The hotel room, the bar and the office will all be above these and proportionately smaller, except that the edges of the room of the office at the top with the hotel room and bar, both on the same level below, will not be visible, giving it an illusion of limitless vastness. The set will have one main room above a tiny space for the garden, and small bedrooms will be above the kitchen, just enough room to accommodate the number of characters. This adds to the tragedy, since these people are just common ordinary people, and not really important to anyone. The main room is the kitchen and the appliances, cupboards and tables and chairs will all be somewhat larger than they should be in reality in order to convey the image of the people being smaller than they should be. Lights will be projected when the skyscrapers are visible. In my production, it is larger, but surrounded by skyscrapers painted to the ceiling and disappearing in clouds on either side. My set is more static, but illusory and a bit surreal. Of the many visual symbols, it is the most important, according to Mieltziner 1, who used it differently, creating movable pieces and lighting. The house, which is the central object for Willy and this play is not in correct proportion to the human body.

Other characters need no patches or glasses, because their vision is stark and clear and does no matter anyway. This doesn’t need any explanation it is simply a loaded image. Other characters can each wear a patch over one eye with Linda wearing large, thick-lensed rose-colored glasses. Willy’s blindness can be symbolized by giving him a white cane or by using a blindfold. Linda knows that he has tried to commit suicide and that he has been unable to make enough money, but she does not confront him. She has always been a co-dependent in the same sense as with an addict or an alcoholic.

However, they have become so bad that she is afraid she will lose Willy, who is her reason to live. Biff seems to know that his father is, and may always have been self-delusional, but he wants no responsibility for helping. Happy is almost an accomplice as he believes the illusions his father created about his own importance.

The boys each have their own reaction to Willy. Willy is the bland man and the others are unwilling to teases, and, at least, half-blind themselves. In thinking about the metaphor from which to construct the production matrix I was struck by the image from my memory of children playing Blind Man’s Bluff.

Death of a salesman audio and script