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¶ … masterful aspects of Death of a Salesman is the extent to which playwright Arthur Miller leaves it ambiguous regarding Willy Loman's culpability for his own condition. On one hand, he is part of a capitalist system which values people solely upon the extent to which they can demonstrate a profit for their superiors and how well-liked they are by their colleagues. Loman is not well-liked enough, and as soon as his sales figures begin to slip he is ostracized by his business colleagues. According to Willy, he has "gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men -- I don't know -- they do it easier. I don't know why -- I can't stop myself -- I talk too much" (Miller 24).
Act I makes it clear that Willy's idealistic version of how to achieve success within capitalism involves get-rich-quick schemes rather than actual effort as well as establishes his suicidal ideation, his current career difficulties, and his unraveling psyche. When Biff was young, Willy paid little attention to his academics and instead hoped that his son could go to college based upon his ability to secure a sports scholarship. This was explicitly...
Now both of his sons seem to be drifting: Happy is dishonest at his workplace and Biff has never held down a steady job. The lack of values amongst his sons underlines how Willy at least in part is responsible for his fate, given that he does not seem to possess a core sense of values but merely changes in response to the world around him. Eventually, however, that world passes him by.
Willy is unable to appreciate what he does have; he is always looking around for more, he even cheated on his wife, as can be seen in his exchange with the 'Woman' for whom he buys silk stockings, though his wife Linda cannot afford new ones. Willy had big dreams, based upon the ideals of capitalism he saw around him but he did not try to achieve them in an effective way.
Q2. Act II of Miller's Death of a Salesman stresses the extent to which the capitalist system has victimized Willy Loman but also emphasizes the fact that Willy was complicit in the effects of the capitalist system upon his fate. Despite the many years he has worked as…
Q3. The only character who gives complete and unwavering support to Willy throughout the play is his wife Linda. When his sons show disrespect to him or Willy doubts his abilities as a provider and a father, Linda always steps in to protect him. Of course, to some extent she unintentionally acts against him because she enables him in his delusional behaviors and even defends him against his sons: "Get out of here, both of you, and don't come back! I don't want you tormenting him anymore. Go on now, get your things together!" (Miller 90-91).
Biff is the most honest character regarding his father but that also causes his father to be enraged at his son, given that Biff often tells his father uncomfortable truths. "I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither 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" (Miller 98). Willy clearly wants his son's love and affection but he cannot accept Biff as he is and constantly tries to impose his dreams of success on Biff even though Biff is clearly unhappy working in an office. Happy, in contrast, never tells the truth to his father and seems to buy into the same lies about easy success with no effort, as represented by the shadowy figure of Ben in the play, whom Willy envisions as fabulously wealthy as a result of his willingness to go boldly into the wilderness. Of all of Willy's friends only Charley combines compassion and truth -- he acknowledges Willy's weaknesses but also states "Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory" (Miller 2014).
Other significant figures in the play include Bernard, who works hard in school and becomes a famous attorney. This character represents the difficult path to success that Willy shuns. Howard, the man at his company who fires Willy, represents the cruel and unfeeling nature of the capitalist system Willy buys into for most of his life.
Critic Heyen says, "There is no question but that the play is elusive. As Miller himself has said, 'Death of a Salesman is a slippery play to categorize because nobody in it stops to make a speech objectively stating the great issues which I believe it embodies'" (Heyen 47). Therefore, many critics look at the play in different ways, attempting to categorize it and reference it according to their
He blames his father his personal failure because he, "blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That's whose fault it is!" (1108). Willy's failure extends beyond the workplace and spills over into his family life. This should come as no surprise since the two are closely connected when we think of the American Dream. Willy does not want to change and this
Death of a Salesman: Tragedy in Prose Tragedy, can easily lure us into talking nonsense." Eric Bentley In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, we are introduced to Willy Loman, who believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream -- that a "well liked" and "personally attractive" man in business will unquestionably acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Willy's obsession with the superficial qualities of attractiveness
He can't let go of the idea that popularity and wealth are what are most important in a man. In the second act, Willy receives a terrible blow. He explains to his boss, Howard, how he met a salesman when he was about 19, and admired the man's skills, and decided that sales was the very best job a man could have. But he tells Howard he's tired, and he
Death of a Salesman The new millennium has brought with it new and interesting challenges. Our values and ideals have evolved along with the changing times. This is also true of business and the things that constitute success. For these reasons, many have questioned the relevance of literature created during the previous century to the world as it appears today. Such questions have also been raised about Death of a Salesman
He cannot provide for his family financially, and emotionally he feels bankrupt. That is why the brief, transient sense that Biff likes him provides him with so much joy -- it is the proof, however small, that he has succeeded at something in life. However, even his language of 'liking' echoes the language he uses when speaking of being 'liked' at the office, and almost immediately after speaking to