Significance of Symbolism in Death of a Salesman - Book Report/Review Example

s’ the assignment was due Significance of Symbolism in Death of a Salesman relating to the portrayal ofa misguided American dream Introduction The mind of a human is the ‘mother’ of all successes and disasters because it is the human mind, which conceives and develops motivations and wishes. So, with mind playing mother in conceiving motivation wishes, the human can use all the resources to achieve his/ her wishes. So it is natural for human beings to wish, work and wean success to them. But, at the same time every humans will have inner wishes or urges, if correctly said misguided dreams. These misguided dreams or urges will carve for attention and implementation, but in the process of achieving those dreams, the individuals would spew lava like ‘destructibles’ on himself/herself and others. So, all these misguided dreams and unwanted urges should be hidden in the deep ‘holes’ in the mind, blocked by achievable dreams and positive thoughts. So, achievable dreams should be ‘watered’ and grown while misguided dreams should be ‘weeded’ out in the ‘germinating stage’ itself. In real life or in fictional life, there have been many individuals or characters, who had these misguided dreams eventually succumbing to it. One of the fictional characters who ‘seeded’ his mind with the misguided American Dream, and thereby destructed his life is Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. So, this paper will analyze how Willy Loman due to his misguided American Dream destructed his own life, and also how his attempt of Anagnorisism or self-realization to correct his negative actions caused by the misguided dreams also ended in failure. Misguided American Dream Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller and premiered in 1949, is considered one of the classic plays of American theater. At that time and even now, the play was viewed as a scathing attack on the American Dream of achieving wealth and success without showing importance to principles. It addresses this misguided American dream through the painful conflicts that happen within a family of four. Willy Loman is the patriarch of the family, his wife is Linda Loman and they have two sons, Biff Loman and Happy Loman. Willy Loman is an insecure and self-deluding traveling salesman, whose life becomes miserable as he fails both in his professional as well as in his personal life. That is, even though working as a salesman for many years, he did not achieve any worthwhile results, making less than expected sales. This underperformance only pushes a junior executive to fire him. Willy takes offence when a junior executive questions him about the targets and dismisses him from the job. His dismissal and the resultant actions of his clearly shows how misguided his dreams are. In his personal life also, he did not had a good relationship with his two sons, but exhibited false happiness, even while feeling dejected inside In Death of a salesman, Willy Loman ‘masks’ many of his failures and frailties, by falsely demonstrating that he and his sons are successful and thereby have ‘achieved’ the American Dream. From the beginning itself, he makes his life miserable by going for materialistic pleasures as part of the American dream, which actually ‘blinds’ the path of truth and morality. Truth in the sense, even though the both his sons were good in their schools, he gave them the false beliefs that everything will come to them easily and they no need to try at all. This bad upbringing also had a bad effect on Biff and Happy, as they also struggled to achieve the American dream. Morality in the sense, needing sexual pleasures, he had an illegal affair with a woman, causing him to deteriorate morally and in the mind of his son. He was not supported by his sons, particularly his eldest son, Biff mainly due to this immoral act of having an illegal relationship with a woman. So, even though Willy lived a depressed existence, he ‘masks’ or ‘persuades’ himself and others that he and his sons are successful. “Oh, Ben, I always knew one way or another we were going to make it, Biff and I!” (Miller). Willy mainly masks the failures he faced while trying to achieve the American dream. To mask these failures, he even goes to the extent of borrowing 50 dollars a week from Charley and pretending it to be his salary. He even masks his original love of carpentry because he believes that it is more memorable to be an unsuccessful salesman than be contented carpenter (slashdoc). So, Willy masks his failures and interests to show himself a successful man and achiever of American Dream, but in the end dies tragically for a worthless cause. On the other hand his son, Happy masks his low self-confidence by being always in the company of various women and pretending to be happy with them. Happy actually suffers from inferiority complex as he lives in the shadow of his somewhat successful elder brother, Biff Loman. Biff Loman was not a victim of American dream, but fully understood that his father lived under such a dream without expressing his original characteristics, mindset, face