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.
Arthur Miller, American playwright
Arthur Miller in Washington Square Park. The photo...
English: , Republican representative from Nebraska...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...