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Pathos
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
Death of a Salesman narrates a single day’s events in late 1940s Brooklyn. Much of the play unfolds in Willy’s house and its immediate urban surroundings. Many of the work’s conflicts are implicitly staged in its settings, too. Miller offers the audience glimpses of a changing American socioeconomic landscape through his treatment of place: Willy’s suburban home, for instance, is increasingly “boxed” in by a “solid vault of apartment houses,” imposing structures that encroach upon his hopes of striking it rich. He shows his age—and the vulnerability of his own aspirations—as he half-stumbles through the city on a string of everyday errands.
