{"id":100,"date":"2008-10-16T19:05:22","date_gmt":"2008-10-16T23:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/2008\/10\/16\/idea-and-metaphor-meaning-of-the-title\/"},"modified":"2008-10-19T13:34:50","modified_gmt":"2008-10-19T17:34:50","slug":"idea-and-metaphor-meaning-of-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/2008\/10\/16\/idea-and-metaphor-meaning-of-the-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Idea and Metaphor-Meaning of the Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric HoudekDeath of a Salesman is a play in which the title comes into play throughout the course of the story.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However, it is important to remember that Willy Loman's death was self-inflicted.\u00a0 Death of a Salesman explores the many situations and conditions that have caused Willy to take his own life.\u00a0<\/font> <\/font>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Willy is not the only salesman whose death is mentioned throughout the play.\u00a0 Willy refers to Dave Singleman, a salesman who was still working at the age of eighty-four.\u00a0 Willy cites him as the reason why he went into the occupation of being a salesman.\u00a0 When Willy discusses his death and his funeral, he mentions that there were "hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral."<\/font>\u00a0\u00a0<\/font>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Willy's wife Linda is constantly fearing Willy's death.\u00a0 She tells her boys Biff and Happy that "Your father is dying."\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Willy himself finds much comfort in the prospect of his own death.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He makes a comment to Charley, "-a man is worth more dead than alive."\u00a0 <\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/font>\u00a0\u00a0 The Death of a Salesman <\/em>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.\u00a0<\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\tEDIT by: Sam Beaver\u00a0\u00a0This 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. \u00a0the main ideas to consider here are: \u00a0the nature of the american dream, the extent one will go to create a legacy, and the importance of identity. \u00a0The identity issue can be seen through Singleman in many ways, because though he was a great salesman, he still died alone. \u00a0Willy is only concerned with a meaningless legacy that Singleman left behind. \u00a0What good is it to have hundreds of men you barely know at your funeral? \u00a0Willy neglects his true legacy, his family, in the desperate search for validation that he goes on. \u00a0What we need to take away \u00a0from the title and from Singleman, I think, is the nature of the salesman’s death. \u00a0There is no legacy, they all die alone. \u00a0\u00a0\tMiller uses the title to project the universality of this death on the road, chasing the american dream.\u00a0And this is a dream that, we learn, lacks moral value. \u00a0It is true that Willy eventually loses his morals, but it seems as though he never really had any to begin with. \u00a0Though he often preaches that a man can make a fortune just by working hard and doing his best, his actions contradict this theory completely. \u00a0Miller, in my opinion, is aiming to shed light on the\u00a0perceived\u00a0purity of the american dream. \u00a0Perhaps this is due to the time that we live in, but I would say that Willy’s\u00a0hypocrisy\u00a0is meant to expose the seedy, underhanded nature of such a dream. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0It’s all about who you know. \u00a0\tFinally, one must acknowledge that this play is not called “Death of Willy Loman.”\u00a0He is the subject of the play, but it is not jst about him for the reasons mentioned above. \u00a0The title aims at a situation that befalls many, not just Willy<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric HoudekDeath of a Salesman is a play in which the title comes into play throughout the course of the story.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However, it is important to remember … Continue reading Idea and Metaphor-Meaning of the Title<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[779],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hodge-4-idea-and-metaphor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/script_analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}