学期论文例文

Paper

Submitted to Prof. Terri Tomaszek

By Guo Haixia

6/3/2001

Who Killed Willy Loman?

In American literature, there are two sad versions of the American Dream: one is Fitzgerald‟s Great Gatsby and the other is Arthur Miller‟s Death of a Salesman. Both follow a clear pattern: a dream, then disenchantment, and finally a sense of failure and despair. Both Gatsby and Willy Loman are tragic but Willy is not as successful and “great” as Gatsby. “ Though living … in a rough world‟ where mod ern civilization is suffocating, Willy never seems to be aware of that and keeps on dreaming of success and living in illusions and lies. He dreams of establishing his own business, and of owning a house where there would be space, light and leisure to liv e. He dreams of …big‟ future for his children who, however, inflated with his false praises, turned out to be good for nothing. Willy‟s kind of success is never measured except in terms of dollars ” (Chang 398). At last Willy killed himself, though his wife Linda cannot understand this since she “made the last payment on the house” just after his death (Miller 139). However, what‟s the meaning of the paid-up mortgage to Willy? The mind of Willy had already fallen apart under a pressure too much for him to bear before his death. On the surface it seems that Willy killed himself, but in fact, it is a kind of pressure that pushed him to the death road. Then, what is the pressure?

According to Barnet, the tragic protagonists perhaps act so that they bring their destruction upon themselves, or if their destruction comes from outside, they resist it, and in either case, they come to at least a partial understanding of the causes of their suffering, while pathetic figures, however, are largely passive, unknowing and unresisting innocents (Barnet 231). Willy Loman is tragic since his death comes from both outside and inside.

Just as “a solid vault of apartment houses around” his “small, fragile-seeming house”, at the beginning of the play，symbolizes: Willy is small and fragile, and

eighty-four, sat in his hotel and made a living by telephoning the buyers. He hasn‟t the insight that his son, Biff has, who can realize that “He (Willy) had the wrong dreams.

All, all, wrong”(Miller 138).

The life of a salesman is not optimistic and devoid of worries. As Charley, the passionate businessman says in front of Willy‟s grave:

…for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don‟t put a bolt to a nut, he don‟t tell you the law or give you medicine. He is a way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back---- that‟s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you are finished. Nobody dast blame on this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory. (Miller, 138)

Willy‟s choosing to be a salesman is a mistake. He should have been a carpenter or a building contractor:

Biff: … When he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know something, Charley, there‟s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.

Charley: Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement. (Miller 138)

Willy is too weak and foolish to know himself clearly. He never realizes what he is and what he should be. He just lives in his illusion and idealization of being a successful salesman. This flaw in his character plays an important role in his tragedy. That character is destiny, as some people say, is perhaps true here. His death might be his escape from the harsh reality after the destruction of his dream.

Apart from the social and character factors, the tension between him and Biff is another cause of Willy‟s death. From the beginning of the play, we have kn own that Willy is not clear-minded and is obsessed by some secret. Later we know that it is also this secret that smashed Willy‟s authority as a father, shattered Biff‟s admiration and idealization of Willy, deteriorated the father-and-son relationship, made Biff give up his life and destroyed his future (For more than ten years, he succeeds in nothing and just wanders around). Willy feels guilty for being an adulterer and also for leading to Biff‟s failure in his life. As a father he loves Biff most and is proud of him, so Biff‟s failure in his career is a big hit to him. If the father-and-son relationship is well established and harmonious, perhaps Willy will not undergo and suffer so much such a psychological pressure. He drives himself into an accident and dies willingly in order to secure the life insurance money for his sons. At the end of the play, and before Willy‟s death, there is a moving scene:

Willy (after a long pause, astonished, elevated): Isn‟t that---- isn‟t that remarkable? Biff---- he likes me!