Willy Loman\'s Failures as a Husband, Employee,

Willy Loman's Failures as a Husband, Employee, and Father in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman (1949), depicts the slow disintegration of an ordinary man, a traveling salesman named Willy Loman. Willy is past his prime, and unpleasant realities are beginning to close in on him in a deeply personal way. Willy has by now lost most of his grip on reality. In this essay, I will discuss how Willy's illusions, deceptions, lies, and blindness about himself and his children contribute to his failures as a husband, an employee, and a father.

Once a relatively successful salesman, Willy Loman now feels that the key ingredients of the "American Dream": financial success, self-sufficiency, family happiness, and a feeling that his children will surpass him, are slipping away. Willy's carefully manufactured illusions collapse, sending him spiraling into despair. Willy Loman is "past sixty years of age" (Miller, Act One, stage directions), and a man of "mercurial nature . . . temper . . . massive dreams, and little cruelties" (stage directions). In the opening lines of Act One, Linda, Willy's long-suffering, loyal-to-a-fault wife, inquires of him, "You didn't smash the car, did you?," which foreshadows the play's tragic end. As a husband, Willy has long been in the habit of deceiving his wife. Although Linda never learns of Willy's hotel room affair (discovered by accident by their son Biff, then a high school senior) she recognizes his other lies. Linda never confronts Willy directly, though, about how she knows he plans to commit suicide. Willy is not honest, but neither is Linda. Intent on protecting Willy's ego, Linda never contradicts him, questions him too harshly, or allows their now grown son Biff to tell Willy what he really thinks of him as a son and father. In these respects, although Willy is a bad husband, Linda is not a good wife.

Although Linda is not innocent, her life is still heartbreakingly difficult, due to Willy's myriad self-deceptions and deceptions of her. For instance, Willy is not honest with Linda about his earnings anymore, so she always expects him to bring home a bigger paycheck than he possibly can. Even as out of touch as he already is, Willy must know that by doing this week after week he is hurting her. Still, Willy stubbornly refuses to level with his wife, or himself, about his diminished capabilities. Perhaps Willy is also weakened internally by a combination of society's expectations of him as a husband, father, and breadwinner, and his increasing failure to meet them (and his own excessive pride). This is not fair to his wife, his employer, or his sons, because Willy cannot admit his personal limitations to any of them. Consequently, he has conditioned them all, over the years, to expect more than he can possibly provide them, and to be disappointed, yet uncomplaining, again and again.

This is true, also, with his employer, Howard. Willy is losing money for his company week after week, but he can never level with Howard (or anyone) about his problems until it is too late, and Howard fires him. Like Linda, Howard is not entirely innocent. He seems hard-hearted, especially since Willy has worked at his company so long, and was a friend of his father's. But Willy also fails to see that business is business, and a company must be concerned about such "black and white" issues as profits and losses. Howard is not a particularly kind or understanding employer, but Willy is not a good employee, either. Howard seems shocked when he realizes the true state of Willy's mental and emotional deterioration -- obviously, Willy has deceived his boss (as he deceives everyone else), which cannot possibly be good for Willy, Howard, or the company.

Willy's biggest overall failure, however, is as a father. Essentially, he ruins the lives of both his sons, by refusing to see them as they are, just as he refuses to see himself as he is. When Biff intrudes by accident on his father and "The Woman" in a Boston hotel room, Biff is crushed to learn that the father he has idolized all his life is actually a lying adulterer. However, Willy, instead of admitting his mistake, first to his son and then to his wife, and making what amends he can to them both, Willy simply forces Biff to pretend he never saw what he saw. Still, the truth cannot be denied, even if it remains unspoken. Biff's anger festers for years, to the point that he finally blows up at Willy, at a point when Willy is already in his most debilitated state.

Linda is seriously pained by the decline in Biff's and Willy's father-son relationship ever since Biff's last year of high school. But Biff, unable to hurt his mother by telling her the truth about his discovery of Willy's out-of-town affair, cannot possibly explain to her why he has turned against his father. Biff's coldness toward his father hurts Linda, because she sees it hurting Willy. She has no idea (again her husband's fault) that her older son's mysterious estrangement from Willy is all about her.

Biff cannot express himself truthfully, or (much like his father) even see himself truthfully. As a result, he is a misfit in life at age 28, always trying for the wrong jobs (and failing to get, or hold, them, because they do not suit him) and, like his father, unable (at least until the end of the play) to own up to the fact that he is, like Willy (who also denies and represses this) a man who loves the outdoors and working with his hands, even if that is not the most prestigious work. Biff's self-deception is Willy's (and Linda's) fault, since throughout his youth he has heard nothing but lies and denials by his parents.

Willy and Linda's younger son, Happy, is ignored by them. Both parents always focus more on Biff (although not for constructive or positive reasons). Happy is the "throwaway" son, whom no one worries about or takes seriously. Since Happy does not know about Willy's affair, as his older brother Biff does, he is not as hostile to Willy as Biff. However, like Biff, Happy is directionless in life, irresponsible, and lacks personal reflectively. He is out to have a "Happy" time: flirt with and, when possible, bed girls, even engaged ones, and continue to stretch out his already seriously overextended childhood for as long as possible. Still, he is far from a happy person inside himself. His name, like so much else in this play, is a lie.