Category: Death Of A Salesman

Exploring Settings, Symbols, Themes, and Author’s Style in “Death of a Salesman”

Introduction

Within Death of a Salesman, there are three different settings: Boston, Brooklyn, and inside of Willy’s mind. The play starts off in Brooklyn, New York, inside an apartment that is super cramped by other buildings. Willy dislikes his home because of how enclosed and claustrophobic it is. He desperately wants to move to somewhere more open and free, like Texas. In Boston, the Lomans have the conversation at the restaurant; it is also where Biff discovers Willy and the women’s affair that has been going on for so and so years.

Boston is a place of heartbreak and misdirection for the Lomans. The final setting in the play is inside Willy’s head. We see many flashbacks: for instance, times when the boys are in high school, when the Lomans are at Biff’s football games when they are at home just hanging out together, etc. This implies that most of the setting takes place within the mind of Willy Loman. As readers, we can not always trust Willy because he is not a reliable source. The main setting was in the 1940s. The flashbacks are in a time 15-25 years before then; we see a time of relief and prosperity in America before and after World War II.

Major Symbols, Motifs, Images

Some of the major symbols throughout Death of a Salesman are the seeds, the stockings, and the tennis racket. Willy has a garden, and at the end of the play, when he has no seeds planted in it, he goes nuts. By planting the seeds, he is striving for his legacy to keep “growing” or to be passed on to his children. He does not want to leave the earth without creating a legacy for himself and his kids. The stockings are a reminder to Willy that he has failed at life and show that he can’t provide for his family as he dreams of doing. Bernard’s tennis racket is a symbol of success for him and a symbol of failure for Biff.

It is ironic that Bernard succeeded in life because he was not well-liked like Biff. Willy realizes this and assumes Bernard blames him for the fall of Biff. Some motifs within the play are wealth/debt, Alaska/Africa/American West, diamonds in the jungle, and open/enclosed spaces. The Loman’s wealth and debt fluctuate a lot, but they never seem to be out of debt until the requiem. The burden of debt shows the Loman family’s struggle to secure financial freedom. It also shows that it can tear apart a family who is poor. The motif of Alaska, Africa, and the American West represents Willy’s want for freedom and an escape from the tight, lonely lifestyle he lives.

It gives Willy a false sense of Hope for his kids and himself that they will get out of the economic gutter. In Willy’s flashbacks, Ben talks about diamonds in the jungle a lot. These diamonds represent a high-risk, high-reward outcome. Back then, technology was not very advanced. Diamond diamond mining was a scarce job due to the fear of death in the mine, but those who sought out that job were surprised with riches beyond their wildest dreams.

Significance of the Opening Scene(s)

Miller begins Death of a Salesman with Willy and Linda talking about Willy’s accident with the car; although it does not seem like an accident, Linda supports him through it. Willy talks about not feeling well and having uncontrollable daydreams. This shows Willy’s deception of real life. Miller shows Willy contradicting himself a lot and pressing his hands against his eyes, showing he is depressed. It is shown that the Lomans live in a small apartment in Brooklyn, and compared to the other lots, theirs is just adequate. The Loman’s lack of content shows their societal role within the book as a low-income, middle-class family struggling to achieve the American dream. Miller proves all of these facts through stage directions.

Significance of the Ending/Closing Scene

The closing scene of the play shows Linda, Biff, Charley, and Happy at Willy’s funeral, with many fewer people than expected. While they are reminiscing his memory, Linda can’t seem to understand why. Willy never identified who he truly was, and the dreams he wanted to achieve were misdirected by his family and flashbacks. Linda held him back because she always agreed with his lies and opinions, no matter what they were, because she cherished and admired him. Because Willy did not truly know his goals, this led him to discontent with his life; he was constantly seeking something new or better to do. Biff ultimately disliked Willy for that very reason. It also signifies Happy, who has become complacent with his life even after his father’s death.

