Tuesday, 25 September 2007 - 2:33 PM EDT

Kristi Nealy

Mr. Aznar

American Drama

September 25, 2007

1. Three themes throughout Death of a Salesman are denial, jealousy, and success. Willy’s idea of the “American Dream” is the reason for his failures and he dies still trying to reach it. He believes the sales profession is better than “farming” and it doesn’t matter if Biff is happy working with his hands. Willy thinks success is measured in materialistic items rather than happiness. “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand?”  He thinks personality and looks will get a person further in life. “There’s nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s got spirit, personality…” He teases Bernard because he is smart and Biff is popular yet later in life Bernard is a successful lawyer. “That’s the way I’m bringing them up, Ben—rugged, well-liked, all-around.” Willy tells Biff when he’s going to talk to Oliver for a job, “And if anything falls off the desk while you’re talking to him-like a package or something-don’t you pick it up. They have office boys for that.” He thinks his family is so important that they are above others. He has dreams of building guest homes for his boys’ families to visit. He thinks success is having a lot of friends at your funeral. He believes the American dream can be obtained without working hard. He tells Ben, “It’s not what you do, Ben. It’s contacts…the wonder of this century, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked!” His pride won’t allow him to accept numerous job offers from Charley yet he continues to borrow money from him. If Willy Loman would have worked as hard obtaining the American dream as he did trying to obtain it without working then he could have left more behind than $20,000.00 and broken relationships.

2. Linda Loman-

She also longs for the American dream but she is realistic. When Willy exaggerates about things or loses his temper, she puts things into perspective. She is the sensible one in the family and knows that using your mind rather than your personality will get you further in life, “Your mind is overactive’” she tells Willy, “and the mind is what counts, dear.” She loves Willy. She gets up early when he comes home, takes off his shoes and always defends him. Happy describes her as, “Someone with character, with resistance!” When Willy is down on himself, she tries to justify everything, “You don’t talk too much, you’re just lively.” “Willy, darling you’re the handsomest man in the world.” “And the boys, Willy. Few men are idolized by their children that way you are.” She tries to be a strong mother, worried about Biffs grades and temperament but she puts her husband before her children. She knows Willy loves his sons and thinks they have abandoned him. Happy says, “What a woman! They broke the mold when they made her.” She keeps peace in the house and is the rock of the family. Willy views owning his house as a waste because it is old and his kids are gone but Linda views it as “an accomplishment.” She is the reconciliatory and always telling Willy and her sons how to act with each other. She believes in Willy more than he believes in himself and that is why it is so hard for her to understand why he kills himself. In her mind, they were almost “free” of debt but she didn’t know he would not be “free” until he was gone and “free” of his guilt. She stays true, strong and steadfast throughout the entire play.

3. Death of a Salesman is just as relevant today as when it was written because it deals with a family that cannot overcome a cheating father that is chasing a dream. A father is the rock of the family and should teach children to work hard to achieve their own goals whatever they may be. Infidelity affects the whole family and breaking trust with your children is hard to ever regain. The American dream does exist but is different for everyone. A strong and stable family will remain important forever in the equation of the American dream.

4. Willy Loman wants him and his boys to succeed in life with high paying jobs and many friends. He believes his position is more important than it really is. He has worked hard, traveled and after 35 years of dedication, he is exhausted and broke. He was once the salesman everyone liked (or at least he wants to think so) and he is living in the past when “sales” was a different career. He talks about Biff, “Not finding yourself at the age of 34 is a disgrace,” yet he hasn’t even found himself at the age of 63. He is living in the past when he was good at his job and his boys were popular in school and most importantly when Biff admired him. He has one son that is desperately trying to climb the corporate ladder, failing to develop healthy relationships and still trying to get attention from his father. The other son refuses to settle down, steals things and thinks his father is a “fake.” Although his boys are grown, he still hopes and thinks they can achieve success because their name is Loman. His brother became rich and his neighbor so he will too! His boys admired him until Biff caught him cheating on his mother. This huge lie has destroyed the relationship between Willy and Biff. He knows he has failed himself and his family. His guilt begins to take over and causes him to daydream and hallucinate. His father left him when he was little and his brother left also. He never had a father figure to teach him (This is why a strong father is so important). He contradicts himself many times because desire overrules reality. He calls Biff lazy and then says, “Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such-personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff-he’s not lazy.” He calls him a “mutt” and then says, “That boy-that boy is going to be magnificent!” He doesn’t want to ask anyone for anything but he continues to borrow money from Charley. He dies still thinking he and Biff are going to make it.

