FACETS OF REALITY: DEATH OF A SALESMAN PERSPECTIVE

Gunjan Jagwani, Researcher, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, M.P.

ABSTRACT

A person's REALITY plays a vital role in his life, how a person sees his life and his realities, makes him unique, and his perspective in the society is also navigated by the same. But there is definitely more than one kind of reality that exists in this world, the first and foremost is the objective reality which is same for all and based on facts and figures, the second one is subjective reality that one mends in his own subconscious according to his objective reality, his desires, wishes and individual understanding. Death of a Salesman is one such play where Arthur Miller has brilliantly explored the facets or faces of reality throughout the play through the life of the protagonist of his play “Willy Loman”. This paper aims to explore the objective and subjective reality of the characters of the play and how Willy Loman’s subjective reality manipulates the realities of other main characters in the play as well. The method used in this research paper is “ Descriptive Qualitative method” to thoroughly analyze the play to attain the enviable outcome.

Keywords: Reality, Illusion, Subconscious, Objective reality, Subjective reality, American Dream.

INTRODUCTION

“ The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy.”(Miller)

Death of a Salesman is a modern tragedy written by “Arthur Miller”. The play takes place in Brooklyn (America) in 1949. The play explores the struggle of a man named “Willy Loman”. Who is a salesman but he has very big dreams for himself and his family and he dedicates his entire life to achieve all those dreams and desires but now that he has turned 63, he is tired and dull with his sense of failure which often comes out as frustration on his family because he couldn’t achieve his dreams and neither did his sons who Willy has always looked upon as a proud father. Willy Loman is embodiment of THE AMERICAN DREAM in the play. The American Dream is a set of belief that anyone can achieve success through hard work and perseverance and Willy Loman has just tried to do the same all his life and failed miserably. But now as he is old and weak his subconscious couldn’t take the pain of his failures, so it tricks him into making another reality in his mind where he has started hallucinating his past life where he was young, his sons are in school and he is telling them tales of how he is so well liked by his clients and other reputed personalities in the New England where he travels to make the sales. Although they were all lies and mere tales but it gave Willy a sense of recognition in his own family because he couldn’t get it elsewhere, his sons have admired him for being well liked by so many people and that gave him the validation, he was trying to find, the validation that he craved so much that it made him desperate do anything to get it.

As Willy has set his subjective reality to prevent him with all the guilt and disappointment of failure other main characters of the play especially his sons (Biff and Happy) have done the same to somehow survive their lives. Although they have done all this cope up with their lives, but these illusions in return makes their lives more miserable because they have lost the touch with reality of the moment. And as the play progresses the reader observes that the foundation of most of the illusions of Willy’s sons or wife was Willy himself, because he although unintentionally have set the false standards in his son’s minds which were too high to achieve with a false belief that anything below that benchmark is a disgrace. His sons have borne the weight of their father’s illusions almost all there lives because they have believed it to be there reality and that never kept them happy and they were always dissatisfied in there life, professional and personal.

The next victim of Willy’s illusions was his wife “Linda”. A very loving mother and more than that a devoted wife. Linda’s love for Willy is endless and unchanging, but Willy doesn’t appreciate her efforts and love most of the time. She is the most neglected family member by Willy but she is the only one who would put Willy’s happiness before her sons and even herself. She knows Willy the best, she understand his exhaustion of the failures he has dealt with, she is the one standing by his side in his dark times and does the best to protect him from his own demons as well as his sons who are now adults and blame their father for their failures. Her only delusion is her love for Willy because it is so profound that she cannot see his unfaithfulness in their marriage.

The last two characters which are minor in nature but play a huge role in the play are “Charlie” Willy’s neighbor, his only confidant and Charlie’s son “Bernard”. These two characters in the play represents that even in a world where people are greedy, selfish and think about themselves and nothing else, there are still some people who care about their close ones even if they are not getting anything out of that relationship. Charlie was the only friend of Willy and he tries to understand his situations as much as he can, he knows that Willy is jealous of him but still he offers Willy job in his company several times and every time Willy rejects his offer out of arrogance, he still helps him and lends him money. Bernard on the other hand considers Biff his friend and cares selflessly for him he only wishes him the best, although in his younger days Willy mocked him about how studious he is, or how uptight he is, but still Bernard has nothing bitter for either Willy or Biff, even he is concerned about Biff’s career because he considers him his friend.

