Character Portrayal or the Tragedy of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the story of Willy Loman. A sixty year old mediocre salesman living in Brooklyn, Willy Loman is a gregarious, mercurial man with powerful aspirations to success. However, after thirty-five years working as a traveling salesman throughout New England, Willy Loman feels defeated by his lack of success and difficult family life.

Willy is no doubt a loving and caring husband and father. He repeatedly calls Linda “darling”, “sweet heart”. He says to Linda,

“You’re the best there is, Linda, you’re a pal, you know that?”

Moreover, he proves his love to his sons by sacrificing his own life. However, his affair with a woman questions his love to his family.

But, Willy Loman seems a poor role model.  As a father, Willy Loman offers his sons terrible advice:

WILLY: Just wanna be careful with those girls, Biff, that's all. Don't make any promises. No promises of any kind. Because a girl, y'know, they always believe what you tell 'em.

This attitude is adopted all too well by his sons. During her son's teen years, Linda notes that Biff is "too rough with the girls." Happy grows up to become a womanizer who sleeps with women who are engaged to his managers.

Willy also condones Biff's thievery. Biff, who eventually develops a compulsion to steal things, swipes a football from his coach's locker room. Instead of disciplining his son about the theft, he laughs about the incident and says,

"Coach'll probably congratulate you on your initiative!"

Moreover, Willy Loman's Affair proves that his actions are worse than his words. Throughout the play, Willy mentions his lonely life on the road. To alleviate his loneliness, he has an affair with a woman that works at one of his client's offices. While Willy and the nameless woman rendezvous in a Boston hotel, Biff pays his father a surprise visit. Willy's son becomes ashamed and distant: His father is no longer his hero rather, he says,

"You fake! You phony little fake!"

After his role model falls from grace, Biff starts to drift from one job to the next, stealing petty things to rebel against authority figures.

         

However, Willy had a lot of potential. In his young age, he proved a strong and energetic and ‘popular’ salesman in Wagner Company under his friend, ___. But when the owner changed and Willy grows old, he is undervalued and ......... He got offered by Ben to go to Alaska where Ben became rich within  short span of time. But his inability to accept change led him not to go there. Now Willy repents for his decision,

WILLY: Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.

Actually Willy has a whopping case of self-deception paired with misguided life goals, here known as American dream. For Willy, personality, in the form of being well liked, is considered all-important in winning the day: he views it as more significant than education and knowledge, mental healing or good moral character. Indeed, Willy Loman’s values are the fictional prototype of those of his contemporary society. Yet, Miller shows that Willy’s pure and simple faith in the success ethic and the power of personality inexorably leads to his demise. Joseph L. DeVitis (1996:53) comments on Loman,

Perhaps no fictional portrait in American letters and literature more acutely epitomizes the personality ethic, its tantalizing promises and its ultimate pitfall than the life of Willy Loman.

Despite this failure, Willy makes the most extreme sacrifice to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream. Willy seeks a solution in suicide: his life insurance policy will in some way compensate Linda for his affair. Additionally, Biff will consider him a martyr and respect him after witnessing the large funeral and many mourners Willy is sure will attend. But, what is the reality. Does his dream fulfill? ...

Thus, Willy aspires to be a modern tragic hero, not a traditional tragic hero in one telling way; he is a low-man of “massive dreams” not high stature, His flaw is his pride in his personality. Even we the readers/audience don’t hate Willy or don’t even call him a cheater in spite of his cheating Linda by his affair with the Woman. Because we understand the psychology behind his affair-- he has simply tried to escape. Miller has very technically argued in the introduction to his Collected Plays (1957:34) that even Willy Loman had the making of a tragic hero. This is what Miller says:

“…this man is actually a very brave spirit who cannot settle for half, but must pursue his dream of himself to the end. Finally, … this was no dump brute heading mindlessly to his catastrophe” (CP34) 

To conclude, we see that Willy Loman addresses loss of identity, unrealized dreams of success, and the inability to accept change. Willy Loman’s personal ethic that popularity and charisma will outdo hard work and innovation leads to his tragedy which is actually the tragedy of American dream.

Works Cited:

DeVitis, Joseph L., John Martin Rich. The success ethic, education, and the American dream.  NY: SUNY Press, 1996

Miller, Arthur. Arthur Miller's collected plays: with an introduction. NY: Viking Press, 1957