Both plays, "The Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller and "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams, act based on the memories that haunt a character in the play. In “Death of a Salesman,” the acting shifts from the present to the past with the past sometimes blending into the present as the main character, Willy, seems unable to distinguish the flashbacks of his memory from reality. In “The Glass Menagerie” the play also moves from the present to the past, but the only actor in the present is the narrator Tom, on whose memory the play is based. While both works use non-realistic techniques with scenery, music, and characters to show actions from the past, they use them in different ways to achieve different effects. The scenery in these works is set to emphasize the different ideas produced in the works. In “Death of a Salesman,” when the acting is in the present, the house is basically translucent and in one dimension with the other apartment buildings visible through the translucent walls; this emphasizes the crowded neighborhood which seems to bother Willy. When the acting is in the present, Miller writes, "the actors observe the imaginary lines of the walls, entering the house only through the door on the left" (1373; act 1). However, when the scene returns to the past, the condominiums disappear, the background is covered with leaves and there are no longer boundary lines, the actors enter or exit a room by crossing the walls (1373; act 1); this creates a sense of freedom not found in the past. In “The Glass Menagerie,” Miller has the setting set in a dimly lit atmosphere. Tom says: “The show is memory. Being a drama of memory, it is poorly enlightened, it is sentimental, it is not realistic” (1440; scene I). Williams uses images or… middle part of the card… he uses this to reinforce the idea that this is a memory game. The writer of both of these works made effective use of similar non-realistic techniques to achieve different results. ideas through as actors perform past actions based on a memory. In “Death of a Salesman,” Miller uses these unrealistic techniques to emphasize the ideas produced in Willy's memory. In “The Glass Menagerie”, Williams also uses them to emphasize ideas, but he used them more to emphasize the fact that it is a memory game. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Ed. Michael Mayer. Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin, 2009. 1372-1436. Print.Williams, Tennessee. “The glass menagerie”. The compact Bedford Introduction to literature. 8th ed. Ed. Michael Mayer. Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin, 2009. 1438-1482. Press.