Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman as a Complex Post World War II Male Character - Essay Example

 Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman as a Complex Post World War II Male Character There is a child in every one of us. The world of children is guileless, optimistic, adventurous and full of fun and laughter. It is spontaneous, expressive and knows no inhibitions. In this world, the child is the center of love and affection of all around it. It lives a dream of existence, demanding and receiving attention, leading a heroic life. As life progresses, the child grows into adolescence and later into adulthood. The child-hero begins to grasp the realities of life and the ways of the adult world, in which the daily grind takes precedence over a dreamy existence. His dreams, especially those that are willfully created or the day-dreams die hard. His visions of heroic achievements alternate with lurking doubts. As man matures, neither the child nor the hero within ceases to exist even as he comes to terms with life. Somewhere along the line, the value system of the family and to a lesser extent that of the society gets inculcated in him and makes him what he would be in times to come. The child, the hero and the dreams within us are carefully packed and stored away from the public gaze and we develop our public persona – a carefully cultivated personality that allows barely a ray of light in and conceals the reality behind a façade of bravado, all the hidden ambitions, values and fears. Just as the adults steal moments of unadulterated joy acting as children do, the hidden hero in us shows up occasionally to claim real or imagined victories over others. In our transactions with the outside world, we camouflage the hero inside us and exhibit only the learned behavior – to confirm to accepted norms. In our own environs and especially within our own family circle, we drop the veil and claim hero-ship, assured of a responsive and appreciative audience. In a way, we contribute to the dreams of children with our heroic deeds, until the march of time snatches away the childhood of children, and with it many of the heroic deeds of the adult world. Individual personalities turn into national traits. The rapid economic growth and with it the abundant opportunities of the post World War II period created the American Dream - of achieving success through hard work in a highly competitive adult world. This dream is a reflection of the collective personality of the average American that sustains his vision of being a hero onto himself and to his family. Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death of a Salesman’ explores the reality behind this dreamy world of heroic deeds in a family that is short on values. The play’s protagonist, Willy Loman, is a strong believer in the American Dream syndrome. He would like his sons to believe that they can beat the best and achieve high success. He is not tired of extolling the virtues of hard work and the reality of the great American Dream that is making it possible for him to fulfill his ambitions successfully as a star salesman. However, his encounters with his wife and sons reveal a different perspective that is a far cry from his claims. Competitive economic situations demand and extract high costs from individuals and Willy Loman, in spite of all his expectations, was not treated as a star salesman and was offered the alternative of earning commission on sales achieved rather than a steady salaried income. Loman was devastated that his talent was not being recognized while the reality of the situation was that his achievements were not in tune with the demands of time. Willy’s failure is traced to his childhood when his father abandoned him in search of riches and although he did not find the gold he was hunting for, he still had a measure of satisfaction selling flutes made by his own hands. Willy’s brother (Ben) followed his father as well as his natural instincts for adventurism and made a fortune. Thus Willy, who places greater value on the American Dream than on natural instincts to flourish, grew up to be ambitious in a vacuous world, devoid of proper value guidance. Unable to give up his visions of greatness for his sons, Willy Loman frequently relapses into the world of day dreams, where heroics are more easily imagined and achieved than in real life. He relives the time when his elder son Biff was the captain of the school football team and compares that event to his own imaginary success as a salesman. He conveniently ignores Biff’s character flaws and fails to understand why such a dashing young man, endowed with the money given by his father, should choose a life on a ranch than live the dream of a successful businessman in the big city that is his due. The younger son Happy is living in New York as a small timer and leading a life of loose morals but dreams of achieving career success, though he is not happy with the rat race. His situation is closer to that of Loman who carries the burden of an affair on his consciousness, a secret known to his sons. Thus, the hard working happy family of moral and ethical standards, which is the one of the pillars of the American Dream, is non-existent in Loman’s case. Blaming his sons or his boss or his neighbor, Loman is negating his own failures. When Biff tells his father of his limitations, Willy shouts at him, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!" To escape the reality of his failures, Willy Loman was relapsing frequently into reminiscences that were themselves hardly true. He was obsessed with being liked and remembered by many for his achievements of which there were not many. He knew of the character flaws of himself and his sons but did not consider them as hindrances to realizing dreams. In his obsession with his own destiny, he paid no heed to the steady deterioration that is taking place around himself, his family and his home, and tried to escape the reality by lapsing into his spells of imagined glory. He wanted his sons to succeed, where he failed miserably, in catching the American Dream, did not permit this to happen and we are presented with a fractured family headed by a flawed personality. His wife Linda knew him for what he was and loved him just the same. In a symbolic gesture of admitting his failure and attempting to regain the lost ground, he says, “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” and resorts to frenetic digging and planting seeds. In a fitting climax to end his career and failed life, he commits suicide and even in this final act, he claims success since he was leaving his legacy of $20,000 to his family, thus fulfilling his statement that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.” Reference Miller, A. (1998), Death of a Salesman, Penguin Classics. Read More