Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a deceptively simple piece. The play's simplicity, however, quickly dissolves into respectful ambiguity thanks to Miller's ingenious staging, nonverbal expressions and, most importantly, his musical design. From the opening notes to their final reprise, the audience is enormously drawn to what Tennessee Williams calls “plastic theater” (Williams 213). The use of musical expression complements the textual version of the piece, thus creating a piece. a more lucid production. This desire by Miller to open his theater to more than just performance rooted in language allowed him to create a lyrical drama, a theater more poetic through melodic themes. roles accentuating the conflicts that the Lomans express to the public through language. They foreground, through metaphor, many of the play's deepest ambiguities and discords. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Miller's musical themes express the competing influences in Willy Loman's mind. Once established, the themes only need to be mentioned to evoke certain deadlines, emotions and values. The first sounds of the drama, the “small and fine” flute notes, represent grass, trees and the horizon. They are objects of Willy and Biff's desire that are conspicuously absent from the eclipsed house on which the curtain rises. This melody continues when Willy makes his first appearance, although, as Miller tells us, "he hears it but is not aware of it" (1165). Through this melodious music, we thus have a first feeling of Willy's distance not only from nature itself but also from his own deep nature which confuses happiness and success. The flute music also contains important past references for Willy. Ben informs Willy that their father made flutes and sold them during the family's early wanderings (1185). As Ben enters the biography of their father, new music is heard, introducing an additional musical theme as the father is characterized by “a high, catchy melody” (1184). The air is differentiated from the small and fine melody of the natural landscape (1165). This distinction is relevant, because the father is both a seller and an explorer. The cheerful musical theme that references his name collides with the tender music that is part of his memory. This represents the contradictory values ​​he possessed and passed on to those around him, thus demonstrating Willy's negative correlation between happiness and success. The father's melody shares a familiar resemblance with the "idyllic" music of Ben (1182). This theme presents itself falsely because it is associated with depressing and discouraging contexts. Ben's theme first appears after Willy expresses his exhaustion with his quest for success (1182). Then this is seen again after Willy's dismissal in Act II. This time, the music precedes Ben's entrance. We hear it in the distance, then closer, just as Willy's suicidal thoughts, once repressed, now come closer following the loss of his job. When Ben's idyllic melody plays for the third and final time, it is in "Accents of Dread" (1228), as Ben reinforces Willy's mistaken thought of suicide to help finance and support Biff and the family. This idea of ​​selling ties into the abandonment that Willy's father described since Willy doesn't remember much about him. The father and Ben themes contribute greatly to Willy's disillusionment with life. They thus oppose thesmall and fine theme of nature which begins and ends the piece. The whistling motif elaborates this essential conflict. Most people think of whistling as an outdoor activity that goes along with work. A whistler in an office would be a distraction. Biff Loman likes to whistle, thus strengthening his ties to nature rather than the business environment. Happy seeks to drown out Biff's true voice: Happy: ...Bob Harrison said you were on top, and then you you're going to do crazy things like whistle whole sounds in the elevator like an actor.Biff (against Happy): So what? I like to whistle sometimes. Happy: you don't elevate a guy who whistles in elevators to a responsible position! (60) Happy shares many of the same values ​​as his father, as he believes that success and acceptance are the roots of happiness. He tries to explain to Biff that to succeed, and thus find happiness, he must not give up on his desires. This corresponds to Willy's distancing himself from nature in order to succeed. Later in Act 2, the whistling theme resonates again as Howard Wagner plays Willy a recording of himself whistling "Roll out the Barrel" just before Willy asks for an advance and a job from New York (1198). ). Willy's discomfort with the recorder playing the whistling reiterates the concept of Willy's estrangement and, more importantly, his blindness to the truth. Since Howard is a very successful man and is the one whistling on the recorder, this disproves Willy and Happy's idea that whistling is frowned upon by business authorities. In a sense, Howard shows Willy that happiness does not lie in success, but rather in connection with nature and in finding oneself. Willy's conflicting desires to work in sales and do freelance work in the outdoors are complicated by another desire, that of sexuality. desire, which is expressed through the “raw and sensual music” which accompanies La Femme’s appearances on stage (1179, 1215). It is this music of sexual desire that insinuates itself into Act 2. We also hear it just before Willy, reliving a past conversation, offers this ironic warning to Biff: "I just want to watch out for these girls , Biff, that's all. "I make no promises. No promises of any kind" (1174). This raw theme of sexual desire contrasts with Linda Loman's musical motif. It is characterized by the maternal hum of a gentle lullaby. This comforting music becomes a “desperate but monotonous hum” at the end of Act I (1195). Linda's monotonous humming, in turn, contrasts with the "gray and bright" music, the boys' theme, which opens Act II. This theme is associated with the “great moments” (1195) that Willy remembers with his sons before his adultery is discovered. Like Willy's father's high-pitched, playful theme and Ben's idyllic melody, this cheerful, bright music is ultimately associated with the false dream of materialistic success. The theme of boys first appears when Willy tells Ben that he and the boys will become rich in Brooklyn (1185). This resonates when Willy implores Ben: “How can we get back to all the great moments?” (1218). In his last moments of his life, Willy Loman is shown struggling with his furies, “sounds, faces, voices seem to invade him” (1229). Suddenly, however, "low and high" music enters, representing the false dreams of all "weak" men. This false tune ends Willy's struggle with his competing voices. This drowns out the other voices, increasing in intensity "almost to an unbearable scream" as Willy flees in his car. As the car speeds away, the music crashes into a frenzy of sound. There, 1971.