How Willy Loman Challenge Traditional Notions of Tragedy in Millers Death of a Salesman - Essay Example

10 May Assignment Death of a salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller is a story about the waning days of a failing salesman whose ambition in life is to achieve the American dream; the dream being the attainment of prosperity by the element of charisma in one’s life. The story intertwines itself around the lives of a family where Willy Loman is the old salesman, trying his best to support his family with whatever it is that he can earn because his belief lies in making money and being easily succesful, but he is never able to reach the dream even though he chases after it with great gusto. All these aspects turn his life upside down, making the play a tragedy – a conflict not only in the mind of Willy Loman, but also his son Biff, who seeks to find a solution for the turmoil of thoughts that waft past his mind like a raging sea. The play seeks to portray two different American dreams – one where wealth and success are the answer to a happy life, and the other where happiness is the answer to a successful and wealthy lifestyle; both taking place within the same household. However, the play is different from the traditional notions of tragedy; instead of simply being a story where the protagonist fails in life, suffers extreme sorrow because of the inability to cope with a stressful situation, it is a painful story about the relationship between a father and a son and how one’s tragedy becomes the other’s awakening to a better life. Willy Loman is an old man and over the course of time, he faces the delusion of being able to achieve the American dream of simple success by his sales business. He is desperate for his sons to triumph in what he always wanted to and could not and that can also be witnessed in the manner in which he killed himself, leaving behind a handsome inheritance with which Biff could follow in his father’s wake. However, the story centers on how Willy spent all his time soul searching and trying to come to the realization of giving up on chasing the American dream yet could not find substantial answers that would make him end his greed for instant wealth and success. This is one of the main elements that set him apart from a tragic hero; a hero amidst a circumstance full of tragedy comes up with some or the other solution best suited for him to fix his problems. Willy, on the other hand, was stuck in the labyrinth of life with no desire within himself to find a way out. Many critics write that his surname Loman is actually a pun on the word ‘low-man’ or the low self-esteem that he had for himself considering that he never felt happy about himself or his life. It is pertinent to note that no tragic hero puts himself in the situation knowingly; even if he does so, he always tries to find a way out of the mess that he has created for himself. Willy on the other hand, had no will within him to get out of what he had fallen into. He was lying entrapped within a web of his own lies and delusions that he was not willing to give up on; perhaps life to him was a mere step away from achieving the American dream and he blamed the same on the time and place that he was in life at the time, and thus wanted his sons to carry his name forward by finishing what he had started. However, by thinking about such propaganda all day, he often forgot to understand the turmoil of emotion that his family was undergoing; the love and affection that they had for him and the mental support that they provided him with. When his son Ben states “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds,” (Miller, Arthur) a metaphor is presented on the death that the salesman took upon himself. Willy’s act of committing suicide was rough like a diamond and he means to say that Willy represents every other salesman in the country trying to realize his dream without understanding the dangers that were obstructing him from doing so, and all of them together make up the entire concrete and commercial jungle where they are trying their best to understand their material capacities. The only place where Willy could be compared to a real tragic hero of any other story is when he has the epiphany of the product that he has been selling all along. Miller has done an excellent job of hiding this fact from the readers as he keeps them on their toes while they wonder what it is that Willy actually sells to people. The answer lies in his character itself – he sells his soul to others in the hope that he too one day will be recognized and will be able to earn bucket loads of money, driving himself to a destination of success. A conventional tragic hero would have understood his own plight and fixed the situation in order to keep himself from inflicting more harm upon himself; for example, Shakespeare’s Romeo understood the dilemma that he was in however knew in the end that he loved his Juliet enough to give up his life for her, and watched her do the same. Willy on the other hand however, was foolish enough to know the truth yet cover his eyes with the lies in order to feel comfort during the course of his life. He kept on egging his sons to understand what it was that he wanted and chase after it even after he was gone. (Sullivan, Steve) His untimely death proved that he was so eager to achieve the dream that he did not even mind committing suicide and while doing so bashed the car in order for his sons to get some money by way of the car insurance to carry on his dream. Willy’s son Biff Loman may be considered as the real tragic hero in this story after a clear understanding of the former. Biff understands in time that his father and his brother Happy have been living a life full of lies and delusions; he is smart and has great potential ahead of him and thus he tries to seek the truth about his own identity. He takes time off in order to comprehend the reality that he has been living in and the failure that his father has been coping with for a long time. Despite his father not wanting to acknowledge the same, Biff takes it upon himself to confront the situation and manage it in a befitting manner. These aspects make him a true tragic hero because he understands the disorder, faces shattered dreams when his meeting with Oliver turns out to be a disaster, all this adds to the flaw by which he removes himself from society in order to recognize himself and finally accept his fate, while Willy denies a conventional ending to the role of a tragedy. A tragedy assists the audience in knowing that the toxicity built in the situation has passed and that the hero has risen from the chaos however Willy Loman was devoid of all these aspects. Biff represents a real middle class household family member with a dream that is liable to be achieved, instead of chasing after ridiculous fantasies like his father in hopes of glory that will never dawn upon him. Biff faces an inner conflict within himself – he has the desire to realize the American dream too, but it differs from what his father yearned for. Biff longs for living in the nature and outdoors, working with his own bare hands and understanding his own self on a very deep level as opposed to the capitalist and concrete life full of material wants and desires that his father had in mind. He states, “There’s nothing more inspiring or – beautiful than the sight of a mare and a new colt. And it’s cool there now, see? Texas is cool now, and it’s spring. And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not getting’ anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I’m thirty-four years old. I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s when I come running home.” (Miller, Arthur) After learning about the infidelity that his father imposed on him, he tries to channel his anger in a different direction; he begins to understand that his father was a creative man and loved working with his own two hands as well – he built the garage that they had and built many more things in how small workshop and thus should have been a carpenter instead of being a salesman without a name. Willy was a man without a face, lost in the crowd and devoid of any kind of recognition. He had been chasing the wrong dream all this while – something that did not have his name written anywhere and would not take him anywhere in life. In the hope of achieving money and fame, he had sold himself to the corporate world without accomplishing anything in return. He led an empty life without giving himself the opportunity of having an epiphany of amending his ways before it was too late. His stubborn attitude portrays him differently as opposed to Greek tragedies where the hero faces a major flaw in his life because of which he is either removed or dies, and then undergoes a resolution to make a change within his life, in order to witness a better tomorrow. After his father’s death, Biff retires himself to the countryside in order to live the life that he always wanted; he learns from his father’s mistakes and resorts thus to what he wants to do as opposed to what he is forced to and so may be addressed as a true tragic hero. Willy Loman nevertheless, is a tragic hero because of the dreadful circumstance that life poses upon him. He is not able to take it anymore, perhaps because he knows that he has been living within the confines of an illusion, yet instead of mending what he has done wrongly, he resorts to a measure by way of which he will never have to think about the consequences of his actions, and this may be seen following suit in his catharsis or transformation from the ignorant to the revelatory side of life. Imaginably, his afterlife haunts him about the chance that he did not take and the tragedy that he had the opportunity to turn around but did not because of his personal deception and inability to face the truth; therefore, he challenges the traditional notion of a tragedy. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949. Print. Sullivan, Steve. Va Va Voom. Los Angeles: General Group. 50. Print. Read More