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“Death of a Salesman” through the lens of dashed family dreams left me feeling unsympathetic towards most of the characters of this play, mostly Willy Loman himself. One could see a man rejected from society and put out to pasture because he is past his prime, but there were plenty of successful men that were around Willy’s age in the play. Why is it that they managed to become successful and he was not? In my opinion I think Willy Loman’s downfall was due to his own lack of moxie, and the mistake of living in the “Glory Days”. Willy, to me, came across as a callous, head in the clouds, braggadocio. Willy’s lack of connectedness is no one’s fault but his own as he was probably not as “well liked” as he thought himself to be.
ReplyDeleteThe Loman’s as example of “The Family in Modern Drama” is steeped in false reality marred by abandonment issues, infidelities, inferiority complexes, and lies. Willy’s relationships within his family and his immediate environment are devoid of any real substance because in his eyes, everyone is constantly letting him down. Willy and Biff have a strained relationship because Willy had such high hopes for him, being a big football star and all-around great guy. However, the opposite came true and Biff spends most of his time as a ranch hand and petty thief. Willy blames himself to an extent but does not acknowledge in what respects he truly failed his son. Willy’s extra-marital affair is what ultimately does Biff in. Willy barely has a relationship at all with his son Happy, who has an affinity to women much like his father because he is all consumed in Biff. Willy and his marriage to his wife, Linda is a far cry from marital bliss in that he berates, shouts, and dismisses her almost every chance he gets. Not to mention the fact that he is a traveling salesman with an eye for the ladies, giving his mistress packages of new stockings while his wife sits at home mending her old stockings.
Willy is likely going through bouts of dementia and is living in a constant loop that reminds him of all the ways in which he failed as a husband, father, friend, and salesman. While there is allusion to the fact that Willy is suicidal, it isn’t until the end of the play that he finally goes through with it. Willy died as he lived, a coward.
Julietta Rivera
My impression of Death of a Salesman has changed since I last read it. When I first saw it, I saw Willy as a tragic Al Bundy, the short sighted jock that realized he had buried himself in all of his past mistakes and impulses. This time around I’ve learned quite a bit about the human mind and realize much more pitiable aspects of his character. While the intent of the play’s design may have been meant to evoke the idea of dreams, I couldn’t help but notice just how much Willy showed signs of advanced dementia. Instead of simply being a misguided father that instilled flawed beliefs in his children, he was a shattered shell of a man, who’s family was unable or unwilling to see how desperately he needed help. He constantly hallucinated throughout the play, and would quickly become confused, the standout moment being the recording in Howard’s office. He raised his children to be ambitious and self seeking. Happy is a womanizer with delusions of grandeur bolstered by his mental father. When his father needs him most he denies any relation to him and abandons him for a good time. Charlie takes care of him as best he can in his position, being his friend despite the abrasive nature of Willy. Biff recognizes the decrepit state of his father, and tries to reconcile with him. As mentioned in Jacobson’s paper, Happy adopts the same stubborn delusions of his father, setting himself on the same path. It is a self destructive, loveless life, perpetuated by the self centered, blind ambition of the Loman lineage.
ReplyDeleteEnrique Perez
"Family Dreams In Death Of A Salesman discusses the issues that Wally Loman faces throughout the play. I'll be honest, I was confused for the most part when it came to Wally's character. He wasn't just meant to be a typical "grump", as there are moments where he appears to be happy. While he does come across as a very unpleasant person, he at no point came off to me as narcissistic. He heavily looked down on himself. He also greatly admired his deceased brother. I saw Wally Loman as just unhappy by nature, finding no satisfaction in the qualities about himself. That is, until people give him admiration. Jacobson states that this is how Loman finds his happiness and contentment. It's what gives him his sense of meaning. While he may not value himself above others, the words of others continue to uplift his spirits. This is evident when he gets upset at his sons for not siding with him during any of his arguments with Linda. He just wants to feel loved and respected by others.
ReplyDeleteTowards the beginning of the article, Death of a Salesman is described as a "tragedy for extroverts." I think this is the perfect explanation for Loman's struggles. Loman has to be around others. He can not be left alone with his own thoughts. Where his mind practically destroys him. He needs that approval of others. With how unpleasant he is to be around, I imagine that would be an incredibly difficult task.
