The Suicide of Willy Loman - Research Paper Example

As an elderly male, he fits into a category that has a lot of suicidal cases. Willy reveals that he has lost his purpose and has placed his hopes on his sons, meaning his life should be ended so that the insurance money gives them a chance. Willy Loman takes his life because he is depressed, he has lost his job and his hope for his own future, and believes that in ending his life he is giving his sons a future through the life insurance company. According to Cafferty and Lerner, “When we meet Willy at the beginning of the play, he is worn-out, sad, and confused” (90).

Willy has gone through a series of events that have made him feel like he is out of options. He has always seen his life as it should have been, rather than as it has been, and regrets what he could not accomplish, while also blaming everyone else for the reasons that he never achieved what he felt he should have achieved. It seems that Willy has always been sad and frustrated. He envies others and is never happy with his own life. Something as simple as the refrigerator that his neighbor owns brings him a great deal of unhappiness, as he feels his own one does not equal that level of quality he expects.

He says, “I told you we should’ve bought a well-advertised machine. Charley bought a General Electric and it’s twenty years old, and it’s still good, that son of a bitch” (Miller 56-57). . Biff says, “I’m thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s when I come running home. And now, I get here and I don’t know what to do with myself. [after a pause] I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I’ve done is waste my life” (Miller and Sterling 52).

Cafferty and Lerner state that “The sons, Biff and Happy, inherit their fathers worst qualities, the various tensions between them leave plenty of scope for all sorts of analysis”, which is evident in this statement by Biff. Biff cannot be satisfied by his work because he reflects the expectations that Loman has about making money (82). Because Biff witnessed his father having an affair while he was still in high school, the way he idolized his father was shattered, leaving him adrift in the world and picking up on the worst of Willy’s sense of failure.

According to Gale, “The betrayal resonated with Biff his whole life and created a sense of distrust between father and son”. This distrust deflated Biff’s sense of self, as he had framed his life through Willy’s beliefs. When he saw his father as imperfect, those beliefs dissolved. He became the part of Willy that could not find the key to success. Willy has aged past his dreams now, his depression is a common problem amongst older adults, as he has past the point of being able to chase most of his dreams.

He now looks towards his sons to carry on his hopes. By killing himself, he believes to support their futures. Scogin states that “Older adults have the highest rates of suicide of any age group, and this is particularly pronounced among men". Willy represents some of the reasons for the sense of