5. The first time Willy appears he is obviously exhausted and when he is talking about his thoughts, he presses his fingers against his eyelids. It is obvious Willy is holding onto the past because he still has Biff’s trophies displayed in the living room. Linda is constantly trying to bring him out of his reminiscences. Willy is shown talking to himself throughout the play. Music plays a significant role with Willy’s emotions. In Act 2, the music is “gay and bright” when Willy has rested and has a positive outlook on life and the future of his boys. His dream house is finally paid off but surrounded by apartments and the bustle of the city. His view and clean air get lost along with his dreams. Although he knows a garden won’t grow, he is planting seeds. He also knows he has failed in life, with his career, and his family. When Linda tries to get Willy to come to bed after his fight with Biff, she senses what Willy may do and she once again is right.

6. Happy is lonely and although he has an apartment, car, and job, he still yearns for respect when he walks into a room. He and Biff want a woman in their lives like their mom. Their childhood helped shape them into the men they are today. Willy told Biff to not talk seriously to girls and he didn’t want Biff punished for stealing the basketball, instead he joked with him and said someone else would have been in trouble for taking it but Biff wouldn’t. (He was constantly making Biff feel like he was a certain circumstance). Willy made himself seem more important than he really was, “I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own.” Both boys idolize him and want to make him proud. Willy buys them things to show his affection for them however, he always favors Biff. Willy teases Bernard and thinks Biff will never fail because he has sports scholarships. He tells Biff to order his friends around and expects Bernard to help Biff cheat instead of putting faith into Biff that he can study and make his own grades. He tells Biff that his looks and friends will get him further than studying. Biff has been in and out of jail and Happy is still trying to get his dad’s attention. After Biff caught his dad with another woman, he gave up on life. He thought his whole life had been a lie, “And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air. I could never stand taking orders from anybody!”

7. Willy cannot be “happy right here, right now” because he has failed at obtaining what he thought was the “American dream.” He reminisces about the past when his children adored him and he was a happy salesman but the guilt of losing his sons respect takes over. He always made his job and himself seem important and pretended so much that he started to believe it. He has nothing to show in life except a strong wife that doesn’t know about his affair.

8. Certain things in Willy’s life trigger his flashbacks. He seems to only remember happy, good times except when he remembers Biff catching him with the other woman. This suggests that is finally starting to face reality and accept he has gone about achieving success in the wrong way. He has let himself down as well as his family.

9. Biff is sad for his dad and Happy is angry. Biff knows Willy better than anyone else and when he says, “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong,” he is correct. “He never knew who he was.” Happy is following in Willy’s footsteps although it is not working for him either. Happy has wanted his dad’s attention his entire life and that has camouflaged things that Biff is able to see, such as knowing his dad would have been happier working with his hands. Biff knows he was a good man down deep but he also knows that Willy could never be happy.

Tuesday, 25 September 2007 - 4:50 PM EDT

American Drama

Death of a Salesman

Audrey Brooks

1. Three themes:

1) Willy’s lack of self realization; he is a dreamer, exaggerates about his success and believes his own stories.

2) Willy’s relationship with his family invokes the same volatile behavior he has towards his job.

3) Willy’s dementia.

2. Biff is first introduced by a conversation between Linda and Willy. Willy is accusing him of being a lazy bum and Linda is defending him. Biff was raised to be a winner, but not actually taking the effort of a winner, making it up is fine. He justifies stealing what he wants which shows he has low moral character. He flunked math his senior year and did not graduate, this was the beginning of his decline and the event his father can not get passed. He travels around from job to job and romanticizes about the past and how successful his will be in the future. His whole façade is “if only,” a trait he got from his father. He is a product of his environment and is important to the story by his same attitude of success he got from his father. His turning point is when he goes to a former employer to ask for a loan to start a company with his brother, he realizes he was not the second-hand man to the boss but a stock clerk. He steals the boss’ pen to justify his embarrassment and have some sort of revenge. This turning point is the beginning of his change, he realizes his whole life was a lie and comes to terms with it. He tries to tell his father, but he will not listen, he finds success even in his confession. Willy: “Oh, Biff! He cried! Cried to me. That boy-that boy is going to be magnificent!”

3. Willy’s job was a common type of workforce in the late 40’s and throughout the 50’s. Salesmen went from store to store and even home to home promoting products. Television was brand new technology and advertising was very personable. Willy went through the technology change in his era, his boss mentioned listening to the radio and Willy replied he never thinks to turn it on. Today, people who are not computer educated are going through the same decline in their job. The relationships in the family would still hold as a strong theme today.

