Death of a salesman log
Death of a salesman logArthur Miller’s tragedy is not simply detailing the failure of poor Willy Loman, a broken down salesman, but of middle-class America. Miller uses the Lomans as a vehicle to show precisely what can and does go wrong with the American Dream.
Miller uses many characters to contrast the difference between success and failure within the system. Willy is the dreamy salesman whose imagination is much larger than his sales ability, while Linda is Willy's wife who stands by her husband even in his absence of realism. Biff and Happy are the two blind mice that follow in their father's fallacy of life, while Ben is the only member of the Loman family with that special something needed to achieve. Charlie and his son Bernard, on the other hand, enjoy better success in life compared to the Lomans.
The play romanticizes the rural-agrarian dream, but does not allow the Lomans to attain it. Miller seems to hold ambiguous feelings toward this dream. At first one believes that Miller is telling us that we should abandon the common business ethic, and run away to the west, however, the only successful people in the play are those who have followed it to the letter. In the end the play does not make a final judgment on America simply because Willy Loman cannot be viewed as tragic hero. Willy is a foolish and ineffectual man for which I can only feel pity. I cannot see Willy’s failure equate those of America. Within the play there is a lot of room for success and failure. Willy can only blame himself for not succeeding.
Miller departed from the accepted norm for a tragedy by making his flawed hero a simple salesman. Some find it hard to raise Willy Loman to the level of Oedipus or Medea; however, Miller could not make portray Middle America, through such a great character. What makes Miller brilliant, is that he can makes us pity, a born loser, and show us how our own system is flawed through his failures.
With Linda, Miller moves from the business aspect of the American Dream, to that of the family. Linda is the near perfect American housewife. She is the nucleus of the family, the point at which love is given, and received, the woman who suffers and endures, and in her ironic complexity, the destroyer of both Willy and Biff. She accepts Willy’s greatness and dream, but does not allow him to leave with Ben to fulfill it. She attempts to bring father, and son together, but does so under Willy’s corrupted values. This keeps Biff from gaining the maturity to deny these values. She loves Willy so much that she lets his lies and masquerades continue in front of her. Linda even goes so far as to stop Willy from facing his own problems. She constantly...
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