Death of a Salesman PC Version.

Stephen Ford R11 11r2

Death of a Salesman PC Version

The play we studied was Death of a Salesman, and was written by Arthur Miller. Throughout the play dreams are an intregal part of how the story develops. Much focus is placed on the characters dreams and aspirations, none so much so as the main character, Willy Loman. Each character in the play is aspiring to meet the requirements of the American Dream and the play is Millers way of arousing discussion about the flaws in the American ideology of success.

The American Dream dominates all the Lomans’ lives, it is the unsuccessful attempt at gaining the dream that leads to Willy’s downfall and it is what makes up the American Dream which meant Willy was destined to fail from the start.

The American Dream is the ultimate of American success, schools teach their children if they achieve the American Dream they will be happy. The ultimate of All-American dreams is to become President and in theory anybody can achieve this. To go with the dream is that you have to be phenomenally rich, therefore you can buy the best of the consumer goods and have anything you want, that you can own as much land as possible and be able to live in the open air, also that you are respected and loved by people and that you can command an authority upon anybody. Willy strives for all of this but will never gain it as he does not have the credentials to make it, he wants the dream but is not willing to work hard for it, he as a Loman believes things should happen for him.

The American Dream is how success is measured in an American capitalist society. The belief in America is that if you work hard and believe in yourself then you will catch the dream, however Willy does not follow this, Willy believes that if you are good-looking and well liked then you will be successful and Miller suggests this is where the American Dream has its downfall. Miller shows that you can achieve some of the dream by using Charley and Bernard as a contrast to the Lomans, each worked hard and have now achieved a lot of success in their own right and neither have ever been particularly well liked.

The American Dream has propelled a capitalist and consumer culture into America, where many believe having the best of everything is all that matters. This belief leads to a society where only a few manage to achieve “success” yet others are forced to compete with friends and family, an enormous pressure to succeed is placed upon them and if they fail society looks down on them and deems them useful simply because they are not earning enough money to be able to buy the best of everything.

The play focuses on Willy Loman and the dreams he dreamed. Miller, through Willy, explores the view that the American dream, imposes unrealistic expectations upon people, Miller suggests that the dreams society forces normal people like Willy to dreams causes these people to dream the wrong, unattainable dream and it is this which leads to the downfall of Willy. The main type of dream Miller focuses on is The American Dream, the dream that has sculptured a society all of its own. However, Miller uses Willys daydreams to show us Willys’ past and the hopes and dreams he followed that have lead him into his current day situation, Miller is showing that the Dream Willy was trying to follow had lead to his demise as he had made it the most important thing is his life.

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Willy is married to Linda and his two sons are Biff and Happy, he dreams of being successful and respected by his family and friends, he wants to be admired and remembered, Willy bases all his dreams on the success of a man named Dave Singleman. Willy saw this man as the ultimate in success and dreamed of leading the same life and dying the same death that Singleman did, he dreamed of dying in the same scenario as him "He died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers" says Willy, sadly Willy does not achieve the same things as Mr. Singleman did in his life and Willy does not die the same death as Mr. Singleman. I believe the difference between these two men’s’ lives is something Miller is trying to exaggerate in their deaths, one man, Singleman, dies an honourable death with his loved ones around him whereas Willy dies in a brutal car accident with no dignity and where he will have suffered a great deal of pain.

Linda dreams of a domestic bliss, she does not want materialistic success, rather she just wishes that Willy and her two sons are happy in what they do. Linda seems more to have been caught up in Willy’s ideology of success rather than taking an active role in how they intend to live their lives and bring their children up.

Biff for many years had the same dream as his father. He, more so than Happy, is where Willy's hopes and dreams lay, he valued being well liked and popular. Biff never studied at school as his father had told him to just remain popular, and subsequently Biff failed to achieve the required grade for entrance to university. When Biff realised his maths mark was too low, he travelled to see Willy in the belief that the popularity Willy had told Biff he had would mean Willy could persuade Biffs' maths teacher to change the grade and therefore pass him. He catches Willy in his hotel room with another woman, this is a pivotal day in the Biffs life as after this he loses belief in almost everything, especially becoming a football player. Instead Biff sets out to become a pioneer and find a new set of values but he fails in this, as he still yearns to impress the man whom he has lost faith in.

The problem for Happy is that whereas Biff has realised, at least on some level, his fathers dream is the wrong one, Happy still believes his father is right, Happy defends Willy’s aspirations, saying, “I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have—to come out number-one man. He fought it out there, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him” he does not see that Willy was destined to fail simply because all his beliefs were wrong. Happy has not achieved anything either, so to get back at society he likes to take what other men have achieved away from them, this shows in the way Happy treats his women, he takes away there virginity and then leaves them to marry his bosses. He also refuses to accept reality, when Biff, Happy, and Willy are in the restaurant, Happy tries to shield his father from the fact that Biff did not get the business opportunity he went to get, he does not want anybody to know how much he and his brother have failed, especially Willy.

