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The drama, “Death of a Salesman”, written by Arthur Miller has been claimed as the “first true American tragedy.” It narrates the story of Willy, an American salesman, who lives in the myth that people are very fond of him, and he is indispensable at the organization he works for. His illusion continues through the play, and when he dies ultimately by crashing his car by himself, he still believed that his son Biff would do excellently in life. The story starts when Willy returns home from a failed sales trip, and complains to his wife Linda, that their elder son Biff is aimless. He feels that Biff has a lot of untapped potential, and reprimands Biff. Happy, Willy and Linda’s younger son, pacifies their father by promising that Biff will make a business proposition the next day.
Willy requests Howard, his boss, for a permanent position in town, but gets fired after a rude altercation with Howard. Biff, too, doesn’t succeed with the business plan. Willy then visits his only friend Charley, and Charley’s son Bernard tells him that Biff was extremely promising but lost his motivation because of a particular incident.
At dinner at a restaurant, Biff and Willy reach a confrontation. Willy realizes that Biff drifted apart from him because of the affair he was having with a sales receptionist, and which Biff
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stumbled upon. Biff and Happy leave Willy behind in the restaurant. Willy is confused and hurt, and talks to himself all the while. At home later, Biff attempts to reconcile with his father, and tells him that the high expectations he has from his sons aren’t justified. Biff further tells Willy that he loves him a lot, but Willy has to accept that Biff isn’t meant for great things. (Miller, Arthur, 1986)
However, Willy doesn’t really hear Biff, and presumes Biff wants to succeed in business. Willy commits suicide by crashing his car, so that Biff can use the insurance money for his work. Unfortunately, even at the funeral, Biff reinstates that he wants to have nothing to do with business. So, his whole life ultimately proves to be a myth, and Willy’s preconceived notion that he is an excellent professional, he has had a successful and spectacular career, and that people around him adore him and respect him immensely falls flat. Willy never realizes that he was just an ordinary man, like millions, and he never finds any solutions to his confusion and agony.
David Mamet, in his article “Attention must be Paid”, claims that “Bad drama reinforces our prejudices. It informs us of what we knew when we came into the theaterThe good drama survives because it appeals not to the fashion of the moment, but to the problems both universal and eternal, as they are insoluble.”(Mamet, David.2005) With this description in mind, I think “Death of a Salesman” is a good drama. I, personally, relate to the inner conflicts the play put forwards. The illusion Willy lives in, his expectations from his sons and Biff’s reluctance to live up to his father’s unjustified aspirations all are identifiable in most people’s lives. I myself have faced too many expectations from my parents, and know that it just adds to unwarranted
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pressure. However, there is no solution to it. It is the cycle of life, where the parents’ put the burden of their unfulfilled wishes on their kids, and the kids feel stifled.
Arthur Miller never provides any solution, either. When the play began, I thought that perhaps by the end Willy would see through his own folly. He would realize that his misconception about his and his family’s position was further leading him to misery alone. I wasn’t prepared for the shocking climax, where Willy actually got himself killed in a car crash to let Biff have the insurance money. He never realized, even after Biff told him so, that nothing would induce Biff to start a career in business. Even though he knew it subconsciously, Willy never acknowledged that his illicit love affair had ruined Biff’s morale and alienated him from a glorious future. As his friend Charley angrily put it, Willy always wanted to please people. He couldn’t face the truth that his boss didn’t want him, his sons thought him ridiculous, and that he himself was no preciously exceptional asset to the society. I was intrigued that the play provided no answer. It just showed the grim realities of our aspirational society as a malice that couldn’t be healed, and continued to rot. Some critics say it is “an overrated work” (Brdaford, Wade.2014), but I strongly disagree. Indeed, as David Mamet sets the definition of a bad drama and a good drama, “Death of a Salesman” is a good drama.
In my opinion, “Death of a Salesman” actually transcends the boundary of a good drama to be a great drama. The way the narrative unfolds, the way in which Willy’s character is intricately build and the contrasting character of Biff stand out to make the play an exceptional one. The failures of Willy, fuelled by his own short-sightedness and his own follies, make the play
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riveting and gripping. The final, inconclusive climax leaves a hollow of the fallacies of an unfulfilled aspiration deeply etched in the audience’s minds.
Thus, “Death of a Salesman” is definitely a good drama and in my opinion, a great drama.
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Works Cited:
- Mamet,David. “Attention must be Paid.”NYTimes.13 february.2005.Web.14 December.2014
- Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1986
- Bradford,Wade. “Death of a Salesman-Review.”plays.about.com.n.p.,n,d,Web.14 December.2014
