Nature& the City

• Nature

  The tension between the city and the world of nature is highlighted in Miller’s long opening stage direction.
• Stage directions

  • The opening stage directions feature motifs representing the natural environment (e.g. the sound of a flute telling of “grass and trees and the horizon”) which compete against images of an “angry” and oppressive cityscape surrounding the Loman household.
• Willy's conflict

  • This contrast between the city and the world of nature symbolises the competing forces inside Willy:
  • His love of the great outdoors.
  • His belief that he can succeed and “build something” in the city.
• Nature v money

  • Similarly, his son aches to work in a wild and natural environment but knows that the financial rewards lie in the city and that he must “suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors with your shirt off”.
• Appreciating nature

  • Willy and Biff especially appreciate the beauty of nature and are at their most content and peaceful when describing it, whether it is the scenery Willy passes on the road to New England or the sight of new colts in the spring.
• Nature and Ben

  • Willy is anxious to justify his living in the city to Ben.
  • He assures Ben that he and his boys “hunt too… there’s snakes and rabbits…” and that Biff is expert at cutting down trees.
• Nature and masculinity

  • Willy associates the natural environment with a chance to prove one’s masculinity.
  • He and his boys can be as self-reliant as Willy’s father was.
• The City

  The tension between the the city and the world of nature is highlighted in Miller’s long opening stage direction.
• The city

  • In contrast to the natural environment, the city is personified as “hard” and “angry” in the opening stage direction.
  • Miller creates an atmosphere of oppression and threat, particularly with the projections of the “hard towers of the apartment buildings” looming over the Loman’s household.
• Biff's views

  • New York is spoken of as a rat-race: a ruthless and competitive environment where one always has to “get ahead of the next fella”.
  • Biff describes the city as a “nuthouse”, a metaphor which brutally expresses how city-dwellers may be damaged by their environment.
  • Willy can be seen as such a victim.
• Ben's views

  • Ben is also dismissive of city-life, describing cities as “full of talk and time payments and courts of law”.
  • For Ben, cities are restrictive, full of rules and procedures which do not exist in the frontier lands such as Alaska where a man has to prove his masculinity, to “screw on your fists and… fight” for success.
• Happy's views

  • Happy also condemns city-life and business as a “racket”, implying that it is a game which can be fixed: he views the city as a corrupt environment.
• The Loman's Garden

  The Loman back yard and garden also helps to symbolise the conflict between the city and nature.
• The Loman house

  • Willy and Linda’s house has been “boxed in” by developers and, deprived of enough natural light, “nothing’ll grow” in the Loman’s garden: “Not enough sun gets there”.
• The garden

  • The Loman’s back yard used to contain “two beautiful elm trees” and “lilacs and wisteria…peonies… daffodils”.
  • All have been lost as the “hard towers of apartment blocks” encroach on their home.
• Imagery

  • Willy twice cries out that “The woods are burning!”, a phrase he uses to describe his horror and panic at his loss of control over his own life.
  • The imagery is significant.
  • It is the environment that Willy feels closest to which is being lost, the burning woods representing a way of life which is being lost forever.
• Imagery cont.

  • It may also be interpreted as symbolising man-made environmental destruction, in particular, the clearing of woodland to make way for the expansion of the suburbs.