Description of Author’s Style

Miller takes on a style of recording Willy’s mental state throughout the play. The protagonist of Death of a Salesman is subject to uncontrollable daydreams/flashbacks of reality. Willy’s Psyche grew extremely “tired” and out of control, which led to him having a hard time coming back to reality by himself; it was always outside forces that brought him back, for instance, a tap recorder playing its recording after he bumped it. Miller’s style is to never let Willy be free from his clouded mind. He, in addition, uses ordinary language commonly used in the 1940s to express the realistic and expressionistic side of the story when he has flashbacks. Miller gives the reader expressionistic and realistic views of Willy’s declining life in his style.

The passage that Demonstrates the Author’s Style

This passage demonstrates Miller’s style because it has the literary technique of ordinary language, realism, and expressionism.
“Howard [getting up]: You’ll have to excuse me, Willy; I gotta see some people. Pull yourself together. [Going out] I’ll be back in a little while. [On HOWARD’S exit, the light on his chair grows very bright and strange.] Willy: Pull myself together! What the hell did I say to him? My God, I was yelling at him! How could I! [WILLY breaks off, staring at the light, which occupies the chair, animating it. He approaches this chair, standing across the desk from it.]

Frank, Frank, don’t you remember what you told me that time? How you put your hand on my shoulder, and Frank… [He leans on the desk, and as he speaks the dead man’s name, he accidentally switches on the recorder, and instantly–] HOWARD’S Son: … of New York is Albany. The capital of Ohio is Cincinnati, the capital of Rhode Island is… [The recitation continues.] Willy [leaping away with fright, shouting]: Ha! Howard! Howard! Howard! HOWARD [rushing in]: What happened? WILLY [pointing at the machine, which continues nasally, childishly, with capital cities]: Shut it off! Shut it off! HOWARD [pulling the plug out]: Look, Willy… WILLY [pressing his hands to his eyes]: I gotta get myself some coffee. I’ll get some coffee…” (Miller, 2.62).

Themes/Universal Truths/Author’s Purpose

Throughout Death of a Salesman, there are many themes portrayed. For instance, the American dream, freedom/hope/plans, and Abandonment.

The American Dream

Willy has always had this fixation on freedom and the right to wealth and success, also known as “the American dream.” He craved it ever since he was a little boy because his dad had achieved it before him, as well as his brother Ben. Willy felt the weight of being the only man in the family who had not amounted to anything particularly amazing in life. This insistent nerve causes Willy to become distraught and conflicted with his daily life. Willy has standards for the American dream. You must be physically representable and well-liked in general. Willy’s death is ultimately because of his misguided faith in that he thinks the American dream is the best and only source of Hope to achieve success.

Freedom/hope/plans for the future

Willy is no doubt a dreamer. He always has these absurd plans to achieve success in some way or another, but he is so infatuated with this concept that he thinks all he has to do to conquer success is to dream and plan for it. While this is definitely a step into material success, Willy loses sight of the idea that he actually needs to execute his plans and dreams for them to pan out. His recurring flashbacks cause him to become mentally blind to the real obstacles in front of him, blocking his path to the American dream. Biff and Happy are similar in the fact that they also have big hopes and dreams, but they never really seem to go through with them. With the exception of Biff moving to Texas.

Conclusion

We see the theme of Abandonment several times in Death of a Salesman. At first, we find out that Willy’s father left him and his brother Ben when they were little kids. This causes the severe depression Willy suffers from throughout the play. On top of his dad leaving, his older brother Ben also leaves to look for their father in Alaska. This forces Willy to fend for himself and become the man of the family. We also see Abandonment through Biff when he leaves to go out west for ten years, comes back, and expects his family to accept him back into the family. His rising fear of Abandonment causes him to have an unhealthy obsession with the American dream and success over happiness.

References

1. “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
2. “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman” by Harold Bloom
3. “Understanding Death of a Salesman: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents” by Brenda Murphy

Illusion vs. Reality in ‘Death of a Salesman’: Struggle with Self-Deception

Introduction

How would you characterize Willy Loman? Consider his emotional/mental state, his motivations, his relationships with others (e.g., his wife, Linda; his sons, Biff and Happy), etc.

