The Death of the Salesman - Literature review Example

Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, The Death of the Salesman is the greatest American play. The play deals with the filial and social realms of American life. It is a story of an aging salesperson Willy Loman, his wife, Linda, and their sons, Biff and Happy. Willy Loman was an insecure travelling saleman. He believed in success and wealth but he never achieved it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. He had two sons Biff and Happy. Biff was a farm worker and Happy worked as a sales clerk. He was never really of noble stature. He never had a lot of money. He had a good dream to be rich. It is the only dream one can have- to come out the number one man. He has a professional understanding of himself and the fundamental nature of sales profession. He was an example of middle class man who was a victim of odd society. He reluctantly circulated himself and his family in a web of lies and false pride. He never discovered his own ignorance. He failed to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He never knew who he was. He wanted to grow his family into something but he failed. His failure to grasp his spiritual understanding of himself and failure to recognize the anguish love by his family reached a crucial climax. He has reached a critical point whereby he cannot work as a travelling salesman. He was very disappointed with his son Biff, as his son was not willing to fulfill his dreams. He always complained that his son is not living up his potentials. When Willy’s employer fired him, he secretly committed suicide because he thought he was worth more dead. Willy brother Ben was rich and confident. He wanted to be like him. Ben is also dead. Willy’s father also went off to Alaska to find wealth but also ended up dead. The appearance of Willy’s dead brother Ben and his words, “the jungle is dark, but full of diamonds” turned his suicide into a moral struggle. His final attempt according to Ben was not like an appointment but like a diamond, which is rough and hard to touch. Willy finally understood that the product he sells was he himself. Through Ben’s advice, he finally believed that he end up worth more dead than alive. Linda Loman was Willy’s loyal and loving wife, and mother of Biff and happy. She suffered through Willy’s obsolete hopes for future renown and success. However, she supported him despite his many failures and weakness. She did not fault him for being an ordinary man. She was more realistic and less fragile than her husband was. She respects him enough and pretends she did not know that he has lost his salary and tried to kill himself. She always tried to protect him, but her efforts were in vain. She was supportive and emotionally strong character in the play. She always hoped that things would work out for the better but those hopes never blossom. Willy’s sons never respect him. Whenever Biff fought with his father, Linda protects him and proved her devotion to her husband by telling her son that “Biff, dear, if you don’t have any feelings for him, then you don’t have any feelings for me. And “He is the dearest man in the world to me, and I won’t have anyone making him feel blue.” She knew that their son Biff is one source of agony for Willy. She not only criticized Biff severely but at the same time, she tried to encourage Biff to come up to his father’s expectations. She had a strong believe that if her sons become successful then Willy’s frail psyche will cure itself. She wanted her sons to complete his father’s dream not only because she believes in Willy’s American dream but also his son Biff, who was the only hope of Willy’s sanity. There were happy moments in Linda’s life but they do not last long because of Biff’s failure in business world. Linda realized that her husband is on the edge of being lost. Willy committed suicide and left Linda as a widow at the end of the play. She could not cry at Willy’s graveside because her tragic life has drained her of tears. Biff Loman was Willy’s oldest son, was also his pride and joy. He was thirty-four years old and once a star high school athlete. Willy was crazy about him and has very high expectations from him. Biff in some ways tried to impress his father but he also realized that his father has false believes. Biff is neither able nor desired to achieve success. Unlike his father, he values the truth. He was ruined when he found his father with another woman while he was in high school. After finding out that his father was having an affair with a woman, he continued to fail, steal at jobs and spent time in jail. His life further destabilized and he drifted through jobs and relationships. He lost faith in himself and life. He was very arrogant and had never communicated with his father openly. He believes that seeking money and success is not every man’s dream. He always wanted to be loved for who he was. Despite his failures and anger towards his father, he still has great concern for what his father thought of him. He always stopped his father being such a obsolete twerp. Consequently, Willy saw Biff as an underachiever, while Biff saw himself as trapped in his father’s fantasies. Biff had his own dream inspired by nature, working outdoors with his own hands. Biff explained that to his brother, “Theirs is nothing more inspiring or beautiful than the sight of a mare and a new colt. And it’s cool there now, see? Texas is cool now, and its spring. And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not getting anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I am thirty-four years old. I ought to be making my future. That’s when I come running home.” However, Biff realized that his father had a wrong dream. Willy should have been a carpenter or lived in another part of the country. Biff has watched his father’s American dream fall apart. On the funeral of his father, he decided to turn away from Willy’s dream and returned to the countryside. Happy Loman was Willy’s son, younger than Biff. He was thirty-two years old. He worked as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department store. Willy was more concern about Biff so he does not pay that much attention to Happy. Happy has unrealistic self-confidence and grand dream about getting rich quick. He always desired to please his father but suffered from his father’s expectations. He always tried to show his best side to his father. He always felt second best and extremely lonely. He completely incorporated in his father’s illusion of success. He always exaggerated his occupation position. He always admitted that he was an assistant buyer, although he was an assistant to the assistant. He has always seen his father showing off. He was suffering from Willy’s worst and materialistic desires and lie of the happy American dream. He was an easily deceived and ruined person. He do not have self-knowledge or capability for self-analysis. Biff and Happy were dissatisfied with their lives and always fantasized about buying an extensive farm out West. Both of them deny their positions and exaggerate details to appear great in power. Happy Loman has insatiable and relentless sex drive. He sleeps with the girls friends of his superiors. He thrives on sexual gratification and believed that he has ruined women engaged to men he works for. He hated himself for that. He states, “I hate myself for it. Because I do not want the girl, and, still, I take it and – I love it!” Happy had affairs with many women. In order to redeem himself in his mother’s eyes, he said, “I am going to get married, just you wait and see.” He was of low moral character. The poor Happy was not been able to see reality. He was destined to live such a life where he had to keep on trying for the thing that would never happen. On his father’s funeral, he says, “Willy Loman did not die in vain; he had a good dream, the only dream a man can have- to come out number one man. He fought it out here, and this I’m going to win it for him.” Work Cited Miller, A. Death of a Salesman. New York, 1949. Read More