"DEATH OF A SALESMAN"   Term Paper ID:17897 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: (Arthur Miller). Analyzes dramatic tension created from Willy Loman's failure at his job, his disappointment with his sons & his confusion of illusion & reality in measuring success.... More...

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Paper Abstract: (Arthur Miller). Analyzes dramatic tension created from Willy Loman's failure at his job, his disappointment with his sons & his confusion of illusion & reality in measuring success. Paper Introduction: This paper will analyze the play Death of a Salesman, which was written by Arthur Miller. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the tension generated when individuals come into conflict with circumstances. There are three basic circumstances in this play which create conflict for the main character, Willy Loman. These circumstances include Willy's failure at his job, his disappointment in his sons, and his inability to separate illusion from reality in his conception of success. In the course of the play, it is noted that Willy Loman was never particularly successful in his job as a salesman. Furthermore, when the play opens, Willy has become old and tired and has come to realize that he is not even able to make the few sales that he used to be able to make. The conflict inherent in this circumstance is increased by the fact that Howard Wagner, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Because of this, there are many scenes in the play in which Willyvisualizes the events of his past. X. "New Films: Death of a Salesman." Newsweek 38 (1951, December 31): 56-57.---. Even though hecorrectly interprets Biff's crying as a sign of love, Willy incorrectlyassumes that Biff will worship him even more after he has killed himself. The most crucial illusion in Death of aSalesman, however, hinges around Willy's belief in his sons. Kennedy, ed. When his sons werestill in high school, Willy had dreamed of Biff becoming a football star.However, when the play opens, Biff has reached his mid-3 's and has becomenothing more than a wandering failure. This is a circumstance whichcreates the predominant tension in Willy's life. Particular emphasis will be placed upon thetension generated when individuals come into conflict with circumstances.There are three basic circumstances in this play which create conflict forthe main character, Willy Loman. This tension is heightened by thefact that Biff and Willy can no longer communicate because Biff isconvinced that his father is a "fake." In the course of the play, it islearned that this resentment toward Willy stems from an episode in whichBiff caught his father with a strange woman in a hotel room; a memory whichBiff himself has apparently come to repress. There are manyscenes in which Willy appears to be overly touchy; for example, when hestrikes a man for saying something about a walrus, assuming that thecomment was meant for him. ---. Willy also becomes easily upset in hisconversations with Charley, Biff, Linda, Howard, and various othercharacters in the play. At the same time, however, it can be seen thatWilly's anguish is justified in many ways. Tragically, evenWilly's plans to commit suicide seem to be a form of illusion. "Death of a Salesman." Literature: An Introduction toFiction, Poetry, and Drama. ---. According to thereview in Time magazine, Death of a Salesman is concerned with a characterwho is lost in the American dream: "It reveals the tragedy of a typicalAmerican who loses out by trying too hard to win out; it chronicles thepropless failure born of the worship of success" (New Plays, Time, 74).Willy's obsession with salesmanship and the American dream cause him to beoverly concerned with such things as appearances and being liked by others. In addition, because Willy and Biff are not ableto confront each other on the issue at the time it occurs, it becomes asource of repressed guilt for Willy and repressed anger for Biff. Thus,their already fragile ability to communicate is made all the more difficultwith the result being that all hopes and dreams they formerly shared areshattered. These circumstances include Willy'sfailure at his job, his disappointment in his sons, and his inability toseparate illusion from reality in his conception of success. Even in the climactic scene of the play in which Biffpoints out that both he and his father are failures, it is clear that Willystill cannot separate the illusion from the reality. In Willy'svisions of his own past, it is shown that Biff's potential as a footballstar was crushed forever when the son caught his father in the room withthe woman. Willy's belief that everythingwould have worked out alright if he had done this is just one more exampleof the way in which he lives in a world of illusion. Works Cited MMiMiller, Arthur. Thus, as noted in a Newsweek review of a film version of theplay, "the festering worry that finally upsets the precarious balance ofWilly's bewildered ego is the realization that his two stalwart sons aremediocrities at best, and that Biff, his best-beloved, is inexplicably andunalterably antagonistic to him" (New Films, Newsweek, 57). His failure at his jobsimply compounds that problem and helps trigger his decision to finallycommit suicide. For thesereasons, Willy's despair seems reasonable within the overall context of theplay. Furthermore, when theplay opens, Willy has become old and tired and has come to realize that heis not even able to make the few sales that he used to be able to make.The conflict inherent in this circumstance is increased by the fact thatHoward Wagner, the son of Willy's former boss who is now Willy's currentboss, has taken away Willy's salary and is forcing him to work for astraight commission. Willy's conception ofwhat it means to be successful does not match the reality of his life, andbecause of this he has become possessed by illusions. This deceit is extended into all aspects ofWilly's life until he is almost completely possessed by illusions. Boston: Little, Brown andCompany, 1983, 1262-1328.