Comparing the positives and negatives of the film version and the book version of Death of a Salesman.

AP English 11

Hollywood V. Text

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman carefully exemplifies the ideal dysfunctional family. With the crazy father, enabling mother, egotistical son, and the forgotten other, it is often a struggle to live in the same house. With all of the different aspects of the play developing at the same time, the confrontation of text opposed to film is inevitable.

As far as the case goes with the combination of conflicting personalities, the film version more effectively portrays all of the different points each character has. Through watching the film, one can get a better sense of what the characters are feeling. Being able to see the faces of the actors, can give you that emotion needed to achieve the advanced understanding of the play. While Linda loses her temper with her two sons, the film suggests that she feels a severe disgust for their actions. Whereas in the text, it seems as if Linda feels the hatred toward her sons, and not just their actions. Willie's diminishing amount of sanity is also more evident in the film version, since you get to see what he is seeing, and not what a sane person would be seeing. In addition, at the beginning of the play, the reader is not sure if the main character is losing his mind, and therefore does not really know what to think or imagine while reading.

Unfortunately, with the ability to look at the actors, also comes a drawback. Actors do not always know how the author wants each character portrayed, which can

sometimes lead to their own interpretation, and occasionally to the loss of a particular point, the author was trying to get across. In the text, the rubber tube is not explained for a reason. By means of not explaining the tube, readers will gradually conclude that it was not just a suicide device, but has a greater meaning to the play. The rubber hose would be used to inhale poisonous gas, which strangely enough would suffocate him, just as he is suffocating inside with failure. The text also helps implicate the author's belief, that each person is convinced of being successful, only there is not any proof of his or her success. This belief goes on until the person realizes who they really are, or they die believing that they are someone they are not. The false sense of success is a theme throughout the play.

In watching the film, one also gets to see the setting and atmosphere, suggested by Arthur Miller. The play's setting and atmosphere are crucial, for a clear understanding of the story line. Without seeing the eerie atmosphere when Ben comes to visit, it is hard to conclude that Ben is dead, and not just a neighbor. In the text, you only know that Willie begins to talk to someone named Ben, but in the film, you can see that he is the only one who ever really talks to Ben. In addition, when Willie is talking to Ben, the rest of the family only responds to what Willie is saying, never to what Ben is saying. Ben's ghost also exemplifies an important aspect of set design. Whenever he is seen, there is always a lit exit nearby, for he constantly exits into light in a quick manner. When reading, one is not quite sure if Ben is exiting through a door or into thin air (as ghosts will do). The set design also changes, by way of the coloring. When it is a flashback, the coloring is faded, helping the viewer to distinguish the difference between past and present.

In conclusion, the film version has more positive aspects than does that of the text. The film keeps the viewer/reader from becoming confused, leading to a better understanding of the play. The original views of the author are better integrated in the text, but being able to see what is going on, more than makes up for the loss, in the mind of the viewers.