The American Dream was a simple idea yet it caused many problems throughout families as it was interpreted differently. In the beginning of the Great Depression, the optimistic view of everyone being equal no matter their economic status became heavily popular. Nonetheless, some people, such as Willy Loman, believed that popularity was more important than money. His contrasting beliefs called for hardships that ultimately led to a strain on himself and his family. Miller's use of dissimilar phrases provides the opportunity to show characters conquering adversity. In the play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller developed the characters Willy, Linda, and Biff Loman through word choice in the dialogue and stage directions.
Willy Loman developed
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Linda is a housewife who was always stepped on by her whole family including Willy and her sons. In one scene, Linda is seen to be sewing stockings, however, Willy gets angry and snatches them from her. Instead of saying anything back to him, the stage directions say “Linda puts the stockings in her pocket” (Miller 39). Rather than fighting back with him, she simply hides the stockings so Willy would not get more infuriated. Since Miller includes the stage directions of her actions instead of dialogue, it shows how she deals with his hot-headed actions frequently. Linda is constantly silenced and has no voice until she finally stands up for herself. While discussing Willy Loman and his issues, Biff says to Linda, “Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you” (Miller 55). Instead of Linda backing down, she snapped back at Biff saying “Then make Charley your father, Biff. You can’t do that, can you?” (Miller 56). Linda finds passion in her words and begins to stick up for her actions. Miller uses dialogue to show Linda developing and becoming more than just a housewife. She was cutting off Biff and Happy when they spoke symbolizing her power in the house. Through dialogue and stage directions, Miller was able to transform Linda’s character into a strong, independent
Her children are also property of Dr. Flint, and despite Mr. Sands promises to free their children, he fails and destroys any sort of trust Linda can have with a slave owner. Mr. Sands is described as being relatively kind to Linda and her brother William, who is also a slave, but his betrayal of her and disinterest in his own children who are slaves shows that there is no real kindness from slave owners to slaves. Because of this betrayal, Linda still must remain autonomous and put matters into her own hands to free her children and
Willy's logical inconsistencies brings confusion towards the audience itself toward the start of the play; in any case, they soon turn into a characteristic of himself. Willy's conflicting conduct is the after effect of his powerlessness to acknowledge reality and his propensity to control or re-make the past trying to get away from the present. For instance, Willy can't leave himself to the way that Biff never again regards him on account of Willy's affair with another woman. As opposed to concede that their relationship is irreparable, Willy retreats to a past time when Biff appreciated and regarded him. As the play goes on, Willy disassociates himself more from the present as his issues turn out to be excessively too much, making them impossible to manage.
Linda concealed her identity from her children for the sake of aggression Dr. Flint had out for her. Linda’s love for her children causes her to make sacrifices, sacrifices that pay off in the end when she makes it to the north and her children are by her side. Towards the end, she says, “My story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free (Jacobs 164)!” She concludes that her life is like a roller coaster and had many ups and downs, especially very steep drops, but it comes to an end when her conscious is satisfied and freedom is flowing in through her
Linda’s role as a wife can be described in two words, delusional and unconditional. Her insistence on keeping her marriage alive caused her to be forced into keeping up Will’s fantasy. Therefore, no matter how much hurt he causes, every time he bullies or dismisses her, she continues to protect their American dream. Her respect for Willy is unbreakable. She constantly defends him to her sons even though she knows who he is outside of their fantasy.
My self respect was gone” (Jacobs 49). Linda attempts to reveal her pregnancy to her grandmother, but is interrupted by Mrs. Flint, who accuses Linda in regards to her husband. Her grandmother believes the mistress and says to her, “You are a disgrace to your dead mother” (Jacobs 50). Linda’s pregnancy led to assumptions, which resulted in repudiation from the one who once treated her the best. In a desperate attempt to protect her children from being sent to the field house
Willy clearly had a very serious mental illness throughout this whole play, but never did anything about it. In Willy’s mind, the idea of having a mental illness took away from his masculinity, and he took out his mental illness on his wife as opposed to working on himself. This caused Linda to ultimately be mentally abused by him, and often having to compensate for his rude words and actions even though she never deserved any of it. All she did was care for Willy, so the treatment she received throughout this play was unfair and she was often left taken advantage of. In conclusion, The idea of masculinity strains the relationship between Linda and Willy throughout this depressing
In his seminal work, Death of A Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays wretched conditions inflicting the lives of lower class people amid class-struggle in 1940s America. Miller sets the story during the great financial depression in the US , in between times after World War I and around World War II, though his characters hardly speak about the trauma of two World Wars. Miller earns an enormous success by putting an ordinary salesman as the protagonist in his play instead of putting a man of social nobility. In the play, Miller depicts his central character, Willy Loman as a destitute salesman struggling to rise up the social ladder in a capitalist society, who remains deluded by a 'dream of success ' and takes on a relentless pursuit of happiness that eventually brings his tragic demise. Though some critics speak in favor of the popular account of the cause of his death being his excessive obsession with so called the American dream and the 'capitalist oppression ' ; however, many still refuse to ascribe the cause of his death to capitalist oppression, which I will use synonymously with American dream here.
We learn that Willy is a salesman, who is has only had minor success. Willy blames this on the fact that he is not well liked. In the beginning of the play Willy has had a car accident and his wife Linda wants him to ask his boss if he can work only in New York instead of having to travel. When we see Willy in a flashback he appears to be happy and affectionate with his sons, who seem to return the affection.
She is the only girl on the ranch, and because of this, she faces difficulties from the boys. Curley’s Wife was just trying to find someone to confide in, and Lennie was there, but because she could cause trouble, Lennie wasn’t allowed to talk to her. She says to Lennie, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’” (86).
As the old saying goes, not all heroes wear capes. This is especially true for Willy Loman in the Death of a Salesman. Death of a Salesman is a rather tragic tale depicting the fall of Willy Loman and, to some degree, the fall of his son Biff Loman. There are two ways in which one could interpret Death of a Salesman, with Willy as the protagonist, or with Biff as the protagonist. Either way, the story is not made a tragedy by its plot, but rather, it is made a tragedy by its characters.
Curley’s wife tells Lennie that she once met a guy “and he was in the pitchers”(88). This man promised her that he would write to her when he returned to Hollywood, but she never received the letter. Curly’s wife was so full of herself that she believed “her ol’ lady stole it”, and would not accept the possibility that this man was not an actor or that she was not good enough (88). She was determined to get away from her family, so she married almost the first man she met, without even getting to know him first. Now, she is the only woman living on a ranch and she has no one to talk to.
She knows that! (Act 1) Willy's disgust at Linda waxing the floors herself suggests his bad temper about their economic status. They clearly cannot afford to hire someone to wax their floor, yet he constantly wants to pretend that this isn't so. CHARLEY: You want a job?
All Willy Loman ever desired was to be successful. He defined success by having money, prosperous children, and becoming well-liked; however, his interpretation of success led him to his own destruction.
Willy Loman believes success in life is having nice things, having money, and being known by people. Unfortunately, Mr. Loman never realises that success is much more than having material things. Hopefully Biff and Happy learn from their dad’s mistakes, and reach the real American
Tragedy can spread. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the protagonist, however he not the only person in the play who’s story ends tragically. His view on life spreads to those close to him. Primarily, Willy teaches it to his children who look up to him while his wife simply attaches herself to him, rooting for him in blind support while really she should be waking him up to the cold and dark reality that is their life. Throughout the play, the Loman family evolves differently.