Death of A Salesman

Death of a Salesman - Willy Lomans tragedy is due more to his own

flawed character than to societies flaws

Advancements in science throughout this century have led to

tremendous advancements in industry. Advancements in industry,

however, have not always led to advancements in living. For

some, society has created mass wealth. For most mass society has

created a standard of living unparalled throughout histort. For

Willy Loman, however, mass society has created only tremendous

greif and hardship, agravated by the endless promise. For these

reasons, his tragidy is due more to societies flaws than to the

flaws in his own character.

Willy Loman was host to many flaws and deficiencies ranging

form suicidal tendencies to phychotic disorders. However, these

shortcomings did not account for his tragic end, not by

themselves anyway. Soviety is to blame. It was society who

stripped him of his dignity, piece by piece. It was society who

stripped him of his lifestyle, and his own sons who stripped him

of hope.

The most obvious flaw in society is greed, the desire to get

ahead of the next guy. This malady is present on a national

level. It is the philosophy of business and comprises the dreams

of man. Sometimes, this can drive man to great things, sometimes

it can drive a man to ruin. Willy was driven to the latter.

(Not his own greed for he was a simple man with simple dreams,

but by the greed of others.) The developers who took away the

sun and gave birth to shadows, his boss who reduced him to

commission and his sons which reduced him to a failure.

The next largest flaw in society is a lack of compassion.

This could be as a result of almost overwhelming greed, the main

culprit being big business.

"I'm always in a race with the junkyard! I just

finished paying for the car and it's on it last legs. The

refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time

those things."(Act 2, page 73, lines 16-19)

Willy's belief in this statement drew him to believe that

big business lacked compassion. It is because of this that he

is abandoned by Biff and disowned by Happy, left babbling in a

toilet. It is this flaw which allowed him to die a slow death

and played the greatest role in his eventual downfall.

The third largest flaw in society (particularly American

society) is the lack of a social safety net. A net which

identifies people in trouble and seeks to remedy their

situations. A body identifies people who are a danger to

themselves and others and treats or sedates them. Couple this

with a pension plan and medical care, and Willy Loman might not

have met his premature end. He would have had no reason

thanklessly for a company, in a capicity that was "killing" him.

Instead, he could have received psychiatric help and recovered

from his condition.

It was the direct result of the flaws in society which led

Willy to his undoing. It was the greed that was ever-pervasive

around him that led to his unhappieness. It was the lack of

compassion from society which allowed his unhappieness to

flourish and which eventually consumed him. In the end, it was

the lack of a social safety net which failed to save him from

himself.

by Mike Lesage

Word Count: 598