Setting
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 1.1.3
Introduction to the Setting
The play is a domestic tragedy set in the Loman family home in Brooklyn, New York.
The Loman house
- Miller’s lengthy opening stage direction describes the Loman house as “small” and “fragile” against the encroaching blocks and skyscrapers represented by the “towering, angular shapes” and “angry glow of orange” which surround it.
Old America
- Willy complains that there isn’t “a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood” and the claustrophobic, almost suffocating, atmosphere created by Miller helps to intensify the drama and illustrate a major theme of the play: the loss of an older, more traditional America rooted in its farmlands and wild frontier.
Use of staging techniques
- The play also has different time settings, represented by different spaces on stage.
- The forestage is used to dramatise Willy’s increasingly desperate and painful recreations of past memories and other imaginings.
- During Willy’s psychological collapse, particularly in Act 2, past and present collide uncontrollably, creating an increasingly unsettling spectacle for audiences.
Test yourself on Setting
What is represented by different spaces on stage in Death of a Salesman?