Michael McCormick
Right of the bat I want to agree with Enrique Perez in that throughout my reading of Death of a Salesman I felt certain that there would be some sort of direct acknowledgement that Willy was in fact experiencing advanced dementia. The primary example is the near constant presence of Ben in Willy’s perceived reality; while it can be interpreted as simply reminiscence or reflections on a past where everything was “picture perfect”, Willy likewise responds to Ben’s dialogue out loud. Other characters, such as Charlie during the card game, pick up on this and respond in confusion. Thus, Willy is experiencing on various levels a delusion and it is melding into the larger reality of the play.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, in the latter half of the play several revelations are made about the hard reality that the Loman family has been instinctively disguising. Biff, after his encounter with Bill Oliver, comes to the realization that he wasn’t the esteemed salesman they had always lauded hims as, but instead a shipping clerk. While Happy, in the words of Biff himself, “You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?”, is showcased as being far removed from the prominence Willy has perceived for him. Personally, this also raised another question for me - if these aspects of their lives were always half truths, is it possible that the “glory days” he is always alluding to were never truly his?
I want to end by saying that I was actually sort of disoriented throughout the majority of the play, though not necessarily in a bad way. Instead I’m attributing it to falling into Willy’s delusional dialogue myself and no longer really being concretely aware of the their present. So, when I read the article and saw all the references to the life insurance upon his suicide a twisted light-bulb above my head with rusted filament stuttered itself on. It’s such a pitiful, empathy inducing end to his life - that he seemingly was waiting for a sort of reconciliation with Biff before sealing himself to the act, even if throughout the play it’s conflated with his yearn for prominence.
Joaquin Castillo
Willy Loman is an elderly man that is still a traveling business man that barely meets ends meet and is forced to borrow from his friend Charley just too barely make it by. At his age, he should be living peacefully in his sunset years, retired and spending time with his wife Linda. And if his visions of grander and being “well-liked” was met, one could assume that is the life he could’ve and maybe should’ve had. But unfortunately that was not the case. He still has the idea of his own self-importance, but with the lack of evidence to back it up. And maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if Willy was the only one who was suffering. But in this case the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
ReplyDeleteHappy and Biff are a product of their environment, much like Bernard is a product of his. I would say that Charley and Beard act as a foil for the Loman family. For all of the criticism that Willy gives to Charley for acting effeminate and for not being well-liked like he is, Charley understands that being well-liked is not the driving force of success, and unlike Willy, it doesn’t hold him back from finding his own way in the cut throat industry he is employed in. But at the same time, he is not as heartless and dispassionate as some of the other successful men that Willy admires (such as Ben). Ironically, Willy states that being well liked is what gets people far. Yet it seems Charley likes him well enough to not only offer money but a job as well. Mind you Charley does not necessarily need to give Willy a job, and probably believes it will offer him nothing, but does so anyway out of the goodness of his heart and seems to like Willy well enough to do so. Maybe Charley wasn’t as liked as Singleman was, nor as successful as Ben, two people that Willy looked up to and aspired to be like, but was ultimately the only one to try to pull through for Willy. And he was even one of the only attendants to his funeral along with his son.
The Bernard we see in Willy’s flashback acts as a voice of reason for Biff as he tries to encourage him to work with him at math so he can pass the class and have a future ahead of him. Of course his warnings are not heeded, Biff fails the class, and when he goes to his father and sees his mistress he burns his shoes and his chances of a solid future. Bernard, in contrast, grows up to become a somebody important enough to argue cases to the supreme court at Washington DC. This I would argue is in part due to rubbing off of Charley’s influence to adapt to an ever changing industry.
Mirella Martinez
Overall, for this week’s play, my favorite character was Bernard due to how he had the most common sense during the play. I especially liked the contrast and foil between Bernard and Biff. Bernard is shown as a typical nerd and smart while Biff is depicted as the classic popular high school football player. The foil is still relevant in how it shows hard work is best.
