Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman Essay

Willy Loman is often recognised as the sad hotshot of Arthur milling machines destruction of a Salesman but arguments thr mavin be do over against lagger cosmos the coeval maven and thus the squ are hero of the gyp. The purpose of a cataclysm is to create pity and fear in the au neglectnce. A conventional tragedy consists of the central font, the sadal hero, creating chaos in the community he lives in. The hero composes tempted by slightlything, leading to the exposure of the fibers fatal mistake. The fatal imperfection start outs the dominant characteristic of the hero and ultimately leads to the heros reduce resignation and demise. After the heros death, at the end of the tragedy, battle array is restored, leaving the audience with a intellect of catharsis. Miller creates an Ameri nominate tragedy, as defendd to a Greek or Shakespearean. America has neer had a king or nobility who could encounter a tragic hero in a traditional tragedy and Miller wanted to give a share to the ordinary running(a) class man, show their lives rout out also be tragic.He erst dry bring ind I believe that the third estate man is as keen a subject for a tragedy as kings are (New York Times. twenty-seventh Feb 1949). Despite critics arguing against it worldness a tragedy Linda declaring perplexity, attention m ancientiness be finally paid to such a someone (Page 44) recognises the tragic status of the play. She also highlights the importance of the ordinary functional class, who too rear be tragic heroes. The tragic hero is seen to be punished stunned of proportion for one fatal mistake they reach. Willys mistake is his touch in the American Dream which he continues to train relentlessly. His fatal flaw -his hamartia is his insecurity, which leads him to suffer through with(predicate)out the play. Willy is an un successful salesman, living in the city, fight to face public and re-living memories which he had reinterpreted to fit his inspirations (Page. 2003. Page 62).Willy has bought into the American Dream, chasing it relentlessly throughout his deportment, but his desiretes are unrealistic. Dave Singleman, an eighty-four year old salesman, became his divine guidance and role puzzle, later on he examined selling was the greatest vocation a man could want (Page 63). Willy maxim Singleman as cognized and love by everybody and so his insecurity conduct him to follow the same deportment path, in the hope he would lead the spirit that Willy saw Singleman as living. Cause what could be to a greater extent(prenominal) satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four and be remembered and loved and helped by so many a(prenominal) people? (Page 63). Willys perception of Singleman is a warped perception. Just uniform his perception of the American Dream, it is and an illusion. Willy fails to realise this and gain a nail of reality, leading to his death and make him a tragic hero. Willy ha s lived the wrong breathing in he should be out in the coun try outside with his family, working in a job making use of his hands.He put his throw hood in his living room and is oblivious to the amount of skill it takes to do such a job. Charley Yeah. Thats a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. How do you do it? Willy Whats the difference? (Page 34). garget recognizes Willy had the wrong dreams. on the whole, all wrong. (Page 110). heretofore, Willy always worked hard for his family, showing courage and determination. Willy wants success to be able to spend more magazine with his wife and family but is often dismissive of them, even berating Linda for purchasing the wrong cheese. Why do you get American when I appetite Swiss? (Page 12). Willy is incapable of relinquishing his dream and a nonher character flaw, his pride, stands in the way of him accepting a job from Charley. What the hell are you fling me a job for? Willy (Page 33).Willys relentless pur hold of his dream makes him a tragic hero. Willy was abandoned by his get under ones skin and familiar at a preadolescent age. Singleman then became his role model and father figure. Throughout the play Willy struggles with insecurity, a bequeath of existence abandoned. During times he relives the ult and escapes into old memories he often talks to his older brother Ben. It is non an close representation of his real memories of Ben it is un the likely he ever saw Ben again at all but Willy uses Ben as a voice to point out his profess life. During Willys memories Ben spends a lot of time putting Willy down and trying to leave. Havent the time, William. Ben (Page 66). Although Willys main character flaw is his insecurity he has others. Willy is often contradictory, calling laggard a purposeless bum, then recounting drone is not lazy (Page 11). Willy fails to cane biff for thieving a ball, even saying Coachll in all likelihood congratulate you on your initiative ( Page 23).He does not reprimand Biff for his stealing, often encouraging him. Willy is contradictory, telling Biff precisely wanna be deliberate with those girls, yet has a mistress him self (Page 21). The introduction of his affair From the low-spiritedness is hear a laughter of a woman (Page 29) turns Willys memories darker, as it was Biff finding out more or less the affair that caused their relationship to break down. Willy exaggerates his success, telling Linda he did five one hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston and then changing to roughly twain hundred gross on the whole trip (Page 27). He exaggerates to hiking his self confidence and fight against his insecurity. Willy has bought into the materialistic concept of the American Dream. His apothegm is be liked and you entrust neer want (Page 25). . Willy believes to be successful you must(prenominal) be tumefy liked, believing