Month: October 2008

IDEA

A. Meaning of the Title

Death of a Salesman.

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. I like this metaphorical analogy. 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.

B. Nominative Phrase That Expresses Meaning of the Play

“When the means to an end become the end, the end itself prompts the end of the common man”

C. Philosphical Statements Made In The Play

Willy: Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off ahouse. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it.(Pg. 15)

Willy: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!" (Pg. 16)

Willy: The world is an oyster but you don't crack it open on a matress!(Page 41)

Charley: When a deposit bottle is broken you don't get your nickel back.(Page 44)

Willy: Without a penny to his name, three great universities are begging for him, and from there the sky's the limit, becuse it's not what you do, Ben. It's who you know and the smile on your face! It's contacts, Ben, contacts!(Page 86)

Howard: Kid, I can't take blood from a stone(Pg. 81)

Linda:Linda: Biff, a man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.(Pg. 54)

Bernard: Yeah, I'm going. He takes the bottle. Thanks, Pop. He picks up his rackets and bag. Good-by Willy, and don't worry about it. You know, "If at first you don't succeed€¦"

Willy: Yes I believe in that.

Bernard: But sometimes, Willy, it's better for a man just to walk away.

Willy: Walk away?

Bernard: That's Right

Willy: But what if you can't walk away?

Bernard, after a slight pause: I gues that's when it's tough.(Page 95)

Charley:Willy, when're you gonna realize that them things don't mean anything? you named him Howard, but you can't sell that. the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you're a salesman and don't know that.(Page 97)

Willy, moving to the right: Funny, y'know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointment, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.(Page 98)

Willy: A man can't go out the way he came in, Ben, a man hast got to add up to something.(Page 125)

Biff: Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you.(132)

Charley: No man only needs a little salary.(137)

D. How the Action Leads Directly To The Idea

The following is a listing of the crucial actions which lead to the idea.

-Willy makes the decision to become a salesman (after meeting Mr. Singleman)

-Will argues with Howard, asserting the characteristics of his own ideal salesman, resulting in the loss of his job.

-Willy asks Bernard what his secret to success is.

-Biff argues with Willy, telling him he will leave forever, and cries.

-Willy takes his own life.

-Linda makes her final statement to Willy.

Upon making the decision to become a salesman after meeting Mr. Singleman, Willy embarks upon a journey that will end with the taking of his own life. Flashing forward many years, Willy has an argument with his boss Howard, in which he stresses ideals that conflict with the reality of a salesman. Willy's inability to convince his boss to let him keep his job, while he had gone to his boss with intentions of getting a better job in New York, leaves Willy without a job. This leaves Willy without a means to support his family and a glimmer of hope to make it big. When Willy runs into Bernard, he asks him what the big secret to success is. Bernard responds by basically telling Willy that hard work is what it takes, and the reason for the downfall of Willy's son Biff is that Biff was never prepared for future work himself. When Biff tries to give him advice, Willy refuses to accept it by saying he does not need that garbage. He, by doing what has been previously stipulated, rejects his son. These assertions clearly identify that Willy is using the wrong means to go about getting what he wants, leaving the reader to infer that Willy's delusional view of the world contributes to his demise.(and his sons') As the play nears an end, Willy has one final argument with his son Biff, where his son expresses that he will leave forever. However, during this argument, Biff cries, indicating to Willy that his son still has love for him. Upon this realization, Willy is driven to make the ultimate sacrifice, killing himself for the "well being" of his family, in which they will receive a $20,000 reward. However, it is after Willy's death that his warped sense of reality is concretely displayed to the reader. Biff states that he will be moving West, showing the reader that Willy's death has had no effect on him. If there is a cash reward, Biff will certainly not be using it. Linda explains that she cannot understand why Willy has acted the way he has. She clearly identifies the paradox of Willy's actions by saying that she has finished paying off the house, but there is nobody to live in it. This paradox which is expressed throughout the course of the play, is that of a man within the system of capitalism, crucial to Arthur Miller's critique of the American dream, and postwar writings of the twentieth century.

Metaphor

You can’t get love from stone.

Willy, is a man who is influenced by the American dream. His goal is to make it big in the business 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.

As the play progresses and eventually comes to an end, it is proven that Willy’s methods to achieve success are greatly flawed. Willy’s delusional nature is illustrated through his failure, willingness to to embrace his methods after failure, and literal delusions from the past. As the play comes to an end, Willy’s misunderstanding of the process is still greatly flawed. He ends up killing himself for his family, when all he does is hurt his family. This greatly ties in to the metaphor of “you can’t get love from a rock,” similar to statements in the play such as ” I can’t squeeze blood from stone and “You can’t break an oyster on a mattress.” Willy’s inability to understand the process and reality are what pull him farther and farther away from what he wants.

BY ALEJANDRO SEIJAS

"Ben: when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty one. And, by God, I was rich!"