---. The importance of Willy's infidelity to the meaning of the playcan be seen in the way in which the hotel scene is ominously referred tothroughout the course of the play. Directly related to Willy's inability to connect with Biff is thescene which shows his infidelity in a hotel room in Boston. Assuch, the tension which arises in the course of Death of a Salesman is allcentered in the character of Willy Loman. Willy's infidelity toward Biff's mother causes the son toreject his father, and thus reject all efforts to get into college andbecome a football player. Later in the play, Howard refuses to give Willy a jobin the home office and then increases the tension even further by firinghim. During the play, Willycontinues to dream for his sons, hoping that they will be able to go intobusiness together and thereby finally attain success. Thus, "in the end Willyfinally succeeds in killing himself, but not before he has rememberedscenes that document his foolish wishful thinking, the sorry set ofstandards that he has passed on to his sons, and the extramarital incidentin Boston that set Biff against his father" (New Films, Newsweek, 57). Willy's failures at his job,with his sons, and in his conception of success, which all contribute tohis final downfall, are clearly all circumstances of his own making. Despite the justification of Willy's anguish, however, it still mustbe admitted that in his self-deceit he has brought it all upon himself. J. Willy's possession by illusions is accentuated in the play by thefact that he is undergoing a mental breakdown which is driving him towardsuicide. Many times in the course of Death of a Salesman, it would seem thatthe anguish experienced by Willy is somewhat overwrought. Asnoted in Newsweek, it is clear that Willy himself is to blame for thevarious conflicting circumstances in his life. In the course of the play, it is noted that Willy Loman was neverparticularly successful in his job as a salesman. Willy'sreactions toward Biff's shock at the hotel room emphasizes the extent towhich Willy is willing to deceive others and himself in order to create anidealized vision of life. Willy's failure as a salesman has caused him to live a life of deceitbecause he does not want his wife Linda or his sons to know howunsuccessful he truly is. In thehotel scene, it is learned that this reaction is due to Biff's shock atfinding out that Willy gave the woman stockings which had originally beenintended as a gift for Linda. However, when thesons abandon their father in a restaurant during his crucial breakdown, itbecomes clear that they are hopeless and will never really amount toanything. In the end, these prove to be shallow goals which do nothing to help Willydeal with his real problems in life. Willy's disappointment in his sons, especially Biff, is anothercentral conflict to be found in Death of a Salesman. This paper will analyze the play Death of a Salesman, which waswritten by Arthur Miller. "New Plays in Manhattan: Death of a Salesman." Time 53 (1949, February 21 1949): 74-75.----------------------- 7 In turn, this series of events triggers Willy'ssevere disappointment in Biff and thus paves the way toward the majorconflict which is central to the meaning of the play as a whole. As noted by Linda in the play, Willy put his whole life into hissons but they have turned their backs on him. Willy often sees and talks with hisdead brother Ben, and it can be seen that Willy regrets not having gone offwith Ben to Alaska to seek his fortune. In addition to the haunting sound ofthe woman's laughter which occurs from time to time, Willy continuallybecomes upset whenever he sees his wife Linda sewing her stockings. Throughout the play, Willy makes references to hisambitious dreams for the Lomans as contained in his unrealistic view of hissons. This isbecause Willy expects the insurance money from his death to help supporthis family in the future; however, it is noted that the insurance companyhas already developed doubts about whether Willy's frequent automobilewrecks are accidents or not. Thus,as noted in a review of the play in Time magazine, "whenever the truth hasnot been fancy enough, he has lied to other people; whenever it has hurt,he has lied to himself" (New Films, Time, 74). These conflicts in Willy Loman's life relate directly to his personalflaw, which lies in his idealization of success. His sense of failure anddisappointment has been building up for a number of years, and both hisboss and his sons reject him at a crucial time in his breakdown. Willy'sidealization of his sons permits him to justify their frequent acts ofstealing, for example. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.