that many women have discovered ” (1298 ). The
33 year -old Stephen Lang is many things, but there is definitely no visible color of sexuality
present on any part of his form. He is also not tall and powerfully made. This m atters a lot ,
because the point is that both boys have successful bodies, but are not successful people. They
are both gorgeous, and Biff was (while Happy is) popular, “ Well liked” as Loman would put it,
but not “liked” ( 1305 ). They are unsuccessful even t hough they have every possible physi cal
advantage , which is key to Miller’s message. He implies that it is not enough to have the tools of
success. It is not even enough to h ave the attitude of success because Happy is described in the
play as having “ never allowed himself to turn his face toward defeat ,” something which makes
him “more confused and hard -skinned ” than his defeated brother, “ although seemingly more
content ” (1298 ). Miller goes out of his way to fail to answer the obvious question that Wi lly
Loman ultimately asks of Biff’s childhood schoolmate Bernard , a successful lawyer : “What’s the
secret? . . . How did you [succeed]? Why didn’t [Biff]?” ( 1337 ). Though it is not Biff he is
asking about, but himself. Why am I a failure despite being well liked? How can my beautiful
sons be failures if they are so well liked? Why are you a success despite the fact that you were
not as good as we are? This can only be apparent if the disparity between Bernard and Loman’s
Comment [KS7]: Notice this great mix of evidence: stage directions, play text, and then clear description of what the writer sees in the film . Fabulous 4
sons is understood. Shoving Malkovic h into an ill -fitting high s chool sweater and putting glasses
an actor nearly equivalent in looks is not enough to make this point.
All th ese points might have been made if the stage directions were followed . Small details , such
as Happy combing his hair, vainly, as he remembers his first time with a woman, and the “ crude ”
laugh intended to follow his review of her: “Boy, there was a pig!” (1298) .
A worse departure from the play occurs when the boys explain a (doomed) plan to their
parents, and Willy Loman becomes an gry at his wife for interrupting his questi ons (with the
same questions ). In the play, he is described as “ wildly enthused ,” and only “angry ” when Biff
tells him to “stop yelling at [his mother]” (1322 -1323). In the film, Loman strikes his wife on the
leg hard enough that it causes her to flinch. This is an obvious demonstration of physical abuse.
This is absurdly out of character and almost destroys the sympathy the viewer needs to have for
Willy Loman when his infidelity is revealed. This change to his ch aracter makes him essentially
unlikable, which contradicts the entire premise. Loman is “well liked,” and prides himself on it.
A man who is “well liked” might be well liked by many a woman, but he would never hit them.
He wouldn’t have to , and that’s the point of being “well liked.” So for him to beat his wife,
however superficially, is bafflingly out of place . While the play itself is described by one critic as
exploitive to women: “Careful analysis reveals that the American Dream as presented in Death
of a Salesman is male -oriented, but it requires unacknowledged dependence on women as well as
women ’s subjugation and exploitation ” (Stanton 157). It is not described as overtly violent and
abusive.
Despite its shortcomings, the film is not a total failure. It i s well acted . Despite my
criticism above, Hoffman and Mal kovich did win Drama Desk Award s (not Tony ’s though) for
their overall performances ("Death of a Salesman "). The film also staying true to dialogue --while Fabulous 5
not enough to correct its other mistakes --is uniquely faithful and uniquely exceptional . Where it
fails , however, is in communicating the subtext of the story. On the surface, Death of a Salesman
is a simple and obvious tale : A traveling salesman cheats on his wife, as so many suc h salesmen
do. He is discovered by his son, who suffers a p sychological collapse because of it. He then stops
applying himself , and secretly becomes a criminal. His son’s failure and the salesman’s own
sense of guilt crushes him, and results in dementia . The salesman then kills himself while within
a delusion, in an attempt to atone for his own failures ( especially with his son), in the hopes that
his son will then be able to move on with his life.
But that isn’t the story —that is just the plot . The story i s about how beauty and friendship
are imaginary , or even superfluous. The story is about how little remains of a man who believes
in himself despite having nothing to believe in . Mainly the story is about how fantasies are not
reality . Dreaming of self -worth does not magically create self -worth: it extracts it. Given that, the
plot could be about man -eating grapefruits from outer space, but still get the main point of the
story across. The film has all the parts of the plot and it keeps true to the play in many ways. It
has most of the words and all of the scenes in close to the original order. But because it ignored
the characters and their setting: in the casting, the directions, and the set desi gn, it doesn’t tell the
story —just the plot.
Comment [KS8]: This shows a keen understanding of the play as written in contrast to the film. Fabulous 6
Works Cited
Death of a Salesman . Dir. Volker Schlöndorff. Perf. Dustin Hoffman. CBS, 1985. Film.
"Death of a Salesman." Wikipedia . Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 201 2.
Miller, A rthur . “Death of a Salesman .” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing . Ed. Laurie G.
Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 1293 -1364 . Print.
Stanton, Kay. “Women and the American Dream of Death of a Salesman ” Death of a Salesman .
New York: Longman, 2011. 156 -200. Longman Study Edition. Google Books . Web. 01
Dec . 201 2.