Summary and Analysis of Hamlet

Author:

Hamlet was written between 1600 and 1601 by William Shakespeare, a famous English playwright and the most influential writer in all of English literature. Shakespeare’s influence has profoundly shaped Western literature and his legacy continues to live on today. Shakespeare wrote thirty-six other plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and King Lear.

Setting:

The play is set in the Elsinore Castle in Denmark. The time period is uncertain, sometime in the late medieval period.

Characters:

Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, though he doesn’t hold this title with much pride or comfort. He doesn’t have the innate aggressive bloodlust for war and killing that his father had. He doesn’t have the lust for power that Claudius has. Instead, Hamlet is much more comfortable with his life studying abroad. But the death of his father interrupted his studies and brought him back to Denmark. He’s stuck in Denmark only out of necessity and often bemoans in Elsinore, calling it a prison. Hamlet is contemplative, philosophical, and has a clever tongue that he uses to barb others. But he also values friendship and trustworthiness. He’s wary of the cold, duplicitous nature of people in Elsinore. Except for Horatio, there is no one in Elsinore Hamlet can trust. His life at Elsinore becomes so miserable that in his famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy he asks “who would these fardels bear, / To grunt and sweat under a weary life, / But that the dread of something after death,—  / The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns,—puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of?” In this quote, he makes it clear that the only thing that holds him back from ending his miserable existence is his fear that the afterlife might bring even worse misery. If there was no afterlife, the decision would be a no-brainer; he wouldn’t even hesitate to end his life. This powerful quote reveals a very bleak outlook on life that Hamlet has.

King Claudius is the unscrupulous, conniving, lustful king of Denmark. He killed old Hamlet, the former king, to usurp the throne and marry Gertrude. He’s so hell-bent on keeping his power that when he feels threatened by Hamlet, he sends him off to England to be executed. When Hamlet comes back for round two, Claudius shrewdly tries to keep his hands clean by manipulating Laertes and turning his rage against Hamlet.

Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and queen of Denmark. She did not wait long to marry Claudius after her old husband died. She, like most of the rest of Elsinore, does not have strong morals. The reader is left wondering if Gertrude was on Claudius’ side the whole time, or if she was an unwilling pawn in Claudius’  

Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and is Hamlet’s girlfriend. On the surface, she was a sweet, innocent girl who obeyed her father and brother.  However, there may have been a clever, shrewd Ophelia lying beneath that surface. Ophelia is perhaps one of the biggest enigmas in the play, about whom the reader is left with many questions about. Was Ophelia a totally innocent, unaware pawn in Claudius and Polonius’ designs against Hamlet? Or was she knowingly cooperating with Polonius against Hamlet? Did she kill herself out of heartbreak for losing Hamlet? Or was she pregnant and killed herself to preserve her dignity? During her crazy sing-song rant, she said “Indeed, la, without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t!” (Act 4, Sc 5). Because Ophelia was acting insane when she said this, the meaning of the quote is enigmatic. But it could mean that she was pregnant with Hamlet and would commit suicide if she couldn’t marry him. If that was the case, it would mean she was shrewd enough to understand what the consequences of being deflowered would be.

Polonius is a top advisor to the king. He is yet another cunning, scheming character that typifies Elsinore. When he realizes that there’s a good chance Hamlet truly loves Ophelia, he tries to push Ophelia to marry Hamlet so that Polonius can be closer to the throne. There are two instances where he eavesdrops on Hamlet. He’s killed by Hamlet, who mistook him for Claudius, while eavesdropping on Hamlet and Gertrude.

Laertes is Polonius’ son and Ophelia’s brother. He has a close relationship with Ophelia and loves her dearly. He’s so emotionally devastated by Polonius and Ophelia’s deaths that he agrees to participate in Claudius’ plan to kill Hamlet. Before he dies, he reconciles with Hamlet.

Plot summary:

Hamlet, the eponymous main character of Hamlet, is the prince of Denmark. Hamlet’s father was the king, but was murdered and replaced by Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. Claudius also married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.

At the beginning of the play, two royal guards encounter the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the dead and former king. They show this to Horatio, who tells Hamlet. Intrigued, Hamlet comes to see the ghost for himself. The ghost and Hamlet have a private conversation, in which the ghost says that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. The ghost tells Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius for usurping the throne and stealing his wife, Gertrude. Later, Hamlet makes Horatio swear to never mention the ghost to anyone.

Polonius is an advisor to the king and also lives in the castle of Denmark. He has a son named Laertes and a daughter named Ophelia. In private, Ophelia tells Laertes and Polonius that Hamlet has been showing signs of affection towards her. Laertes and Polonius advise Ophelia to be careful not to give herself up to Hamlet. Because Hamlet’s a prince, he probably won’t marry anyone lower than him.

