Theatrical Techniques Flashcards
For Arthur Miller, even Shakespeare cane judged to be realist in his tragedies. He believes that if a play offers plausible and convinving reasons why characters are moved to act as they do, then it deserves a …… label?
realist
What is the only scene where the fourth wall is broken but its impact only has the dramatic effect of accentuating his breakdown and does not destroy the overall illusion?
where Willy looks to the audience as if they were the people in the stands at Biff’s football game
What does Arthur Miller say about time in Death of a Salesman?
that “Death of a Salesman explodes the watch and the calendar”
The play gives us both internal and external views of Wily’s motives. What is meant to indicate the state of a man’s consciousness?
the collapsing of time so that Willy’s memories and dreams become just as vivid as the immediate present
The collapsing of time so that Willys memories and dreams become just as vivid as the immediate present are supposed to indicate what?
the state of a mans consoucness
Why did Arthur Miller what there to be a collapse of time so that Willys memories and dreams become just as vivid as the immediate present?
as he wanted to see all the inner complexity of the mind gradually revealed
DOS fuses the ____ and ___________ styles with an ultimately realist purpose?
realist
Expressionist
The theme of individualism is central to Arthur Millers play, Willy appears to suffer from the belief that the individual can change the world through his own mind. This fallacy costs Willy his life. What is the one aspect of Willy’s character that we find admirable at times under the Nietsche’s philosophy?
that in a world bereft of meaning the strong man creates it for himself, such as in his suicide
Who created the philosophy that in a world bereft of meaning the strong man creates it for himself?
Nietsche
The staging is a combination of the ___________-period furniture and props-alongside quite unnatural dream sequences/
naturalistic
How are lights used to make the transitions between scenes smooth and to designate a shift in time and space?
they will suddenly come up and focus on a different division of the house
How does Arthur miller use a montage to create the further effect of hypocrisy and to show how a man can entertain two conflicting ideas at once?
When the woman who is Willy’s lover takes up the dialogues when Willy is about to declare his love for Linda and his family (“Theres so much I want to make for-) and then becomes flattered when the woman states she picked him. Willy’s earnest protestations of love and fidelity alongside his delight at flattery conflict
One way of looking at the play is to look at the first Act as building up the idea of success which is so dear to Willy and doing what to the second Act?
destroying it
What is the first and second act full of?
act 1 -dreams and expectations
act 2-truths and reckonings
What is the cruel irony in Act 2 when Willy imagines Ben in Howards office and claims “I am building something with this firm”?
as of course, we have just seen all that he built destroyed
