Month: October 2008

Tantalus & Willy: The Metaphor of the Man

By Sam Beaver Alright, here’s my final piece.. 

  • I’ve been thinking about the final metaphor of the play, and went through a pretty strange process.  i at first began thinking about what keeps Willy from achieving his goals, because it seems as though this is the central conflict of the story.  His goal, we decided in our discussion, is to make it big in the bsiness world AND support and care for his family.  As we narrowed down his goals  to these two general statements, we realized that even these fit into a larger, more fully encompassing description if what Willy wants.  That is to say, he wants the American Dream.  The jungle, for willy, is the how of that dream.  He perceives the jungle story as a  coming of age story, where Ben stepped in a poor boy and stepped out a rich man.  Alejandro stated that Willy never really grasped the full idea of the jungle, only taking the object of wealth as the important factor in the jungle.  What Willy fails to see about this American Dream is the PROCESS.  He is too caught up in the “make it big easy” idea, for this is why he went into being a salesman in the first place.  Why work with your hands when you can make it big as a salesman!  But he realizes that he actually can’t make it big as a salesman because of his idea of the American Dream as something “magical,” an illusion that will sweep him up as long as he smiles and gets to know people.  As we see, these illusions manifest themselves as characters of Willy’s past, reaffirming his own strange beliefs.  When he begins to discover his inability to be a big shot salesman, he begins to create his own illusion for his children and family.
  • His relationship with The Woman, therefore, is the presentation of his inability to do honest work and make a living from it.  It is also the presentation of his strong desire to make money in the business world.  Because he needs to set up this illusion for his family, he fails them.  So when Biff finds Willy and the woman together, it reveals how Willy’s need for money has isolated him from his family.  Of his two goals, as he tries to reach one of them, the other slips out of his grasp.
  • And the same works in the reverse.  He had opportunities to get rich before, such as going out of the country with Ben.  If you remember, he does not do this because he had to stay home with his wife and children instead of walking “into the Jungle.”  From this point on, every venture that he goes on is subconsciously trying to make up for the fact that he missed his chance to go get rich with Ben.  So in the same way that his need for money isolates his family, his need for his family isolates him from money.
  • This is what I like to describe through the Tantalus metaphor.  Each attempt Tantalus makes to reach the food and water that are right next to him, they scurry out of his reach.  His thirst for these things is what stops him from getting them.  It is the same with Willy’s American Dream.  He strives for money, and loses his family.  He strives to love his family, and misses opportunities to make money. 
  • Lastly, I think I’d just like to add in that bit that i threw out in the discussion about the beatles song.  I really can’t think of a better metaphor for the play than “Money can’t buy me love” and combined with the other posts from ALejandro and Eric i think we have the true ideas and metaphors of the play.

The paradox and importance of the title. How the metaphore relates to the idea.

The paradox and importance of the title
Willy, the salesman, kills himself in the name of what he perceives; that is capitalism. This is the critique Miller puts forward. He does so by exposing the paradoxical nature of a system. This paradox is exposed by their constant appearances and recurrence.

“Killing in the name of” by Rage Against the Machine, has death as first word and name as for salesman.  Willy kills in the name of capitalism. This metaphorical analogy is crucial because Willy kills himself, so he kills. And the in the name of, can be applied to the different plausible reasons for why he committed suicide. he killed himself in the name of money, for 20 thousand. he killed himself in the name of family, although he misperceives the value of his life, as put forward by the constant paradox behind the idea. The world is meant to be paradoxical, but it is not meant! (QUOTING MYSELF in terms of existentialism in extension to what i have said in my other post)

Additions to the Character Chart

The chart that Logan posted looks great, especially the lists of adjectives.

There are just a few things I might add.

1. I like that you noted Willy’s plain attire, and I think it is also important to note Willy’s age, despite his often childish irritability and attitude. Miller makes a point of saying that Willy is “dressed tiredly.” Also, Willy is reluctant to get new glasses, so he is wearing old ones. Willy is past sixty years of age and has been worn down over the years.

2. Happy is described as “well-built” and he is also ambitious, but living in delusion, just like his father. Happy is also self-centered, vain, and hedonistic.
Thanks!