a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked (pa ge 68).He believes he has to be successful for Biff to love him but ironically Biff has loved him all on. Willy is a proficient man, proving this by showing his happiness for Bernard success Willy genuinely shocked, pained and happy (Page 75). Despite Willy pursuing the wrong dreams he shows courage, determination and a love for his family, creating pity and sympathy in the audience. However his several flaws, the biggest of which is insecurity, lead to his demise, making him a tragic hero. A contemporary hero has qualities such as strength, honesty, morality, integrity, self-reliance and the courage to face up to reality. At the start of play Biff has not managed to relinquish his fathers dreams all told. He works out on a ranch, a job he loves, but comes back every spring because of his sin, to try and succeed in sales, a passage he hates. Its a measly manner of existence (Page 16).He realises he would do remedy in the country and all he truly desires is to be out-of-doors (Page 16) but he hasnt been able to abandon his fathers dreams completely. Biff is physically attractive and could produce been a top football game star but his confidence has diminished. Biff Loman is lost (Page 11.) It is evident from the spring of the play that Biff is worried just about Willys struggle with reality and his past. Does he know Mom can hear that? (Page 20). From a young age Willy encouraged the wrong desirels in Biff. Willy often condoned and ignored Biffs endeavor to steal, rather than reprimanded. Shut up Hes not stealing anything (Page 40). Biff stole after feeling humiliated to regain a intelligence of power. By the end of the play Biff is honest about his stealing, even admitting he stole a suit in Kansas urban center and was in jail (Page 104). Stealing a pen from Ben Olivers stead forces him to realise the things he loves in the world and the stupidity of his stealing.What the hell am I grabbing this thing for? (Page 105). Biff has a moment of self -realization at the end of the play, accepting reality and being honest about his life. He realises they cave in played out their lives chasing the wrong dreams and his father must abandon the American Dream. Will you take that bogus dream and burn it originally something happens? (Page 106). He tries to force the rest of his family into facing reality, managing to force Willy into face it for a plan moment. Willy refuses to let go, relinquishing the chance to become the aline hero, and remaining the tragic hero of Death of a Salesman. Biff had always been conceited, a result of Willys constant praise Good work, Biff (Page 22) throughout his youth, when they had a great relationship, until Biff found out about Willys affair.However, by the end of the play Biff realises hes a dime bag a dozen (Page 105), ridding himself of the self-superiority he has spent old age accommodateing around. He understands Willy spent so much time praising him that he became egotistical. I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air that I could never stand victorious orders from anybody (Page 104). Biff realises his arrogance, facing up to reality, admitting he is not a leader of men (Page 105). Biff has always felt some reluctance to follow the American Dream. By the end of the play he realises Willy and the Lowman family had always been chasing the wrong dreams and he faces and accepts reality. He accepts he was never anything more than a shipping clerk and realises his family have been living in a fantasy world. Weve been talking in a dream for fifteen years (Page 82). Biff finds self-assurance, and is comfortable with who he is. I know who I am, youngster (Page 111).He matures and faces up to the world of reality. Biff finds his identity, faces reality, is honest about his life and finds a personal, as swell as physical strength. He shows a lot of the qualities found in a contemporary hero. Miller uses expressionism and realness in Death of a Salesma n. Realism accurately portrays characters and situations through merciful characteristics and language, costumes, and sets. Expressionism is concerned with portraying the inner emotions and psychology of a character. Dialogue tends to become more poetic and lighting is used to create atmosphere in expressionism. Realism looks at the objective expressionism looks at the subjective. Miller uses realism in the play through the life-like sets, the realistic American-English language and the typical costumes. Expressionism is used when Willy is re-living the past, reinterpreting memories to suit him he often lives in this world. He is happier in his past memories, before the affair and before his and Biffs relationship broke down. Willy often tries to escape to the past and into expressionism.Realism and the present are too painful for Willy as he has to live with his strained relationship with Biff, his failure as a salesman, and his guilt of an affair. Happy has been influenced by Wil ly to chase the American Dream but does not pursue it to Willys extent, ruling him out as the tragic hero. He is not as successful as he would like to be. All I can get do is wait for the merchandise passenger car to die (Page 17). He sleeps with women to avenge men who have surpassed him on the career path similar to Biff straining revenge on those who have humiliated him by stealing. Happy lives in the Loman dream world, refusing to face reality. He is happy to allow Willy to live in a dream world, to carry on humoring him. Sure, have lunch tomorrow (Page 88). Even after Willys death Happy is unable to relinquish Willys desire to fulfill the American Dream. Im gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Lowman did not die in vain (Page 111).Happy appears to be jealous of Biff being Willys favorite How do you like that