4. Willy, being a salesman, had the typical salesman personality, everything’s great and wonderful. The relationship between Willy and his sons reflect how a child is molded by those who influence them most. Willy wanted to be a hero in his son’s eyes and they looked at him as such. Willy exaggerated about his success and began to believe his stories of how great of a salesman he was, his strong connection to the owner of the company… All of his beliefs crumbled as he was forced to face the truth about himself.

Willy was shaped by the necessity to be successful, he was harsh to Biff ever since he flunked math and did not graduate, he called him a bum and had conversations with him in his mind. He has unresolved issues with Biff. Happy, he saw as a successful lady’s man. He treated his wife as a servant, telling her to keep quiet, shutting her down, but when he needed her, she was the greatest. In my opinion, Willy is somewhat of a self righteous jackass who drove himself mad by his subconscious confronting his lies.

He is suffering from dementia which causes him to change from normal to angry or going into a conversation with someone who is not actually there.

The contradictions in his behavior are his actions towards his wife, one minute he treats her with love and kindness and the next minute he is telling her to shut up. He is upset with Biff one minute and can’t stand the sight of him, but the next minute he shows love towards him and remarks he is magnificent. All of his fluctuations are all about him, how everyone meets his needs at the moment and makes him feel important and loved.

5. Willy has a lot of monologues that show the audience his state of mind. The way the set is described in the preface it “partially transparent.” That is symbolic to Willy’s personality. Everyone else can see through him. His appearance is neutral, he appears to be a professional in a business suit of his time, his costuming does to give away foreshadowing. Linda is more than tolerant of him, she genuinely loves him and feels she is protecting him. During his conversations with people who is not there, Willy is looking for approval or justification.

6. Willy expected Biff’s friend to give him the answers to the test because he was a good-looking successful athlete. When Biff stole the football and Willy asked about it, Biff said the coach wouldn’t care, the attitude was that they were so great, they were entitled. Willy even said “Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative!” The flashback is all about dreams and how someday they will all be the best. Happy comments how he is loosing weight, and working out more. Everything is glorified, some day Willy will take the boys on the road, see America, go swimming in a hotel pool…Someday never comes. As grown ups, Happy is still chasing girls because it is impressive and someday is going to own his own business, although he is not taking any action towards his dreams. Biff goes from job to job and comments how great he was but he wants more.

7. Willy believed good looks and personality would take him to the top. He does not have any self discipline or instilled self discipline in his sons to take the steps towards success. He thinks it’s just going to happen because he is so great and he dreamed of it. I don’t think Willy knows how to be happy right now, he is a consummate dreamer. He actually does not know anyone and the smile has earned him nothing.

8. The flashbacks begin abruptly, it is hard at first to determine what just happened! Happy: “Tell him what happened.” Biff: “Shut up and leave me alone!” Willy: “If you hadn’t flunked you’d’ve been set by now!” That is the moment that sends Willy off.

9. Happy knew about his father’s condition and did not show any regard for him before. He acted angry after and even stated “We would’ve helped him.” He had the golden moment to help and he pretended he didn’t know who his father was. Happy turned out to be just like his dad.

Biff changed, he had clarity and reality about his father, he looked at the good times and stuck by his mother to comfort her. He believes his father just had the wrong dreams and was not angry at him for committing suicide.

Tuesday, 25 September 2007 - 4:53 PM EDT

I really like your answers, it's funny how we came up with some different ideas. I like your themes especially. I also like how Willy can not be happy right now because he has not reached his dream. He can't seem to live in the present. I enjoyed reading your thoughts.

Monday, 1 October 2007 - 1:36 PM EDT

Audrey,

I enjoyed reading your responses, as well.

Your characterization was great about Biff in number two. I think the fact that he admired his father so much and he was the one who caught his father with another woman, had a great deal to do with shaping him into the adult he is today.

You understood and explored number three better than I did....I enjoyed your answer.

I also enjoyed reading your response to number four. I agree with you except I feel sorry for Willy. I think he truly wanted great things for his family and I think his guilt prevented him from being a great husband. He adored his boys when they were young and wanted them to have a father they could look up to. Guilt is a terrible thing. I do think he was the best father he knew how to be.

I love your statement about Willy's transparency in number five.

I think it is important in number seven to give Willy credit for acknowledging America as the land of opportunity....he just didn't know the right way to obtain them.

I agree with you on number nine! I think Biff knew his father better than anyone....even if he was around him the least and he will end up ok in life because once you accept your past you can better your future.

Great job and I look forward to reading your thoughts on "Fences".