The University of Notre Dame

Memory as Technique and Theme in "The Glass Menagerie" and "The Death of a Salesman"
Author(s): Glenn Man
Source: Notre Dame English Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring, 1970), pp. 23-30
Published by: The University of Notre Dame
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 MEMORYAS TECHNIQUEAND THEMEIN
THE GLASS MENAGERIEAND THE DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Glenn Man
St. Francis Xavier University

Hamlet notwithstanding, the play is not nthe

ff It as a whole, an illusion, a reflec-
thing. is,
tion or imitation of the real. And in so far as
the illusion of the play affects the real, it be-
comes a true statement of life. The play, then, is
a work of art. But it is not like any other of the
art forms. Because it is a play, human follies and
heroics are exaggerated to effect dramatic stature.
It is as far from real life as it pretends to be.
But by its exaggeration and dramatic build-up, the
play suggests what is universal in human nature.

From this standpoint, it is interesting to com-

pare the function of memory as a technique and as a
theme in THE GLASS MENAGERIE and THE DEATHOF A
SALESMAN. For both plays center on illusions en-
tertained by the characters and their resulting
disenchantment as those illusions clash with real-
ity. In both plays memory is employed as a device
to precipitate and entertain the illusion. So what
we have is the truth of human ideals and dreams ac-
ted out within the dream world of the stage.

In ffThe Catastrophe of Success,11 an essay by

Williams which serves as an introduction in the New
Direction edition of his play, the author says:

It is only in his work that an artist can find

reality and satisfaction, for the actual world
is less intense than the world of his invention
and consequently his life, without recourse to
violent disorder, does not seem very substantial.
The right condition for him is that in whichhls
work is not only convenient but unavoidable.

23

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24 NDEJ

For the artist, the play j£ the thing. It is his

own reality. Williams dramatizes this on the stage.
Tom is an artist-the ffShake
sp ear eff who writes po-
ems in the warehouse. As narrator, he first tells
us that ffThe play is memory. Being a memory play,
it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not
realistic. "*• It is Tom1s which is
memory producing
the play. Here memory and illusion become one with
Tom as the artist.

Throughout the play, memory is identified also

with the illusions of the different characters.
Amanda reminisces about her gentleman callers in
the past. It is this illusion which she clings to
and tries to carry on in the person of her daughter.
She attempts to bring her memories into reality a-
gain. But she fails because Laura is the incarna-
tion of the illusive world. The glass menagerie is
the symbol of this. Tom says:

Not quite all- in the eyes of others- strangers-

-shef8 terribly shy and lives in a world of her
own and those things make her seem a little pe-
culiar to people outside the house.

AMANDA
Donft say peculiar.

TOM
Face the facts. She is.
(THE DANCE-HALLMUSIC CHANGES TO A TANGO
THAT HAS A MINOR AND SOMEWHATOMINOUS
TONE!)

AMANDA
In what way is she peculiar- may I ask?

TOM(Gently)
She lives in a world of her own- a world of-
little glass ornaments, Mother. . . (Gets up.

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 GLASS MENAGERIEAND DEATH OF A SALESMAN 25

AMANDAremains holding brush, looking at him,

troubled). She plays old phonograph records
and-- that's about all- (He glances at himself in
the mirror and crosses to door.) (Sc. V,pp. 58-
59).

Moreover, Laura's being crippled makes her with-

draw further from the world.

