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8. Importance of His Death as a Salesman

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8. Importance of His Death as a Salesman

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By Willy dying as a "salesman" it brings a somewhat moral reconciliation to the end of the play. The play does end with a fairytale resolution, but it ends with a dreamed recognition Willy had desired for all his life. He lives a life to soon grow old and be proud of what he has accomplished. He realises in the play that his life was a failed attempt at doing what he had wanted to. He finds out that his happiness was entirely based on how successful he had become and how much respect he'd earn. Once he found this couldn't be accomplished in himself he moved to his sons to do so for him. He'd live vicariously through their own actions leading to the root of success deceiving his entire life goal. He has a funeral full of people whom he knows and doesn't, either way he has a form of respect and recognition from them. Ultimately, bringing resolution to how he lived his life.

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Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller highlights the success and accomplishments of a family that do not own many. It discusses the efforts at living a respectful life where one may feel proud. The defeat of such accomplishments lead to the deceit of success as the overall whole meaning. This meaning shows throughout the story as each character is attached to success, once they hold material success they will hold happiness. Success deceives them of true happiness, soon they find other ways to bring satisfaction into their lives, leading to why each character has yet to live a true life they're content with.

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"he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, going into Boston- when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at the funeral"(Miller 138).

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This scene holds importance in many different ways. The stockings that Linda is mending are symbolic to the gift that Willy had given to the woman he had been sleeping with behind Linda's back. He begins to feel guilt rush into him as Linda does such a simple task seeing as it reminds him of the infidelity he had performed. Linda's oblivion creates the idea that success had gotten the best of Willy while he had it, he made stupid decisions because he could. Now that his work has slowed down and he no longer does as well he cannot afford such accessories. Not only do the stockings remind him of the mistress he's kept from his wife all these years, but of the success he used to have and can no longer provide. His wife having to mend stockings rather than buy them proves his inability to succeed enough to provide for his own wife. Again success deceiving him into infidelity.

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"What’s that?... Just mending my stockings. They’re so expensive! [angrily, taking them from her]: I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out"(Miller 119).

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Ben's run into money was not how Willy nor his father had found their living, yet Ben seems to have outdone both by making fortunes from his excursion. Willy is infatuated by the idea of success through wealth, therefore Ben is admirable through his eyes. This holds importance because it contrast from his views on how Biff is making money. Biff's career less risky than Ben's is something he loves to do, but because his income is so low, Willy sees it as nonsense. Not as some job to brag off to his sons about, as he does at this scene. This holds such significance because it challenges the idea that Willy does not care about his own sons happiness, rather how successful he becomes.

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"Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by god was I rich"(Miller 48).

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Willy addresses the boys about bigger things than just keeping good grades up in school. He is so focused on making his sons the best salesmen to cover up for his misfortune, that he pushes aside the idea of an actual education to allow them to prosper more than himself. He will never guide them to succeed in any way other than his own, which deceives both sons making them believe that he does well, or better than most salesmen. This also foreshadows the future to when Biff will ask Bill Oliver (the kid who sat on the sidelines) for a loan. Bill was set on studies and Biff was set on an appearance that would please a seller when he became his father's dream salesman.

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"Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understnad, you are going to be five times ahead of him" (Miller 33).

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It is clear through flashbacks that Happy did not receive nearly as much affection or attention as Biff the older son who was extremely athletic as a child. As time goes on it is also clear that Happy has lost touch with his emotions and his father is out of his concerns. He has been taught to focus so primarily on success that now when his father begins to mumble or lose his mind, he is merely embarrassed not caring over the wellbeing of his own father. Beyond this Happy finds he is left unsatisfied with his life, he claims to have it all yet still holds such loneliness. He's been taught that success will bring contentment, but it has deceived him and his true lonesome self

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"But no so noticeable. It got so embarrassing I sent him to Florida. And you know something? Most of the time he's talking to you"(Miller 21).  & "But then, it's what i've always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely"(Miller 23).

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Willy's flashback provides a time when both Happy and Biff looked up to their father for advice and as a role model for themselves. This also proves that because this memory is charitable to Willy, it no longer exists. The contents of pure idolism of their father is now not present in their lives. Something has occurred that tainted their views of their father. Foreshadowing future events that will do so, while also connecting the the overall idea that success brought admiration and without success Willy would have no legacy.

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"Where'd you go this time, Dad? Gee we were lonesome for you. Willy, pleased puts an arm around each boy... Missed you every minute"(Miller 30).

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At this point in the play, Willy has become increasingly bothered by his son Biff's work ethic. He is disappointed by how little he has accomplished in his life so far. This though is Willy's anger at his little accomplishments, but more than that, it is his way of disguising his own personal failure in accomplishments. He blames his son for never becoming a salesman to hide the fact that his life in sales has yet to skyrocket as he'd hoped. This begins the the theme of deceit of success.

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"How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, a young man, it's good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it's more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!" (Miller 15-16)

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Willy remarks Linda with this comment, suggesting that he's worked his entire life to achieve something bigger than who he is. He's failed to do so, so in less trivial tasks, he has put a steady life in place for his family. He finds that his achievements have taken too long and it has become too late to bask in them. This connects to the central theme in a way that his success has deceived Willy into becoming this workaholic with an unfortunate outcome. One that does not mirror the success he had dreamed of.

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""Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it" (Miller 15).