Later, Ophelia reports to Polonius that Hamlet has been acting crazy. She says Hamlet burst into her room, stared longingly at her, and embraced her. Polonius takes this to mean that Hamlet now has gone mad with love for Ophelia.

Claudius also notices that Hamlet is acting strangely. He recruits Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s old good friends, to spy on Hamlet and find out why he’s gone mad. Polonius approaches King Claudius to suggest that Hamlet has gone crazy because he’s in love with Ophelia. Polonius and Claudius agree to spy on Hamlet the next time he talks to Ophelia.

First, Polonius tries to talk to Hamlet, but Hamlet pretends to be insane and only responds to Polonius’ questions with perplexing answers. When, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach Hamlet, Hamlet immediately grows suspicious. He decides to test their loyalty by asking them why they’re in Denmark so unexpectedly. Only after repeated questioning, he gets them to admit to being called in by King Claudius.

In his conversation with Ophelia, Hamlet angrily tells her he doesn’t love her. He attacks women in for being dishonest and tells Ophelia to “enter a nunnery.” At the end, Ophelia is shocked by Hamlet’s apparent madness and devastated at being brutally rejected.

When a troupe of play actors visit Elsinore, Hamlet uses the opportunity to have the actors help him with his plan. He asks them to put on a play where someone pours poison in a king’s ear, usurps the throne, and marries the queen. This play is supposed to mimic Claudius’ alleged murder of Hamlet’s father. If Claudius watches the play and feels uncomfortable, Hamlet will have proof of Claudius’ guilt. He asks Horatio to watch Claudius’ face for any signs of apparent guilt.

When Claudius sees the ear-poisoning scene, he becomes so uncomfortable that he orders the play to stop and leaves, thus confirming Hamlet’s suspicions.

After the play, Claudius is alone in a room, praying for forgiveness for murdering the old king. Hamlet follows Claudius to the room, about to kill him. But when he sees Claudius praying, he backs out. Hamlet thinks that Claudius will go straight to heaven if he’s murdered while praying. Hamlet decides to kill him later, so that Claudius will go to Hell.

Hamlet enters into Gertrude’s room, but not before Polonius hides himself behind a curtain to eavesdrop on his conversation. Hamlet bursts out in anger, telling Gertrude that she’s a sinner for marrying the rotten, corrupt Claudius. Frightened by Hamlet’s intense anger, Gertrude calls out for help, prompting Polonius to also call out for help. Hamlet hears him and stabs Polonius through the curtain, thinking that it’s Claudius. Hamlet continues criticizing Gertrude for disrespecting her old husband’s death by marrying Claudius so quickly. Gertrude finally succumbs, saying that she sees the horrible sin in herself.

Claudius sends Hamlet on a ship to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom Claudius has given letters telling the king of England to execute Hamlet.

Later, Laertes storms the royal hall and threatens to kill Claudius, angry over his father's death. Then, Ophelia enters the room singing strange songs and giving flowers to everyone. It’s clear that she has gone delirious and insane, which upsets Laertes even more. Claudius calms Laertes and tells him that Hamlet is the one responsible for Polonius’ death or for Ophelia’s madness. Then, a messenger arrives with a letter from Hamlet saying he’s coming back to Denmark. Hamlet’s ship had been attacked by pirates, and Hamlet escaped by jumping onto the pirate ship. Hearing this, Claudius and Laertes plot to kill Hamlet. Laertes will duel Hamlet with a sharpened, poisoned sword. Then, Gertrude brings news that Ophelia has drowned in a river.

Hamlet and Horatio enter a church graveyard and watch two men dig a grave. The funeral procession for Ophelia enters with Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes. When Ophelia is lowered into the grave, Laertes leaps in and holds Ophelia in his arms. Hamlet walks into sight and declares that “forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / make up my sum” (Act 5, Scn 1). Laertes and Hamlet angrily fight before being separated.

Later, Osric tells Hamlet Claudius wants him to fence with Laertes, which Hamlet agrees to. As planned, Laertes poisons the tip of his sword, and Claudius poisons a cup of wine that he plans to give to Hamlet. The duel begins and Hamlet gets the first two hits on Laertes. To celebrate, Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup. Then, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword. They begin aggressively fighting. In the middle of the chaos, their swords get switched and Hamlet wounds Laertes with the poisoned sword. Gertrude collapses dead, saying that the wine is poisoned. Laertes stops to tell Hamlet about the poisoned sword and poisoned wine. He says that both of them are going to die and that Claudius is to blame. Hamlet angrily stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink the poisoned wine. Claudius dies. As Laertes dies, he apologizes to Hamlet for his actions. Hamlet turns to Horatio and tells him to stay behind and let the people know what has happened. He also names Fortinbras the next King of Denmark. Then Hamlet dies.

