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Elliot Ziwira The Book Store
Playwright Arthur Miller examines how the individual is responsible for his or her own failure or success. According to him, failure is not in-born, neither is it inherited, but it is a condition that is created by the individual as he/she responds to the situations that are thrown at him/her. Suffice to say that success being an attitude may be inheritable through the values that one assumes at birth; it can also be achieved through hard work and determination. Character, which in itself is shaped by values and willpower, can also cultivate success.
It is only reasonable, therefore, to deduce that success that comes through good birth may just be a luminous vapour which fades with time. Instead, it has to be complemented by determination and character.
In “Death of a Salesman” (1949), Miller explores how dreams devoid of value judgment may lead one astray. He examines how having faith in dreams can be a deterrent to one’s quest for success as it impedes one’s reason.
“Death of a Salesman” is the story of Willy Loman, a salesman of about 60, who has been on the road for the better part of his life but has nothing to show for it.
His two sons, Biff and Happy, feed on his “massive dreams” and are also doomed. Eventually, Willy commits suicide.
The tragic hero is driven by his dreams of success, yet remaining inert in his own cocoon of a make-believe world.
This is clearly captured in the description of his home: “A fragile seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality.”
He is unable to reason that dreams require positive action to come true. This is in contrast to Uncle Ben, Charles and Bernard.
Willy’s Achilles’ heel is his lack of truth. He has instilled in his entire family an element of prevarication.
Linda, his wife, becomes the chief culprit as she always finds excuses to euphemise Willy’s failures instead of calling a spade a spade.
The salesman’s lack of success and his poignant sorrow after 34 years on the road illustrates his reluctance to face reality.
His belief in “personality” and being “well liked” to make a mark on the business world is a dogma that has already outlived its usefulness.
The protagonist’s subsequent demise at his own hand is the culmination of failure.
His tragic end, like that of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, demonstrates how society discards individuals it has no use for.
These deaths are manifestations of disillusionment and frustration.
Willy dies without honour and is buried alone and without dignity like a pauper. His dream of a flashy funeral is just another of his wilted dreams.
Biff’s conclusion is that “he never knew who he was”, and Linda tearfully sums it up: “But where are all the people that he knew? Maybe they blame him”.
He “never knew who he was” because he never wanted to. His solace is only found in his reminiscences of the past when things seemed to be working well.
This “sugaring over the devil”- as Shakespeare calls it in “Hamlet” – is central to Miller’s idea of failure.
Failure stalks Willy’s family like a curse
His wife, Linda, is presented as having more than love for him, but betrays him in that she falls along with his dreams instead of looking at him with a critical eye.
The nameless woman in the play, who is always laughing, does not only proffer mockery, but a curse to his family as Biff’s failure is also a culmination of the sight of her in Boston.
Biff is a failure, not only by nature but by nurture. Naturally, he is emotionally weak, and because of this, he overreacts easily, especially in Boston. And had he not thrown caution to the wind, he could have perhaps succeeded in life like his cousin, Bernard.
Too much ill-nurturing by his parents destroys him. His father fails to enlighten him on the vile of pilferage, and as a result he “stole” himself “out of every good job since high school!”
Putting the blame on his father, he says: “I never got anywhere because . . . (You) blew me so full of hot air I could not take orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!”
This vanity born of his upbringing is the cause of his failure, and it is a foible which he realises when it’s almost too late.
Women are also Happy’s downfall. As his name suggests, his gadabout nature only makes him successful with women and he is aptly called, by his own mother, “a philandering bum”.
It is Happy’s debauchery, lack of foresight and prevaricating nature which is his demise.
He believes that he is an assistant merchandise manager when in fact he is “one of the two assistants to the assistant merchandise manager”.
It is against this backdrop that success is mirrored in Bernard, Uncle Ben and Charles; the other end of the Loman line.
Uncle Ben, who is described by the dramatist as “a man utterly certain of his destiny”, is an embodiment of success, because he is aware that for one to succeed, one needs to take the bull by the horns instead of procrastinating.
This is depicted in his maxim: “When I was 17 I went into the jungle, and when I was 21 I walked out. And by God I was rich.”
Willy also has this to say about him: “That man was a genius, that man was success incarnate!”
Uncle Ben is the only person who calls Willy by his full name, William, which may suggest his lack of flattery.
His success lies in his belief that fortune knocks but once at every man’s door. Thus opportunities need to be seized, by hook or crook, as no formula is prescribed because one never needs “to fight fair with a stranger” as one “will never come out of the jungle that way”.
In Ben’s view, the world is a jungle where every man must cunningly play his part, knowing fully who he is, and avoiding getting swayed by the fairer sex.
This rationale is also expressed in Bernard who is called “anaemic” and not “well liked” by Willy although he is “earnest”; honest, both to himself and others; and is also intelligent-all the ingredients of success.
His honesty is illustrated in his persistent call for Biff to leave his thieving ways and to study hard because “Mr Birnbaum will flunk him” and that “just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers doesn’t mean they’ve to graduate him”.
He goes out and does what he must do and as a result he becomes a successful lawyer “arguing a case at the Supreme Court”.
Unlike Biff and Happy whose lives are full of empty dreams, Bernard lives his dreams.
Miller also presents Charles as an exponent of success in yet another dimension, as “he is a man of few words yet he is respected”.
Unlike Willy, he doesn’t pamper his only son, Bernard, with doxologies, but instead allows him to freely choose his own destiny. His belief is that success can only be realised through openness and willpower.
His strength is his sternness and use of a few words where men like Willy can talk endlessly.
Though an honest man to some extent, he believes in cheating here and there to succeed.
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