The Tragedy Of One Man Essay Research
The Tragedy Of One Man Essay, Research Paper
Koch 1
Jason Koch
1302 A
Schoenberg
November 15, 1995
The Tragedy of One Man
Arthur Miller & # 8217 ; s Death of a Salesman can be seen as an eulogium of a dreamer, which depicts one adult male & # 8217 ; s tragic life and decease as he tries to convey his household into grace. Miller does, nevertheless, besides uses this drama to show implicit in subjects and thoughts. Reading Death of a Salesman from the get downing point of a Marxist consequences in the perceptual experience that Miller uses his drama as a agency to show the effects of a altering capitalist society. On the other manus, a psychological reading of Death of a Salesman allows the drama to be seen as one adult males flight from shame and his ain weakened self image. The Marxist position is a feasible reading of this play but it does non genuinely specify it as a calamity. To better understand this piece of literature as a calamity one should detect the psychological reading which depicts the calamity of one adult male.
Many people wonder if Willy is truly responsible for his ain decease, or is he, as Luke Carrol put it in the Herald Tribune, & # 8221 ; a hapless small adult male caught in an undertow that & # 8217 ; s excessively strong for him. & # 8221 ; Willy Loman is bewildered by a capitalist system which drives it & # 8217 ; s work forces into frenetic, all devouring dreams of success, doomed non merely by their magniloquence but besides their built-in contradictoriness.
Willy & # 8217 ; s dreams of success are rooted in the construct of the & # 8220 ; American Dream & # 8221 ; , which is the
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thought that this is a land of limitless chance in which any tatterdemalion can achieve wealths and any female parent & # 8217 ; s boy can go president ( Hadomi 159 ) . This construct of success is personified by two characters in the drama: David Singleman and Ben Loman. The first an old gross revenues adult male, David Singleman, who could go anyplace and put many order by phone in his hotel room. And when this adult male died at the age of 84 people came from all over to go to his funeral. This is the type of adult male Willy aspires to go and this is why he chose gross revenues as his business. Ben, Willy & # 8217 ; s older brother, is another symbol of the ruthless success Willy tries to make in his life. & # 8220 ; There was the lone adult male I of all time met & # 8221 ; Willy says, & # 8220 ; Who knew all the replies & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1734 ) . Willy has treasured up the memory of Ben until it is more existent to him than any of the people in his life. The character of Ben materializes once more and once more in the drama as Willy savors his favourite crow: & # 8220 ; When I was seven-teen I walked into the jungle and when I was 21 I walked out. and by God I was rich & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1732 ) .
The statement, & # 8221 ; Rich & # 8221 ; , echoes throughout the drama as Willy is railroaded by a capitalist system as he strives to make his dreams. Willy Loman urgently want to believe that he has succeeded, that he is & # 8220 ; good liked & # 8221 ; and a great salesman. But at the age of sixty- three and approaching retirement, Willy is seen as a adult male who gave all of his life to a concern, merely to be thrown in the scrap-heap and as a house holder whose form of life was interwoven with installment programs with which he could barely catch up.
In another clip, Willy Loman might hold been a happy carpenter. He can set up a ceiling which his brother-in-law, Charley, lauds as a & # 8220 ; patch a work & # 8221 ; . Dreaming of a countrified retirement, Willy hopes to construct guest houses on his longed-for state land for Biff and Happy: & # 8220 ; Cause I got so many all right tools, all I & # 8217 ; d need would be a small timber and some peace of head & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1743 ) . On
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the forenoon of the twenty-four hours which ends with his self-destruction, he admires his ain house: & # 8220 ; All the cement, the timber, the Reconstruction put in this house. There ain & # 8217 ; t a cleft to be found in it any more & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1744 ) . Minimizing Charlie, Willy says, & # 8220 ; A adult male who can & # 8217 ; t manage tools is non a adult male & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1730 ) .
