¶ … masterful aspects of Death of a Salesman is the extent to which playwright Arthur Miller leaves it ambiguous regarding Willy Loman's culpability for his own condition. On one hand, he is part of a capitalist system which values people solely upon the extent to which they can demonstrate a profit for their superiors and how well-liked they are by their colleagues. Loman is not well-liked enough, and as soon as his sales figures begin to slip he is ostracized by his business colleagues. According to Willy, he has "gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men -- I don't know -- they do it easier. I don't know why -- I can't stop myself -- I talk too much" (Miller 24). Act I makes it clear that Willy's idealistic version of how to achieve success within capitalism involves get-rich-quick schemes rather than actual effort as well as establishes his suicidal ideation, his current career difficulties, and his unraveling psyche. When Biff was young, Willy paid little attention to his academics and instead hoped that his son could go to college based upon his ability to secure a sports scholarship. This was explicitly...
Now both of his sons seem to be drifting: Happy is dishonest at his workplace and Biff has never held down a steady job. The lack of values amongst his sons underlines how Willy at least in part is responsible for his fate, given that he does not seem to possess a core sense of values but merely changes in response to the world around him. Eventually, however, that world passes him by.
Critic Heyen says, "There is no question but that the play is elusive. As Miller himself has said, 'Death of a Salesman is a slippery play to categorize because nobody in it stops to make a speech objectively stating the great issues which I believe it embodies'" (Heyen 47). Therefore, many critics look at the play in different ways, attempting to categorize it and reference it according to their
He blames his father his personal failure because he, "blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That's whose fault it is!" (1108). Willy's failure extends beyond the workplace and spills over into his family life. This should come as no surprise since the two are closely connected when we think of the American Dream. Willy does not want to change and this
Death of a Salesman: Tragedy in Prose Tragedy, can easily lure us into talking nonsense." Eric Bentley In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, we are introduced to Willy Loman, who believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream -- that a "well liked" and "personally attractive" man in business will unquestionably acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Willy's obsession with the superficial qualities of attractiveness
He can't let go of the idea that popularity and wealth are what are most important in a man. In the second act, Willy receives a terrible blow. He explains to his boss, Howard, how he met a salesman when he was about 19, and admired the man's skills, and decided that sales was the very best job a man could have. But he tells Howard he's tired, and he
Death of a Salesman The new millennium has brought with it new and interesting challenges. Our values and ideals have evolved along with the changing times. This is also true of business and the things that constitute success. For these reasons, many have questioned the relevance of literature created during the previous century to the world as it appears today. Such questions have also been raised about Death of a Salesman
He cannot provide for his family financially, and emotionally he feels bankrupt. That is why the brief, transient sense that Biff likes him provides him with so much joy -- it is the proof, however small, that he has succeeded at something in life. However, even his language of 'liking' echoes the language he uses when speaking of being 'liked' at the office, and almost immediately after speaking to
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