In the play, Death of a Salesperson, a middle-class salesman, known as Loman, is the focus of a tragic story. Loman, his wife Linda, and their other two kids, Happy and Biff, resided in an ancient house in the city. The story goes into depth of the protagonist’s demise and ends in a calamity of is death. The main character, Willy, makes mistakes in his quest for bright American dream that costs him his life. In other words, Willy worked really hard to achieve his American Dream, but he made the mistake of becoming a traveling salesman therefore missing out on what could have been the most meaningful realization of his life. He was caught up in his own personal salvation of becoming a salesperson. It became clear to Loman that the American Dream he worked so hard to achieve was becoming a distant memory as he grew older. He could not come up with a new fantasy of his own, therefore he was left with no choice but to end his life. Therefore, this paper will evaluate how the play Death of a Salesman, a modern-day tragedy, attempts to show the American Dream’s tragic side with much focus on Willy.
His quest for divinity as a salesman was the first step in Willy’s spiritual transformation. Willy has been shown throughout the play to be capable of pursuing carpentry since he was talented and enjoyed working with wood. Willy was inspired by Dave Singlema, an extraordinarily successful salesman (Schultz 4). His decision to work in sales was an enormous mistake that cost him a great deal of time and money. Therefore, he had to deal with a wide range of difficulties as he pursued his American dream. However, majority of the responsibilities that were assigned to him as a salesman were of no importance in his quest for the American dream. Willy had to borrow roughly fifty dollars a week from Charley in order to convince his family that he was still able to generate money, which was not the case at all. As a result, he was convinced that he had done all that he could for his family by donating twenty thousand dollars from his life insurance policy to his boys. Therefore, Willy misses out on life itself, and he lost what was more important to his life.
Because of Willy’s decision to become a salesperson, he missed out on many other opportunities for success. Willy’s inability to accept his failure and go on to pursue another goal is what leads to the catastrophe. This may be shown, for example, in his refusal to accompany his father into the bush where his brother made his fortune. Willy’s play, Death of a Salesman, shows how the main character, Willy faced tragedy in his quest for better life. Willy grew overwhelmed due to his unreasonable and unworkable ideal for the United States,. Furthermore, Willy grew enamored with the glamour and the enchantment, and he craved praise for his accomplishments (Schultz 2). Furthermore, Willy refused to accept Charley’s offer of a better job and instead went to Charley for a loan to pay back his debt (Miller 15). Willy’s spiritual transformation is shown to be powerful, despite the more enticing offers he might have received or even the enormous chances he could have had.
Since Willy wanted to help his family and work honestly, he was not opposed to achieving the same degree of success as his brother, Ben, in the race for the top spot. Dave Singleman, on the other hand, shows a level of accomplishment that may be achieved in the real world. Being “highly liked” is a way to move forward in life, he says (Centola 148). The Singleman, on the other hand, was so well regarded by his colleagues and customers that “hundreds of salespeople and purchasers gathered at his burial when he died,” as Willy boasts (Miller 2363). As a result, Willy must therefore work even harder if he hopes to achieve the same level of success as Singleman. Willy reasoned that the best way to bestow blessings on his boys was to provide them with wealth in the only manner he knew how.
Willy learnt it in a hard way as he was thought of struggling as the only way to realize success while still a young boy. His brother’s and father’s success inspired him to work hard to attain his own success in the city in an effort to realize his American Dream. Just as stated by Eugene O’Neill “We talk much about American Dream and propagate it across the world. It is not the bulk of the population under the impression that this means achieving financial security?” (Centola 40) Willy had the desire, but he lacked the necessary information about the realities of the business and his own needs. Willy hoped that people’ admiration for him and his good character would give him an edge in the job market (Zhao 405). Consequently, Willy wanted his two kids to lead a comfortable and prosperous life, despite the fact that there was a clash of their ideals, namely, reality against idealism, and city versus nation. The key point was that they were unable to confront reality as it was.
