Miller was determined that the protagonist of Death of a Salesman should be an ordinary man in order to demonstrate the fate of those anonymous people who supported a system which casts them aside when they need it most. In fact the idea of the common man being belittled in this way is able to connect with audiences to a greater extent now, as capitalism and consumerism advance across the globe, than it could fifty years ago. As a “challenge to the American dream” Willy’s failure in the so-called land of opportunity leads the play to connect well with American audiences who may have encountered the same experience. America the home of “the American dream of unrestrained individualism and assured material success” has ultimately proved barren for Willy who strives to succeed in the business world and fails. The capitalist system of free enterprise and big business undeniably had its rewards but it was not without its problems. In Willy Loman we see a man who has fallen foul of this system. It is obvious that Death of a Salesman is a powerful attack on the American system; Miller himself was no stranger to conflict with the America way of life – he was accused of communism and a desire to undermine the American way of life by the McCarthy commission in 1956. However, this play is not about capitalism versus communism but about a man disenchanted by the passage of time and dismayed at the realism that has robbed him of his dreams, ambitions and success. Conversely, the ability of Willy, the common man, to take on the role of the tragic hero can be seen as a demonstration that those worth nothing can achieve anything and is therefore a realisation of the American Dream.
Eric Bentley argues that Death of a Salesman “arouses pity but no terror. Man here is too little and too passive to play the tragic hero.” However, I feel that the fact that Willy is a “little” man evokes both pity and terror. Willy moves us to fear because we can recognise similar possibilities of error in ourselves. Willy is universal in the sense that he is typical of us all, he is a “low-man.” Many of us know how it feels to struggle to succeed, and like Willy, material success is often an inescapable part of our lives whether or not we wish to admit it. Act I might be said to inspire horror, as Willy’s deteriorating mental state is made clear and Act II could engender pity as he suffers even more for it than he perhaps deserves.
Linda’s “strangely rhythmic” sentence “Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person” suggests that Willy is a potentially tragic figure. He too can be reduced to bad behaviour by circumstances beyond his control. Willy may not have achieved a great deal, as she points out, but he did have high ideals which he has been unable to realise. “He’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him … a small man can be just as exhausted as a great man”, - this reference to “great” men recalls Aristotle’s view of tragedy. This almost seems to be Miller addressing the audience himself, stressing that the “little” people can suffer and strive just a much a the “great.” We remain in Aristotelian territory when Biff twice calls Willy a “prince” and when he asks if Willy’s rubber hose is “designed to make a hero out of you …there’ll be no pity for you, you hear it?”
Aristotle argued that the tragic hero had a predestined flaw, or a hamartia, which caused him to suffer. One could argue that Willy Loman’s hamartia is that typical of many Greek tragedies, his pride and also his refusal to accept reality. Shakespeare’s heroes were motivated by high passions such as lust in Romeo and Juliet or ambition as seen in Macbeth, but Miller suggests that these are no more important or admirable than Willy’s determination to be well-liked. It is also Willy’s complete faith in the Capitalist system and his determination to see material wealth as the only path to success that causes him to suffer. These loyalties demand that he continues to serve the system and he is bewildered at his lack of success.
Some critics argue that Willy lacks the mental ability to be a true tragic hero. But Miller argues that if Willy were unaware of his separation from enduring values he “would have died contentedly while polishing his car … that he had not the intellectual fluency to verbalise his situation is not the same thing as saying that he lacked awareness.” We do see Willy undergo a sort of period of recognition – we see at the end of Act II he comes to realise that his son loves him and as Miller states “he is given his existence, so to speak – his fatherhood, for which he has always striven.” We also see Willy’s realisation of what went wrong with Biff during the “flashback” hotel scene. His self-realisation is present, countering those who claim to the contrary. It is clearly contained in the lines “I’m fat. I’m very-foolish” (of himself) and “I’m always in a race with the junkyard” (of American society.) Dennis Welland states that “to Miller tragedy brings us both knowledge and enlightenment which it need not do for the tragic hero.”
Willy dies, as tragic heroes must do, but his death affirms the beliefs to which he has clung have ultimately destroyed him. His suicide could be interpreted as a noble sacrifice, the only way to help Biff make something of himself. He still believes that the only true value of a man’s worth is how much he is liked and how much he has. It is tragic that a man’s death should make him a sacrifice on the altar of the belief which has failed him. The play contains what Aristotle calls a reversal and recognition that accompanies the hero’s change of fortune. This happens at the end of Act II when Willy finally realises that Biff loves him, in spite of his affair with The Woman and his “phoney dream.” Willy is both “astonished” and “elevated.” Despite his suicide he is as triumphant as the traditional tragic heroes, for he gains what he truly wants and values, his sons’ love.
Some critics argue that plays such as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are not really tragic because “they rub our noses in the social mire” and depress rather than exalt, because they end with a note of question rather than a feeling of catharsis. Both plays deal with the disappointment of the American Dream, both Willy Loman and John Proctor are victims of the society in which they live (although this applies more literally to Proctor as essentially it is his society which kills him.) I feel that at the end of Death of a Salesman the audience does feel a sense of catharsis in that Biff Loman has finally found himself, Willy is finally “free” of earthly unhappiness, and the Loman family are finally free from Willy’s “little cruelties.” The main argument against the tragedy of Death of a Salesman is that Willy is not of high social status, although I feel that, just as Shakespeare adapted Greek tragedy to suit his society, Miller has adapted tragedy to fit into his society, and the play is just as relevant, if not more so, today than when it was written. Miller himself argues that the common man may also gain “size” by his willingness to “throw everything he has into the contest – the battle to secure his rightful place in the world.”
Bibliography
Philip Sydney quoted in Arthur Miller and Company edited by Christopher Bigsby
Arthur Miller –Tragedy and the Common Man, the New York Times, 1949
Susan Harris Smith – Conceptualising Death of a Salesman as an American Play
Eric Bentley quoted in Death of A Salesman by Dennis Welland
Dennis Welland - Death of A Salesman
