The Dysfunctional Family
In Arthur Miller's drama, "Death of a Salesman" the protagonist is a sixty–year–old salesperson by the name of Willy Loman. Willy suffers from self–delusion and is obsessed with the desire to succeed. Willy's actions strongly influence his family, which contributes to their self–delusions. Willy's wife Linda is an enabler and is codependent upon him. Linda encourages and participates in Willy's delusions. She is unselfish and her life revolves around Willy and their two boysBiff and Happy. The Lomans are definitely a dysfunctional family due to their lack of communication, respect, and morals.
The basis for any healthy relationship is communication....show more content...
(Linda simultaneously):...and this woman...Linda: What? Biff: Nothing. Go ahead. Linda: What did you say? Biff: Nothing. I just said what woman?" (Miller 1339). This is a normal conversation in the Loman household interrupting each other, not listening to each other, and lack of interest in what one another are saying.
Lack of respect for each other is another reason why the Lomans are a dysfunctional family. Willy's lack of respect for his wife is obvious, because he cheats on her during his business trips and thinks nothing of it. When he is caught cheating on Linda by Biff, Willy explains it is because he gets lonely, and while putting his arms around tells Biff him "Now look, Biff, when you grow up you'll understand about these things. You mustn't– you mustn't overemphasize a thing like this" (Miller 1369). Willy does not think there is anything wrong with cheating. He is upset that Biff has found him out if anything. More evidence of the lack of respect existing in the family occurs when Willy meets Happy and Biff at the restaurant on the day of Biff's meeting with Bill Oliver. Willy starts out by having one of his delusional episodes and goes into the bathroom. Biff and Happy get into an argument about Happy's apparent disregard for Willy. Biff then storms out of the restaurant. Happy later leaves with two women while Willy is still
Happy Loman has grown up to be a well–adjusted man of society. He has developed from a follower to a potentially successful businessman. Throughout his childhood, Happy always had to settle for second fiddle. Willy, his father, always seems to focus all his attention on Happy's older brother Biff. The household conversation would constantly be about how Biff is going to be a phenomenal football star, how Biff will be attending the University of Virginia and be the big man on campus, how Biff is so adulated among his friends and peers, and so on. Young Happy wasalways in Biff's shadow, always competing for his father's attention but failing each time. Happy would resort to such antics as laying on his back and pedaling his feet backwards...show more content...
You ought to be on a magazine cover." (1840), Happy smoothly said to the woman. To be able to approach a beautiful woman, especially a model, a person has to be oozing with self esteem and confidence. Unfortunately the woman was expecting a friend but that did not stop Happy. He continued to smooth talk the woman with lies and eventually wore her down to the point where not only was she going to call her boyfriend and cancel their dinner date but she was going to bring a friend so Biff could also have a date.
Happy is also a proud man. It didn't matter what his father had done in the past he was always willing to defend Willy's honor. So proud that he was ready to fight his own brother when Biff began to bad mouth Willy's dreams at his own funeral. With all these traits Happy has the makings of a successful businessman. He appears hard–working, he is good with people, he sets his goals high, and he has the determination and soul to make it in the business world. "All right, boy. I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have – to come out number–one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him." (1859). With this one statement Happy reveals most of his character traits. The quote reveals his determination to succeed in his future business venture, it reveals his compassionate side and pride he had for his father and for life, and it also
Many works of literature have the theme of a failed American Dream, which is the basic idea that no matter what social class an individual may be, they still have an equal ability to achieve prosperity and a good life for their family; however, there has been much debate over whether or not the American dream is still obtainable in modern society. One piece of American literature that substantiates the fact that the American Dream can not be gotten is Arthur Miller'sDeath of a Salesman which describes the tragedy of the average person in America. A number of other writers also draw the inability to capture the American Dream.John Steinbeck demonstrates in his highly acclaimed novel The Grapes of Wrathhow hard economic times can...show more content...
