Death of a Salesman Focusing on Act One, how does Miller give us a sense that Willy’s downfall may be due to his deluded sense of the past? PDF

Preview

Summary

Essay...

Description

Focusing on Act One, how does Miller give us a sense that Willy’s downfall may be due to his deluded sense of the past? During Act One of Death of a Salesman, a lot of essential background information to understand the present-day problems that exist in the Loman family are revealed, through Miller’s use of flashbacks, as well as Willy’s mental deterioration and delusions. Miller may have done this to set the tone for the play, foreboding Willy’s eventual downfall from the very beginning, due to his deluded sense of the past. Willy has a deluded sense of many things including his career, his marriage and his status, ultimately all combining to push Willy towards his death. Through the setting and stage directions, Miller reveals a lot about Willy’s disordered mental state. The Loman home is described as being surrounded by ‘towering angular shapes...surrounding it on all sides’, which has undertones of isolation, due to the family being closed off from the world, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. Isolation is a key theme and explored throughout the genre of tragedy. This could be interpreted as Willy playing a small role in the large capitalist system, as he is one of many working hard for little reward. Also, the play being set mainly in the family home, characterises it as a domestic tragedy, which portrays Willy as insignificant. Furthermore in the stage directions at the beginning, Miller states that during ‘imaginings’ and ‘city scenes’ the boundaries of the house are ‘broken’ and actors can step ‘through’ walls to leave a room. This is significant, as it symbolises the interaction and confusion between the past and the present in the play as a whole, as well as in Willy’s mind, due to his fragmented and deluded version of reality. Through this lens, it is evident that Willy’s downfall is due to his deluded sense of the past, as it is inevitable that this confusion will one day become too much for him, not allowing him to see sense and leading him to commit suicide. This is supported through the structure of Act One, as the constant changing between the present and the past, through flashbacks, depicts the internal chaos and disorder of Willy’s mind. This relates to Sheila Huftel’s statement of ‘Willy fell only from an imagined height’, which is relevant to his deluded sense of the past, as it is clear to see he was a legend on his own mind and created a facade of being a successful salesman, even though this was not the reality. There are many symbols throughout the play that highlight Willy’s deluded sense of the past, including his anger regarding Linda mending her ‘stockings’. This conversation where Willy ‘angrily’ berates Linda symbolises his guilt about his affair and portrays him as a bad husband and unlikeable character. The stage direction, combined with the use of three exclamation marks in one line highlight his frustration and annoyance at both Linda and himself. This demonstrates Willy’s failure of creating a facade of success and delusion that he can provide for his family, when in reality, he can’t. This may have led to Willy’s downfall, due to him never living up to his delusions of being successful, as well as watching Linda struggle, as he cannot take the position of the breadwinner, without gaining help from other sources, such as Charley. Another symbol mentioned throughout Act One is the new cheese that Linda buys for Willy. It could be interpreted that the cheese represents Willy’s perceived power struggle between him and Linda, as he questions why he is ‘always being contradicted’. This question has undertones of arrogance and a sense of entitlement, possibly due to Willy believing in traditional gender roles, where the man makes all the decisions, which still would have been prevalent around the late 1940s, when this play was written. Furthermore, it could be interpreted as Willy’s inability to cope with change, as he