etc. "what a ridiculous lie whole life has been," (Miller). Anagnorisism in Death of a salesman Even though, Loman lived a depressed existence due to his failure to achieve American dream, he underwent a kind of half-Anagnorisism, thereby realizing the some of the mistakes he have committed. Willy Loman, the tragic hero of Millers Death of a Salesman, powerfully illustrates self psychology principles governing profound deficits, shame, and the possibilities of self-restoration (Wellek).That is, when Biff, during a scuffle with Loman breaks down into tears and says "Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” Loman realizes that Biff still cares for him, even though he criticizes his misguided American Dream. This sets off Anagnorisism in him as he realizes the mistakes he had done, and wants to correct for the benefit of all. For that, he wants to give some kind of monetary help to his sons. He planned to achieve that by taking his own life, so that his sons would get the payout from his life insurance policy. But, it did not end the way he expected because he did not know the rule that payout will not be provided, if the insurer commits suicide. So, Loman even though went through Anagnorisism, he did not complete it because he did not felt Peripeteia or reversal of fortunes. That is, he or his family could not change or reverse the prevalent sadness to happiness. Here also, the process of half-recognition happened gradually through one incident after another. But, in the end, the writer avoids the moment of Anagnorisism because he might have thought to give a sympathetic ending to Loman, also the death of Loman without any benefits appears to be the logical end as there is no hope for the family to rise again. The issue that is left unresolved because of this incompletion is that, whether to regard Loman a tragic hero or just a tragic character. Many people have reported weeping when they first read Death of a Salesman (Murphy, 11).So, his attempt to salvage some thing from his misguided dream through Anagnorisism also ends in failure. Anagnorisism in Oedipus Rex Like, Willy Loman’s Character in Death of a Salesman, the character of Oedipus also commits mistakes while going in search of something. But, in contrast to Willy, he undergoes Anagnorisism. Oedipus Rex tells the story of Oedipus who after becoming the King of Thebes, succumbs to fate. Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta was cared by foster parents, as King Laius feared that the prophecy (that he would be killed by his own son) would come true. “…he was doomed/To perish by the hand of his own son,” (Sophocles). The prophecy indeed came true when Oedipus due to circumstances killed King Laius without knowing that he was his biological father, which set the stage for future Anagnorisisms. Then the other prophecy of Oedipus marrying his mother also came true, when he married Queen Jocasto on the account of him becoming the king of Thebes, after solving the Sphinx riddle. And when he came to know about both this crimes, he went into a state of Anagnorisism. That is, he was sure that he can find Laius killers and thereby prevent the onslaught of plague, but this confidence turned into weakness when he comes to know the profound truth that he is the killer of Lauis. So, when the ‘recognition’ happens, the Peripeteia or reversal also occurs, with Oedipus transforming from a strong king to a weak blind man. All the causes or events that lead to this stage of Anagnorisism in Oedipus’s life were mostly externally driven and not due to any intentional action from Oedipus side. That is, Oedipus did not kill his father or marry his mother intentionally, but those crimes happened because of some external forces, which was not under his control. The affect this event had on Oedipus as discussed above also bordered on negativity. That is, on coming to know about the truth and undergoing Anagnorisism, Oedipus blinds himself with the golden brooches found on his mother’s dress. Talking about the pace of the “recognition”, in the case of Oedipus, it happened suddenly. That is, even though he wanted to know the real killers of Lauis for a long time, he comes to know about the truth from messengers and Servants, and when he hears the death of Jocasto immediately, he undergoes Anagnorisism. So, the misguided American dream which worked as a form of symbolism only had a negative effect on the character of Willy Loman leading to his eventual destruction. Even the attempt of his correct his mistakes in the form of Anagnorisism only ended in failure, giving him the tag of tragic hero. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman. Penguin Group. 1949. Murphy, Brenda. Miller: Death of a Salesman. Cambridge University Press. 1995 Slashdoc. Death Of A Salesman: The Tragic Anti-hero Of Willy Loman. December 4, 2007 http://www.slashdoc.com/documents/75755 Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. October 31, 2007 http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html Welleck, Judith. S. Kohuts tragic man: An example from “death of a salesman”. Clinical Social Work Journal Read More