The Illusion of Success and the American Dream

Willy Loman is clearly the protagonist of Death of a Salesman. This first part of the opening act provides us with exposition through which we learn that Willy is a married salesman in his sixties with two sons. He has been working as a salesman for over thirty years, and it is clear that this life is not what he had hoped for, neither for himself nor for his family. He has worked for the American Dream, and it seems that he has not attained it in the way and to the extent he had hoped for. He is struggling to come to terms with what he perceives as failure and does not want to see his sons, Happy and Biff, live a similar life that does not end with the full realization of their dreams.

All of the action of this piece of the play is performed in Willy’s home; even when we are witnessing flashbacks, there is still a visual of the house as it is today. We find out it used to be surrounded by nature, peace, and quiet, and other homes of the American Dreamers are now surrounded by large, stifling apartment buildings that do not even allow fresh air to reach the Lomans’ home. The house, as the stage directions tell us, has “an air of the dream clinging…” to it (p. 11); it is a metaphor for Willy’s life. He is strangled by the movement of time and progress just as his own house is, too. The juxtaposition of the flashbacks and the house as it is now strengthens the recognition of this oppression.

Willy is unable to deal with reality, and it is clear, from ‘flashbacks’ told through meandering thoughts, that this is something he has been struggling with for quite some time. He is unable to find a way to justify why his life is the way it is and is unwilling to face the fact that this is just the life fate has dealt him. To cover for this and not have to admit he is not the success he longs to be, Willy seems to create alternative scenarios to reality in hopes of providing himself with a way to feel some self-worth. By creating these delusional narratives, he struggles to even keep them straight, as seen when he calls Biff “a lazy bum” (p. 16) and then three lines later says, “There’s one thing about Biff – he’s not lazy”(p. 16). He complains that he is always contradicted, yet it is he who is often contradictory. Even when he claims to love Linda, his wife, he flashes back to a time when he cheated on her. He almost appears to be dropping into madness.

Conclusion

At the start of this act, Willy has been trying to create a reality that he can come to terms with, but it has brought him to a point where he is no longer able to actually recognize real life. He has developed a constant mumbling, often laced with reminiscences of prior times when he might have felt more in control of his life. These mumblings are often focused on his older son, Biff, as he is trying desperately to save Biff from a disappointing future. He does not want his son to suffer in the ways he has.

References

1. “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
2. “Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem” by Arthur Miller

The Struggle for Identity and its Impact on Relationships in Death of a Salesman

Introduction

In Fred Ribkoff’s written response to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, titled Shame, Guilt, Empathy, and the Search for Identity in Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman, he goes into how he believes that Willy Loman has identity issues because of his shame and guilt of some of the things that have occurred in his past.

Identity Crisis and the Role of Shame and Guilt

He gives a little insight into what this is based on, talking about another work by Bernard Williams, Shame and Necessity, which is about Greek tragedies and their link to shame and guilt in relation to identity crises. Besides using William’s example, it appears that Ribkoff just uses the play as his source of information. In Death of a Salesman, it becomes apparent that Willy has found himself in this situation. The only thing, though, is that it affects not only him but also his oldest son, Biff, who has had the pressure of what Willy wants him to be on his shoulders his whole life.

However, even with this issue, Biff knows that he doesn’t want to be like his father and, even to a certain extent, his grandfather. He wants to do his own thing and knows who he is deep down inside. Fred Ribkoff also makes a point to point out how Willy continuously looks up to people like his late brother, Ben, who he described as successful before he died. Ribkoff, however, points out that this doesn’t really help Willy because he now has a dream that he cannot make true. The article itself seems mainly to be Ribkoff thoroughly analyzing Willy Loman as a person, as well as Biff Loman, but not as in-depth. The author goes on about how Willy’s thoughts aren’t only affecting him but others, mainly Biff.

