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Since its first play in 1949, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is still recognized as one of the greatest dramatic pieces of the 20th century. The play was performed many times, collected a significant number of awards, and has ten cinema adaptations. The plot centers around the tragic yet ordinary life of Willy Loman, a 63-year-old salesman, and his family. This paper will focus on the aspect of the story where the main character loses his job and analyze three of the most prominent issues that contradict current understanding and practices in human resources (HR).
The story takes place in 1940s New York, and the plays central theme relates closely to the concept of the American dream. In brief, the story emphasizes the influence of capitalism and the idea of success on people, their lives, relationships with friends and family, and work ethics. The play adds a modern sense to the classic tragedy of a mans suicide from the frustration of not fulfilling his goals. Through a series of events, Willy, whose mind is slowly degrading, decides to commit suicide to contribute insurance money from his death to the future success of his children.
Willy is sure that his sons, predominantly Biff, are destined for success yet prefer to spend their time on unnecessary things instead of pushing to the American Dream. The character states that in a salesman job, looks are the most vital part, and in his mind, Biff should have great success as a salesman because of his appearance. In his illusions, Willy ignores that Biff decided to quit sports due to Willys mistake when Biff discovers that Willy cheats on his wife, Linda. The situation is not good with Willys second son either, as he makes up lies solely to get his parents attention and recognition. Although the main characters of the play are Willys family, a significant part of the play and the plot is Willys work, the working culture, and the environment of the salesman job.
The author implies that work plays a dominant role in Willys life. To demonstrate it, the author starts the play with Willy arriving earlier from a business trip, which the character cannot handle due to health issues. Willy complains that he cannot go on long road trips anymore as he finds himself going sixty miles an hour without remembering the last minutes. At the beginning of the 20th century, traveling salesman was a common profession, and they also were frequently met as characters in literature. Due to the nature of their job, salespersons had to act and pretend to do business, so the salesmens job was more of a public position than it is now.
Because of the publicity of the job, Willy supposed that a salesman job is a respectable profession. Willy admits that he tries to always look his best and dresses to impress other people and make them notice him. Willys work makes him self-conscious as he feels hurt when another person makes fun of his looks and compares Willy to a walrus (Miller, 1998, p. 24). It was common for salespeople to pass their position to their children, and Willy was hoping that Biff would eventually take his place.
To understand the work culture of that time, one should pay attention to issues in social norms of that period. As the character spent his whole life working in the same company, Willy constantly fears that business will go bad and he will be unable to provide for his wife and family. The main characters boss, Howard Wagner, advises Willy to rest and rely on his sons for a while, but Willy feels ashamed of thinking about the offer and states that he is not a cripple (Miller, 1998, p. 63). The characters opposition to retirement emphasizes that at that period, even older people could not rely on help from their children to avoid being mistaken for a disabled person. The fact that Willy deliberately ignores his mental state and hallucinations emphasizes how much he is afraid to be disabled and in need.
Most issues that directly speak to essential points in HR fundamentals emerge during the plays segment, where Willy finally conveys his concerns to his boss. At the beginning of their conversation, Wagner ignores the employees intentions to talk and focuses on a voice-recording device while forcing Willy to admire the new device. As a boss, Wagner was not necessarily obliged to performing work-related tasks at his workplace at that time.
However, nowadays, he would be violating workplace policies and ethics by focusing his attention on a device instead of a work-related discussion with an employee. Wagner could solve a significant part of Willys problems but failed to pay attention to one of the core employees that helped establish the company. Alternatively, Willys employer needed to fulfill Willys request to find him a job that does not require traveling or should have offered him at least one-time pension compensation.
One of the fundamentals of modern HR strategies implies respectful relationships among both employees and managers. Further in their dialogue, Wagner calls Willy a kid several times, and despite the familiar kind of relationship between the two, the calling seems unfitting and disrespectful regarding the age gap (Miller, 1998, p. 61). The language that Wagner used sounds humiliating and belittling and contradicts the current understanding and fundamentals of HR.
To avoid the humiliation and gain back some respect, Willy had to remind Wagner about the contribution Willy made to the company. Moreover, according to Mayuuf and Mohammed (2020), Wagner remains cold even when Willy points that it was him who proposed Howards name to his father. Wagners open disrespect and pressure negatively affect Willys mental health and triggers Willys dementia, causing a hallucination episode.
Death of a Salesman presents a significant example of one of the most prominent issues that emphasized the need in HR policies and regulations. In an article on managing mental health and dementia, Samantaray (2020) points that Wagner represents how money damages human responses within America. Many businesses throughout the rise of capitalism used their employees as assets. Wagner decided to fire Willy regardless of his previous success working with his father, Willys health state, and financial requests. Current businesses implement the concept of social responsibility and care for the employees by providing them benefits in compensations for healthcare services to prevent problems similar to Willys.
In conclusion, each of the issues in HR fundamentals negatively affected Willys life and contributed to his final decision to take his life. The boss rejected Willys requests and failed to provide enough attention to his employee when he could have tried to fulfill the request of the core employee of the company that significantly contributed to the companys establishment. At least the employer could have offered a one-time compensation for Willy and save him from willing to exchange his life on insurance money. The undeserved disrespectful tone of the employer that violates current HR policies and ethics triggered Willys mental health and caused a hallucinating episode. Wagner saw Willy at his lowest point ad still fired him, making the mistake of treating his employees as an asset. Although employer mistakes rarely end with tragic consequences in real life, the play emphasizes how work culture and working conditions could affect an individuals life.
References
Mayuuf, H. H., & Mohammed, A. A. (2020). A comparative study of density of directive and commissive speech acts in Death of a Salesman. PalArchs Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 17(7), 15638-15652.
Miller, A. (1998). Death of a salesman. Penguin Classics. London, England.
Samantaray, S. (2020). Managing mental health and dementia: A critical appraisal of Millers Death of a Salesman. Journal of Critical reviews, 7(13), 2859-2863. Web.
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