The dramatization of Laura1s dream world is a

classic achievement of the modern stage. Laura has
a memoryof a time past also. It is the memoryof
Jim O'Connor, her first and only infatuation in
high school. It is a memoryof the name he called
her- l!Blue Roses.11 It is a memoryof sitting
through three performances of the opera he starred
in so that she could obtain his autograph. It is a
memoryof his engagement to another girl. Jim
O'Connor is an illusion which never became real for
Laura. But with the advent of the Gentleman Caller,
suddenly memory becomes reality. Jim becomes a
possible suitor for Laura. In the superb candle-
light scene between Laura and Jim, Laura receives
that long-forgotten autograph on the opera sheet;
she learns that Jim broke his engagement long ago.
Before the two dance, Laura shows Jim her glass
menagerie and the unicorn which is a horse unlike
the other horses because of its horn. It is unique
and does not belong with the others. This is
Laura's position. But with the dance, Jim breaks
through Laura's dream world. She comes out of her-
self into the reality of Jim. This is symbolized
by the breaking of the unicorn' s horn by Jim. As
Jim kisses Laura, Laura's dream becomes reality at
last. But this is ironic. For in realizing her
fondest memories, Laura merely evokes another il-
lusion which Jim proceeds to break after he kisses
her. He tells her that he is engaged and must go
to meet his fiancee. From this shattering of the
illusion she thought had become real, Laura with-
draws further into her dream world. The incarna-
tion is complete.

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26 NDEJ
At the end of the play, Tom escapes from the
dreamworlds of Amanda and Laura. But in escaping,
he never parts from the memory that is Laura, never
eludes the world of illusions she stands for:

I traveled around a great deal. The cities

swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that
were brightly colored but torn away from the
branches.
I would have stopped, but I was pursued by
something.
It always came upon me unawares, taking me al-
together by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar
bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of
transparent glass-
Perhaps I am walking along a street at night,
in some strange city, before I have found com-
panions. I pass the lighted window of a shop
where perfume is sold. The window is filled
with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent
bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shat-
tered rainbow.
Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder,
I turn around and look into her eyes. . .
Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind
me, but I am more faithful than I intended to
be!
I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I
run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I
speak to the nearest stranger - anything that can
blow your candles out!
(LAURA bends over the candles.)
--for nowadays the world is lit by lightning!
Bow out your candles, Laura, --and so goodbye...
(She blows the candles out.) (Sc. VII, pp.
123-124)

But the candles Laura blows out will only be re-

lighted when the play is performed again. And Tom,
being the artist he is, will live in his memories
and illusions forever as somewhere across the globe
the stage lights flicker the opening scene and Tom
walks out to being THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

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 GLASS MENAGERIEAND DEATH OF A SALESMAN 27
In Williams1 play, memory technically is the
play. Also, it functions to evoke the illusions of
the characters. And in the case of Laura, memory
becomes present reality which, in turn, becomes
memory again to effect the incarnation she stands
for. Here memory functions not only technically
but as theme. With Tom's final words, memory as
theme and technique become one. For him, the ar-
tist, the play jls the thing. In DEATH OF A SALES-
MAN, memory is not the play. However, it is used
as a technique to evoke all of Willy Loman1 s
dreams and his failures to realize them. Willy's
reminiscences fill fifty pages- nearly half of the
play. In them, the audience and Willy realize why
he has failed as a father and, consequently, why he
has failed as a man in not realizing his past
dreams. Because of this, the present is effected
as Willy realizes that he is Mworth more dead than
alive. ff Memory here not only evokes the past, but
it also precipitates another of Willy's illusions-
that his death will realize his past dreams for
Biff. For Willy, his death is heroic.

The first complete memory scene spells out Wil-

ly1 s illusions and his failure as a father. His
dreams center on Biff, his elder son. Because Biff
is well liked and a star football player, Willy
idolizes him and sees success for him. But Willy
condones Biff's stealing of the football: "Suse,
he's gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn't
he? Coach' 11 probably congratulate you on your in-
itiative."1 He fails to guide Biff not only moral-
ly but also academically when he says:

WILLY: That's just what I mean. Bernard can

get the best marks in school, y' understand, but
when he gets out in the business world, yf under-
stand, you are going to be five times ahead of
him. That's why I thank Almighty God you're
both built like Adonises. Because the man who

Arthur Miller, DEATH OF A SALESMAN(New York,

1966), Act I, p. 30.

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28 NDEJ

makes an appearance in the business world, the

man who creates personal interest, is the man
who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never
want. You take me, for instance. I nevei have
to wait in line to see a buyer. "Willy Loman is
here!" Thatfs all they have to know, and I go
right through. (Act I, p. 33)

In this first memory scene, Willy's failure as a

husband is also evoked as he remembers one of his
encounters with the Woman, his former mistress.

