MLA Style
Research Paper
Vices and Strengths
Arthur Miller's Death of a
Salesman can be seen as a tribute of a dreamer, which portrays
one man's tragic life and death as he tries to convey his family
into elegance. Miller also uses this play to articulate
fundamental themes and ideas. Reading Death of a Salesman from
the preliminary point of a Marxist result in the observation
that miller uses his play as a means to reveal the effects of a
changing capitalist civilization.
Death of a Salesman permits the play to be seen as one man’s
journey from embarrassment and his own destabilized self-image.
Many people speculate if Willy is, in fact, accountable for his
own death, or is he, as Luke Carrol put it in the Herald
Tribune. Willy Loman is confused by a capitalist system which
drives it's men into frenetic, all consuming dreams of
achievement, doomed not only by their ostentation but also their
intrinsic contradictoriness.
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Two characters in the play
incarnate this notion of success: David Singleman and Ben Loman.
The old sales man, David Singleman, who could go on a journey
anywhere and place lots of order by phone in his hotel room. And
when this man died at the age of eighty-four people came from
all over to attend his funeral. This is the kind of man Willy
desires to become and this is why he decides to opt sales as his
occupation. Ben, Willy's older brother, is a further symbol of
the brutal success, Willy tries to attain in his life. Willy has
cherished up the memory of Ben until it is further real to him
than any of the people in his life.
Willy Loman dreadfully wants to deem that he has succeeded and
admired as a great salesman. But at the age of sixty-three and
looming retirement, Willy is seen as a man who gave all of his
life to a business, simply to be thrown in the fragment heap and
as a householder whose model of life was mingled with
installment plans with which he could barely catch up.
Willy marches in Karl Marx's army of estranged labor, performing
work that is not delicate to him, is not part of his nature; as
a result he does not accomplish himself in work, but in fact
denies himself. Willy's hostility, however, is perhaps more
unbearable than even Marx could have anticipated. Business
civilization tells Willy that selling is a duty as a whole and
multifaceted as that of any artisan, but the products of Willy's
labor are never actual and apparent. The cabinetmaker can
reflect the finished cabinet; even the congregation line worker
can gather the benefits of his labor. But Willy can never
recognize the real value of his salesman's skills as many
factors his costumer's exclusive needs and his merchandise's
superiority among them donates to his achievement or failure.
The instant financial rewards of Willy's work are hardly enough
to provide his family with the requirements and scant comforts
of lower middle class life, and the final rewards he expects,
wealth and distinction, are never insight. Willy never receives
any of these rewards because of the changing capitalistic
society in which he lives.
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The pioneer inventor and the slave of the developed world, Willy
Loman characterizes the victim of a varying capitalistic society
Death of a Salesman engages the audiences’ contradictory
attitudes toward this varying society. This is apparent in the
Howards office that is Willy's boss. In this prospect Willy is
going to ask to work in New York but instead of getting his
office job he is fired. Willy has now lost every thing: his year
of service, his arrogance and his income as he is no longer as
productive as he once was. Willy's execution goes along with the
old and in with the new hypothesis of such system. Howard now
discovers Willy as ineffective to him just like his old hobbies
and like these hobbies he should replace Willy with something
enhanced and more effective.
Willy now speculates if he ever obsessed the qualities of a
successful salesman. Willy was the obvious victim of Capitalism,
he executes himself in a car wreck shows us how we should
integrate a changing society and character in order to stay
alive. Willy Loman the disastrous hero Miller's Death of a
Salesman strongly illustrates self-psychology principles leading
shame and the potentials of self-restoration.
All through the play, Willy embellishes his own attainments and
aptitudes of his son, Bill. He is worried with fantasies of
unrestricted success and influence. His character is seen as
offensive and intolerant, but this is just a result of his need
of compassion. He continually seeks approbation from his wife
and sons, as he wants to be seen as successful. Arthur Miller
uses this idea of the self and shame to demonstrates the
downfall of the central character.
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The notion of a declining and weakening personality is seen
through out the play. Willy Loman characterizes Tragic Man
trying desperately to balance his brittle equilibrium. Willy is
depicted as a wretched man who is compressed by the world around
him. Even though, the psychological point of view concludes that
Willy is not cracked by society but his own personal oblivion.
Willy has lived a life of embarrassment which has resulted in
his weakened self image, he is no longer sure if he even
tranquil possesses the one tool indispensable to his trade a
good personality. He often worries that he is too voluble and
that people do not take to him. Willy has developed into
hesitant of him and this is what leads to the calamity of the
play not the Capitalistic system. This reduces Willy to a
delicate man forced to stumble in his own self-pity and this is
the true tragedy of this play.
Works Cited
Breecher, Richard. "Willy Loman and the Soul of a Neew Machine:
Technology and the Common Man." Journal of American Studies 17
(Dec.1983): 325 - 336.
Hadomi, Leah. "Fantasy and Reality: Dramatic Rhythm in Death of
a Salesman." Modern Drama 31 (June 1988): 157 - 174.
Welleck, Judith S. "Kohut's Tragic Man." Clinical Social Work
Journal. (1993): 216 – 224
Meyer, Micheal. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston:
Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1989
Sue, David, Sue, Derald, and Sue, Stanley. Understanding
Abnormal Behavior. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991.
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