推销员之死问题

Q1: Is Willy responsible for his sons’ failure in life?Death of a salesman is a typical modern tragedy. Many illnesses of the American society are exposed in this drama. Willy Lowman is the leading role in this play, like his name “Lowman”, being at the bottom of the society. He’s never willing to face the facts but spends all his life living in his dream. Finally he ends himself because of this wrong dream. We think that Willy’s defects in his character results in his sons’ failure in four ways.Firstly, Willy doesn’t accept the fact that he is not good at selling and always brags about how important he is in New England. He educates his sons that: Be likable and charming then you’ll be successful. And he encourages his sons to do more exercise to build a nice figure. For example, he buys a punchbag for his sons. This thought affects his sons deeply and makes his sons have a wrong view of life for a long time. They both think appearance is the most important.Secondly, Willy cares about Biff more than Happy. Since Biff is very young, he starts to regard his father as a hero. Willy thinks Biff is attractive and it isn’t a big deal to steal things. This deliberately neglect of bad behavior finally ruins his son. So we may say Biff lives in a sick atmosphere and so does Happy. Happy is the little son who is always ignored by his father. Happy pays much attention to his hair style and dressing style and enjoys smoking because he thinks these behaviors help him win more preference from others, especially girls. It’s the wrong way of upbringing that makes Happy a selfish man and finally become a womanizer.Thirdly, Willy’s affair affects his son. When Biff finds that his father has another woman, his value system crushes. When Linda is mending the socks in order to save money, his father gives the strange woman a pair of new socks. From that moment, his father is no longer a hero to him. Biff’s world collapses and he bursts out crying. He can’t forgive his father and totally get lost.Fourthly, Willy always complains when he is faced with difficulties. This personal habit also affects his sons a lot. For example, Biff doesn’t pass a math exam. He doesn’t blame himself or try to find the reasons in himself. Instead, he complains that it is a means of revenge planned by his math teacher because he once played a trick on him/her in class.In conclusion, Willy is totally responsible for his sons’failure. Because of his own wrong value system, his unhealthy way of bringing up his children, his one lifelong mistake and some “trivial” personal habits, the whole tragedy happens.Q2: in what sense is Linda responsible for Willy’s tragedy?First of all, let’s look at some information about Linda. We know Linda takes care of the whole family with all her warm heart and patience without any complaint and her love, condone [kən'dəun], care, respect and comfort for her husband Willy are deeply rooted in her mind, however, in "Death of a salesman", Linda can be regarded as a central figure of the destruction of the family because Linda has realized that her family has gone into the abyss [ə'bis] of lies. Linda is the only one that can solve these problems, but she does not do so, because she is also a victim, the only way is to sustain her spoiled love for Willy.Then I will give you some information about Linda’s Personality: Her characteristics can be discovered by paying attention to Artur Miller’s ['ɑ:tuə] parenthetic [,pærən'θetik](附加说明的) stage directions. When she speaks to her sons, Happy and Biff, she can be very stern, confident, and resolute. However, when Linda converses with her husband, it’s almost as if she is walking on eggshells.After our heated discussion, it is evident that Linda is definitely responsible for Willy’s tragedy! The main reasons are as follows:Firstly, Linda’s inability to communicate with her husband heart to heart Although Linda has lived with Willy for a long time, she does not understand her husband at all. We can see that from what she has said at the funeral. She does not understand why her husband wants to die. She just adores her husband but she could not communicate with she husband in the spirit level. Willy endures the mental pain day after day. He could not pour them to his wife because his wife could not understand his ideas. So he only puts all his worries in his heart, which leads to his confused mind. In the end, he could not bear them any more and he kills himself. Secondly, Linda’s excessive love to her childrenHer two sons are too spoiled by Linda, which to some extent leads them to accomplish nothing. One used to stealing and even was thrown to prison, and the other always playing women. But she always says that they are just lost their way. When Willy educates his two