When it came to their relationship, Willy and Linda appeared to be a match made in heaven (Zhao 405). However, the underlying cause of the family’s issues may be traced back to the rivalry between the two of them. They can not seem to get their points over to one another. On the road or at work, Willy’s patient and compassionate wife was unable to share the burden with him (Zhao 404). When she discussed the bill they had to pay, she did it in a way that was sensitive to the father-son struggle. No matter how hard she tried, she was unable to save the family from separating. It was a tragedy brought on by the bonds of love and loyalty among family members. Additionally, Biff, an idealistic young man, was aware of the fact that he never fit into the business world. It upset him that many people in the corporate world preferred to have an ordinary life while he needed to lead an extra-ordinary one. Willy viewed his return to the United States as a tragedy since he was unable to acclimate.
In such a capitalist society, accumulation of wealth is prioritized over all other considerations, which means that individuals who can no longer contribute to the growth of the economy will be eliminated. Although he had been to Alaska for many years, Ben had not yet figured his way to realize success. If you want to know what a salesperson really is, go no further than his “smiling face and polished shoes,” which he lives and dreams by (Miller 1082). However, one day, “If people do not smile back, the world will tumble down” (Miller 1082). Willy was too elderly and ineffective as a salesperson or the primary income for the family, so he was left behind. To keep themselves alive, Willy exaggerated their career, relying on the marketing of a lovely illusion for their own self-worth. Willy Loman found himself in a capitalist society with different visions from the one that he had. He was just like a million other Americans who were trying to sell the American ideal to the world.
However, Willy’s persistence might be considered as a success in this case. The death of Willy had a good influence on Biff’s life, resulting in him adopting a more practical and appropriate desire in his own way. Biff felt pity for his father because of the choices he made and the failures he suffered, which led him to think and act in a different way than his father and pursue his own interests (Miller 1145). Furthermore, Willy’s quest for the American Dream has never truly come to an end. A brilliant salesperson in the mold of his father, Willy’s second son, Happy, wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps (Zhao 403). To be like his father, he always wanted to be the center of attention, just like Willy was for Biff. As a result, even though it was never intended for anybody else, Happy decides that he wants to pursue a career in sales and gives the opportunity to deceased Willy.
The play’s inspiration came from a variety of sources, including the intricacies of everyday life in the United States and the grandeur of Greek tragedy. Using the tragedy’s premise in the play Salesman, Miller tried to democratize it in an unashamed American style. The tragic fall of an ordinary man is depicted in Miller’s work clearly illustrates the difficult life that many Americans are facing in their quest for success. Even the salesman’s name, Willy Loman, condemns him to a life of obscurity, calling him a “low man forever” in sharp contrast to the great monarchs and kings of ancient Greek plays (Miller 1083). And it was the wish of Willy to being great, of reaching the illusive goal of America, that in the end culminated in to his failure. His character, or lack of self-awareness and self-delusion, was a terrible defect that that cost him the success that he was aiming to realize. While Willy Loman has always been the ideal American tragic hero, he is also an unpleasant outcome of the American dream.
In conclusion, Willy Loman’s life was fraught with perils and stumbling blocks. Willy, who was a firm believer in the power of acknowledgment, had a miserable career as a salesperson. Similarly, he had to work extra hard because of the spiritual salvation, which ultimately led him to commit suicide and leave his legacy on his son, Biff. This heroic guy, in Arthur Miller’s words, is just like the rest of the Americans. Using Willy as a figure that accurately represents his personal misfortune helps him to make this point even more obvious. As humans live in a competitive environment, it is best for everyone to know themselves and stay up with the quick changes in society by following what they really want and giving their time to their goals, rather than being confused by what is considered success.
Works Cited
Centola, Steven R. “Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 179. Detroit: Gale, 2018.”
Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman: New York. Penguin Books, 2000.
Schultz, Angela Michelle. Nothing More Than a Dream: Death of a Salesman Analysis. Planet eBook, 2018.
Zhao, Jinying. “An Analysis of Willy Loman’s Tragedy in Death of a Salesman.” 6th International Conference on Electronics, Mechanics, Culture and Medicine, 2019, Web.