But it is of import to observe that woodworking is no more his work in the universe than it is Charley & # 8217 ; s. Willy Marches in Karl Marx & # 8217 ; s ground forces of anomic labour, executing work that is & # 8220 ; non personal to him, is non portion of his nature ; hence he does non carry through himself in work, but really denies himself & # 8230 ; It satisfies no self-generated impulses, but is merely a agency for satisfication of wants that have nil to make with work & # 8221 ; ( Koon 65 ) . Willy & # 8217 ; s allienation, nevertheless, is possibly more agonizing than even Marx could hold imagined. Business civilisation Tells Willy that selling is a undertaking as whole and complex as that of any artisan, but the merchandises of Willy & # 8217 ; s labour are ne’er concrete and discernible. The cabinet shaper can contemplate the finished cabinet ; even the assembly line worker can harvest the benefits of his labour. But Willy can ne’er cognize the existent value of his salesman & # 8217 ; s accomplishments because many factors -his costumier & # 8217 ; s alone demands and his ware & # 8217 ; s quality among them-contribute to his success or failure. The immediate fiscal wagess of Willy & # 8217 ; s work are hardly sufficient to supply his household with the necessities and light amenitiess of lower center category life, and the concluding wagess he anticipates, wealth and distinction, are ne’er insight. Willy ne’er receives any of these wagess because of the altering capitalistic society in which he lives.
As Death of a Salesman opens, Willy Loman returns place & # 8220 ; tired to decease & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1714 ) in reveries about the beautiful countryside and the yesteryear, he & # 8217 ; s been driving off the route ; and now he wants a cheese sandwich. But Linda & # 8217 ; s suggestion that he seek a new American type cheese- & # 8221 ; it & # 8217 ; s whipped & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1716 ) -irritates Willy: & # 8220 ; Why do you acquire American when I like Swiss? & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1716 ) . His choler at being contradicted unleashes an indictment of modern industrialized America: Koch 4
& # 8220 ; The street is lined with autos There & # 8217 ; s non a breath of fresh air in the vicinity. The grass Don & # 8217 ; t turn any longer, you can & # 8217 ; t raise a carrot in the backyard & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1716 ) . But merely as Willy defines the struggle between nature and industry, he pauses and merely admirations: & # 8220 ; How can they flog cheese? & # 8221 ; ( meyer 1716 ) .
The clang between the old agurain ideal and capitalistic endeavor is good documented in Death of Salesman ( Koon 82 ) . The boy a innovator discoverer and the slave of the industrialised universe, Willy Loman epitomizes the victim of a altering capitalistic society. Miller eludes to this even in the character & # 8217 ; s name Loman, which pronounced right reveals the words Lo-man. Death of a Salesman engages the audiences conflicting attitudes toward this altering society: Fear of the new and unfamiliar ; wonder at the advancement ; and the demand, eventually, to suit engineering to cultural mythologies by subordinating it personally ( Koon 52 ) .
This is apparent in the Howards office who is Willy & # 8217 ; s foreman. In this scene Willy is traveling to inquire to work in NewYork but alternatively of acquiring his office occupation he is fired. Willy has now lost every thing: his old ages of service, his pride and his wage because he is no longer every bit productive as he one time was. This scene non merely marks a tragic point in Willy & # 8217 ; s life it besides gives cogent evidence of the alterations that occur in a capitalist system. Willy & # 8217 ; s expiration goes along with the & # 8220 ; out with the old and in with the new theory of such a system. Howard now finds Willy useless to him merely like his old avocations and like these avocations he must replace Willy with something better and more effectual.
As Willy sees his universe crumble before him his lone action is to observe the success of David Singleman. Willy epitomizes Singleman in an unexpectedly facile transition:
Make you cognize? When he died-and by the manner he died the decease of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the tobacco user of the New York, New Haven and Hartford traveling to Boston-
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when he died, 100s of salesman and purchasers where at his funeral & # 8230 ; In those yearss at that place was
a personality in it, Howard. There was regard, and Comradeship, and gratitude in it ( Meyer 1748 ) .
This transition eludes to Willy & # 8217 ; s struggle with the altering Capitalistic society. The concern has changed it has left his sort behind, and now he does non cognize how to execute his occupation. He one time thought you could win on the virtues of personality entirely but now he wonders if he is excessively chatty. Willy now wonders if he of all time possessed the qualities of a successful salesman.
