Tragedy is the general theme of Arthur Miller’s play
Death of a Salesman , but not the kind of
Tragedy one would find in the Greek or Shakespearan
pathos. Miller’s objective was to take an everyday or
common man, Willie Loman, create a series of misfortunes in his life, and make him a
character of believable strengths and weaknesses the "regular guy" could identify with. His keen understanding of human nature served him well in creating Loman’s character study.
Willie Loman, an aging salesman, is beginning to experience regrets in his life. He has suffered a series of losses early in life; his father died when he was only three and his older brother, Ben, whom Willie looked up to, leaves to find their father when Willie is still a young boy. He is left with no father or father-figure, no one to admire or to show him the way to become a man.
He grows up, gets married and has two sons of his own. Because Ben went to Africa and became a wealthy man at a young age, in Willie’s mind, Ben is still a sort of god or
hero. Ben becomes to Willie bigger than life, almost a mythical figure. Willie tries to live up to the hero position but cannot attain it. He tries to raise his sons to be like his brother Ben, the only role model that Willie has ever known. Ben appears to Willie when Willie’s mind is under stress. Willie is haunted by Ben and by the failure to live up to Ben’s standards of success, the measurement of what it is to be a man.
The misery that Willie experiences at his workplace is the humiliation that he receives from Howard, the company president. When Willie asks him if he can stay in town because he is weary of traveling hundreds of miles for the job, not only does he not get his wish granted, but he loses his job. After giving 34 years of his life in the company, the company president whom Willie christened when he was a baby, fires him. The heartbreaking situation here is Willie’s failure to see that the profession that he has chosen has betrayed him when he needs it the most. There is no respect for a man who is in his sixties, who has put long, hard hours on the road, put his blood, sweat and tears into a company that gives nothing in return. I
In his text of the play, Miller literally states that the underlying struggle in a tragedy is that of the individual attempting to gain his rightful position in society. He, states that "the fateful wound from which the inevitable events spiral is the wound of indignity, and its dominant force is indignation." According to Miller, these elements are what make a play a tragedy. Miller reveals these elements in
Death of a Salesman ; Willie suffers indignity and he is, in the end, indignant. Miller goes on to say that "a character’s flaws and cracks are really nothing but what is important is the unwillingness that the character displays to remain passive in the face of a challenge to his dignity, his image of rightful place."
Willie Loman certainly has flaws and cracks in his character. However, Willie is even willing to make his final sales pitch; he will commit suicide to convince his sons that he was an important man by allowing them to see how many people come to his funeral.
Miller says: "The
tragic feeling is invoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity."
Death of a Salesman meets all of Miller’s requirements for a tragedy. Although this play was originally written in the late 40's, its theme is timeless because it speaks of the plight of the lowly individual and his rightful place in society. It is a dilemma that we all can identify with.
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