sons, Linda prevents his blame on their sons. From one sentence in the article said by Willy:”You are my foundation and my support.”After learning the context, a conclusion can be arrived at that, Willy is upset in that his wife doesn’t support him. Willy feels lonely though his has his wife and sons, but he still feels that no one in the world favors him. He can’t feel warm and love.Thirdly, Linda’s desire to be a good wifeWhen Willie blows up his trumpets, she echoes. When Willy doubts he has "no affinity", she only serves to encourage. When Willy conflicts with his sons , she blames her son, while she never holds responsible for Willie’s mistakes; Even when she is already very clear that Willie has suicidal tendencies, she does not stop him, but still continue to listen to Willie making up excuses in a car accident.Linda's protection has negative results to Willy.These negative results make Willy escape reality and lead him to commit suicide. Because Linda always protects Willy, even she knows Willy has a problem and she covers up these problems from Willy. As a result, Willy does not realize that he has problems in his life and her protectiveness leads him to escape reality.Finally, Linda’s fantasyWhat’s worse, Linda even fantasies of her husband who can persist [pə'sist] through this difficult period at last. She still tries to encourage him to pursue the vision of a dream. Due to her blind love and respect to Willy, Willy is unwilling to face reality, but only knows to maintain his status between his wife and the family. Linda doesn’t do her best to help her husband to realize the reality and overcome the difficulties, but to make her husband arrogant and eventually exhausted. She gives her husband a more possibility and reason to commit suicide.During our discussion, some of us produce some other understanding. They thinkthat Linda understands Willy’s real emotions extremely, but she does not stop because she hopes Willy's death will bring a little change. She pretends to care for her husband, and in fact would prefer he committed suicide so that she can be as simple as life. Linda's husband does not give a husband should have had treatment. Linda is only accessories for Willy, and she forever is the object which rejects. Only when Willy allows her to speak, she can talk. So she has anger with Willy. She hopes that her husband's death can change reality.Right now, it is obviously that Linda has responsible for the death of Willy in many senses!Q3: what do you think of Willy’s death?●Social causes of the death of Willy1.pure commodity economy suppresses human nature纯粹商品经济压制人性In America, labor force is a kind of commodity. When Willy grows old, he can't create value for the company', so he was ruthlessly thrown like "orange peel". For instance, we can refer to some classic lines. When Willy asked for changing his job, Howard refused him. Willy said：“I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, now I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away .”The answer was that “Cause you gotta admit, business is business.” When a person is too old to create value , he should de kicked away, which is the thought of thousands of capitalist in the USA. This is undoubtedly a kind of suppression of human nature.2.distorted values of the whole society 社会上普遍扭曲的价值观In the USA, in order to let the employees make more surplus value, the dominant bourgeois push the American Dream, whose main connotation is money first. Thus, it causes a misleading among the public that without money, a man has nothing.Willy puts the "money first" of the "American dream" as his orientation like most Americans at that time too, so for willy, no wealth means no dignity. This kind of twisted values lead to his final breakdown and suicidal behavior.Willy chose to be as a salesman in that he saw the success of a salesman ,J. P. Morgan. When he achieved nothing those years, he loss the confidence and killed himself.3.Game rule: Survival of the fittest 适者生存的游戏法则In the capitalist society, the game rule is the survival of the fittest. A man cannot have right to survive with a failure in business. At this point, Willy is a fully failure. So the only fate of him is the death.