‘Death of a Salesman’ timeless artwork

Pages: 131
ARTHUR Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman is arguably one of the best portrayals of post-Elizabethan tragic literature.
Death of a Salesman can be said to stand amongst the great feats of tragic tales like Orestes, Hamlet, Medea, Macbeth and The Mayor of Casterbridge.
In a nutshell, Miller puts the “affluent American society on a pedestal for the entire world to see and question the American consumer dream”, as articulated in the foreword to the book.
The play is indeed an ingenious study of failure of a sixty-year-old man from Brooklyn, New York who epitomises the insecurity in society through dramatic family squabbles that demonstrate the shortcomings and imperfections that parents are most likely to pass onto their children.
In the recent past, as articulated by the author, the genre of tragedy in modern day literature has become “archaic” and not viewed as being fit for the ordinary man.
“Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly,” says Miller.
Unlike the common man, the tragic “hero” is willing to risk all, including his life if need be, to attain his personal sense of dignity.
Others even argue that the tragic hero’s greatest strength is ironically also his greatest flaw in his doomed battle for vindication.
For many readers, the greatest lesson to be learnt from tragedy is that one must not fight an unyielding battle against a superior force that one cannot possibly defeat.
Death of a Salesman centres on Willy Lowman (somehow, a pun on a low man in society, who is used and abused by the system); who for the greater part of his life is a travelling salesman for the Wagner company.
Too engrossed in his own self-importance, Willy sees himself as the “New England” (salesman), and thinks he is indispensable to the company.
In raising his two sons, Biff and Happy, he injects them with a lethal overdose of the importance of being well-liked in society as a substitute for hard work.
Lowman is self-indoctrinated in his belief of the importance of being “a happy camper” as a formula for success, yet nothing could be further from the truth as many-a-wealthy man in the world are known to be ruthless.
This flawed perception of life is what proves to be Lowman’s and his sons’ downfall in their struggle.
Willy, although nearing retirement age is constantly worried about his eldest son Biff, who at age 34 remains unable to establish himself, moving from job to job like a gypsy.
At one point, he envisioned a bright future for his son, but all this came to naught after Biff failed his high school mathematics examinations.
With his star waning, Lowman turns to his friend Charley who lends him US$50 weekly, which he pretends is his salary.
The irony of it all is that Willy had probably, due to pride and hell-bent on being his own man continuously refused a job offer from Charley, which paid substantially more than the loans he was receiving, which he ultimately fails to pay back.
In the end Willy Lowman commits suicide in the hope that his sons will collect the insurance money so as to give them a good start in life.
Told through the eyes of Willy Lowman the play is an excellent expression of flashback between his youthful days filled with aspirations and expectations, juxtaposed with his current sorrowful state.
Contrary to his expectations no one comes to his funeral requiem, which puts everything into perspective on how he had deluded himself about his importance, but alas he was a forgotten man.
Probably, because he is a nonentity, that is the reason Willy lives by his theory on the importance of being well-liked, even his son Biff lives by this theory as evidenced by his reply to his father if Bernard is well liked.
“He is liked but not well liked”, answers Biff.
As far as the setting goes, Miller is at pains to give vivid description of the scenery as seen by his profuse use of stage directions.
In Bernard, Willy’s nephew, the author epitomises the theme of realism and the importance of education as opposed to Willy’s cowboy lot.
“Just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers does not mean they have to graduate him,” says Bernard.
Death of a Salesman as a modern-day point of view is an excellent portrayal of how in most times, people prioritise trivial issues, and become so self-consumed to an extent that they fail to adhere to the basics in the struggle for survival.
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