clearly states, ‘I don’t want a change!’. This short, monosyllabic exclamation really underscores Willy’s inability to comprehend the new and changing world, as he is represented as more of a traditionalist. Additionally, the ‘whipped’ cheese could symbolise the increase of science and innovation in America after World War II, which he does not understand and chooses not to partake. It could be interpreted that his delusion of believing that things should not have to change from the past contributed to Willy’s downfall, as he is not able to keep up with the times, so inevitably, he will be left behind. Another method of Miller hinting at Willy’s deluded sense of the past links to his overspending on new gadgets and bills. In a flashback, Willy claims he grossed ‘five hundred’ and ‘seven hundred’ in Providence and Boston, but revises his statement to reveal his only totalled ‘roughly two hundred’ on the whole trip. This represents his deluded sense of the past, as he actively lied to Linda about his earnings, still doing it in the present day, as he borrows ‘$50’ from Charley every week and pretends this is his pay. The lying and borrowing money demonstrates how Willy tries to fool himself and everyone around him that he was and still is a successful salesman, even though this is clearly not true. Furthermore, the ‘Chevrolet’, ‘refrigerator' and ‘washing machine’ contribute to the endless cycle of bills and the never-ending cycle of materialism, that was present in the late 1940s in America, after World War II. The mundane nature of these items are used to highlight that even normal appliances and items were not affordable or achievable to the average person. Willy is constantly chasing his version of the American dream and feeding into the new age of American consumerism. He wants to afford the finer things in life, however, he can’t, so takes out loans to keep up the facade, which leads to stress and overworking, ultimately leading to his downfall. Through this element of consumerism that can be seen, a sense of pathos is created for Willy from the audience, which is a key feature of tragedy and can be seen throughout the tragic genre. During Act One, Willy’s brother Ben’s statement of ‘When I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!’ is repeated numerous times. Ben’s diamonds represent a concrete symbol of wealth throughout the play and is contrasted with Willy’s failed career in sales, demonstrating his dream is impossible for him to achieve. The optimistic and almost animated tone created portray the diamonds to represent an unachievable level of wealth that his brother possessed and Willy didn’t, highlighting his need to achieve this and ultimately failing. Furthermore, the audience does not know that Ben said this for sure, due to Willy’s flashbacks being from his perspective, classing him as a dubious source. This supports the fact that Willy has a deluded sense of the past, as he latches on and twists Ben’s statement into his version of the American Dream. This is helped by the reappearing ‘flute’ music that reminds Willy that he will never live up to his father or brothers standards and is destined to be a failure, so he deludes his thoughts to cope with this. Additionally, Willy’s fear of abandonment, failed career and failed domestic life were the product of his past, leading to his present dilution of a successful life and the result of a downfall. Willy’s past experiences with his father and brother created a fear of abandonment which manifested in the form of a fictitious present. This fear makes him desperate and corrodes his character, eventually causing him to abandon his own family through suicide for money. This theme of death interlinked with money can also be seen in Lorraine Hansberry’s domestic tragedy ‘A Raisin in the Sun’. The success of his father, combined with the luck of his brother inspired Willy’s drive to be successful without working for it. Willy believes he can be successful with charm and being ‘well-liked’, however, the

world does not work in this way, leading to the downfall of a salesman whose high expectations of success created an unachievable standard. This world of lies and deception, along with his inability to let go of the past led to Willy’s death because he lived in a fictitious world and didn’t have the ability to get out. His death did nothing but complete his long list of failures. This may have been relatable to the audience at the time, due to the capitalist society created after World War II, where people were struggling and stuck in the endless cycle of consumerism. This could possibly heighten the cathartic elements of the play, as well as create pity for him, which are both key elements of the tragic genre and explored throughout related literature. Additionally, this can be related to Eleanor Clarke’s statement of ‘it is of course the brutal capitalist system that has done Willy’, which is significant, as Miller wanted to highlight how this system was ruining lives and only benefitting the already rich, which lead Willy to his downfall. In conclusion, Miller uses a variety of methods and devices to demonstrate how Willy’s deluded sense of the past led to his downfall. His failures in life, including: his marriage, career and arguably his sons all caused his delusions and need to live in a fictitious world, as he could not cope with the truth. Furthermore, Willy’s deluded sense of the past affects every single part of his life and Miller may have done this to demonstrate how the ‘brutal capitalist system’ destroyed lives and forced people to extremes, which in Willy’s case, was suicide. This created sympathy for Willy and would have hinted to the audience that something drastic needed to happen in order to reverse the damage done by the capitalist system....