Death of a Salesman, Research Paper Example

Arthur Miller’s groundbreaking 1949 play Death of a Salesman provides a fascinating insight into the rising consumerism and alienation of post-war America. One of the major themes of the work is the concept of individual freedom versus social control. Willy Loman, the protagonist, struggles with his own professional ambition and personality traits in navigating the challenging world of salesmanship. Driven to make money, provide for his family and be the greatest salesman ever, Willy Loman’s life gradually slips out of control resulting in him verging on the insane. Willy struggles profound with his failure to realize the American Dream and his inability to accept this failing. As his life progresses, Willy’s mental instability worsens and deteriorates punctuated with unsettling flashbacks to his earlier life when he considered himself a happy and healthy person. Willy is married to Linda and has two children Biff and Happy. These two children are polar opposites with Happy following in his father’s vain pursuit of prosperity and Biff rebelling and seeking his own path in life. Over the course of the work, Arthur Miller presents through dialogue and plot a man who is profoundly insecure, hardworking and uncertain of his own identity and place in the world. This paper will present a brief discussion of the plot of the story and then discuss Willy Loman’s personality through a psychoanalytic framework.

Through Willy Loman’s flashbacks the story presents the viewer/reader a variety of details regarding his life. From his earliest childhood, Loman reports that he had trouble being popular with his peers. Miller drives home this point by punning on his name “low man”. From this low place, Willy Loman struggled his entire place to rise in the business world as a not very talented salesman. This difficult life results in him having very degrading perspectives on life and society which negatively impact his day to day function. For example, Willy states that from his experience the key to prosperity and social acceptance is to be good looking and wealthy. Unfortunately, Willy is lacking in both these traits we well as friends and social acceptance. This theory allows him to blame his personal failings on the social framework around him rather than take personal responsibility. As a businessman, Willy also struggles to connect with people.

Willy Loman’s decision to go into being a salesman comes from a childhood memory of a man, David Singleman, who was loved by those around him. As a child he witnessed this man’s funeral and the profound outpouring of grief which accompanied his passing. This desire for social acceptance and local prominence was the goal that Willy Loman sought after his entire career. Yet despite craving this acceptance, popularity and friendship, Willy ultimately dies with not a single person attending his funeral. Arthur strongly suggests Loman wasted his entire life seeking to become someone else rather than focusing on his own abilities and needs.

This lack of self-awareness can also be seen in Willy Loman’s career at the Wagner Company. Struggling with economic difficulties, Loman’s family is on the verge of being poor. In the mad pursuit of wealth, Loman’s life unwinds into a nexus of lies and delusions. He loses his dignity and identity as he crisscrosses New England as a salesman. Willy’s mental life degenerates into delusion and day dreams. Looking back on his relationship with his son Biff, Willy is filled with regret. His son Biff was seen as brimming with potential but it was all wasted. Biff was a talented athlete who had the potential to be something more. However, Biff struggled academically in school and threw away his future carousing. This unfortunate turn of events angers Willy so much in light of his own wasted potential that the two characters no longer communicate. This manic drive to succeed and make something of themselves can be seen as driving a wedge into the father-son bond and driving them apart. Willy always sought to provide materially for his children but his loss of Biff demonstrates how he has failed to provide for them emotionally and personally as a father.

Over the course of the play, Willy Loman thinks over his relationship with his work. Willy remembers the time he was offered a high-paying job in Alaska which would have made him an enormous amount of money. This unrealized opportunity haunts Willy Loman when he thinks about it. Willy receives no respect or fulfillment from his work. With low sales and increasing age, the company disrespectfully decides to cut his salary and make him earn his keep on commission. For Willy who is not a talented salesman this undermines his entire material well-being and his psychological stability as well. In short, Willy’s insecurities are manifested and amplified via the nature of his work and his struggles to succeed in American post-war life. We see in life that Willy Loman’s life is not all misery. He is satisfied when working with his hands and not being a salesman. Yet he ignores this calling to focus on a business life which promises but never fulfills his dreams of success. Willy loves his wife very much but is guilty over a one-night stand he had during a trip to Boston with a low-class woman. This guilt eats away at him in light of all his other problems and undermines his own belief in himself.