Willy the evident victim of Capitalism-He will kill himself in a auto wreck-shows us how we must incorporate a altering society and personality in order to last. This is one ground why, Linda insists, & # 8220 ; attending must eventually be paid to such a individual & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1736 ) . But possibly the most fitting lines of the drama were spoken by Willy & # 8217 ; s friend Charley: & # 8220 ; Nobody dast fault this adult male. For a salesman there is no rock-bottom to life. He don & # 8217 ; t set a bolt to a nut, he don & # 8217 ; t state you jurisprudence or give medicine.. A salesman has got to woolgather, boy, it comes with the district & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1778 ) . And merely as Charley stated the district is to fault for Willy & # 8217 ; s tragic terminal because he ne’er had a opportunity to win in this capitalistic society.
Willy Loman the tragic hero Miller & # 8217 ; s Death of a Salesman, strongly illustrates self psychological science rules regulating shame and the possibilities of self Restoration. The character seems to be in descent physical wellness, but the drama illustrates that he is enduring some episodes of mental incoherency and deformation. Willy has begun to run his auto off the route and frequently forgets his finish. However, Willy & # 8217 ; s mental wellness is non merely deformed, but besides the drama displays the character as holding trademark symptoms of egotistic personality upset ( Welleck 241 ) . This upset is defined as a upset in which the person shows as overdone sense of ego
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importance and they frequently show a deficiency of empathy and the demand of esteem ( Sue, Sue & A ; Sue 252 ) . Throughout the drama, Willy exaggerates his ain accomplishments, and the endowments of his boy, Bill. He
is preoccupied with phantasies of limitless success and power. His personality is seen as contemptuous and impatient, but this is merely a consequence of his deficiency of empathy. He invariably seeks esteem from his married woman and boies because he wants to be seen as a success. But to disregard Willy Loman as merely another objectionable NPD is to lose the digesting hurting of those depleted psyches who suffer the empty depression of mirrored aspirations ( Welleck 214 ) . It is in this sense that Willy Loman is tragic work forces as Heins Kohut understood him.
Heinz Kohut is
a societal psychologist who has done extended research on the influence of a person’s mind on their mind. Kuhut used his definition of the self- “the ego is the centre of the psychological existence and it is a conceptualisation of the construction whose constitution makes possible a creative-productive, carry throughing lie.”-and the construct of shame to analyze the character of Willy Loman and the play Death of a Salesman ( Welleck 213 ) . Kohut labeled Willy as Tragic Man because as many people Willy’s battle to hold on comfort and stableness is destroyed in a universe lived amiss ( Welleck 215 ) . Arthur Miller uses this construct of the ego and shame to exemplify the ruin of the cardinal character.
The construct of a worsening and weakening self image is seen through out the drama. Willy Loman epitomizes Tragic Man seeking urgently to equilibrate his delicate equilibrium. & # 8220 ; I & # 8217 ; m tired to decease & # 8221 ; he declares ( Meyer 1714 ) . This statement reveals a province of ego depletion, which the character is non genuinely cognizant of. Willy & # 8217 ; s cocky and frequently chesty attitudes frequently shadowed by a sense of uncertainty. He brags of his popularity and how good liked he is, but frequently worries that he is chatty, and possibly express joy excessively much. He is bewildered in a existence that is difficult to hold on and seems out of
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control. Willy is invariably at terminals with iceboxs that breakdown, and a auto that is in perennial desperation. These uninterrupted action can be interpreted as efforts to concertise the permeant feelings
of a crumbling and unpredictable ego ( Welleck 214 ) .
Willy & # 8217 ; s disposition is in changeless flux, he is easy frustrated and angered, his temper is frequently switching. The character hunts for reassurance from the those around him, in order to get by with a puzzling and unsupportive universe. For illustration, Willy forces his married woman linda to move in exact conformance to his psychological and physical demands, he will non digest any signifier of separation. He ne’er allows her to talk her ain head she is merely at that place to back up him and his thoughts.