All of these characters in the play are crucial to the plot and development of drama but most importantly they are crucial in understanding what were the mindset of people in 19^th century and how people were coming up with their facets of reality. Because this was a time of development and as development transpires, whether it is good or bad, chaos follows. And that’s what miller tried to portray in Death Of A Salesman. Through the character of Willy Loman especially, he portrayed the mental turmoil of a middleclass man, who tried to do the best for his family and himself but failed, can develop a self-destructive mindset. Which is not only destructive for him but for his family as well.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To achieve the desired outcome of this research, the author has read the play thoroughly and conducted a comprehensive review of published researches on “Death of a Salesman” to analyze the context of the play in depth and identify the gap between current research and areas which can be further explored. As for the textual analysis, the author has performed a thorough reading of the play, focusing on the character development of the characters (Willy, Linda, Biff, Happy, Charlie, and Bernard), themes of the play (American Dream, Identity, Illusion versus reality etc.) with symbols used in the play to convey the ideas which contributes to the plot development of the play and last historical context of the play to understand the background of the play, the circumstances, writer of the play wanted to portray.

The methods used in this research paper are descriptive and qualitative methods. For in-depth study of the literature piece “Death of a Salesman” by “Arthur Miller” as a modern, psychological novel.

ANALYSIS

Death Of A Salesman includes a variety of themes to the readers like American Dream, struggles of changing times, identity, role of societal acceptance and many more profound themes as such, but one of the theme it emphasized the most is illusion vs. reality. How a person who fails to achieve his desired life can become so disheartened that in his mind just to seek some comfort it makes oneself hallucinating the past, just like the mind of a traveler in desert, makes the traveler see the mirage. Just like that the protagonist of the play Willy Loman suffers from hallucinations due to his failures at achieving his dreams and being well liked by the people he worked with, instead when he started getting old, the company in which he served for most of his life discarded him like an orange peel after eating the orange. Even his sons failed to understand him in his difficult times. But not just Willy but his family members too suffered from the same kind of mirage that kept them from living the life they wished to live. Everyone in the Loman family has the destructive rift between reality and illusion starting with-

Willy Loman

Willy Loman is the head of the Loman family and protagonist of the play. He used to love being outdoors for his work in New England and when he visited his family, he told so many tales about how the most influential people of the state like him and respect him so much, how the police of New England guards his car wherever he parks in the state, but unfortunately these were all just mere tales. And he knew about his situation as he discusses it with his wife but still is not able to accept it as it is. Now Willy is 63 and he an old and tired man who doesn’t want to travel anymore because his body doesn’t support him to do so. He loves outdoors and despises this fast changing world around him profoundly because when he sees the world and how fast it is growing it makes him subconsciously feel like a failure. He despises all the new things around him, cars, cheese, buildings it reminds him of his disappointments. That’s where the deception Willy has made for himself comes into action, in this deception he portrays New England as a place where he is respected and well-liked by everyone. He now seeks comfort in his past hallucination where his sons admired him. He sees the time when Biff and Happy were kids and he spoiled them badly, validating their actions even if there are not right, like once Biff stole football from the school and he stated that as an act of courage rather than stealing, also he used to criticize Bernard on being studious and good student so that it will make Biff feel superior. But his truths are different from his illusions he has a house where no one lives and he is lonely, the apartment houses make him feel claustrophobic and he wants to get out of that place and go somewhere natural, his debts are weighing on him, his clients laugh at him, he has to borrow from Charlie to support his family, also he has been dishonest with his wife and the guilt eats him up every day. He also sees the spirit of his late brother Ben who always advices him to go to forest and fetch diamonds out of it which symbolically mean that the forest is death and diamond is his life insurance money which his family will get after his death. And to acquire these so-called diamonds he is ready to take his life and he does in the end of the play. He not only made himself a part if this delusion but also made his sons the part of his delusion and they paid the price of it most of their lives.

