By Eric HoudekDeath of a Salesman is a play in which the title comes into play throughout the course of the story. All of the action and events in the story finally add up into Willy Loman's death, which indeed turns out to be the death of a salesman. However, it is important to remember that Willy Loman's death was self-inflicted. Death of a Salesman explores the many situations and conditions that have caused Willy to take his own life. Willy is not the only salesman whose death is mentioned throughout the play. Willy refers to Dave Singleman, a salesman who was still working at the age of eighty-four. Willy cites him as the reason why he went into the occupation of being a salesman. When Willy discusses his death and his funeral, he mentions that there were "hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral." Willy's wife Linda is constantly fearing Willy's death. She tells her boys Biff and Happy that "Your father is dying." Knowing that Willy has tried to crash his car multiple times and has attached a rubber hose to heater in the basement, Linda knows that Willy will kill himself soon if things do not change. Willy himself finds much comfort in the prospect of his own death. Realizing that he has amounted to nothing, is unable to provide for his wife, and has failed to set a foundation for his son Biff's success under the American dream, Willy finds the $20,000 awarded to his family as a result of his death as his only source of refuge. He makes a comment to Charley, "-a man is worth more dead than alive." The Death of a Salesman in this play points to the fact that a man that has been failed by his dreams, morals, and beliefs will find more comfort in death than life. EDIT by: Sam Beaver This is all true, but i think we need to dive more into the actual reasons that there is a “death of a salesman” in the play. the main ideas to consider here are: the nature of the american dream, the extent one will go to create a legacy, and the importance of identity. The identity issue can be seen through Singleman in many ways, because though he was a great salesman, he still died alone. Willy is only concerned with a meaningless legacy that Singleman left behind. What good is it to have hundreds of men you barely know at your funeral? Willy neglects his true legacy, his family, in the desperate search for validation that he goes on. What we need to take away from the title and from Singleman, I think, is the nature of the salesman’s death. There is no legacy, they all die alone. Miller uses the title to project the universality of this death on the road, chasing the american dream. And this is a dream that, we learn, lacks moral value. It is true that Willy eventually loses his morals, but it seems as though he never really had any to begin with. Though he often preaches that a man can make a fortune just by working hard and doing his best, his actions contradict this theory completely. Miller, in my opinion, is aiming to shed light on the perceived purity of the american dream. Perhaps this is due to the time that we live in, but I would say that Willy’s hypocrisy is meant to expose the seedy, underhanded nature of such a dream. The play is undoubtedly a voice against this “American Dream” that hopes so many men to death, and it also highlights the futility of individual hard work. It’s all about who you know. Finally, one must acknowledge that this play is not called “Death of Willy Loman.” He is the subject of the play, but it is not jst about him for the reasons mentioned above. The title aims at a situation that befalls many, not just Willy
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by alejandro
–Following up on the discussions of the meeting. All ideas have been prompted by the discussion we had, and the notes of the specific points noted down.–
Thinking of the importance of the title, and following the discussion we had today at the meeting, this is some analysis on the importance of the Title. I have assigned meaning to the metaphor in the title itself.
It works in the following way:
We cannot avoid spotting the importance of nature and the recurrence of its imagery. Miller, counterpoints between the way in which nature works, reality, and the way in which the System, built upon an ideology, is paradoxical and fails in itself and to itself. Thus, the system fails man. The salesman is the image, human symbol, of capitalism. Willy, in the rampage he's had for life, cannot abide to the system rules although he tries. Due to a misperception of the system and its way, due to a misperception of life, and the way to achieve his end: the American Dream.
(I'll continue this later when I give the quotatio0ns on nature and metaphor, used to convey and give meaning to IDEA.)
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
"Killing in the name of" ( a song by Rage Against the Machine)
(if you guys would like to expand on this you can, but I'll keep on wrting the specifics as the night continues, I'm just putting something so we can get the machine in motion!)