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Post by danielsa116 on Mar 30, 2013 14:13:04 GMT -5
Anybody else get the sense that Miller used Willy's home as a metaphor for his mental state? When he first gets there, he's hopeful and ambitious and there's sun in the sky and empty spaces around him. Then when he gets older and his hopes dim, there's less room to expand and the sun doesn't get to the yard anymore.
Food for thought...
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Post by rebeccatr116 on Mar 31, 2013 7:44:29 GMT -5
The yard is also used as a staging area for the bulk of Willy's flashbacks, perhaps implying that his focus is no longer on the bright future but on the bleak present and misremembered past.
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Post by nickme112 on Mar 31, 2013 8:30:35 GMT -5
I do not get that sense. If that were true, then why would Willy note “Why don’t you open a window in here, for God’s sake?...The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks,” (6) when he first returns home?
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Post by jingyanxi116 on Mar 31, 2013 14:00:49 GMT -5
Willy's home could be a metaphor for his mental state, but what exactly did you mean by when he first gets there (the beginning of the play or during the flashbacks)? On the first page, his home is described as small and fragile seeming, with "an air of the dream", which can be compared to Willy's tendency to lose touch with reality, such as on the drive to Yonkers (page 3). Also, what page is the description of empty space around his home on?
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Post by kaylaro116 on Mar 31, 2013 18:26:01 GMT -5
In my opinion, Willy's home is definitely a metaphore for his mental state. In the past, the Brooklyn neighborhood where they lived was removed from the city and there was space within the neighborhood for expansion and for a garden. When they first bought the home, I think that it represented Willy’s hopes for the future. As time passed, the house was surrounded by apartment buildings and sunlight barely reached their yard, which represents the reduction of Willy’s hopes.
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Post by danielsa116 on Apr 3, 2013 15:49:43 GMT -5
jingyanxi116: When Linda and Willy first purchase the home. I think this would also address Nick's question. I'm not going along with the play, but rather chronologically.
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