●Unharmonious Family Problems:Willy has stirred tensions（紧张压力不安）with his family. His family is full of dangers and quarrel. We can obtain evidences from the separation of consciousness and the rift缝隙of the mind.1.His Wife:The relationship between Willy and his Wife Linda is even more “complex and interesting”. When he doubted himself, his wife tried to comfort him that he is a competent provider of the whole family and is handsome. Although she does not believe the boast of a salesman, she loves him very much, and she never measures her husband in terms of the success of one’s enterprises or the weight of the wallet.Butwhat Willy needs is not only the tolerate to his lack of self-confidence or characteristics, but also, the nature of “a person and a beloved one”, from the true sense. Willy ignored and lost the chance given by Linda of being honest and confident of admitting the poor living condition, she didn’t want him to act as a salesman even before her, all she has done is to help his avoiding the image of a undesirable.2.His sonsBiff Loman:Willy always laid his impossible American dream on the poor son,which has brought great pressure to Biff. There is arising antagonism对抗性between the father and the son.Biff’s discovery that Willy has a mistress (情妇)strips him of his faith in Willy and Willy’s ambitions for him. Adult Biff never has a stable work.His failure in his work brought much unhappiness and discomfort to Willy.Happy Loman:Happy is the stunted incarnation of Willy’s worst traits and the embodiment of the lie of the happy American Dream.Happy is a difficult character with whom to empathize. Happy is a doomed, utterly duped（易受骗的人）figure, destined to be swallowed up by the force of blind ambition that fuels his insatiable （贪求无厌的）sex drive. He does share Willy’s capacity for self-delusion, trumpeting himself as the assistant buyer at his store, when, in reality, he is only an assistant to the assistant buyer.Q4 : whether we should blame Willy for his affair with another woman? After heated discussion, most of our group members agreed that Willy should be scolded for his unfaithful behavior. The reasons are as followed.First, from the perspective of Willy:Ⅰ.Though Willy is faced with great pressure and depression from job and home, he, as the breadwinner of his family should not resort to extramarital affair to meet his own satisfaction.Ⅱ.He has a retorted value system:Dave Single-men, the greatest of all salesmen that Willy believes, is a success and it is just the respect and gratitude he receives that makes Willy think “selling was the greatest area a man could want”. Willy wants the jobs of sales for its honorable nature and bright prospects, while indeed the substantial elements of which concreted is educational support.Willy’s business philosophy is based on appearance and popularity without mentioning hard work. He is too proud to accept a job from charley. He refuses to acknowledge the fact that he is a fine carpenter and continues to live a life of lies, memories and dreams as smothered businessmen.Willy is at the bottom of the totem pole of capitalistic world .he owns nothing and makes nothing. We might as well consider this affair a more of ego booster than a strong desire for Willy to be involved in an illicit love affair.On the other hand , it shows his tiresome of boring family life and he is actually under the stress of being successful and the so-called American dream. This affair make he himself feel irrigative and relaxed.Secondly，his affair brings much harm to the people involved.Ⅰ.To his wife, Linda: in the script of the play, Authur Miller writes that (Linda) more than loves him, she admires him as though his mercurial nature ,his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as sharp reminders of the turbulent of her husband’s will come to true one day.She is a woman who is docile and perseverant. Whatever happens he will always support his husband.All these show the deep love for her husband. On the standpoint of girl and women, it’s really irresponsible for Willy to have a second woman.Ⅱ.To his sons---Billy and Happy:We conclude from the text that Willy feels quite guilty now or then, but this can’t justify his immoral behavior .it seems unbelievable for us that he could take pride in this affair.The affair more or less directed affects his son s’future. At the time when Biff graduated from high school and fails to enter into university. He wants to seek advice from his father. But what he finds is a total misery to him that his father is secret affair. Definitely it is Willy should bear much of the responsibility of his son’s failure.Ⅲto the second-woman.Willy’s affair with the women not only set s a bad example for and hurt his son a lot, but damages the life of his lover. He betrays his wife, making his wife in great despair, but seeks pretext for his betrayal.He couldn’t communicate with his wife heart-to-heart, nor could he promise the second-women something like abandon his wife and sons completely. He is the man who hurts two women just for the purpose of self-uncontrollable selfishness.Although someone may say that Willy is greatly indicative of the whole society’s fragile “great dream” and individual’s aimlessness. We still consider that we are the master of our lives and can control our immoral temptation.。