Dramatic Techniques Essay Example

Dramatic Techniques Essay Example Dramatic Techniques Paper Dramatic Techniques Paper The American Dream consists of a genuine and determined belief that in America all things are possible to all men, regardless of birth or wealth and if you work hard enough you will achieve anything. A man has to be resourceful enough so he can make his own luck and he has to imagine that if he tries hard, the sky is his limit. However in the Death of a Salesman, Miller argues that people have been misguided from the original dream. The original dream started, when the 18th and 19th immigrants came to America to have a chance of a better life. Also many of the people who came to America wanted the opportunity to own their own land. Eventually the land ran out, cities developed and massive variations in wealth arose and this is when the American Dream, changed from reality onto a dream. The original ways of the American Dream were to be hard working, honest and have an ambition. Eventually this would lead onto success, wealth and power, but this soon developed into encouraging greed, selfish behaviour, as well as pride and rivalry between one another. Willy Loman liked the idea of being rich and successful and became caught up in this American Dream. Willy wants to prove himself through successes as a salesman, but as he fails his own life destroys him. Willy was trying to achieve his lost self through success and when he thinks of his brother, Ben, he thinks of what he could have achieved. Miller stresses success and wealth through Ben and he does by making Ben repeat a lot, When I was seventeen I walked into a jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he drummed business in thirty-one states Ill never forget- and pick up the phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realised that selling was the greatest career a man could want. When he died, hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral. One of the reasons why Willy got so caught in the American Dream was because when he was little he saw a salesman, Dave Singleman, who sold lots of items by phone and when he died everyone came to his funeral because he was so well respected. Willy didnt realise that Dave was greatly valued and thats why he was so well respected and Willys failure as a businessman, was not to realise the demands of the business world. Im a New England man. Im vital in New England. Never leave your job until your sixty-two. Willy he is an insecure and knows he is unsuccessful businessman, and so he has to keep reassuring himself that he is a big shot and he is valued. They dont need me anymore. I put thirty-four years into that firm You cant eat the orange and throw away the peel a man is not a piece of fruit! In my opinion, Howard Wagner treats Willy harshly, because Willy has been very loyal to the business and has no reward for his length of service. What Willy doesnt seem to realise is that results are all that matter and he cant seem to get to grips with understanding that. At his funeral Charlie says a few words about being a salesman, because he knows that Willys view of success is extremely flawed. Hes a man out there, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back- thats like an earthquake. Charlie also said, The only thing youve got in this world is what you can sell. As Willy cant sell anything he has got nothing and he loses his self-respect. Also Biff said, He has the wrong dreams. All the wrong dreams, and he never knew who he was. In the city there is power and business pressure and Willy cant handle this pressure so he prefers the countryside, because there isnt that much pressure. He is attracted to the wild, free and open countryside and Willy gets very claustrophobic. The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks. The lighting effects with the leaves and trees are very symbolic, as this helps to give Willy in taste of the countryside and it reminds him of what he is missing. Willy says, thats funny; I could have sworn I was driving that Chevy today. He is forgetting things, but Linda covers this up by saying, Well, thats nothing. Something must have reminded you. Willys loneliness, unfaithfulness to Linda and his insecurity, leads to his affair in Boston with another women. Willy buys new stockings for this woman in Boston and makes Linda mend her own, old ones. But Linda cares for Willy a lot, and constantly tries to cover up for him and also tries to understand him. Also she believes money isnt a measure of success and believes in a strong sense of community, as well as a strong bond with Willy. Willy breaks that bond when he cheats, lies to Linda and doesnt let her speak when she wants to. Unfortunately, Happy is doomed to repeat Willys mistakes, with his attitude towards women. He has casual relationships and at the end of the day, he isnt as honest as Biff. A Death of a salesman is a play of relationships and Willy doesnt look after Linda or care for her as much as he should have. On the other hand Linda has developed a barrier against Willys awkward behaviour and more than loves Willy, even when he has his daydreams and tempers. Also I think that Willy and Biff are both failures in contrast to Charley and Bernards success. Biff flunked maths in high school, didnt graduate and has no job, whereas Bernard got all the correct results he needed for college and is lawyer who argues cases in the Supreme Court. Biff is a dollar a day man and he knows that he will never be more than that and he is being realistic. He knows that he belongs in the farmyard, doing manual labour instead of being a salesman and Willy is trying to force this upon him, because he trying to correct his own mistakes in Biff. Even though in the play Willy has flashbacks, I think what Miller is trying to tell the audience is that Willy is so desperate to justify his life that he lost the difference between past and present. The music used in the Death of a Salesman was very clever, because some characters had different instruments and music used for them, in order for the audience to realise, in Willys daydreams, who it is. For Willy it was a flute and for Ben it was a very distinct type of music. The staging was clever too, because there were no walls between the rooms. So when it was the present day, people walked through a doorway and when it was in one of Willys daydreamsi they ignored the walls. Again this was to assist the audience in being aware of the characters being in real life and the ones in Willys daydreams. Most of the content of the Death of a Salesman is critical of modern American society; but this was not Arthur Millers sole purpose in writing it. Willys misjudgment of his failure in life is demonstrated in Death of a Salesmani. He feels as though he has failed because he has no fortune to show for it, in either his or his sons names. What he has truly failed in is his family life, and his married life. That is the corruption of the true American Dream.

