Death

A detailed Summary of Death

Do we have the ability to control our destiny? The truth is this, one can set their goals and try to attain them and one can dreams their dreams and try to live them but the difference must be known. The character Willy Loman, in the play Death of A Salesman, seems to be a person who is not aware of the difference in reality and dreams. Willy's choices throughout his life undeniably lead to his own demise. Willy Loman is a tragic hero. His fear is that he wants to be viewed as a good, decent human being. He wants to believe that he's a well-liked, decent person who doesn't make mistakes. The truth is that he makes mistakes, many that haunt him, and that he is human. Willy does not consider this normal and severely regrets such failures such as raising his children poorly, as he sees it, not doing well in business, though he wishes he were, and cheating on his wife Linda, showing her to be a commodity of which he takes advantage. Linda has a true, pure love for her husband. Linda stands behind him through it all, through his dreams and broken promises, she still believes in him. "The quality in such plays that does shake us... derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our cho

sen image of what and who we are in the world" (Miller, "Tragedy..."). Willy's "underlying fear of being displaced" is the real tragedy. He wants to do things right, but the fact is he has many incidences that haunt him. Consistently throughout the play, Willy drifts in and out of a dream. He is constantly haunted by memories of his dead brother Ben who struck it rich the jungle. He also has flashbacks of incidents that haunt him in other areas. For example, the sequence in which Biff catches Willy with a woman other than Linda. This haunts Willy because he sees it as part of why Biff does not love him. "Tragedy then is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly" (Miller, "Tragedy..."). This is Willy's flaw. The circumstances in his life and the identity he has created for himself are being affronting by his inner reality to "evaluate himself justly." This flaw is "...his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image or his rightful status" (Miller, "Tragedy..."). Indeed this is the case with Willy. He decides to take action rather than complacently become outdated. Willy continually argues with those around him in order to try to keep his personal dignity. These include his argument with Howard that he can still sell, his arguments with Charley over the card game and the job, and his argument with Biff about not being "a dime a dozen." "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman" (Miller, Death... 132)! Willy, in addition to meeting Miller's definition of a tragic hero, in a way connects

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Approximate Word count = 1091
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English