Death of a Salesman
In his play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays a classic dysfunctional family, characterized by psychological conflicts. Willy Loman is the protagonist of the play, a sixty-year-old salesman who is obsessed with the desire to achieve success as a measure of perfection. Willy suffers intensely from self-delusion, which blurs his perception of a perfect life. His actions hurt his entire family, which further intensifies his self-delusion. Willy’s wife Linda being a housewife is financially dependent on her husband and she serves as a facilitator of his delusions. Linda inspires and also engages in Willy’s delusions. She is a good wife as she is selfless and her entire life revolves around her husband and two sons Happy and Biff. Willy is constantly in search of the American dream which denies him happiness in general and hinders him from appreciating what he has made out of life, particularly a family. Due to a lack of communication, moral values, denial, and respect, the Lomans are a dysfunctional family.
Dysfunction in psychology refers to impaired or disturbed functioning. Lomans are in a state of denial because they do not want to acknowledge their flaws and therefore, are unwilling to confront their challenges as a family. Miller utilizes characterization to criticize the notion of a perfect American family. The situation leads to selfish decisions that change the family for good. Miller relies on the conflict between the protagonist and one of his sons Biff to highlight one of the biggest sources of disruptions in the family, honesty. Loman’s family is founded on secrets and lies as everyone seems to be looking for their own interests over the well-being of the family (Miller 63). Loman struggles to build a relationship with his firstborn son but his perception is overwhelmed by the view that his son is a failure. He is disappointed in him because he has let him down as his father who had imagined that he would be more successful in life. Both Biff and Willy lie constantly as an approach to overcoming hurdles in life. Linda is proud of her hard-working husband to the point that he is blinded by his success and is unable to recognize the psychological struggles that Willy is dealing with in relation to his work. Also, she is not able to spot the lies that are told by her husband who despite appearing as a perfect father and husband is having an affair (Bloom 14). However, Willy knows how to manipulate his family into believing that he is nothing beyond a hard-working family whose main agenda is to provide for his family. His decisions cause harm to the family but his son Biff is also not honest. He constantly lies to his family about not having an address for three months and later confesses that it is because he was in prison for stealing (Miller 104). The family is in a constant fight against one another due to the lack of honesty that is necessary for a family to succeed. The dominant fight between two men in the family, who are obsessed with identifying the failures of each other, becomes the beginning of conflicts in the family. The lack of trust and honesty negatively affects the ability of the family members to interact and bond with each other.
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The definition is a perfect suit of the characteristics of Loman’s household. Family bonds and relationships are without a doubt build on constant interactions and communication. However, the lack of effective communication is a challenge that is evident for the family. The family is short of communication as they tend to keep to themselves and when they communicate, they engage in a shouting competition, which further destroys their relations and interactions. Willy has failed to bond with his sons because they do not communicate, meaning that they are unable to understand and recognize the needs held by each other, and this causes tension in their relationship. Willy’s communication skills especially when it comes to listening are extremely poor, which affects his ability to connect with his family. He wants this to go his way and this is how he structures his communication. For example, when Willy visits Howard to talk about securing a working opportunity in New York, he talks over Howard, whenever something is said that he is not willing to hear because it goes against his views. The actions push Howard to his limits forcing him to leave Loman in the office simply because they cannot understand each other. Willy admitted his mistake by stating ‘’ what the hell did I say to him? My God, I was yelling at him! How could I?’’ (Miller 1285). The event shows Willy’s weaknesses in communication, which affects his relationships at home and work. It is undeniable that children learn from their immediate environment and a parent’s behavior is likely to influence the responsiveness of a child. Therefore, it is rather evident that the poor communication skills possessed by Biff stem from his household as depicted by both parents, particularly Willy.
Most of the family conflicts in the play emerge from the unstable relationships between Biff and Willy. Both of the characters are characterized by poor communication skills, and this is further fuelled by Willy’s obsession with living a perfect life depicted by the American dream (Marino 18). Willy has high hopes for Biff, but his son similar to his father is not willing to settle for anything that is below perfect. Biff despite being 34 years has not had a stable job and he has hopped from one job to the next for example he has worked as a shipping clerk, businessman, and salesman but he has not yet found a job that satisfies him. The relationship between the two of them is unhealthy because they are not willing to compromise the weaknesses held by each other. Every time that either of them makes a statement the other one is willing to fire an opposing argument. Willy disagrees with Biff’s incapability to retain a job and proclaims that his inability to find himself even though he is 34 is dishonor and this creates conflict between Loman and his son (Baker and Baker 175). Willy’s problems begin because he is not able to get everything that he desires and he, therefore, starts to make decisions based on his abrupt feelings. In addition, his behavior is dictated by the jealousy he gets based on the fortune and fame that is experienced by those around him, particularly his brother. Willy, therefore, allows his disappointment to blur his overall judgment, which becomes damaging in the long run to the family. Miller relies on Biff and Willy’s poor communication abilities to demonstrate that the inability to communicate leads to a tragic end for the family.