It was very disappointing, however, that the text didn’t go more in-depth about the other secondary characters, such as Linda and Happy, who also have experienced the effects of Willy’s thoughts and beliefs. For instance, Willy cheated on Linda with another woman and apparently had no knowledge of it, and Happy played second best to Biff and didn’t get much character development because of it. The article also talks about how Willy is going through several stressful thoughts in his head: he isn’t making enough money, he cheated on his wife, he is not living up to his own expectations, feels his son is a failure at times, and is suicidal because of all of it. Even after Biff spills his heart out to his dad, telling him that he loves him and that he accepts him, Willy refuses to let go of his ideal identity and kills himself to keep it that way. Looking at others’ perceptions of other author’s writings is essential to the world of reading in writing.

Conclusion

Secondary sources like this could be a source of information for other readers to spot something we might have missed or wouldn’t have come up on our own. It is a great way to get a broader understanding of works of literature.

References

1. “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
2. “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman” by Harold Bloom

Unveiling Symbolism and Themes in “Death of a Salesman”

Introduction

There are many important points in this play. One point is that Willy’s home “work” was a symbol of his strong desire to achieve a goal because he had this strong desire to become a successful businessman, but his house structures showed his real desire.

Willy’s Home as a Symbol of Desires and Realities

At present, their house is closed in by apartment units and building structures. Instead of following a dream he could have never achieved, he could have been a successful builder. Another point is that when Biff steals the pen, it functions in the play because when he’s holding the pen, he realizes, “What is he doing?” and “Why is he doing something he doesn’t want to do?”. He looks up and sees the sky when he’s still in the office. Biff wants to make up with his dad to ensure that he doesn’t want to follow Willy’s dream and follow his own dream of living on a ranch. Charley’s statement, “He doesn’t have to—he’s gonna do it,” is central to the theme of the play because, unlike Willy, Charley trusts that his son can do it and he doesn’t have to tell him what to do or how to do it. Willy always tells Biff what to do the way he wants to do it. An argument when Biff is the protagonist of the play is that, when Biff was in high school, he always supported his dad, and he wanted to make his dad proud until he found out that his dad was having an affair.

The Weight of Guilt and Betrayal

When he is in his mid-thirties, he’s an unsuccessful businessman, and Willy gets frustrated and goes crazy. When Biff tries to go to his old boss, he realizes Something when he’s holding a pen that he stole from the office. He realizes that he is living a lie and he doesn’t want to follow his dad’s dreams but his own. The seeds are a symbol of the play because they show that since Willy didn’t do anything successful in his life, he wants to show that he grew the seeds as Something successful. Willy refuses Charley’s job offer even though he is accepting his “loans” because Willy has too much pride, and he doesn’t want anyone to think that he is hopeless and needs help. The meaning of Linda saying “were free…”, the last words of the play, was that they “were free” from Willy’s “memories” or “thoughts,” and Linda apologizes for refusing to cry and intends that Willy is “another trip.”

Conclusion

The underlying meaning was that the insurance money that Willy “gave” to Biff was not fulfilled, so he went on “another trip” to fulfill it. The stockings are a symbol of the play because he had an affair with another woman, and he gave her brand new stockings, but Willy yells at Linda for fixing her old stockings and says not to fix them. He feels guilty for betraying her and Biff. These are all the important points that happened in Death of a Salesman.

References

1. “Death of a Salesman (Penguin Modern Classics)” by Arthur Miller
2. “CliffsNotes on Miller’s Death of a Salesman” by Jennifer L. Scheidt
3. “Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism” by Arthur Miller and Gerald Weales

The Battle for Identity and Reality in “Death of a Salesman”

Introduction

Whether it is through family, an occupation, or a hobby, everyone desires something that makes them a unique individual. Almost everyone has experienced struggles in giving their best endeavors to achieve a great identity, but then there are those who think it comes without any effort. b. Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Death of a Salesman” (1949) is a modern tragedy that tells the story of the anti-hero Willy Loman, a traveling salesman living in Brooklyn, New York during the 1940s with his family. His world starts falling apart soon after he hears news of his older brother’s death, whom he very much looked up to. Everything around him is changing with the coming times, and he is realizing that he has missed his chance of being the well-liked person he hoped to be. He has two sons with his wife, Linda, and he tries to instill traits in them that he believes to be the secret to success, which are likability and ingenuity.

