The flute music is a symbol supporting the meaning of the play. Flutes are playing during plays opening and also at its closing during the scene at Willis grave, so the sound of the flute encompasses the entire drama. The symbolic use of flute music becomes more important when it is revealed that Willis father used to make and sell flutes. Ben Halfway through the first act, the reader hears something about Willis brother Ben. Wily wishes that he had gone to Alaska with his brother Ben. At the same time he speaks of Ben’s having walked into a jungle and when Ben came out he was rich.
Happy tells his dad that he is going to retire him for life. Ben becomes Willis ideal. Ben is a man who has nothing in the beginning but he ends up in riches. The Jungle than Ben walks into is symbolically the jungle Of life. But the jungle becomes the woods for Wily. Thus when Wily Says that ‘the woods are burning’ he means that life is closing in on him. Ben conquered the jungle of life, Wily was trapped by the burning wood. Consequently the phrase ‘the woods are burning’ suggest that time is running out on Wily. He no longer has enough time to do anything. This concept of mime is again emphasized by Ben.
Every time we see Ben, he has his watch out and keeps saying that he has only a few minutes or that he has to catch a train. He is always on the move while Wily remains still. Alaska, Africa, American West Death of a Salesman takes place primarily within the confined landscape of the Loans’ home. This narrow, and increasingly narrowing setting is contrasted with the vastness of the American West, Alaska, and Africa. If the Loans’ home symbolizes restriction, both physical and mental, distant locations symbolize escape, freedom, and the possibility of something better.
While Wily insists New York is a land of opportunity and abundant success, his utilization of his brother Ben’s adventures and forays into faraway lands shows that he is really not so convinced. Furthermore, Biff, Happy, and Ben repeatedly suggest that the Loans are better suited to physical, hands-on kinds of work, an assertion supported by their failure as salesmen. Willis obsession with distant lands further proves that he might prefer a very different livelihood than the one he has. Seeds The seeds that Wily insists on buying and planting are an important symbol in the play.
Wily is frequently troubled by feelings of confusion and inadequacy. He’s uncertain about how to raise his sons and worries that, like his own father, he will be unTABLE to provide for them. When Wily says, “Nothings planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” we have a feeling he’s really talking about his sons and their future. Wily is additionally preoccupied with being well known and leaving a legacy when he dies. All of these feelings come to a head in Wily s seed planting. Through planting seeds, Wily wants grow something that will thrive, provide for others and remain after his own death.
The MOST interesting part is that he chooses planting to make up for being a failed salesman – Hess actually better suited to working with his hands, to agriculture, to labor, just like his son Biff. Wily imagines that he can make seeds grow in, but he can’t do so because of the hardness of earth. This implies that his life is a barren thing. But it is already too late and his gestures of planting in the hope of future growth are desperate and futile. Stockings “Will you stop mending those stockings? At least while I’m in the house, it gets me nervous” Stockings appear in a number of contexts in Death of a Salesman.
Wily gives stockings to the woman he has an affair with, and repeatedly yells at Linda for mending her stockings in front of him (they seem to be a reminder of his affair and how he’s not providing for his family). Biffs anger at his fathers affair gets similarly channeled into the stockings; ostensibly, they are the reason for his anger. Wily gives new stockings to the woman as a presents while his wife has mend for her old stockings. Stockings make Wily nervous and his reaction is sudden. Tennis Racket The tennis racket Wily observes when he chats with Bernard in Charley office is a symbol of Barnyard’s success and Biffs failure.
While athletic Biff and Happy hoped to make a fortune selling sports equipment, it is Bernard, who in high school stood on the sidelines while Biff played sports, that now owns the tennis racket. Diamonds and the Jungle The diamonds that made Ben rich are a symbol of concrete wealth in Death of a Salesman. Unlike sales in which Wily has nothing tangible to show for his work, the diamonds represent pure, unadulterated material achievement. The diamonds are also seen as a “get-rich-quick” scheme that is the solution to all troubles.
When Wily is considering killing himself, he hears Ben telling him that, “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds. ” The jungle here is a risk (physically and, more interestingly, morally), which has the potential to yield wealth. In deciding to commit suicide, Wily perceives himself going into the dark jungle to get diamonds for his son. Wily Wily is as a symbolic character. Wily may be regarded as an American everyman. Wily is much more emphatically a representative figure, than any of Miller’s other characters. This means that Willis problems are much less personal dilemma than they are public issues.