ReplyDeleteBiff and Bernard’s relationship is extremely one-sided. Bernard is shown to care, or last is concerned, about Biff. Bernard, for example, tries to reason and explain to Biff and his father about how Biff needs to study more for school. He tells them, “Listen, Biff, I heard Mr. Birnbaum say that if you don’t start studyin’ math he’s gonna flunk you, and you won’t graduate. I heard him!” The quote shows Bernard genuinely cares about Biff graduating. However, rather than studying or being thankful for the advice, Willy gets angry and says, “Don’t be a pest, Bernard! … What an anemic!” This part of the play was frustrating to read due to how they all put down Bernard for his concern.
Even more frustrating, Biff does not say anything against his father’s negative comments about his only real friend, Bernard. His father, for instance, says, “Bernard is not well liked, is he?” However, rather than defend him, he goes along with it. In fact, Biff jokes, “He’s liked, but he’s not well liked.” The Lomans place higher value in relationships, looks, appearances and being likeable. Bernard, in contrast, believes in hard work, studying, and is humble. The contrast is most apparent when Willy puts down Bernard and says, “Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him.” Additionally, Willy, goes on to say all about how successful he is because he is well liked. However, later in the play, due to only depending on his likeability and connections Willy and his sons struggle in their careers.
Bernard is almost the definition of, “nerd today, your boss tomorrow.” His foil to Biff shows how in order to be successful people need to be studious and hard working.
Zugay Trevino
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, reminded me of “A Doll’s House”, with the whole idea of living in the American dream. Mr. Loman believed being the life of a salesman was his and his sons’ destiny. Towards the end of the story Biff came to a realization over his dad’s beliefs. Biff pointed out to Happy that, “[he] realized what a ridiculous [his] whole life has been! We've been talking in a dream for fifteen years. (330) In the article Jacobson mentions how Mr. Loman is a romantic character, “Loman is not, as critics have too facilely stated, a modern Everyman but an anomaly, a bourgeois romantic...He moves one not with his mediocrity and failure but with the frustrated energies of his outreach beyond mediocrity and failure toward a relationship to society constantly denied him. Right off the bat I knew Mr. Lowman was somewhat a romantic by how his character was describing the scenery, he sounded obsessed. Willy told his wife, Linda that, ““I was driving along… The trees are so thick, and the sun is warm. I opened the windshield and just let the warm air bathe over me. And all of a sudden I'm going off the road.” (266) Willy’s description of the setting for his trip to Boston sounded delusional, and after finished the play I saw that Willy wanted to die. He thought his son Biff did not love him, he only wanted the best for them.
ReplyDeleteI saw parallels between Biff and Willy, both characters wanted to good but in different ways, even if it came to lying. Like father like son, I noticed how both characters acted when it came to telling the truth. Happy wanted Biff to lie to their dad after Biff’s meeting with Oliver, “you just tell him something else… say you got a lunch date with Oliver tomorrow...you leave the house and come back tomorrow at night and say Oliver is thinking it over.”. (330) Willy even wanted to lie to Linda, “I was fired, and I’m looking for a little good news to tell your mother...the gist of it is I havn’t got a story left in my head.”(331) Lying happened a lot within the Loman family it something they have have in common.
Throughout the play Willy would talk to younger version of characters from the play, while keeping a conversation with someone from the present. What I really liked about this was not only the psychological aspects but also how Willy kept two different conversations going on at once. At one point during the play Charly is talking to Willy, but at the same time Willy is talking to his brother Ben about their father’s death. I thought this would look very fast and frantic performed in a play.
