‘Death of a Salesman’: Everyone fails in a waste of misplaced energy and Miller offers no comfort to his audience

Death of a Salesman is dominated by the theme of trial and the relay station Willy Loman is certainly the main exemplifier of this. The complexity of this wreak, however, makes it difficult to label with such a generalised comment. I would non disagree that the action of the extend centres rough failure but I expression that some comfort is offered done and by means of other characters such as Charley, Bernard, Howard and Ben. Willy Loman has undeniably failed in e actually survey of his life. He has been defeated in business, he is a poor produce and a poor husband.As Dukore says The inadequacies of what he buys mirror the inadequacies in his sales, which in turn reflect his inadequacies as a parent. Willy is not a mastery in business, despite describing himself-importance as a big-shot to his sons. He dedicates a lot of time to his officiate and has been employed by the same firm for 34 years, however, he has to borrow money from his neighbour Charley as a mover of s urvival as he is cruelly cast off by his ruthless boss, Howard. Willy unsurprisingly finds this humiliating and difficult to believe, you fag eat upt eat the orange and throw the dismantle away a man is not a piece of fruit.Willy has no emplacement as a businessman and he confesses that the trouble is, Linda, tribe dont discernm to channelize to me. Willy believes in the fantasy of the Ameri provoke Dream which suggests that wealth and an attractive personality alone can make him happy. We even happen Willy being patronised when his boss addresses Willy as kid, representing that Willy is belt up incurn as a kid in the business world. Willy is a failure at mob and his sons, Biff and glad, both(prenominal) expect condemned to repeat their fathers failure and relive his self-deception.We see this as Biff steals a fountain pen from institutionalize Oliver as if the family are exhausting to grab onto any bit of success that they can find. Willy has brought his children up telling them that all they need is to be well care to succeed. Happy rates success by how many girls he can seduce and he describes his relationships as like bowling or something. I just keep knockin them over and it doesnt mean anything. Willy repeatedly sends contradicting messages to his sons desperately trying to find something to help them to become successes. Willy also fails as a husband.He had an affair which is tho k flatn to Biff, but Willys guilt is represented through the stockings that Willy gave to his mistress. He has cheated Linda as she still has no knowledge of his affair. The play shows a mans destruction through the tearing away of his protective covering of lies and self deceit as Willy is constantly lying to himself and to his family closely who he really is. Willy shares his combine in the American Dream with other fictional characters including Lennie and George in prank Steinbecks Of Mice and Men and others of millers characters like Marco and Rodolph o from millers play A View From The Bridge.Similar to this play, Death of a Salesman could be described as a innovational Greek cataclysm. Miller is very interested in this style of writing and applying it to a modern audience. Death of a Salesman could be described as a tragedy as it addresses many of the elements that Aristotle outlined. This play gives unity of time, place and action and we only see the last 24 hours of Willys life. Again fitting in with Aristotles ideas, the admirer is flawed and this is Willys determination and commitment to the American inspiration, and the play encourages the audience to feel catharsis at the catastrophe.Miller has, however, deliberately rejected Aristotles idea of status and has made Willy an un-heroic hero. Miller wanted to show the tragedy of a everyday man. Even Willys name Loman shows us that he is merely that a low-man and is quasi(prenominal) to Elmer Rices Mr Zero in his play The Adding Machine but Willy also seems to be an e veryman and Miller tell that everyone knows Willy Loman because as well as showing the destruction of one man. notwithstanding its realistic trappings, Death of a Salesman is universal, thus a more smart dramatic playtisation of a modern everyman Willy is also representing the destruction of everyone who has bought in to the American dream, and in this way the play could also be called a policy-making play. The mixture of traditional tragedy and Millers own unique brand of drama allows the audience to recognise the protagonists flaws in themselves. Willys zero is certainly wasted as he spends the majority of his time at work, without anything to show for it.This could contribute to his failure as a husband and a father as dedicating more time to these things may help to repair broken relationships. Willy is so pull to the American Dream that everything else in his life seems to be breaking or so him including household items like the fridge and the car. This symbolises Wil lys race against age and limiting factors to be a success, and he fails to do this. We learn in the play that Willy is unspoilt at practical work and this work is admired by Charley, Thats a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a closed book to me.How do you do it? Willy obviously has a skill but this skill is not used. Willy would be happier working in the country using his give but he works in the city to try and settle with his value of success which is to be working in the city and muckle have said of Willy that he has been dwarfed by his surroundings which I would agree with. Willy is in an environment in which he cannot survive and this idea is represented by the seeds that we see Willy desperately trying to plant at the end of the play. similar Willy, the seeds cannot grow in the environment that they are in.Willy wastes his energy as he fears the present and romanticises the past and his confusion of past and present is shown in the play through retrospective exposi tion. Willy spends a lot of his time talking to characters of the past kind of of counselsing on the present and facing up to his problems. The original ennoble of the play was The Inside of His Head and this was because through the play we are seeing exactly what is happening inside Willys head which is a mass of contradictions. He drop offs his energy in the past whilst still living in the present and this is what fundamentally causes Willys eventual suicide.We see Happy also failing in the play as he is still a strong believer and coadjutor of the American Dream to the end. He mirrors his father as he is still lying to himself about this fantasy and he refuses to admit that he is a failure. During The Requiem, Happy still insists that He had a good dream. Its the only dream you can have to come out number-one man. Happy is still cozen himself and he has learnt very little even after this tragic experience, and this offers no comfort to the audience, it merely demonstrates how Willys failure still lives on in Happy and shows Happys wasted energy.Other characters in the play, however, are successful showing that not everyone in the play fails, and in contrast to Willys downfall we hear the novel of Bernard, Biffs school friend who succeeds due to hard work and becomes a lawyer. He shares our pity for Willy. The audience also meet Charley, Bernards father who is a very compassionate, benevolent and caring man who is also a success in business and we see through Charley and Bernard that you do not have to be ruthless to be successful. There are, however, ruthless characters such as Bill Oliver, Biffs former boss, and Howard Wagner who was Willys boss.These men are ruthless businessmen as we see through Howards dismissal of Willy and Bill Olivers unwillingness to speak to Biff about business propositions. Both Bill Oliver and Howard Wagner understand the business world something which Willy fails to do. They both acknowledge that to succeed they need to be brutal and this is what we see Howard do. It could be said that Howard is a cruel man for dismissing Willy, however, for his business to survive it would seem the obvious thing to do as Willy no longer ascribe the company. I would disagree that Miller offers no comfort to his audience.By the end of the play, Biff admits to his father that Im a dozen, and so are you and instructs his father to take that phony dream and burn it before something happens. Biffs turns his back on the American Dream and this is certainly comfort to the audience because he has found himself and knows who he is unlike his brother, and his father. There is a lot of failure in this tragedy. The focus of the play is Willy Loman who does fail and it would also be true to say that Willy does misplace his energy and there is little comfort due to the emotion of Willys suicide.Miller said that Most human enterprises disappoint and this view is certainly shown throughout the play and through Willys life. Berna rd and Howard, however, are very successful due to hard work and if nothing else this is comfort to the audience as they represent a slip of success which isnt based around being well liked. Biffs enlightenment at the end of the play is also comforting as there is now some apprehend of success beyond the American Dream and hope that Biffs energy will be used in a more constructive way.