The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Essay Example

The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Essay Example The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Paper The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Paper Fangmei Chen 20080100117 Class 05 Readings from 20th Century British and American Drama The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Willy,as a man of 63,is supposed to come to an age where everything should be settled down. However,he is still suffering in his job even before he commits suicide. His financial situation is unsecure. His wife has to repair her stockings instead of buying a new one. And he has to borrow money from his neigbour Charley,though he never returns them. What has led to Willy’s unsucess in life,and finally even the tragedy of killing himself,we may wonder. My personal opinion is that Willy’s own personality and his illison of success has caused the final unpleasant fact of being unsuccessful. PEOPLE’S OPINIONS Some critics say that this is due to the fierce competition of the society. He works all his life and when he gets old and becomes less productive,the society,represented by his boss Howard Wagner,still puts him on straight commission,and,when Willy asked for â€Å"not travel† on roads(61),he refused and fired him. Even some pointed out that â€Å"Willy was a man who has worked all his life by the machinery of Democracy and Free Enterprise and was then spit mercilessly out, spent like a piece of fruit. †[1] Others say this is due to his blind belief in the American Dream. According to Matthew Warshauer, â€Å"Traditionally, Americans have sought to realise the American dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. †[2] As for Willy,he has been on the road when he was only 19. He went through all the hustle and bustle all his life and still failed to success and get what he wants. In this case,he seems to be the victim of believing in the American Dream. But is it true? The answer will reveal itself later during the discovery of his personality. WILLY’S PERSONALITY When trying to find out more about Willy’s personalities,his job as a salesman can be regarded as an open sesame for us to know him. Old Dave is the man who makes an decisive influence on Willy when it comes to the moment of choosing his future career. From Willy’s remembrance of the past,Dave Singleman is a man of 84 who can sit in his room and pick up a phone and then make money. And also, â€Å"he died the death of a salesman,in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York† and â€Å"hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral. †(63)Because of the seemingly comfort and respect of this job,Willy made a final conclusion that salesman was what he wanted to be. Just simply seeing Old Dave’s success and then trying to make himself a salesman indicates Willy’s lack of self-reflection as a part of his personality. Firstly,Willy is different from Old Dave. Dave Singleman doesnt have a family and seems to enjoy his lifestyle as being alone(indicated byâ€Å"Singleman†) and being a salesman. He knows better of himself than Willy of what he is doing and is doing it successfully. Willy,however,deep in his heart,is in great need of love. In the flashback of the love affair in Boston,Willy said that â€Å" ‘Cause I get so lonely-especially when bussiness is bad and there is nobody to talk to. †(173) He can’t bear the loneliness of leaving his family and travelling on roads all the time while this is what a salesman’s job demands for. How can a person who can’t adapt himself well to his job be a successful person,or at least a happy person? We can see more details about how he feels about his job and find out how his own personality has an effect on his job,which is a failure in most degree. Sometimes he thinks lowly of himself and doing self-accusation. As he said to Linda, â€Å"My God,if businses don’t pick up I don’t know what I’m gonna do! † â€Å"I gotta be at it ten,twelve hours a day. Other menI don’t know they do it easier. I dont know whyI can’t stop myself- I talk too much. † â€Å"I’m fat. I’m very-foolish to look at. †(172) Although a salesman is supposed to be self-confident most of the time, Willy seems to lack self-confidence to assure himself. And that won’t help him with his selling work at all. He is also very mercurial about himself. He can feel upset about himself at one moment and turns to be very ambitious at the next moment,and vice versa. At scene I,he once said,â€Å"Oh,I’ll knock ‘em dead next week. I’ll go to Harford. I’m very well liked in Hartford. You know,the trouble is,Linda,people don’t seem to take to me. †(171) From what have been analyzed above,we know that Willy is inadequate for a salesman’s job. And his personality of being lack of confience contributes largely to that. Sometimes he seems to know that he oesn’t do his job well. â€Å"I get the feeling that I’ll never see anything again,that I won’t make a living for you, or a business,a business for the boys. †(173)Meanwhile,in the next line,he reveals his great ambitions: â€Å" There’s so much I want to make for- † . (173)And this is also mentioned befo re his flashback, â€Å" Someday I’ll have my own business,and I’ll never have to leave home any more. †(166) However,he makes himself feel like that he is doing a good job. When Linda asked if he had sold anything,at first he said, â€Å" I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston. That number finally cut to a total number of seventy dollars and some pennies by the insistent questioning of Linda. In this way,he seems to cheat himself for feeling better. Finally,when Charley wanted to offer Willy another job as a solution to support his family,Willy refused. He is of too high self-esteem to receive it. In this way,he cuts out a way to survive himself in the competitive society. So,society shouldn’t be to blame in Willy’s tragedy. WILLY’S ILLUSION OF SUCCESS Willy’s view of success can be indicated in the case of Old Dave and later of the play. He believes that â€Å"to be well-liked is the means to being successful. † Not only he hinself believes in this motto,but he also teaches his son Biff following his concept. When Biff was a football star in high school with three scholarships to three universities,Willy thought his son had been successful. And it didnt matter even if he didnt work hard on his math and failed the exam. Actually, â€Å"Willy’s strong desire to be well-liked is what drove him to have an affair in Boston. The fact that she would go to bed with him promoted his ego after a hard day of being turned away by buyers. [3] Actually,Willy is the one who knows his own â€Å"dream of success† and sticks to it strictly and overactively. He totally involves himself in the illusion of success. We may find that Willy seems to be exceptionally proud of a ceiling that he had installed in the living room. It was a task that the successful Charley could not perform. †Still in scene I,Willy and Charley have this talk: WILLY:Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room? CHARLEY:Yeah,that’s a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. (178) Willy is good at the carpenter job and he likes it but he wouldn’t admit. When Biff suggested him for being a carpenter, he said ,â€Å"Your grandfather was better than a carpenter. † Biff,in the process of finding himself,confesses to himself that he doesn’t like life in the prosperous east and would rather enjoy a more primitive life in the west. While Biff is more aware of his own willingness, illusion of success again gets in the way of Willy’s happiness. Willy’s wish is to â€Å"get rich quick† like his brother Ben,who,according to Willy’s memory,describes himself as, â€Å"when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle,and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich. †(182)Willy doesnt care about how his brother made his money as far as his being rich has already fulfilled his illusion of success. In the end, he â€Å"sells† his life for a twenty-thousand-dollar insurance policy in order to stake his sons fortune. As analysed by Paul Rosefeldt,â€Å"His death becomes merely another ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Charley and Bernard, Willys neighbors, prove that success can be achieved, but for Willy Loman, who has absorbed too many American Dreams, the system inevitably becomes destructive. [4]The way Willy persuits his success is as the way of flying moth rushes towards fire,which brings destruction upon himself. CONCLUSION Willy’s unsuccess is due to his own personality and his illision of success. The competitive society still offers him opportunity as presented by Charley and his belief in the American Dream has become obsessive. The illision scheme of success carries him far away from the ro ad of success and even promotes his death in order that his son could success in the way he wishes. This unsuccessful image of Willy did leave for us many thoughts and force us to review the definition of success. REFERENCES: [1]website:Homework Online Study Guide homework-online. com/doas/discussion. html [2] Matthew Warshauer,Who Wants to Be a Millionaire:  Changing Conceptions of the American Dream, americansc. org. uk/Online/American_Dream. htm [3] The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District:English Resources: bellmore-merrick. k12. ny. us/death. html [4]Paul Rosefeldt ;Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition  © 2007 by Salem Press, Inc