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Essay / Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller: Willy's Journey from Despair to Depression
In "Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller addresses the theme of disillusionment and depression, the conflict to make in the face of urbanization and displaced identity. Willy Loman's personality is portrayed with the help of Miller who captures the trauma of someone who cannot compromise and change with the new style of a mechanized and modernized world and therefore suffers from a perpetual neurosis. The different characters like Biff, Happy, Bernard, and Charley help bring out the unique components and nuances of Willy's character. The play focuses on Willy's emotional and psychological journey from a stage of despair to succumbing to depression. The struggle between rationality and the deliberate slippage into the dream world and the character of Willy who truly refuses to see reality make the story realistic and relatable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Willy Loman's character is said to be trapped in adolescence. Although he had reached the age of sixty and was the father of two adult sons, he nevertheless idolized the romantic concept of the rags-to-riches story. For him, his uncle Benjamin represented ideal virility. He is nevertheless fascinated by the secretive air of his uncle who said of his collection of massive wealth: "Well, boys, when I was seventeen, I went into the jungle, and when I I was twenty-one, I left. . [...] And by God I was once rich'. His obsession with masculinity and machismo could be understood as his inability to meet society's expectations of a successful man. He bragged about being a successful salesman during his formative years and tried to take refuge in an imaginative past. He wanted his sons to be what he could not. Willy wanted his sons to be popular, well-known, and well-established, but he failed to see in them the tenacity and diligence necessary to succeed. As a child, Willy experienced apparent and fleeting moments of pleasure and victory, but no longer had the foresight to give the right instructions to his sons. He lived under the illusion that his sons were the most exceptional and brilliant among all the other children in the neighborhood. But when he realized the truth, it was too late. He has become an old man and each of his sons is a man in their thirties who has not yet found a job or a wife. He was even more depressed when he discovered that others were way ahead of him in terms of money, social reputation, and hip kids with impervious futures. Charley, whom he pitied, is the father of a prosperous and renowned son. Willy's disillusionment is complete when he realizes that he had overestimated the plausibility of his children and that he had built false expectations of them. Willy had been blind to the facts when it came to knowing himself. He barely understood himself and his sons who looked like him. His immaturity which made him escape into a vibrant past also prevented him from accepting the existing reality. The lack of ability to face reality and understand his failure increased his pathos and bitterness. His existence seemed stagnant and obsessed with false hopes that his sons would find a foothold in their respective lives. Like Willy, his sons also seemed caught up in their childhood. They seemed in a bad place and nevertheless brooded about their good old years as teachers, their fun, their games and their daughters. Biff, who was curiously more aware than Happy, admits his failure: “..