Willy is invariably fighting to derive control of his ego and the universe around him but he see this as being unachievable: & # 8220 ; I can & # 8217 ; t halt myself-I talk excessively much & # 8221 ; , and & # 8220 ; the problem is people don & # 8217 ; t seem to take to me & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 17 ) . Estranged from the continuity of life he is curiously unconnected. & # 8220 ; There & # 8217 ; s something my male parent should hold taught me, & # 8221 ; he musses, and affectingly, & # 8220 ; I still feel-kind of-temporary about myself & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1734 ) .
Willy, seeing his life is non traveling anyplace and that he has non become the success that he envisioned, uses his boy, Biff, to regenerate himself. Will pull strings Biff into seeking to go the great salesman that he wanted to be, even though Biff longs for another life. Will is utilizing Biff in this manner to carry through his defeated aspirations. But this is non the lone clip Willy has tried to utilize Biff to regenerate his ego regard. Biff has ever been an of import beginning of ego regard for Willy and through his football art he acted out his male parents exhibitionism and magniloquence. Willy was popular and fine-looking. It is noted that when the ego is in danger, when it is fundamentally delicate, there is no room for empathy ( Welleck 218 ) . This causes the single to concentrate chiefly on reconstructing the crumpling ego, nevertheless possible. Ultimately, it is this that causes Willy to concentrate chiefly on
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his ain overpowering demands, and to barricade out those closest to him. This sense of withdrawal has led Willy to place with his black life.
& # 8220 ; Shame involves painful ego cognition followed by compunction. In shame one asks, & # 8220 ; What sort of individual am I? & # 8221 ; And the reply is, & # 8220 ; I am non as I should be. & # 8221 ; It is in this sense that shame overwhelms Willy Loman, Tragic Man ( Welleck 220 ) .
When Willy looks back on his life, he becomes distressingly cognizant of his failures, to his ego and those around him. He realizes the mistake in his relentless finding to be good liked. He is ashamed that he did non go the successful-admired salesman that he envisioned, nor did he go the male parent of great boies. Nor did he go on in the footfalls of illustriousness that his male parent, and brother, Ben, left behind. With each of these realisations comes the black consciousness that he is with out a reasonable value system, and has ne’er developed the sensible thoughts and ends that are indispensable to a healthy suit ( Welleck 220 ) .
Willy tries to settle on appeasement, comforting images from his yesteryear, but alternatively the memories become riddled with shame and humiliation. For case, he tries to concentrate on the relationship he had with his boy, Biff, but this is overshadowed by an adultrias matter that destroyed there relationship and Biffs hereafter. Willy besides tries to concentrate on the success of his brother, Ben, but necessarily he must turn to his ain failure. Willy & # 8217 ; s black yesteryear is brought to a dramatic realisation as it is pushed into the present. Willy begins to experience at mistake for Biff & # 8217 ; s failure, he will non acknowledge this, but it is apparent in his behaviour ; as he ask Bernard what went incorrect in Biff & # 8217 ; s life that caused him non to win. In world Willy is non angered at Biff for being a & # 8220 ; bum & # 8221 ; , but he is ashamed of himself for the errors he has made like the incident in Boston. This is why Willy sees Suicide as a glorious manner out of his black life. Suicide will let Willy to give Biff his life back in the
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footings of 20 thousand dollars.
The psychological death of Willy Loman is farther illustrated through the scene and
linguistic communication of the drama. Willy frequently alludes to how he is going boxed in by the industrialised universe around him. But is this observation intended to be taken literally or does it typify the realisation of the character. The more Willy realizes about his past life and his hereafter in front of him, the more he feels the wall are shuting in on him. In a manner Willy is non being surrounded by the edifices around him but the shame of his life. This point is farther illustrated when Willy tells Ben, & # 8220 ; The forests are Burning & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1762 ) . This statement depicts the emotional pandemonium involved in the character & # 8217 ; s life. To Willy it appears as if everything in his life, past and present, is environing him from his adultious matter to his expiration at work. Willy universe is coming to a climatic ruin due to the shame that he bestowed upon himself.