Willy’s Past and Unrealistic Dreams

The American Dream has always been Willy’s number one drive in life, and he is in complete denial about how it might have come about unethically. Willy might be a character that the audience can sympathize with, but Willy creates his own future and, in the end, dies because of his own actions. In his identity crisis, he starts experiencing hallucinations of past events. c. Thesis: Willy Loman is experiencing hallucinations of his past because of high stress and anxiety regarding his identity crisis. His hallucinations are his mind subconsciously trying to cope with the current situation and to figure out why everything around him is falling apart. II. Willy’s past a. Between his father being a successful flute salesman and his brother finding a diamond mine in Africa, Willy Loman has been raised to believe that wealth should come easy and that all he needs to do is to be well-liked to become successful. b.

The fact that we know that the action of the play happens during the 1940s, we can assume that Willy has lived through World War I as well as the stock market crash of 1929, which resulted in the Great Depression, which is something the author of the play can relate to. His father was an owner of a women’s fashion store, which went out of business during the economic crash of 1929, which caused great poverty for the Miller family (Ascherson). III. Willy’s hallucinations a. It has been established that Willy’s life has not gone as he planned. His lovely neighborhood is changing into an apartment complex lot, his sons are not the famous, wealthy men he hoped they would be, and he is failing in his job as a salesman.

What might have been Willy’s tipping point is his brother’s passing a few weeks earlier, a man he adored dearly. All of these traumatizing circumstances could bring up terrible anxiety and stress, which could be the reason that he is now hallucinating past events. b. In a case report written by Dr. Ankur Sachdeva on visual hallucinations associated with anxiety, he writes about a 36-year-old male who suffered from extreme anxiety, which had been ongoing for almost eight years. He goes on to say that “the patient also reported seeing images of a lady that no one else could see during the last two months.

Confrontation and Catharsis

These clear and distinct images occurred when he was awake and fully conscious and appeared real. He reported seeing them five to ten times a day, for 5 minutes at a time”. Proving that one does not need to suffer from a mental illness to experience hallucinations, but can be caused by c. He lived so long in his false reality that soon, the walls around him began to crumble, and he had to face reality. IV. Willy and Biff a. Many times, parents who have missed out on their dreams will try and push their children to pursue whatever they missed out on. Willy has pushed his dreams onto his sons, but they have no idea how to achieve them. Willy had high expectations from his oldest son, Biff. He was supposed to be just like his own older brother, get rich and famous with only charm as his tool.

Except that did not happen. Willy has brought up Biff and Happy that it is okay to steal. In one of Willy’s journeys to the past, Willy congratulates Biff on stealing a football for practice by exclaiming, “Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he? Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative!” (18). Yet, later, he contradicts himself by saying, “Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things” (27). Not realizing that it was he himself who molded Biff into doing such a thing. As a result, Biff goes through his life stealing and being dishonest, never holding down a job, and torturing himself mentally for disappointing his father. b. After Biff goes to his big meeting and steals a pen, he has an epiphany. He is not who his father raised him to be, and he does not want to be.

Conclusion

During the catharsis of the play, where Biff confronts his father on his upbringing and begs him to accept the reality of him being a non-successful, ordinary man, Willy realizes that Biff actually adores and loves him and only wants his acceptance. As he comes to the conclusion that his dream of being well-liked has come true, he immediately decides that he must die to preserve it. “He might not have won their respect, but he is definitely loved – and perhaps that is all that Willy ever really hoped to achieve” (Centola 33).

References

1. “Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism” by Arthur Miller and Gerald Weales
2. “Miller: Death of a Salesman” by J. C. Trewin