I have come to the conclusion that I'd rather sketch out a plot and point out a few things, then let my students see the play before reading it. This creates an initial, and major, barrier for your students if you do not help them experience any play as audience members before reading it. Plays exist in one form (a script) but live on stage. This is that plays are written to be produced, with actors, and a stage, and possibly curtains, costumes and a sardonic director. Let's focus on the language of the play, and the themes of regret and the struggle to become one's true self.įolks, forgive me for stopping for a moment to touch on a strongly held opinion of mine. This is a wildly deep and rich play, so there's much to choose from. It's packed full of regret, and, along with nostalgia, I think regret is one of the most difficult emotions for the majority of American teenagers to identify and connect to, as self-involved as they are.īut Death of a Salesman is a major player in many high school curricula, and it is certainly worthy of your class's time, so I will try to help you out here - do a solid, as my students would say - and find ways to help the language and play connect for you and your students. And subsequent re-reads and viewings, including one in the last two weeks, have only further convinced me that it is a delicate, tricky, and elusive play. I think we might agree that I'm not ungifted in understanding literature (again, paid!) but I really didn't get it. I recollect reading (and watching) it in high school. I'm kidding, of course, but I'm obliged (and paid) to state my opinion, which is that this play is quite difficult for teenagers to grasp. If you have any choice in the matter - any choice at all - you should choose The Crucible.'

your students will not understand this play. Maybe a shaky close-up of the cover of the script of Death of a Salesman (preferably the one of Dustin Hoffman in old-age makeup), followed by a slow pan out as we hear Morgan Freeman's voice saying, 'Teachers of America, before you teach Arthur Miller's classic, you should know.

I feel like I ought to begin this column with some kind of public service announcement.

Death of a salesman script