Chaos & Disorder

• In Death of a Salesman, the forces of chaos and disorder are seen in Willy’s psyche instead of affecting an entire nation as in Classical tragedy.
• Classical tragedy

  • In Classical tragedy, the destructive forces of chaos and disorder unleashed by a character’s ‘peripeteia’ or ‘hamartia’ affected the whole state or nation as the tragic hero held an important rank (e.g. King or General).
  • In Miller’s play, the chaos is confined to the Loman household.
• Willy's psyche

  • In Death of a Salesman, the forces of chaos and disorder are seen in Willy’s psyche.
  • Miller structures the play to allow the audience to see Willy at “that terrible moment when the voice of the past is no longer distant but quite as loud as the voice of the present”.
• Mental breakdown

  • To the audience’s horror, and the horror of characters such as Biff and Charley, Willy suffers a psychological breakdown in front of us/them.
  • His repressed memories force themselves in to the present with greater frequency the closer the play moves to its finale.
• Metaphor

  • Willy’s sense of his world spiralling out of control is reflected in his metaphorical language: “The woods are burning!... There's a big blaze going on all around”.
  • As Willy’s mind disintegrates, he envisions the world around him in flames.