From 30 Oct.

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

 Senility often accompanies old age, and memories and the present are either lost or muddled together. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the main character, 60 year-old Willy Loman, slips in and out of the present along with the events of the drama itself. Miller's manipulation of time better communicates Willy's mental situation to the audience and reveals important plot information while perpetuating his emphasis on abandonment.

The events of the play as the audience sees them follow Willy's relapses into his past. Without this, the audience would only hear and view Willy's words and actions in the past as he walks around in the present. Taking the trip with Willy allows viewers to feel empathy, to experience the same level of disorientation as Willy experiences. Willy's confusion and misunderstanding become the audience's confusion and misunderstanding. Willy is transformed from a nettlesome old man to a sympathetic old-timer abandoned by his lucidity of mind.

Though the audience is with Willy as he mentally travels through time, from Willy's stand point, he is alone; the other characters in the play's present setting do not follow him into his memories. When Willy and the audience are away in his mind, the present Biff, Happy, and Linda see a man talking to himself. This is another instance of Willy having been abandoned, left alone to face possible senility because he cannot explain or show his situation to his family, or even understand it himself.

Miller chooses to show supposedly "happy" times from Willy's past, back when his son Biff was the high school football star and he felt "well liked" by his clientele, but those times were, in reality, dismal. Money troubles were, and continue to be, a constant plague in the Loman's household, Willy had an affair while away for work, Biff's football success clouded his academics, and Willy was eventually forgotten by his clients. The dichotomy of these memories show the audience how Willy's perception of his own life was manipulated by his own self in an effort to think of his life as once having been successful and content. But he is losing that grasp on the pseudo memories, and their truth starts leaking out. Everything Willy understood his life to have been, whether he understood it correctly or not, is taken away from him, and he is again alone.

Miller chose to have the audience accompany his main character on a memory roller coaster. Through this, the audience can better understand Willy as well as the past events that are revisited and shown. Because jumping through memories is something that can only be done in the mind, Willy is left to face it alone, without his family, another sad illustration of the abandonment of the salesman.