Character comparison and analysis

Willy Loman, Pecola Breedlove and Matt Folwer may appear to bear little resemblance as we study their lives, their motives and their death. But there is a deep psychological connection that joins the three characters in a web of tragedy where innocence, naivete and sometimes seemingly misplaced wishes result in absolutely tragic deaths. We shall begin our analysis with Willy Loman and then move on to discuss Fowler and Pecola to show how man's misplaced desires result in most poignant tragedies.

It was wrong response to bad circumstances that led to tragic deaths of all three characters.

Willy Loman is a person who places immense significance on looks and charisma. His flawed thinking revolves around the belief that "...the man who 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." (Act 1, Part 3, pg. 21) He longs to become famous and successful like Charlie and his sons but reality is very opposite. Willy is just an old retired worker who doesn't have enough money and who has two useless sons. He is a product of troubled times when rapid industrialization had resulted in mistreatment of workers. Willy Loman was just another worker in American factories and he felt useless and inadequate. His dream of attaining the elusive yet alluring American Dream results in numerous problems as Willy turns into a schizophrenic who cannot distinguish reality from illusion and lives in an imaginary world of his own. He once tells his wife, "I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England." (Act 1, Scene 1, page 4)

Willy is not a bad person in any sense of the word even though during the course of his life, he is guilty of ignoring his family and developing an extra-marital affair. But on the whole he was a man with numerous dreams and not enough resources to make them come true. His inability to realize his dreams and then his lack of contentment to enjoy what he had were the main reasons he suffered psychological illness and turned neurotic. In a fit of disillusionment he said, "After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive." (Act 2, Part 4, pg. 76) This kind of thinking shows that while Willy was a victim of tragic circumstances and what he lacked more than anything was the right amount of resources and means to make his dreams a reality. This is the case with Pecola of Bluest Eye too and similarly Matt Fowler also faces similar problems, as we shall discuss later. Willy is brought to reality rudely one day when his son reminds him of his insignificance ion the world. He scoffs at his father: "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" Willy refuses to believe this and gets angry, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!" (Act 2 Scene 8, 132)

Pecola Breedlove is another tragic character who is some ways is like Willy Loman. Being a black girl in the United States, Pecola lacks what all whites girls seem to enjoy around her. She wants what those girls have like fair skin, blue eyes and beauty. Like Willy Loman she also desires something bad but is unable to change her circumstances. Though the nature of their desires is very different yet the intensity with which they seek them is the same. Pecola is also a victim of circumstances. She was born in a poor black family and there was no way she could change the reality. She longs and yearns for something that can never be her reality: "Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes. In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her."

Pecola has numerous problems and several wishes but her deepest desire to attain a beautiful skin i.e. fair complexion. She believes that being beautiful would solve her problems and she would become a popular girl that everyone desired. But like Willy Loman, 1) she lacks the means to change her reality 2) she suffers because she cannot be content with what she has. By refusing to accept herself as she was, she gave immense power to others just like Willy Loman did. Both of them turned their abusers or those who had victimized them into something larger than life and this in the end results in tragedy for them as they are swallowed by the monsters they had created with their own flawed response to already bad circumstances. As Claudia observes in the novel: "We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us; her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health.... And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt."

We know Willy and Pecola couldn't possibly have the power to attain what they wanted and we do accept that they were victims of bad circumstances. But it is man's response to these circumstances that make all the difference. Willy Loman could accept his position in life and live happily with his family but instead he turns into a schizophrenic and chooses to live in an imaginary world of his own where everything goes according to his will. Pecola also allows her tormentors to consume and destroy her sense of self-worth and pride. By behaving as a weak, timid person at the mercy of circumstances, Pecola gave immense powers to others and thus suffered in the end like Willy Loman.