This idea is also clearly represented in modern times due to the fact that the nation is once more in a recession and every one wants the shiny new car or the huge lavish house. Miller senses this and uses Willy as an example of one of the many who fail to reach the American Dream and never will. Miller also challenges society to reflect upon how it interprets success, as Abbotson points out: "Miller sees many people's lives being poisoned by their desire to be successful. People like the Lomans are doomed to try for success but fail, with all the resulting guilt that such failure brings. Others like Ben and Howard display an ability to make money that deems them successful but at the cost of their own moral integrity." (Abbotson, 317)
By providing the story with foils such as Ben and Howard being successful, Miller sheds a bit of hope on America then proceeds to thwart that same hope with the fact that they lose their moral integrity, which is a key component of the American Dream; therefore Miller clearly displays how society will continue to deny Americans the coveted dream they aspire to attain. Literary critic Thomas Porter states: "Willy's status in society, his family background are typical; even more of a type is Willy's identity as a salesman. He is a product of a
"Death of a Salesman" written by Arthur Miller in 1948 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of a Willy Loman, a mercurial 60–year–old salesman, who through his endeavor to be "worth something", finds himself struggling to endure the competitive capitalist world in which he is engulfed. Arthur Miller uses various theatrical techniques to gradually strip the protagonist down one layer at a time, each layer revealing another truth about his distorted past. By doing this, Miller succeeds in finally exposing a reasonable justification for Willy's current state of mind. These techniques are essential to the play, as it is only through this development that Willy can realistically be driven to motives of suicide.
The...show more content...
Already here, the audience is aware of Willy's strange ways, as well as the method with which Linda deals with it. This hints towards Linda's truth–evasive nature at an early stage, and is emphasized by her tendency to deny Willy's apparent problems: "Maybe it was the steering", "Maybe it's your glasses." (Miller, 9).
Language plays an imperative role in the formation as well as the development of the characters. Unlike the majority of plays in the past, Death of a Salesman rarely uses "memorable speech" which was the most common form of dramatic language. Instead, for the most part, the characters speak in colloquial English. This automatically labels the family as a typical, middle–class family, therefore easily identifiable with for the audience. By doing so, Miller also discards of any artificial idealistic language, thereby adding to the crucial theme of realism in the play. The language presented by the characters however, is by no means invariant. Different characters use different language to expose their personalities, as well as varying it themselves depending on their current inner state of mind. The two most blatant examples of the way characters vary their language are Willy and Linda.
Willy throughout the play, uses a very simplistic colloquial English. This causes the audience to see him as the "every man" allowing them to further associate with him. One feature of his language that often draws attention to itself is
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller and his siblings were raised by a successful business man until the Great Depression, which caused their father to lose his status (Rollyson 8). Miller did odd jobs as a way to help his father pay bills. He struggled through school but was able to attend the University of Michigan (Rollyson 8). It was there in which he began to write plays, receiving the Hopwood Award several times (Rollyson 8). He was known to be a socialist pushing for a movement of America to make things fair for those who were greatly affected by the Depression. Some of his earlier work reflected this.
Miller got married in 1940 to a woman named Mary Grace Slattery (Rollyson 9). The two had a daughter, Jane, in 1944, but divorced in...show more content...
I also see irony in that Willy seems the type of person to do anything for wealth and success, but when he is offered a job by Charley, he turns it down because he feels offended by the offer. The plot of the play itself is a bit ironic as well. Willy's life goal was to be successful and wealthy but yet he commits suicide to try to compensate for the money he could not make to give to his family. As stated above, Death of a Salesman takes place in the 1940's between the end of The Great Depression and World War II, and the surge of the 1950's. During this time, the American Dream was highly sought after and Americans were desperate to achieve it. The demand for laborers was on the rise as well, making the Dream seem all the more tangible. With these events taking place during the setting of play, it is easy for me to see why Willy was so adamant on having the American Dream; it was something to be proud
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Thank you for having us read the tragedy of Willy Loman, The Death of a Salesman. You can work hard at anything, but if you are not passionate about it, you will get nowhere. It reminds me of one of my brothers that didn't realize he was chasing the wrong dream until it was too late. At school he was pursing different subjects, but at home he was passionate about music and rapping. Since he was an exceptional artist, he decided to go to an art school. Soon he realized it wasn't for him and dropped out, and now he has to start over. We must realize now while we still have the time and resources what we want from life and what we are passionate about. If we don't ask ourselves these questions now, we may not have later to consider them.
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