Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: An Analysis - Research Paper Example

Your Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: An Analysis Death of a Salesman is a play written by ArthurMiller in 1949. It centers on the character of Willy Loman, a salesman who committed suicide. This play won several awards like the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The most resounding theme of the play is the impossibility of the American Dream, at least on Willy Loman’s part. The play is largely character-based, and this character is Willy Loman. Willy Loman is practically a loser. His name even implies it: Willy as in “Will he?” and Loman as in “Low man”. He is a shallow man, determined because of shallow materiality. Vapid and indecisive, he never succeeded at work. He is ambitious but his ambitions are not are not very substantial. His motivations are largely image-oriented, shallow and by the book. He is not very keen to pursue what he wants. This is heavily contrasted with his neighbor Charley’s life. Charley clearly succeeded in having the American Dream. His son is now an accomplished lawyer and lives a good life. Loman, on the other hand, had two sons. Both of his sons are underachievers compared to Charley’s son, Bernard, at least according to Willy’s point of view. In order for the reader to understand the real message of the play, one should understand Willy Loman and his motivations. And it should be noted that Willy Loman is a representation of the tragic American man that permeated the scene after World War II. The setting is important in the play. The play is set during the late 1940s in Brooklyn, New York. It is after World War II and America is set to rebuild itself after the war. The country, with its troops back from the war, is set to give everyone the American Dream. It is now known that in the 50’s America’s economy started to boom as with American commercialism, so it should follow that this era (the late 40s) is on the verge of an economic boom, signaling that tensions at the time are quite palpable, especially commercialism. This is the reason why the whole play resonate commerce, and even the major character is a salesman. To understand the whole play, the play should be analyzed with its three acts. In the first part of the first act, Willy came home earlier than usual because he couldn’t drive anymore. As he is a traveling salesman, this means he could not do his job anymore, and he would be jobless. That would mean that finances would soon be a problem for him and his family. His wife, Linda, urges him to ask his boss for a less stressful, non-traveling job. Willy is suffering from a mental disorder as he is seen talking to himself a lot. This habit has been noticed by his sons. Now Willy’s thoughts are actually centered on the fact his son Biff’s “underachievement”. Biff is a sensitive man, so to appease his father, he goes to Bill Oliver (his former employer) for a business loan. He would use it as a capital for a new business. As Act One ends, we see that both Willy and Biff have high hopes for the next day. Act Two starts on the morning when Biff leaves the house to propose his plan to Bill and Willy leaving the house to go to his boss to ask for a request with regards to his job transfer. Bill does not see Biff for a few seconds and this means that Biff does get the loan. Biff felt cheated so he steals Bill’s pen. On the other side of the play, with Willy, the plan for him to get transferred to a non-travelling job was also not successful. In fact he ended up getting fired after he begged for his former travelling job. Willy attempts to hide his failures to his sons and he was depressed about the recent developments. Biff, on the other hand, tries to press details and the truth from his father and they both argue. Willy understands Biff at this point and he knows that Biff loves him (after the argument). Still, Act II ends up with Willy committing suicide, but then we learn that Willy killed himself so that Biff would get the insurance money (from Willy’s death) so that he could start a new business. The Requiem of the play (or the Third Act) happens in Willy’s funeral. Even though Willy’s death is largely cathartic for his character, his funeral made the other characters more introspective. In Biff’s case, he figured that his father did not know himself well and had pursued a wrong career path and wrong goals/dreams (the American Dream, specifically) and he resolved not to follow the footsteps of his father. His brother, Happy, on the other hand, disagrees with him and vows to follow in his dad’s footsteps in becoming a salesman and also pursues the American Dream. Willy’s wife, Linda, in the midst of all the drama, could not figure out why her husband killed himself, especially on the day that she finished paying for their house. As you can see, the play is largely concerned about money; about commerce and its effects on life. As we can derive from the play, Willy actually sacrificed himself so that his son, Biff, would get rich. This can be seen as a competitive feat, because he is always on his toes with regards to his neighbor Charley’s achievements. Charley accomplished the “American Dream”. He is the nice neighbor in the play, constantly wanting to help Willy (but also continues to be rejected). Unlike Charley, he does not brag, this is because he has a healthy ego (Willy actually wondered why Charley does not tell everyone that Bernard, his son, has an argument in the Supreme Court). To add it up, Willy continues to criticize Charley because he does not like sports and has a nerdy son. He figures that Charley is not a “real man”, but is quite successful in business and family life. Charley provides the perfect contrast for Willy’s character, who is proud, shallow and selfish. Biff also provides a contrast for Willy. As Willy is heavily materialistic, Biff is a man who actually grows and realizes that material things, especially money, are not everything. Biff is Willy’s favorite son. It’s obvious – he’s practically crazy over Biff and kills himself for Biff. Biff has been a famous football star in high school but he failed math and therefore could not graduate in high school (which is largely due to Willy’s lackluster parenting skills as he did not really pressure Biff to get good grades). Biff wanted to get his life in order at the time and went to summer school, only to find out that his father was cheating on his mother and this made things worse and Biff quit summer school and has strained relationships with his father. As a son, he has a desire to please his father but unlike his father, he is very realistic. Unlike his father, he is content to farm in the West (as opposed to working as a salesman in the East Coast) and be rugged. Biff is a constant reminder to the audience that the American Dream is not for everyone. He is a simple man and he just wants to do what he loves and be loved for it. He just wants his father to stop living in his own delusions, as signified by his explosive argument with his father. Biff actually symbolizes the ordinary American being pressured to follow the American dream. Like Willy, American culture fails to promote the culture of being basic, rugged and simple. There’s always the rat race to join and be competitive in. That’s the whole point of the play, Death of a Salesman. It reflects the economic status of America that time. Willy, the father, is the nation that continually wants his sons to be materially wealthy but then there are two sons: the one who is like him and the other one who wants the simple pleasures in life. There is the mother who does not have power over the boys, specifically representing the women in that generation – powerless against boys. The play echoes the importance of the American Dream at the time. And now, after fifty years, America is slowly turning out to be like Willy Loman because the American Dream did not work well for many of his sons too. References: Bigsby, Christoper. Arthur Miller. 2010. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Print. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Baym, Nina, Franklin, Wayne, Gura, Philip, Klinkowitz, Jerome, et al. (Eds). Norton Anthology of American Literature (Shorter Seventh Edition). 2007, New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Print. Read More