If Willy sees Biff as he truly is-as Biff himself finally does-Willy will have to admit to himself that Biff’s discovery of the affair might have undermined the inflated self-image Willy encouraged in him. Is Ben’s life a credible alternative to the one Willy lives, or does Willy’s memory give it the shape of another kind of American dream-the solitary man reaping the bounty of a vast virgin wilderness-that is in fact as devoid of reality as the one Willy buys into? Just as Willy refuses to acknowledge the consequences of his not going with Ben, so he refuses to accept the consequences of his affair with the woman in Boston. At the same time, he continues to profess his faith in the honor of his profession. He constantly laments his decision not to go with his brother, Ben, to Alaska, where he believes he would have had the kind of life he longs for throughout the play-away from the confinement of the city, having a more direct relationship with the natural world, and being spiritually invigorated by the tangibility of his work’s rewards.
Death of a salesman summary free#
But what makes Death of a Salesman more than an indictment of a system and gives Willy a truly tragic dimension is the intimation that Willy suffers not just from the inhumanity of free enterprise, but also from his inability to reconcile the hopes he had for his life with the one he has actually lived.Īs Miller excavates the various layers of Willy’s life, we become aware of the hollowness of his dreams and the extent to which his illusions protect him from being overwhelmed by guilt and regret. Even though Willy finally seems to understand the absurdity of owning something only when it is no longer of any use to him, he maintains his belief in the worth and worthiness of being well liked, as if the game were about something more than numbers.
He is seduced by an American dream that is corrupted he spends his life working to pay for a house, a car, and a refrigerator, without suspecting that it’s a game he cannot win. To argue, however, that Willy kills himself primarily because he realizes the true nature of his world neglects the all-consuming power of his illusions, which retain their hold on him to the end.
As he says to Charley, “you end up worth more dead than alive” (p. Believing that his family will benefit more from his life insurance policy than from his continuing to live, Willy seems to accept the implication underlying Howard’s statement-that the value of a person can be quantified according to actual wealth or earning potential. All Howard can say to Willy is “business is business” (p. Willy’s history with the Wagner Company and Howard’s father cannot keep Howard from firing Willy. 61-62), but to Howard and the world he represents, the bottom line always comes first.
As he says to Howard, his boss, “a man is not a piece of fruit!” (pp. What brings Willy Loman to this point cannot be reduced to the malignant influence of the society in which he lives, although an economic system determined by abstract principles rather than human needs is in part responsible for Willy’s fate. But the extent of the play’s ambition can quickly obscure the fact that it is also a story about one family and its individual members, culminating in the father’s suicide. Death of a Salesman vividly portrays the destructive power of certain American tendencies, such as equating wealth with virtue and possessions with self-worth. This habit suggests a certainty about the play’s meaning that often forms around a widely acknowledged masterpiece despite its multitude of ambiguities. Willy serves as a point of reference in contexts outside of literature-invoked to describe anyone who is crushed by the immense forces of American capitalism. Willy Loman, the central figure in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, occupies a position to which few characters in literature ascend. READERS GUIDE Questions and Topics for Discussion
0 kommentar(er)