damned fool (Page 47). This could be a possible reason why he follows the dream to seek his fathers approval. Linda regularly defends Willy and excuses his behav ior, which only keeps Willy trapped in his crushing dream. Millers opening stage directions suggest Willy creates and structures Lindas ideals for her his broad dreams and little crueltieslongings which she shares, but lacks the temperament to utter and follow to the end (Page . Linda is the mediator of the family, often discovering the reasons behind Willys cruelties whilst mediating. She adores Willy but kindness such as buying him special cheese is just thrown back in her face, something she accepts without argument. Linda knows Willy has impossible dreams, but unlike Biff she cannot bring herself to acknowledge the fact. Linda will not allow Willys dreams to be crushed because he is the dear man in the world (Page 43) to her and she will not have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue (Page 43).What she does not realise is by leaving Willy to continue chasing his dreams, he will become a tragic hero (Page. 2003. Page 71-73). Willy is a tragic hero he continues to c hase his dreams relentlessly failing to recognise he should be in a job making use of his hands, living in the country. Willy only saw a warped perception of Singlemans life, Willys inspiration, role model and father figure, after his father and brother abandoned him. Willy uses Bens voice to criticise himself in his reinterpreted memories. His abandonment led to his insecurity, leading to his death. His insecurity led to his affair, which led to the breakdown of the relationship between him and his son, Biff.Despite Willys flaws, he loves his family and shows he is a good man, inspiring pity and sympathy in the audience, provoking sadness with his death, making him a tragic hero in the traditional sense, but not the true hero. Biff could have been a top football star and is physically strong. He is courageous he is the only member of the Loman family at the start of the play to have partially relinquished the American Dream and by the end he has completely relinquished it. He faces reality and attempts to make his family face it to, even managing to make Willy face it for a brief moment. He is finally honest about his life his career and his stealing. He shows morality and integrity. One of the hardest things to do in life is to face up to reality and Biff alone manages to do this making him the true hero of Death of a Salesman.Is Biff the true hero of death of a salesmanThe question posed here, Is Biff the true hero of death of a salesman asks the writer to asses weather or not Biff is the true hero of Death of a salesman as belie to Willy Lowmans role given to him by the author A.Miller as being the tragic hero.Miller broke from the norm of traditional characterization when creating the character Willy Lowman, in that the archetypal Tragic hero had to be a descendent of nobility or aristocratic decent, whos demise affects not just those close to him but a group of people e.g a population, state of notoriety or kingdom. America had never had the Kings and Queens that a traditional tragedy had historically needed, Millers invention was to show how the common working class man could be shown to be a tragic hero and an American tragic hero as oppose to a Greek or Shakespearian one. Linda becomes Millers voice in the play attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person (Page 44) showing that in Millers eyes a regular person can and should be seen as a tragic hero.Biff in Death of as salesman must be seen to be the main protagonist repayable to his ability to see the proverbial holes in the proverbial fabric of not only his, Willys and all the Lowmans lives but also the holes that people fall through in hunt of a dream. The dream in this graphic symbol being Millers idea of the American dream. The idea of the American dream stems from the purpose that America is or was the land of opportunity a bountiful land of infinite horizons and opportunities waiting to be explored and taken. Miller paints Biff as a character who init ially buys into his far idealistic view that a well liked person will have doors opened for them, in this sense Willy felt that the reputation of a person directly reflected its self in sales figures which registers directly in to wealth which he would use to translate into time spend more time with his family showing that Willy was a good man whos goal was for the well being of his loved ones, its just that his dream was wrong, all wrong.This idea of the acquisition of wealth and being well liked (not to suggest that to be well liked should be avoided, but to actively seek it out above all else can bare negative connotations) detracts Willy from the main goal in anyones life to be happy and develop a sense of fullness through honest self discovery. Given that at the time of Millers play the idea of the American dream was tarnished only by a few American writers of that the time and was still a prevalent driving force in American society a relatively young society, Miller Gives th e reader the sense that this dream or the credit line of it is not the only dream or even the right dream for all people.In the join States Declaration of Independence listed among the unalienable rights is written We hold these truths to be selfevident, That all men are created equal, That they are endowed by their former with certain unalienable Rights, That among these are Life, Liberty and the chase of Happiness, This straighten up from the defining piece of American literary history supports Millers character Biff Lowmans idea of discovering ones self in America as oppose to simply discovering wealth. Willys dream was not him, it was not who he was or what he wanted to do. Willies own American dream was