Biff

Biff is the elder son of the family also he can be called the second protagonist of the play. From the glimpses of his younger life it is easy to observe that Biff was a promising child of the family. He has offer letters from 3 popular colleges, was good in sports, well liked and popular among female students of the school too. Biff was the favorite child of Willy and he spoiled him and validated his action to an extent that Biff’s stealing the football was an act of fierceness rather than something punishable. And this treatment made Biff think so highly of himself that he couldn’t bear the idea of being ordinary or, ordinary was something to loathe for Biff because according to Willy and his teachings the only person who is well liked and extra ordinary is something to be proud of, living an ordinary life was never cherished in Loman household. But one day when Biff visited his father after failing his math paper he saw “A Woman” in Willy’s room whom Willy had an affair with and because that woman helped getting Willy more sales. This event shocked Biff to the core and he decided not to give the math test again and he left for a job instead, so that he doesn’t need to see his father because now he loathed him and all his delusions about his father vanished. But the delusion instilled in him by Willy of how superior he is, was still luring in this mind and Biff was acting on it without even realizing. He changed 20 to 30 jobs but never got the sense of belonging anywhere he worked because of he thought of himself that every job for him was never enough, he was always yearning for something more. And at last he got job in the farm with lesser pay but he was happy there, working in outdoors but again his yearning of becoming something more brought him home, so that he could find a way to earn more.

Biff is the character whose reality got effected the most by Willy’s actions but also the character who learned from his mistakes. When Biff went for to his former employer “Bill Oliver” and he didn’t acknowledge his presence and he took a fountain pen from his office as an act of vengeance. Which later he realized was an act of rebellion instead, because according to Willy, Biff was always well liked and him not getting acknowledged by Bill did hurt his ego and he took Bill’s pen and later when he realized that it was all done by his subconscious mind because of the school of thoughts instilled by Willy, he confronted Willy and accepted his truth. Biff is indeed the second protagonist of the play because he decided not to weigh himself with false ideas and living in the reality and with that he shed the burden of Willy’s expectations too. The character development and accepting the truth in end makes him a true protagonist.

Happy

Happy is the younger son of the family. He wasn’t much talked about and usually ignored by Willy in his childhood, as the attention of Willy was reserved for Biff. And as he didn’t pay much heed to it when he was younger, it weighed heavy in his adult life. The character of Happy is the victim of child neglect in the play and its consequences are depicted in his later life. As an adult, Happy works in a departmental store and he is neither happy nor satisfied with his life because he always feel that this is not the job for him and that he has to lower his standards every day in his work, he feels his co-workers live a pretentious life and he doesn’t want to a part of that life.

Although he has everything for a comfortable life, his own apartment, car and everything he needs to live a content life but he still has the sense of competition towards other which is the biggest consequence of child neglect that can be observed in Happy. He wishes his merchandise manager to die so that he can get his place, he has inappropriate relations with his co-workers’ fiancés that feed his sense of competition, and his yearning to be superior in some way because he never got the attention of his parents and now. Athough unintentionally this constant urge of being in competition with everyone is just an act of vengeance and jealousy for those who are better than him. It does bother him but he thinks it’s the right way of living life, even after Willy’s death he decides to stay the same even after Biff trying to tell him the truth and bring him into reality because he thinks it’s the right way to live the life and his father was right and Happy wanted to prove Willy right.

Linda

Linda is Willy’s wife and mother of Biff and Happy. Linda knows and loves Willy like no other, her world rotates around Willy. She knows about Willy’s depriving mental health, his suicide attempts and the cause of it. She knows that Willy is getting exhausted and she blamed her sons as they were no help in Willy’s condition, instead she blamed Biff because whenever he visited home, Willy’s mental health declines even more than before, not knowing that it was Willy’s own guilt that starts purging out when he saw Biff because of the hotel accident where Biff saw him with another woman and that made Willy’s hallucination worse. Linda is the only family member who cared about Willy, but Willy in return never appreciated her presence in his life. Also it reminded him of his disloyalty towards Linda, he never liked Linda mending her stockings because he gifted one of her stockings to his mistress. The stockings made him remember his betrayal and therefore the guilt.