Arthur presents his personal and financial difficulties as Loman’s motivation for committing suicide. This decision makes sense from a psychological perspective as Willy comes to believe that his family will only be prosperous and happy following his death. Willy in his lifelong desire to be appreciated dreams about how they will thank him at his funeral for his sacrifice and the material prosperity his life insurance will bring them. Instead, Willy’s death is met with indifference and his own family does not even attend his burial. Loman’s death can be seen as an encapsulation of his own pathetic life spent in vain pursuit of money and social standing at the cost of personal realization and real human relationships.

Furthermore, Loman’s suicide makes it clear that he died still unclear about his own standing and place in the world. Though Loman craved money and success, he came to the realization that at sixty-one he would never reaching his dreams and therefore never realize his identity. Willy Loman’s whole life was the byproduct of social influence and inculcation which put buying and selling and money earning above personal happiness. Arthur’s work drives home the message that society corrupted and killed a man who once had dignity and courage but lost it in a rat race which had no meaning. Willy loses all perspective and commits suicide despite his one loyal son and loving wife due to the corruption of his personality by the system. Willy Loman’s character can be understood as a ‘worthless commodity in a capitalist society’ or as ‘an ordinary man’. In a larger context, this message fits into a new post-war American social reality. Following World War Two, the family farm no longer held sway as the American ideal. Instead, the concept of material plenty and status became the goal of every household.

If we understand Willy’s life as just a capitalist commodity rather than that of a unique human being, we see him as a person crushed by a system outside of his own control but profoundly shaping his internal logic and interpretation of events. Another manner in which Willy Loman is presented is that of the everyman. When Willy Loman loses his job, crashes his automobile and struggles with mental illness his wife Linda tries to comfort him and help him through the challenges. Like families we are all familiar with, Willy fits into a stereotypical role as the provide of the family income, Linda being the hardworking housewife and the two children as needy and unable to care for themselves. In addition, this family demonstrates traditional family and gender roles which reinforce their commonality and better present Willy as a failed entity when he is driven to suicide by the system and personal flaws.

Lastly, Willy’s sexual dalliance with “The Woman” in Boston has a profound impact on his own conception of self-worth. Seeking to see his value in the eyes of another, Willy’s night of infidelity results in undermining his status with his wife. This disrupts his family ties which are not based on money and further defeats his efforts to have social acceptance. The Woman that Loman sleeps with is seen as heartless, self-interested in unloving towards him. The fact that Willy continually buys ‘The Woman’ everything she wants, and is scared to say no to her shows his ignorance to the obvious, and shows he is a weak and heartless man. Another way that we can see Willy as a worthless commodity is when we compare him to his older brother Ben or to his friend and neighbor Charley. In comparison to these characters Willy has achieved nothing.

In Willy’s eyes Ben as the definition of success and is Willy’s idol and everything that he is not, rich, adventurous, self-confident. “When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich.” This quote however shows that Ben hasn’t actually worked to become rich and successful. The word jungle is quite significant in the quote, I think he is referring to the fact the world can be seen as a jungle and you must be prepared to fight to overcome whatever is out there. Ben has also proved the American Dream false; he hasn’t worked hard yet has achieved a lot more that Willy who actually works hard.

In conclusion, the key interpretation of Willy Loman is as ‘a worthless commodity in a capitalist society” who understands himself as worth more to his family dead than alive (Act 2, Pages 96-97). This is the biggest argument for Loman’s low self-esteem and suicidality, the fact that his sacrificial suicide will result in his sons having twenty thousand dollars. This demonstrates that post- war America was centered on material gain even for the price of a man’s life. If this were valid, American capitalist society produces individuals who were made human beings worthless commodities. The fact that Willy would actually kill himself to provide wealth makes him a worthless commodity. In conclusion, the work portrays the character of Willy Loman as both an ‘ordinary man’ and as a ‘worthless commodity’. During different scenes in the play we see a soft, kind family man in Willy, trying to everything to support his family, we see him struggling to succeed. This psychological tension results in the lasting power of this play and offers important lessons for everyone.

References

Bibsby, Christopher. (2011) Arthur Miller: 1962-2005. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (1998). Christopher Bigsby, editor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Hurell, John D. (1961). Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a Salesman and A streetcar Named Desire. New York: Scribner. pp. 82–8.

Sandage, Scott A. (2005). Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press