Fate and Responsibility in Death of a Salesman

Introduction: Victim and Architect of His Own Fate

At the end of Death of a Salesman, a number of Willy Loman's closest friends and relatives — including his wife Linda and his friend Charley — pay homage to Willy. They praise him as one of the small, powerless people who have little sway over their own existences. "And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine," says Charley, of the way that Willy seemed unable to realize his dreams for himself or his family. "A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory" (Miller 108). Willy is rejected by his sons and discarded by the company he worked for his entire career.

Although playwright Arthur Miller makes it clear that Willy is treated unjustly by the capitalist system, he also demonstrates that Willy possesses a number of significant character flaws, including his dishonesty and his lack of faith in the value of true hard work. Although the system Willy buys into may be bankrupt, his character flaws serve to exacerbate his misfortune.

Willy's Failures as a Father

This is perhaps most clearly demonstrated in Willy's behavior toward his sons. When his boys were younger, Willy was contemptuous of boys like Bernard who applied themselves academically and told his own sons that all that mattered was being liked and looking good — with the enthusiasm of the professional salesman he was: "Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him" (Miller 21). Although Biff is a successful high school athlete, he is unable to translate that success into real life, in part because his father encouraged him to cheat on tests and dismissed the importance of honoring his commitments.

When Biff returns home after years of drifting from job to job, Willy's first instinct is to try to get his older son a job in sales, given that sales was such a promising occupation for himself: "I'll have a nice talk with him. I'll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school?" (Miller 8). But Biff is no salesman and has no interest in trying to please a boss in a desk job. Willy only sees what he wants to see, not what Biff truly is — a man who likes to work with his hands.

Willy views his success as a salesman as central to his identity, but when he loses his ability to sell and make money, he loses his sense of self-worth entirely. His wife Linda views him purely as a victim. She tells his sons: "He works for a company thirty-six years this March, opens up unheard-of territories to their trademark, and now in his old age they take his salary away" (Miller 39). Although Willy fantasizes about making money with little effort, the image Linda paints of her husband's life is far different from his idealistic vision: "He drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no one knows him any more, no one welcomes him. And what goes through a man's mind, driving seven hundred miles home without having earned a cent?" (Miller 40).

The Costs of a Salesman's Life

Viewed in this light, Willy's fantasy about running away with Ben and making money from diamonds seems more understandable. His years of hard work as a salesman benefited his company but did not enable him to personally profit from that labor.

On the other hand, Miller seems to imply that part of the problem lay in the nature of the work Willy chose. Unlike a lawyer like Bernard or a doctor, Willy did not create anything of tangible value. He relied upon personal charm and personal connections because that is the nature of salesmanship. But as he grew older and his connections either died or retired, so did his livelihood. Real work that produces real things does pay off in lasting ways; work that is solely based on making a good impression — as Willy's work is — ultimately does not.

The Limits of Charm as Work

The audience also knows that Linda's idealistic vision of her husband's sales career is not the whole picture. Willy was unfaithful to Linda, and one of the reasons Biff became so wild and despondent after high school was the moment he discovered that his father was cheating on his beloved mother. Willy's long hours on the road were often spent entertaining himself, and Biff's years of drifting are in part a consequence of poor parenting and the shattering of his idealized image of his father.

Conclusion: Personal Responsibility and the American Dream

The American Dream may be a lie that was told to Willy Loman, but he does bear personal responsibility for believing that lie and living by it — trusting that the company that hired him would take care of him, and that being a winning salesman is equivalent to being a truly successful professional like Bernard, who does real, meaningful work in the world. Although Willy evidently works hard in commission sales, he does not truly believe in the value of honest labor, as shown by his fascination with get-rich-quick schemes and his open encouragement of his sons to capitalize on being well-liked and good-looking rather than on real achievement. Willy believed only in his own misinterpretation of the American Dream, not in the genuine promise at its core.