Present to the Past

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman centralizes around past occurrences rather than those in the present. By having Willy, the main character, constantly reminiscing of the past Miller poses the idea that the past and its actions affect a person's present state.

Using Willy's delusions of the past Miller reveals human's tendencies to linger on the past as a way to avoid present hardships. Willy finds it easier to remember the high times in life rather than dealing with the less happy state of of his life during old age. Humans tend to do the same. Miller warns against this and suggests that it doing so may lead to a person's own demise, just as it did with Willy. It was a character of his past, his uncle, who encouraged suicide.

Willy's past actions prove not only to affect his own present state,but others as well.This cause and effect cannot be helped and usually not intended. Willy did not intend to ruin his son's life with his affair in the past, but nonetheless it happened. Miller seeks to stress the importance of past actions by utilizing Willy and Biff's situation. He suggests to the reader that taking great care for one's current actions may improve a person's own future as well as the future of another.

Although the past occurs and then continues on, it still eaves a lingering impression on a person. Miller understands this idea and portrays it in his play. With Willy's hardened nostalgia the play becomes Miller's plight to humanity to pay attention to the pastas well as the present. He utilizes Willy's pathetic and desperate state to conjure readers' sympathy towards the subject matter, which in turn heightens his/her awareness. It is then that a reader will attempt to heed Millers' message.

In this playMiller confronts a person's actions and its affect on the future by using Willy's past, his son's past,and his own reminiscence of it all.