Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the
University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of
a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A
Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy
(1965), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business
(1972), and The American Clock (1980). He has also written two novels,
Focus (1945) and The Misfits, which was filmed in 1960, and the text
for In Russia (1969), Chinese Encounters (1979), and In the Country (1977),
three books of photographs
ACT TWO
Music is heard, gay and bright. The curtain rises as the music fades
away.
[willy, in shirt sleeves, is sitting at the kitchen table, sipping
coffee, his hat in his lap. linda is filling his cup when
she can.]
ACT ONE
A melody is heard, played upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling
of grass and trees and the horizon. The curtain rises.
Before us is the salesman’s house. We are aware of towering,
angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides.
INTRODUCTION
The Depression of the 1930s seemed to break the promises
America had made to its citizens. The stock market crash of
1929, it was assumed, ended a particular version of history: