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Society s Role in Willy Loman s Demise. In Death of a Salesman, the main character, Willy Loman, embodies the confusion and frustrations of a dying generation. Through his many hardships and failures he comes to realize that he no longer has a place in society. His dreams, which were based on the old traditions of pride and nobility, have been overrun by the machine of capitalism. Thus, the tragedy of Willy Loman is ultimately attributable more to society than to his own personality.
In the beginning of the play, Willy foreshadows its ultimate theme by criticizing the changes brought about by industrialization. The street is lined with cars. There s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don t grow any more, you can t raise a carrot in the back yard (Miller 1195).
Through these remarks, Willy attempts to define the conflict between nature and industry. It is this conflict that brings about Willy s downfall. Willy s father, a pioneer inventor, represents the traditional values and way of life that Willy was brought up on. So does Dave Single man, the eighty-four year old salesman that inspired Willy to go into the sales industry.
Howard, the young boss of Willy s company, represents the impersonal and ruthless nature of capitalistic enterprise. When Willy goes in to ask Howard if he can be transferred to a job in New York, Howard refuses to help him even though Willy has been working for the company for several decades and was good friends with his father. When Willy asks why he cannot be reassigned, Howard replies, it s a business, kid, and everybody s gotta pull his own weight, (Miller 1225) thus demonstrating Howard s cold indifference to Willy s situation. When Willy continues to plead for a reassignment and losses his temper, Howard fires him.
Willy s inability to deal with the industrialization left him jobless and broke. His pride was destroyed by having to beg Charlie for money. His dreams were shattered when Biff couldn t make anything of himself, Willy s difficulty in his relationship with his son Biff arose from Willy s high expectations for Biff. Willy raised his children with the same type of values that he was raised on. He taught them that success was dependent upon personal relationships.
Although both Willy and Biff realize that things are now different, only Biff realizes that the old values that he was raised on cannot be successfully applied to the industrialized world. This is why he decided to go out West and work as a farmhand rather than be employed in a business like his father. Willy disapproves of this and says that Biff is simply lazy. Because of Willy s delusion that success is a function solely of determination and personal likeability, he never understands Biff s motivations and therefore never learns to accept Biff for who he is. Willy s tragedy was not so much the result of his own personality, but rather a result of the industrialization of society.
The world in which Willy lived and worked was dominated by the faceless machine of capitalism. Willy could not understand the mechanisms of this machine and thus eventually became its victim. Works Cited. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin s, 1997. 1192 - 1255.
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Research essay sample on Death Of A Salesman Willy Loman