Danny Olivarez
So obviously the Death of a Salesman represents the Death of “the American Dream” on its face. Willy, with his delusional faith in the self-made man, his patriarchal pride, fragile ego defended by a wall of more lies, falls victim to the scam that is “pulling one’s self up by the bootstraps” as is the cliched U.S. rationalization. Of course, near the end, he discovers it’s all been a sham, a big ruse; but, rather than admit his mistakes, his faults, and defeats, he doubles down into his ultimate demise inspired by hubris – a.k.a. his fatal flaw, much like many other (most) men’s in the literary canon. Ultimately all these characters fall victim to the true villain of this story – patriarchal capitalism. Miller presents Willy as a hard character to sympathize with, especially to women viewers. Willy interrupts, gives away the stockings of, and cheats on his wife, Linda, with seemingly no remorse; Linda might be the most agency-less woman character we’ve read so far. (lovely given the name -_-) Willy succumbs to the image of what he perceives a successful man in America looks like; he emulates the men he’d admired in the past (as obviously, he would never admire women). In fact, many of the men in the play view women as these disposable, interchangeable, objects of pleasure and respite. Happy attempts numerous times to persuade Biff to regard women in this way, and rants about the lack of “good” women there are – assuming women on call are somehow immoral, an unreflective stance I would say. Biff comments that women like their mom are rare, because in his mind, the role of women should be this: passive, demure, and uncritical. To Willy’s end, Linda remained agreeable; and this only contributed to his downfall. If Linda or any of the other characters in their nuclear family felt any more power over their patriarchal head of house -- had questioned their state of affairs rather than allow the delusions to persist, Willy might have had a fighting chance at life. Either way I’m trying to make midnight so I will have more to say on Tuesday ~
ReplyDelete-Linda Gonzalez
Similar to what my peers have said, I will join the consensus of Enrique and Joaquin that Willy Loman is maybe suffering some form of dementia/Alzheimer's throughout the entirety of the play. One of the instances where it struck out to me and I made an annotation of it was on page 294 during the exchange between Willy and Linda. Willy says, “I’ll take a walk” (294). To which Linda replies, “But, you’re in your slippers.” He then makes a retort and Linda states that he’s in his slippers once again. This tells me that his concept of time is a bit thrown off because usually those with Alzheimer’s usually lose their “internal clock” as I always put it. It doesn’t matter if it’s night or day, sufferers can’t tell the difference.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, they make up some false memories to fill some gaps in their brain to help connect some dots. This can be related to Willy because when he talks to Howard, he emphasizes that back in 1928 he averaged $170 a week but Howard explains that Willy never surmounted that amount. Even as I was reading through the play, I felt a bit out of the loop because of on-screen and off-screen cues and ploys to illustrate and depict what is going on mentally with Willy. The dementia approach does make sense to me because as the play progresses the more obscure it seemed to me since it was troubling putting together pieces.
Relating back to the article, I would go as far as to say that there is a parallel between this play and “The Glass Menagerie,” the reason being is as what Jacobson states, “He moves one not with his mediocrity and failure but with the frustrated energies of his outreach beyond mediocrity and failure toward a relationship to society constantly denied him” (247). One way that I interpret this is that since Loman has these high expectations not only for himself but for his sons, anything that is less that what he strives for is considered a failure. In “The Glass Menagerie,” Tom expresses his dissatisfaction with working in a warehouse, similar to how Willy shows displeasure with Biff and his life choices during the first couple of pages into the play.
Furthermore, Willy shows glimpse of his own advice throughout the duration of the play. For example, there’s one piece of insight where he states “be liked and you will never want.” Here with this, we start to see that social acceptance by others plays a heavy role and tugs a string for Willy since he leans on what others may think or say.
There's this somewhat theme of disappointment due to these "imagined heights" that Jacobson mentions in his introduction. It just goes to show the audience that settings our sights high can lead to ultimate failure. Although I don't personally follow this creed.
P.J. Hernandez
I found it interesting that the article called “Death of a Salesman” the “tragedy for extroverts”, for it felt like that to me. Willy, in his speech to the boys right after Bernard leaves (page 21 of my PDF version), said, “Be liked and you will never want.” That line right there showed that Willy’s perspective on success in life is to be liked, to work purely on the external aspect of one’s person and not the internal. The same can be said for Biff and Happy, for their descriptions (page 10 of my PDF version) described their physical aspects and the external portrayal of their being (Biff having a worn air and seeming less self-assured and Happy having a “color” or “scent” of sexuality thrown on him).
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I noticed was the seeming juxtaposition of dreams and reality. Willy dreams big, and that is shown throughout as an intrinsic quality of him. That inner part of him is juxtaposed with his actions and his expressed sentiments, his outer part. Once again, I’ll bring up the statement that I consider the apt descriptor of Willy’s character. “Be liked and you will never want.” Forget about working on your inner qualities and becoming who you are meant to be or the best version of yourself. Become what society dictates you should be. Be that person that everyone likes, that oozes what others think as sexy (in Happy’s case as I mentioned before), that is society’s depiction of successful. At least, this is my interpretation of the article’s statement of a “tragedy for extroverts” and Willy’s statement.
Pedro Cano