When Willy was younger he dreamed of following Ben, his brothers’, route of success, this was being an entrepreneur, Willy dreamed of going to Alaska and stumbling across his fortune just as Ben had done by ending up in Africa. After this opportunity had been passed up Willy continued to dedicate his life to being a successful salesman, basing his hopes on the results Dave Singleman gained by being a salesman. Willy dreamed that he would become successful and that his sons’ would follow in his footsteps. In the real-time aspect of the play, all Willys hopes are pinned on his sons as he now has no chance on being a success himself as he has lost his job, he dreams of Biff finally achieving the “potential” Willy believes he has.

Willy dreams of leaving something behind him after his death, he wants to leave his insurance money to Biff so that Biff can become a success in his life, he believes he can be worth more to his family dead than alive saying “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive”. At the same time Willy attempts to plant some seeds one last time before his death, this acts as a metaphor for his whole life, he has always tried to leave something behind so he is remembered but it has never worked and we know that his attempt to leave some money behind will also fail as insurance companies don’t pay out on suicides.

Before Biff found out about his father’s affair, Biff dreamt of becoming an American footballer, he wanted to go onto college with a scholarship and make his father proud of him. Biff dreamt that he would be well liked by everybody and that his life would be a big success. After Biff discovered his fathers affair Biff lost any desire to impress his father or follow in his footsteps, Biffs whole world shattered and he decided to go and discover himself by attempting to follow the pioneer route and raise cattle, somehow he ended up in prison, probably because of the fact he steals constantly for what seems like no reason and eventually returned home. In the present day Biff has again decided to try and become a success in the business world but after his father dies he decides that he will be more “successful” if he measures his success by his own happiness. He decides that he should return to raising cattle as he did when he tried to find who he is.

Ever since Happy was young he has craved attention from his mother and father and every action he takes is done to impress them, “Look pop, I’m losing weight, do you notice?”. Happys’ dreams are very much the same as what Willy had, he dreams of being a successful salesman, well liked and having children who will follow in his footsteps. After his father dies Happy dreams of being a success where Willy has failed.

All of the male characters in the story feel a pressure to succeed, yet only one of the Lomans ever questions the validity of the dream, this is Biff, in the requiem he questions Willys dream, “he had all the wrong dreams” talking about Willy and it is now he who offers hope for the future as it appears he now knows what must change for him to become successful. However, the way that Biff has had to come to realise this is quite upsetting, he has had to have the perfect vision he had of his father ripped away from him, something which, if he would have realised the things that are really important in life, such as a happy family, the idea of having a perfect father would have been something which would have give him great happiness. The same could have been said for Willy, if he would have been happy with what he had and not needed to boost his own confidence by having an affair with another woman then he too could have been happy and Biffs life could have been more successful by following his principals but as this did not happen I think Miller is trying to say if it weren’t this then something else would have happened to knock them all down. To me it appears Willy’s dream of being successful has led to his and his sons downfall, they all are selfish and fail to recognise the things they do have, such as a loving wife and a loving mother.

Willy’s mind and his past are presented by the use of flashbacks and monologues, it is the trip through Willy’s mind, which allows the audience to see why Willy escapes into the past so frequently. Miller creates the illusion of the past and makes the audience experience Willy’s life by using verbal and non-verbal theatre techniques. Miller has designed a stage to go with his play which means when it is acted out the audience can see the past and present being acted out simultaneously. He then adds to this stage directions to make it clear which is the past and which is the present.

Willy has tried to do things right in his life but all too often he has failed, and the fact is many of his mistakes haunt him. Willy has flashbacks because he feels he raised his children poorly, he has not done well in business, and because he cheated on his wife, Linda and he feels bad as Linda has stood beside him through it all, through his dreams and broken promises, and she still believes in him. Consistently throughout the play, Willy drifts in and out of a dream, he is always considering the day he chose to stay in New England and not follow his brother Ben, who struck it rich the jungle. He also has flashbacks to Biffs senior year, this to Willy is where he feels it all started to go wrong, the Act in which Biff catches Willy with a woman is an example of this as after this Biff detests Willy and does not work towards Willys dream anymore. This haunts Willy as he know does not see how Biff can become successful.

Dreams are very important in the play as it are dreams that lead to the tragic death of Willy Loman, it is his dreams that took him beyond seeing the point in life “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”. His dreams of being as successful as Dave Singleman led him to deny what he truly wanted, when if truth be told, all Willy wanted to do was work with his hands. What Willy failed to realise was that there are millions like him, each chasing his dream, even when Biff, his own son told him he still didn’t believe, “Pop! I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” “I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!”, he does not see that the Lomans do not deserve success more than any other family, he lives his whole life believing they do.

Willy wanted more than anything to go with Ben and he was indeed capable of following the pioneer route to success, he had completed large improvements on the house and before he committed suicide he had planted a garden so that he could leave something worthwhile in the world, all this shows he was not afraid of hard work. Willy denied himself what he truly wanted to pursue the American Dream, to be like Dave Singleman and be loved and respected by other men. Willy died believing that he would be more happy pursuing an uncatchable fantasy rather than being happy with what he had. The one hope for the Lomans is that Biff realises this and so long as he as the substance of character he will succeed where his father failed and become happy.