Willy:€¦ was rich! That's just the spirit I want to imbue them with! To walk into a jungle! I was right! I was right! I was right!"(52)

(The following analysis of the action is through what these quotes evoke of the general metaphor of the play). THE ACTION THAT IS MOST PROMINENT IN THESE TWO QUOTES IS TE CONTINUOUS REINFORCING OF WILLY. As he says: “I was right!…”

why? because it leads to the basic idea of the play. He misperceives reality because of being caught in a framed state of mind given that, at the same time, he has misperceived the American Dream. The means to the end. The capitalist dilemma/ paradox which makes of people, the ends, the means to an end! It is due, and by, to the complicated and bizarre nature of the idea of Capitalism, its paradoxical nature as misperceived by the common man, the fact that it is ethereal and in air, an idea, that Miller criticizes the referred state of affairs. It is with the the idea of this story, the story of Willy and his family, his house, his neighbors, that the sorts of actions as the one aforementioned gain significance.it is in relation to the immediate context, and by focusing on specific details, that Millers makes the life and death of man an analogy for the failure of the American Dream; not as an idea only, but, directly, to its people who represent the ends. These people, like Willy, have names (in the name of), perceive status and profession as they see them in themselves. They are salesmen caught in the constant hustle of traveling, as perceived by Willy in his adulthood but not in the memories of how he used to be.

The actions in the very beginning of the play elucidate that stubbornness so characteristic of Willy, which in turn condemn him. He doesn’t perceive things clearly!!!!!! but he says he does!!!!

“LINDA: Maybe it’s your glasses. you never went for your new glasses.

WILLY: No, I see everything. I came back ten miles an hour. It took me nearly four…”( p.13)

Because he is caught up in his old ways he is not able to strive forward and make it in the real world; because he is caught up in reminiscences. But, here, Miller is not saying this romanticism or idealism is bad. Rather, he poses through counterpoint, paradox, that Willy’s ideas, way of thinking, defeat their purpose in the context of the American Dream; which is to be achieved through the bizarre and not benign system of Capitalism. He is criticizing at times of war! immediately after the big wars. In the context of the twentieth century, this idea of opposing the system and state of affairs seems very ‘ooohhhh”, soft and inconcrete/incorporeal, but it really isn’t. The influence of Existentialism as a philosophical current is tremendous, particularly, in the world of Theatre. These influences must not be disregarded.

So, the actions, as depicted by his dialogs, although I am not saying that speaking is acting, concede through reinforcements, as meant in the psychological sense, the blur of the world he perceives in mis-perception.

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There is a constant reference to nature. The jungle Image works as a metaphor for the whole play. This metaphor conveys the idea of a world which hasn't been tamed. The Image also puts forward the idea, which speaks of how, like the world/reality, the jungle is a place where one can learn to tame oneself by getting immersed in it. That's what I interpret of the words of Ben's character, although I recognize that the reminiscence it represents on stage can, directly, mean an interpretation of Willy's memory. As stated by Eric, and acknowledged by Sam in the meeting, he is delusional. He is so because he misperceives reality. Reality represents the world in which he dwells. The American Dream, as connoted by his constant reminiscences is and illusion, a big Dream.

The American Dream is divided into two parts, money and family, for the sake of the argument about idea.

One thing is to immerse oneself into a Dream, and another one completely different is to get immersed in the actual jungle; into something real, concrete; with components like money and family.

Metaphor: THE CONCRETE JUNGLE —The city, which is something real. (All the different cities he visits).

THE CONCRETE JUNGLE —Appears as something real, concrete. Jungle appears as a representation of a system which is palpable. (Biff has been to war which is something real. This example I use as counterpoint to Willy's because he is been around and about but always caught in THE NAME OF, the outlook of things, what he thinks they represent, instead of their essence. He is caught up on the idea he has of.
Tracing back to the analysis on Jungle as a world untamed, I'll keep on expanding.

Another important idea that justifies the different metaphors is time. Between the ages of 17 and 21, is representational of the stage of Willy's life when he didn't dare to explore, when he didn't dare to go to Alaska. Biff on the contrary, hadn't had that choice. He is a war veteran who happens to have been at war, in the concrete jungle. Somebody who has been to a war has a perception of life and, probably, a more realistic idea of what value represents. HE KNOWS THE VALUE OF LIFE AND DEATH. He's had first hand experience. Thus money, although it might represent a means to something, is not an end; or could be depreciated in value.

Where is the paradox in this idea?

One of the two elements of the American Dream is family. By killing himself, Willy, does not understand the value of his life to his beloved. As counterpoint, Biff, a veteran, does.

Money, the other element, plays the role of being the most prominent influence which acts detrimentally in pos of the Dream achievement/realization

(I'll continue expanding in a while)

Eric Houdek 

1. Shell on the mattress analogy. (Willy p.41)(full quote)

Willy: What’s the mystery?  The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it.  Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich.  The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!

2. Bird comment. ( Linda to Biff p.54)( full quote)

Linda: Biff, a man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.

3. JUNGLE (Ben's and Willy's response p.52) (full quote)

Ben, giving great weight to each word, and with a certain vicious audacity: William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen.  When I walked out I was twenty-one.  And, by God, I was rich!  He goes off into the darkeness around the right corner of the house.

Willy:…was rich!  That’s just the spirit I want to imbue them with!  To walk into a jungle!  I was right!  I was right!  I was right!

By Eric Houdek

I will assume that our nominal phrase which expresses the meaning of the play is “When the means to an end become the end, the end itself prompts the end of the common man.”

-Willy’s decision to become a saleseman.  This decision is made in the assumption that he will be able to make a lot of money, which will help him to provide for his family and “make it big.”  Willy explains that he has had other opportunities for employment, but he makes the decision to become a salesman because he has met Dave Singleman. 

Just starting it off…I will continue to add….