The Nominal Phrase

  • Sam Beaver, but really all three of us cuz this was during our meeting.  
  • Nominal Phrase:  Capital is not an ends in itself, but a means. 
  • Willy Loman has some serious issues with money.  He fails to realize that getting money will not bring happiness.  To him, capital is the ends, the final goal of life.  As we see, he eventually gives his life for this end.   Miller is making the point that throughout “DOS” that in order to be truly successful one must love and respect his family.  Willy Loman does not understand that money is not the solution to his problems, and as a result dies in the pursuit.  Though money does aid one’s situation in life, the accumulation of wealth is not the thing that makes a man happy, as we can see from Biff’s final decision to move out west.  Willy’s self isolation from his family in the form of his death is his ultimate failure in DOS.  

4 thoughts on “The Nominal Phrase”

  1. BY ALEJANDRO

    YEEESSS! AND:

    —as a follow up of today's meeting- and thinking a bit more graphically for, Sam has exposed it fantastically:\
    SOME ON IDEA AND METAPHOR, which i’ll link in a later post and trace back to the title as the metaphor itself.

    ‘The means to an end become the ends. Thus, the ends themselves prompt the end of the common man.'(Quoting myself from the group meeting). ‘An ideology which puts man, a life, as a mean, destroys man (Willy) through his objectification’. it is the paradox of capitalism.

    The paradoxical nature of the Capitalist System is exemplified and used by Miller analogously through Will's struggle. The objectification of man, Willy, through the sort of actions and path undertaken, is the power of this paradox; the end for Willy, as discussed in the group meeting. The end of Willy!

  2. I agree with both Sam’s statement and Alejandro’s statement. Looking at the phrase “When the means to an end become the end, the end itself prompts the end of of the common man,” I find this to be the phrase which best summarizes the meaning of the play. While I agree with Sam’s statement “Capital is not an ends in itself, but a means,” I feel that the phrase “When the means to an end become the end, the end itself prompts the end of the common man” better defines the spine of the play. Willy wishes to achieve the American dream by “by making it big” and taking care of his family. In order to make it big, he will need to make a lot of money, which will help provide for his family. Unfortunately, in the end of the play, Willy sees money as the only way to provide for his family. Upon his death, Willy believes he is getting money. The reader does not know if his family ever recieves the money, however, this is irrelevant. Willy dies knowing that he himself will not get the money, and this money which he wishes to achieve will never be his, thus he can never use it to “make it big.” While he wishes to provide for his family by giving them the right to $20,000, his death will only cause harm to the family, for it will be losing an integral part of itself. I agree that Alejandro’s second statement is relevant to the play, and there is much truth in it. However, I feel that the first statement would be the best statement to map out the spine of the play. I think the second statement seems to be built on the first one.

  3. this does make more sense, i just was asking myself “what is he trying to teach the reader/audience?” i was struggling as i was writing the first post because i felt as though maybe money isnt the means, but then justified it by stating that money is how one protects and cares for their family. in the capitalist society, the intangible (love) has been replaced with the tangible (money). this becomes dangerous because as these two things are equated with one another, an individual replaces the intangible with the tangible. thus, willy’s love for his family eventually becomes the 20,000 dollars earned upon his death.

  4. well, but we don’t even know if they’d receive the money.

    I agree to your actual point, but as we discussed today, I think Miller poses a direct critique as he denounces the eXtremes to which capitalism can take you. kill oneself in the name of THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM

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