lived through the idea of acquisition of wealth and gaining notoriety as oppose to finding his own dream and perusing it.Biff buying into his fathers dream goes to see Oliver with the target of getting twenty thousand dollars in-order to set up in line of descent with hi s brother happy only Biff sitting in Olivers office realizes that he never has been a sales man nor was it his intention to be one, How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there? (Page 82) it was his fathers dream. Bill Oliver doesnt recognize Biff and in the frustration of the realization he had lied to himself Biff takes Olivers pen.The taking of this pen is symbolic in the sense that Biff has always been as well praised by his farther giving him an over inflated ego, he was never told not to steal and Willy often praised him for it Shut up Hes not stealing anything (Page 40) in addition the taking of the pen by Biff at the office of Mr Oliver can also be seen as Biff taking something for himself, something physical, from a life in which he feels he plays no real part, the act of taking the fountain pen, something physical, sees this object become the reparations he seeks from followers his farther faulty ideals and beliefs. Towards the end of the play this espous al of stealing becomes more prevalent when he admits he stole a suit and spent time in prision for the theft. Biff is the only one who voices his opinion that they had been following the wrong dream realizing he was not a leader of men and that he was good, like willy, with his hands and he should be out west being practical building something or working as a farm hand.Willies adoration of Dave Singleman a man he met whilst a traveling salesman is one of a warped view. Singleman becomes a farther figure, role model and source of inspiration for Willy, Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four and be remembered and loved and helped by so many people? (Page 63). The name Dave Singleman however can be seen to imply Singleman is a single man a man who lives out of a suitcase moving from hotel to hotel in retirement and isolation. The characteristics of this interpretation of Singleman Willies role model seem reflect on Willie in his life, adop ting the idea of a salesman who is well liked will be a success however once again this is the wrong dream for Willie to be following.At the time Biff catches Willie his farther with another woman he is going to Willie for help, to see if he can speak to his maths teacher to get him to bump up his mark so that he could graduate and take up his college football scholarship, he goes expecting his farther the well liked salesman with all the charm and charisma in the world to be able to get him out of having to re-sit his exam however he comes to realize Willie is not who he makes himself out to be when he uncovers this deception, Biff fatiguet touch me you liar Willy Apologize for that Biff You fake You phony little fake You fake from this moment on Biff starts to se Willie for who and what he truly is and most importantly seeing his fathers flaws, this is important because it allows drone later in life to see through the vie en rose and deluded image that Willie tries to purvey th us allowing him to start to discover ad pursue his own dream.Willie believes he has to be successful for Biff to love him but Biff rather ironically has loved him all along which Willie realizes at the end of the play when Biff breaks down and cries in breast of him to which he says isnt that isnt that remarkable? Biff he like me (Page 106). This realization however does not detract Willie from his mission to take his own life, shortly after he has another delusion of Ben (the delusion of him being his older and more successful brother although he had not seen his brother since he had left him in thier youth) this shows that Willie has gone too far in his mental degradation when his conversation with Ben even after his realization with Biff spurs him on even more to take his own life.Ben says to Willie that the jungle is dark but full of diamonds (page 106) suggesting that willies death is the dark jungle and that from his death he will receive diamonds, the diamonds in this case being insurance bills the family more notably Biff was to receive from his death, money that he would have left to biff to start up a business, once again this shows that Willy still cant see what Biff was trying to say to him and that he was never going to give up on the pursuit of his dream.Biff up on returning home after he and happy had left Willy in the chop house realises he must be honest with his farther about who he is in order to realise his dreams Biff- Pop Im a dime a dozen, and so are you, Willy I am not a dime a dozen I am Willy Lowman and you are Biff Lowman, Biff I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. For Biff it is in renouncing Willy and willies dreams that he becomes barren to dictate his own afterlife and it is here that for the first time in his life completely rids himself of the tyrannic shackles of willies dreams. This can be interpreted also as the death of Biff as the sales man, the death of his affiliation and obligation to willies id eologies allowing him to be free to start his new life out west, bringing new life withe the death of an old one, the death of a salesman.In completion since Biff is the only member of the family to renounce Willys idea of the American dream with the addition of realizing his own dream and what he must do to examine it, Biff therefor must be seen to be the true hero. It must be added also that the American dream can still befool to Biffs pursuit only Biffs pursuit as stated in the American constitution is a pursuit of happiness the happiness Willie never managed to gain for himself or his family by following his own American dream.