-Mary Beth

Willy’s Religion

Adam B. Ferguson

Even though direct religion is never openly discussed in this book an almost “different” kind of religious outlook is prevalent.  Willy’s strive for success no matter what the cost and his views of the American dream almost become of a type of a religion to him.  The idea remains “holy” to him.  Willy also comes from another “religious” approach by referring to Greek mythological gods or over exaggerating things.  He has the tendency to make people mythological and godly which leads to his overall delusional state of mind.  He speaks of Dave Singleman as a legend and imagines that his death must have been beautifully noble. Willy compares Biff and Happy to the mythic Greek figures Adonis and Hercules. He believes his sons are the epitome of "personal attractiveness" and power through "well liked"-ness and to him they seem to be the very incarnation of the American Dream.  It is these jaded visions and over exaggerated stories that cause Willy to view the world in a godly manner.  Through his jaded glasses, Willy fails to realize the hopelessness of Singleman’s lonely, on-the-job, on-the-road death. By trying to reach what he considers to be Singleman’s heroic status, Willy commits himself to a pathetic death and meaningless legacy Similarly, neither Biff nor Happy ends up leading an ideal, godlike life; while Happy does believe in the American Dream, it seems likely that he will end up no better off than the decidedly ungodlike Willy.  So although religion of an organized, westernized, or even any religion, is not necessarily mentioned, the ideas of many religions and beliefs are scattered throughout.  Willy also appears to create a religion of his own where he actively seeks the American Dream as if on a pilgrimage to the (un)holy land.

Societal American Dream

Adam B. Ferguson

Willy becomes so enthralled in the American Dream that he is willing to sacrifice most everything to get what he wants.  This sacrifice includes his son Biff.  Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to want the same dream as him.  Like father like son? However, when Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection very personally and sees it as vengful and spiteful. Since Willy is a salesman, he is distraught when he cannot even sell his son the idea of the societal American Dream.  Biff’s rejection is like a rejection of society to Willy.  The American dream is like a disease that cannot be cured in Willy.  Instead of being cured, however, Willy is further contaminated by society and its definition of success in a materialistic sense.

Society’s Effects

Adam B. Ferguson

Willy’s struggle and hardhips throughout his time reveals the pressure of society to not only achieve but to achieve greatness. In order to achieve and live the American Dream (either that of society or of Willy), social, political and economic envirornments are affected. Throughout his life Willy experiences much despair and abandonment which in the end affected his feature and him as an individual. From early on Willy’s visions and ideas of society are tainted leaving him wanting more for something he didn’t have. Things which society projected as good and successful traints. Wi Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy at a young age which leaves him wanting the tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy he has always yearned to have. Willy’s actions as well as thos events which ahve affected him, eventually push him to strive for the unreachable American Dream. Willy considers his son Biff to be the embodiment of promise and wants to achieve success and reach his dream through him / for him. However, Biff is unable to succeed in business which further estranges the two. This shows how much society and Willy’s outlandish ideas derived from societal beliefs has affected Willy to the core.At Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the verge of succes. However Biff and Happy shatter this illusion of Willy. It is then that Willy has reached a point where he loses all control. This “let down” leaves Willy derranged and babling in the washroom. Not only can Willy no achieve his warped American Dream but neither can his son. Willy values money and business success over the true success and hapiness of himself as well as his family. He believes that if he reaches that unreachable dream he will be happy because society says he should be happy. If he has a pretty wife, a good job where he makes good money, a car, and a nice house that he will be happy. However, even if Willy ever achieved these things – would he even be happy?

Dialogue- Images

In “Death of a Salesman” Miller chooses not to rely as heavily on spoken images, but rather to create them physically on stage. Instead of merely have a character tell a story, he shows it to us. However, dialogue is nonetheless important in creating images, with the image of Willy's insanity being perhaps the most important. Without his broken speech, drifting off into other times and places, we would not have the sense of how shattered he is. His speech right before he kills himself about Biff's football is a good example of this. He is completely disconnected from the world at hand, first telling Biff how to handle the game, and then suddenly drifting off into talking to Ben. We see how disjointed his mind is, yet also how clear his focus can be, never leaving behind his chance for riches, only in this case it involves taking his own life.