Poor communication is a dominant problem for the family which leads to a major breakdown. Loman is not the only individual in the family with communication issues. Every member of the family tends to interrupt others as they talk. The behavior is demonstrated when Linda and Biff are talking about the accident encountered by Willy’s car. For them, the type of communication is normal in the household and they do not seem, to be paying attention to what others are saying as they are mainly focused on conveying their ideas. Linda constantly interrupts Biff to the point that he yells ‘’ will you let me talk? ‘’ (Miller 1276). The lack of reliable communication builds a dysfunctional atmosphere where the family is unable to bond due to tension leading to misunderstandings and constant conflicts.
Loman’s family is in denial since they are not able to recognize that their flaws are responsible for the challenges they are facing in general. The situation leads to increased tension, particularly between Biff and Willy. Willy believes that Biff is a disgrace for not getting a stable job and to him, this is the only thing that matters in determining success. He refers to Biff as a Lazy-Bum but later makes a contradictory statement noting that Biff is not lazy (Meyer 1339). In this context, he is in denial because he is shifting his expectations of a perfect life to his family. He, therefore, relies on his son’s weaknesses to express his feeling about a, particularly disappointing life. Willy proves to be very wavering about everything in his life. Rather than letting his sons experience life differently, Willy allows his ambition to block the path of Biff’s goals. He transfers his problems to his family and blames Biff for being a failure and a disgrace while he is far from perfect himself.
Willy is in denial of the things he has accomplished as a salesman and he transfers his dissatisfaction to his family. Even though Willy believes in his sales skills and Linda sees him as successful, his boss views him differently. Based on Miller, Willy states that he earned an average of 170 dollars every week in form of a commission, but his boss disagrees stating, that it is obvious he did not earn that much considering that his family is struggling (62). The illustration helps demonstrate Willy’s struggle with denial. Willy believes that he is worth more when dead than alive which triggers him to decide on killing himself in the hope of providing his sons with a deserving future from his life’s insurance. Miller utilizes, the actions of the family to echo the consequences of denial in a family.
Besides, the lack of respect for each other is an aspect that portrays Lomans as a dysfunctional family. Willy is disrespectful to his wife despite her selflessness and undying support for him and their two sons. During his work trips, he cheats on her and does not seem to feel remorse for it. When he got caught by his son, he defends his actions as a result of loneliness. Instead of showing remorse, he tells his son that he will understand such things when he is grown and must therefore not emphasize such matters (Miller 1306). In his statement, it is clear that he never believed that he did something wrong. Due to the tension in the family, Happy and Biff argue in a restaurant about Happy’s disrespect for their father. Happy does not seem to respect his father and when he is asked about his father by a woman that he leaves the restaurant with he replies that, Willy is not his father ‘’ He is just some guy’’ (Miller 1303). In this case, this demonstrates total disrespect by Happy about his father’s welfare because he chooses to leave when he was experiencing a delusional episode. The lack of respect among them breeds a dysfunctional environment for the family.
While the characters try to overcome these conflicts by acknowledging their contributions, they are unsuccessful since the family is built in an unstable environment. Willy decides to resolve the conflicts in the family by committing suicide. He believes that it is only through death that his family can enjoy a life that he never gave them. The family is, however, unable to resolve their issues as they seem overwhelmed with their self-desires and this affects their ability to get close to one another. While Biff tries to open up about his secrets the damage has already become very expensive as Willy chooses to die rather than continue causing pain to his own family.
In conclusion, Loman’s family is unsuccessful in resolving their psychological conflicts as they fail to communicate. The family is portrayed as a dysfunctional one due to the dominance of denial, lack of communication, and respect. Willy’s tragic death would have been avoided if the family created an attentive and nurturing environment for everyone. Sadly, the family was obsessed with the desire to achieve perfection as depicted by the American dream and this resulted in the loss of touch with reality in general.
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