Linda though never appreciated by Willy was never bothered by the lack of attention, she loved him selflessly, more than her sons and even herself. This was the only because she never suspected Willy’s betrayal, her only illusion was her love for Willy and therefore even after being conscious about the lengths Willy can go to achieve his ambitions, it never occurred to her that Willy can cheat on her to get his dreams fulfilled. At willy’s funeral she wasn’t able to cry because it felt like one of his business trip to her and that he will come back.

Charlie

Charlie is the neighbor of Willy and his only friend or confidant. He tried to understand Willy as much as he can, understand his condition and always was ready to help him. For helping him he offered a job to him several times but Willy rejected him and, in his mind, he was superior to Charlie, which made him reluctant to take a job under him. Also he is jealous of what Charlie has but Willy does not. Charlie knows that Willy is in competition with him but he never hesitated to help him. Even when he rejects the job Charlie offered, he is ready to help him and lent money to him so that he can support his family. Charlie was the only person other than Linda who genuinely cared for Willy and tried to bring him to the reality whenever he gets a chance but failed every time. Also he was one of the five people who were present for his funeral, whereas none of the people Willy knew bothered to come for his funeral.

Bernard

Bernard is Charlie’s son and the classmate of Biff. Bernard to Biff is what Charlie is to Willy, he cares for Biff even though they were never that close and Willy mocked Bernard for most of his childhood, he still considered Biff his friend. In high school he tried to warn Biff for failing the math paper and when they were adults he tried to find reason of why Biff drop out of the college but he never got an answer to that question. He also was one of the five people who were present in Willy’s funeral.

CONCLUSION

Willy chased his illusions all his life, somewhere or the other he taught his children to do the same and they indeed paid a big price for chasing their Illusions. Through hard work and perseverance a person can achieve everything, it is true but losing the touch with the reality just to chase your ambitions can actually make you lose more than you gain.

Willy had a loving home, a wife who loved him dearly, sons who adored him and this was reality of life but just because of his ambition he betrayed his wife and lost the connection with his sons. And whenever Charlie tried to bring him back to reality, and see the mistakes that he made, he was reluctant because it would bring him a greater grief.

Ben once offered Willy to come with him to Africa for helping him in his diamond business, but he refused the offer by getting inspired by a salesman in his 80s making calls and selling things even in that age and when he died all his client and friends were gathered there to pay their grievances. That made Willy take the job as salesman and he thought he would acquire all that old salesman had, but when Ben spirit visited him for the last time and told him about going to the Forest which is a symbol of Death, to fetch the Diamonds which is a symbol of Insurance money, he tried to commit suicide again and succeeded this time. His family did get insurance money and paid all their debts but there was no one present in his funeral other than Linda, Biff, Happy, Charlie, and Bernard.

References

· Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. January 1, 1949.

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· Nabi, Asmat. “American Dream In The Death of a Salesman”, Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR). JETIR1701484, vol.2, issue 3, March 2015, p-550-555.http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701484.pdf

· Sumarsono,Irwan. “THE ILLUSION OF WILLY LOMAN’S IN ARTHUR MILLER’S DEATH OF A SALESMAN”, dinamika: Jurnal Sastra Dan Bundaya, vol. 7, 2 December 2019, P-770-777.http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irwan-Sumarsono/publication/337918020_THE_ILLUSION_OF_WILLY_LOMAN'S_IN_ARTHUR_MILLER'S_DEATH_OF_A_SALESMAN/links/5df341774585159aa4794098/THE-ILLUSION-OF-WILLY-LOMANS-IN-ARTHUR-MILLERS-DEATH-OF-A-SALESMAN.pdf

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· Hooti, Noorbakhsh, Farzaneh Azizpour. “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: A Postmodern Study”, Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 1 , issue 8, 2010, p.15-28. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/50934204_Arthur_Miller's_Death_of_a_Salesman_A_Postmodernist_Studyhttps://