The second reminiscence concerns Willy's failure

to follow the quest for success when he had the
chance to go to Alaska with his brother Ben. Ben
symbolizes the success which Willy never attained
and which Biff cannot attain. At the end of the
first Act, however, hope remains for Willy as Biff
tells him that he is going to seek a job from Oli-
ver. Willy's dreams concerning Biff are wakened
again:

WILLY: Like a young god. Hercules-something

like that. And the sun, the sun all around him.
Remember how he waved to me! Right up from the
field, with the representatives of three col-
leges standing by! And the buyers I brought,
and the cheers when he came out~Loman, Loman,
Loman! God Almighty, he'll be great yet. A
star like that, magnificent, can never really
fade away! (Act I, p. 68)

Willy's twin failures as a father and as a hus-

band come to the fore in the second Act. He is
fired; Biff fails to get the job because he fool-
ishly steals Oiver's pen. The memory scene with
Biff and the Woman shows that Willy's failure as a
husband also constitutes his ultimate failure to
Biff. Biff '8 discovering of this wrong done to his
mother haunts him the rest of his life. What is
even more crucial is Biff's repudiation of Willy as
his exemplar and his resulting loss of direction in
life.

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 ANDDEATHOF A SALESMAN29
GLASSMENAGERIE

But the memory of Ben plays on Willy, and so he

creates another illusion to counteract the failure
of his previous one- he now identifies the quest
for success with death as he thinks of the insur-
ance Biff can obtain if he dies:

Willy: Carrots . . . quarter-inch apart. Rows

. . . one-foot rows. (He measures it off.) One
foot. (He puts down a package and measures off.)
Beets. (He puts down another package and mea-
sures again.) Lettuce. (He reads the package,
puts it down.) One foot- (He breaks off as Ben
appears at the right and moves slowly down on
him.) What a proposition, ts, ts. Terrific,
terrific! Cause she!s suffered, Ben, the
woman has suffered. You understand me? A man
can't go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has
got to add up to something. You can't, you
can't- (Ben moves toward him as though to in-
terrupt.) You gotta consider, now. Don't an-
swer so quick. Remember, it's a guaranteed
twenty-thousand-dollar proposition. Now look,
Ben, I want you to go through the ins and outs
of this thing with me. I've got nobody to talk
to Ben, and the woman has suffered, you hear me?
(Act II, pp. 126-127)

So Willy can see his death "like a diamond, shining

in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and
touch in ray hand. Not like-like an appointment!11
Here, the memory of the past which centers on Ben
becomes a present reality for Willy as he realizes
that he can still follow the quest for success.
From the illusion of the past he builds the illu-
sion of the present. He dies with this heroic no-
tion of himself. At the end he, not Biff, becomes
the Apollo-Hercules figure which he identified ear-
lier with the Biff of long ago. Yet he is unaware
that, as he proudly acknowledges his stance in the
sun, all around him are shouting, "Loman, Loman ,
Loman. . . .!?

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30 NDEJ

In Miller1 8 play, the rock bottom of reality is

being asserted. Willy's illusions merely serve to
ruin him. And his death is not heroic, as he would
have it, but a failure to see himself as he really
is - f!a dime a dozen, " as Biff tells him:

BIFF: I am not a leader of men, Willy, and nei-

ther are you. You were never anything but a
hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can
like all the rest of them! I'm one-dollar an
hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn't
raise it. A buck an hour! Do you gather my
meaning? I'm not bringing home any prizes any
more, and you1 re going to stop waiting for me to
bring them home! (Act II, p. 132)

By the illusion of the play itself, memory with-

in memory within memory, the illusive world of the
past is asserted by Williams as part and parcel of
the blood creativity of the artist's world. Shift-
ing the scene from the artist to everyman, Miller's
illusive play forces the issue with the illusions
of man and shows what a tragedy they can lead to.
His creative illusive inner world, as exemplified
in the play, mocks the value of illusions and holds
for the purity of grim reality.

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