I did the scene with Charley offering Willy a job and Willy turning it down, the mask is used in this scene because Willy is hiding his true self, his true personality the one which would possibly take the job. The mask is also used because Willy is hiding the fact he is struggling and possibly weak.
The subtext to the mask being put on by Willy is Willy hiding his true self and his true beliefs, he is usually in denial with the mask on. It’s almost as if Willy has a mask on even to himself but due to his mental illness he isn’t aware.
I used eye contact a lot during my scenes to show how when he has the mask on he would probably avoid eye contact a lot, during the mask on I would say willy has closed body language because I portrayed him with his legs together rather than apart, sat straight arms together, because he is kind of closed off, not letting anybody in, not letting anybody know the real him.
For the mask off scene , my facial expression softened I had open body language, more eye contact, letting people in but I don’t think he realises without the mask on he is letting people see the real him. I also changed my posture, to a more relaxed one with the mask off because without his mask he usually goes into an “episode” and I would imagine he would be relaxed at this time. (252 words)
Non-verbal communication
When looking at the scene with Willy and biff arguing due to Willy’s ignorance resulting in biff storming out, I portrayed biff, I interpreted biff to be very angry during the majority of this scene because the one person who is supposed to listen to every word he says, is completely ignoring what he has to say. We decided to use characterisation skills and proxemics to create tension, at the beginning of the play, I portrayed biff to be close to his father; sat close and ‘trying’ to tell his father about the job, but then at the end we tried to create distance between us because biff has finally had enough of his father’s ignorance. During this scene I used gestures, body language, facial expressions and eye contact to get my point across due to the fact it was a non-verbal piece, I decided to try and make eye contact with Willy during the performance so it shows my yearning for his attention, and my desperation for him to listen. I used body language and gestures by gesturing my hands to my head to symbolise frustration. I paused a short while after gesturing I can’t go back to give chance for the anger to trigger and the tension to rise because after that scene we explode, I as biff slam whatever object is in my hand, like the pen for example and willy pushes over the chair, to finish off this performance. I used eye contact before walking away to try and make Willy realise what he has done and make the audience possibly feel empathy. (267 words) (Highlighted bits are possibly weaker bits)
Visual, spatial aural
The main themes of death of a salesman are fragility, madness and frustration fragility comes to mind with Arthur Miller’s descriptions of the small “fragile” house, so I have made my house rather small. Madness from Willy’s “imaginings” and the coming and going of characters through walls so the set design very innovative as it allows characters move between past and present so I have included a thin net with a slit big enough for actors to go through easily. Frustration comes from the small house surrounded by larger