Arthur Miller wrote, & # 8220 ; The tragic feeling is evoked when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to put down his life, if need be, to procure one thing-his personal self-respect & # 8221 ; ( Hadomi 162 ) . This statement is critical in finding which of the two point of views best describes Death of a Salesman as a calamity.
When sing the play from the Marxist base point one is forced to believe that the altering capitalistic society is at mistake for Willy & # 8217 ; s personal death and his self-destruction. This position point wants the reader to believe that Willy Loman was a hapless sap, who killed himself to get away a universe in which he had outlived his utility. But if this is true. How does continue his personal self-respect? By taking his ain life-for this reason-Willy has done nil to continue his self-respect, alternatively he has become a mom? tre to other hapless and unfortunate psyche & # 8217 ; s who are confused by such a altering capitalist system. The Marxist base point besides wants the reader to believe that society is
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at mistake for the calamity in Willy Loman & # 8217 ; s life. It states that beastly economic sciences is the ground Willy is unstable and on the threshold of catastrophe. But if this is true why is it that Willy is the lone one effected
by this? Charley, Willy & # 8217 ; s friend, is depicted as a successful adult male who has his ain concern and has a boy who argued a instance before the Supreme Court. Even Willy & # 8217 ; s brother, Ben, has succeeded in such a society, he has made 1000000s off of the diamond concern. This proves that society can non be the cause of the Tragedy evident in Willy & # 8217 ; s life. The lone one responsible for the calamity seen in the drama is Willy himself.
The psychological point of view most accurately depicts the calamity of one adult male, Willy Loman. It supports Miller & # 8217 ; s quotation mark sing the tragic feeling. This perspective provinces that Willy took his ain life to do a menc for his life of shame, by giving his boies the lone thing he had left, the insurance policy. As Willy ponders perpetrating self-destruction he tells his dead brother Ben, & # 8221 ; He thinks I & # 8217 ; m nil, see, and so he spites me & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1772 ) , and goes on to state, & # 8220 ; Can you imagine the impressiveness with 20 thousand dollars in his pocket & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1776 ) . Willy Loman is prepared to take his ain life because he feels there is self-respect in a decease that will give his boy a life.
This may be the lone dignified thing Willy has done throughout the drama. Willy is depicted as a hapless adult male who is crushed by the universe around him. Although, the psychological point of view concludes that Willy is non destroyed by society but his ain personal unconsciousness. Willy is haunted by his yesteryear which leaves him disillusioned about his hereafter: & # 8220 ; I still feel-kind of-temporary about myself & # 8221 ; ( Meyer 1734 ) . Willy has lived a life of shame which has resulted in his weakened self image, he is no longer certainly if he even still possesses the one tool indispensable to his trade-a good personality. He frequently worries that he is excessively chatty and that people do non take to him. Willy has become unsure of himself and this is what leads to the calamity of the drama non the Capitalistic
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system. This reduces Willy to a lame adult male forced to wallow in his ain ego commiseration and this is the true calamity of this drama.
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Breecher, Richard. & # 8220 ; Willy Loman and the Soul of a Neew Machine: Technology and the Common Man. & # 8221 ; Journal of American Studies 17 ( Dec. 1983 ) : 325 & # 8211 ; 336.
Hadomi, Leah. & # 8220 ; Fantasy and Reality: Dramatic Rhythm in Death of a Salesman. & # 8221 ; Modern Drama 31 ( June 1988 ) : 157 & # 8211 ; 174.
Koon, Helene, erectile dysfunction. Twenteth Century Interpretations of Death of a Salesman. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1983.
Meyer, Micheal. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin & # 8217 ; s Press, 1989
Sue, David, Sue, Derald, and Sue, Stanley. Understanding Abnormal Behavior. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991.
Welleck, Judith S. & # 8220 ; Kohut & # 8217 ; s Tragic Man. & # 8221 ; Clinical Social Work Journal. ( 1993 ) : 216 & # 8211 ; 224