Nathaniel Alexander, Inventor of a Folding Chair

Nathaniel Alexander, Inventor of a Folding Chair On July 7, 1911, an African-American man named Nathaniel Alexander of Lynchburg, Virginia patented a folding chair. According to his patent, Nathaniel Alexander designed his chair to be used in schools, churches, and other auditoriums. His design included a book rest that was usable for the person sitting in the seat behind and was ideal for church or choir use.​ Fast Facts: Nathaniel Alexander Known For: African-American patent holder for a folding chairBorn: UnknownParents: UnknownDied: UnknownPublished Works: Patent 997,108, filed March 10, 1911, and granted July 4 the same year Little Biographical Data Alexanders invention is found on many lists for black American inventors. However, he has escaped having much biographical information known about him. What can be found confuses him with an early governor of the state of North Carolina, who was not a black American. One says he was born in the early 1800s in North Carolina and died several decades before the date of the patent of the folding chair. Another one, which is written as satire, says he was born the same year as the patent was issued. These seem obviously erroneous. Patent 997108 is the only invention on record for Nathaniel Alexander, but on March 10, 1911, his application was witnessed by two people: James R.L. Diggs and C.A. Lindsay. James R.L. Diggs was a Baptist minister from Baltimore (born in 1865), who was a member of the Niagara Movement, and holder of an MA from Bucknell University and a PhD in Sociology from Illinois Wasleyan in 1906- in fact, Diggs was the first African-American to hold a Sociology Ph.D. in the United States. The Niagara Movement was a black civil rights movement led by W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter, who assembled in Niagara Falls, Ontario (American hotels barred blacks), to discuss Jim Crow laws following the Reconstruction. They met annually between 1905 and 1910: in between 1909 and 1918, Diggs corresponded with DuBois about a possible history of the movement, among other things. There may have only been a passing connection between Alexander and Diggs. Foldable Chairs for Churches and Choirs Alexanders folding chair is not the first folding chair patent in the United States. His innovation was that it included a book rest, making it suitable for use in places where the back of one chair could be used as a desk or shelf by the person seated behind. This would certainly be convenient when setting up rows of chairs for choirs, so they could rest music on the chair ahead of each singer, or for churches where a prayer book, hymnal, or Bible could be placed on the reading shelf during the service. Folding chairs allow the space to be used for other purposes when there is not a class or church service. Today, many congregations meet in spaces that used to be large big box stores, supermarkets, or other large, cavernous rooms, Using folding chairs set up only during services, they are able to quickly turn the space into a church. In the early part of the 20th century, congregations likewise might have met outdoors, in warehouses, barns, or other spaces that didnt have fixed seating or pews. Earlier Folding Chair Patents Folding chairs have been in use for thousands of years in many cultures, including ancient Egypt and Rome. They were even commonly used in churches as liturgical furniture in the Middle Ages. Here are some other patents for folding chairs that were granted prior to that of Nathaniel Alexander: M.S. Beach of Brooklyn, New York patented a folding chair for pews, U.S. Patent No. 18377 on October 13, 1857. However, this design appears to be a drop-down seat such as an airplane jump seat rather than a chair you can fold, stack, and store away.J.P.A.  Spaet, W.F. Berry and J.T. Snoddy of Mount Pleasant, Iowa were granted U.S. Patent No. 383255 on May 22,  1888, for a folding chair designed to look much like a regular chair when in use. It could be folded up to be stored away and save space.C. F. Batt patented a folding chair for steamers on June 4, 1889, U.S. Patent No. 404,589. Batts patent notes that he was seeking improvements on longstanding folding chair designs, especially avoiding having a hinge at the side arms that can pinch your fingers when folding or unfolding the chair. Sources Alexander, Nathaniel. Chair. Patent 997108. 1911.Batt, C.F. Folding Chair. Patent 383255. 1888.Beach, M.S. Char. Patent 18377. 1857.Pipkin, James Jefferson. James R.L. Diggs. The Negro in Revelation, in History and in Citizenship: What the Race has Done and is Doing. St. Louis: N.D. Thompson Publishing Company, 1902Spaet, J.P.A., W. F. Berry and J.T. Snoddy. Folding Chair for Steamers. Patent 404,589. 1889.WEB DuBois Correspondence with J.R.L. Diggs, Special Collections, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.