Fortinbras arrives on the scene, sees that the whole royal family is dead, and claims the throne of Denmark.

Author’s Style:

It being a play, Hamlet doesn’t have a particularly special narrative voice or author’s style. It’s punctuated by many long, contemplative soliloquies that give special insight into Hamlet’s thinking. It’s written from a third-person point of view.

Theme:

An overarching theme in Hamlet is the poisoned, corrupt state of Denmark and its ability to corrupt almost everyone in Elsinore.

When Claudius kills old Hamlet, usurps the throne, and marries Gertrude, he commits an act that’s already pretty bad in and of itself. But what he also does is introduce a new “disease” to Denmark. And by marrying Claudius so quickly, Gertrude has already thrown away her morals and succumbed to the “disease.”

It spreads to Polonius. Now that old Hamlet’s dead, Polonius realizes that he’s one step closer to the throne. So he starts to obsess over getting Ophelia to marry Hamlet. He eavesdrops on Hamlet and unscrupulously uses her daughter.

It spreads to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When they agree to spy on Hamlet for Claudius, they’ve chosen a side and put their loyalty with Claudius. They forget about their morals and their old friendship with Hamlet.

It spreads to Ophelia. She’s either aware or unaware that she’s being used as a pawn in Polonius’ designs against Hamlet. Whether or not she’s aware, she’s involved with the enemy. Therefore, Hamlet has to break his ties with her.

The only people the disease doesn’t spread to are Hamlet and Horatio.

Prompt Revision of Open Prompt #2

2003, Form B. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures – national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which you describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.

                Often, societal values and prejudices shape many of our ways of thinking. We learn to yearn for one thing and hate another thing, just because that’s what people around us do. Depending on the kind of society we live in or the people we grow up with, we develop certain types of ideas and prejudices. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison tells the story of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who learns to hate herself because of her ethnicity and the supposed ugliness that’s attached to it. All around her, whether it’s in her parents, teachers, books, toys, or peers, Pecola sees evidence of the idea that whites are superior to blacks in looks and culture. Rather than embrace her identity as a black girl, she experiences an unfortunate loss of identity by yearning to be white and to associate herself with white culture.

                One key trait that Pecola associates with white culture is beauty. Throughout the book, Pecola feels that she’s ugly and thinks that she would be pretty if she were white. More than anything, she wishes to have blue eyes, a quality only white girls can have.  She sees that Maureen Peal, who is a light-skinned girl, is admired as pretty and favored by teachers and classmates alike. On top of this, she . Being exposed to white culture in this way, Pecola directly associates white culture with beauty.

                Pecola also learns to associate white culture with stability and a tight-knit family lifestyle. When she reads stories about Dick and Jane at school, she sees two white kids who are happy and have loving parents. She also sees her light-skinned classmate, Junior, come home to an attentive and caring mother. By seeing examples of white kids receiving care and love from their families, Pecola finds another reason to want to be white.

 Meanwhile, Pecola’s experiences with the realities of being black often teach her to hate black culture. Much of Pecola’s hatred comes from her own upbringing with her parents. The two parents are always arguing and physically fighting one another whenever Pecola gets home from school. Pecola had to live in a foster home as a small child because her drunk father burned down their house. Often, her mother wouldn’t be home to make food until late at night. To Pecola, the unhappy, volatile lifestyle at her home directly represents black culture.

Though Pecola is the main character, she isn’t the only one in the novel to struggle with her black identity. Pecola’s mother, Pauline, also romanticizes white lifestyle by watching Clark Gable and Jean Harlow play a perfect white couple in movies. Geraldine, another black woman, shows her shame in being black by explaining to her half-black son that there’s a difference between black and partially black kids. Pecola’s struggle is only part of a larger, recurrent theme in Morrison’s book. By giving the novel a title that emphasizes Pecola’s struggle, Morrison highlights how blacks face an unfortunate loss of identity by conforming to society’s ideas that whites are superior to blacks.

Understanding how Pecola was exposed to black and white culture, it’s easy to see why Pecola struggled to find self-worth as a black girl. The sharp contrast in quality of life and quality of treatment led Pecola to believe that becoming a white girl would be the best thing ever to happen to her. By choosing to title the novel The Bluest Eye, Morrison not only highlights Pecola's struggle, but she also emphasizes the loss of identity that blacks experience by conforming to societal prejudices.

Response to Course Material #5

Now that I’ve read Hamlet, Death of a Salesman, and The American Dream, it’s time to make some comparisons. This would probably look a lot better on a chart or Venn diagram, but here goes.

It’s pretty clear that family relationships played a major role in all three of the plays. The American Dream and DoS both revolved around one family, while Hamlet featured two families. In The American Dream, the family relationships were very negative. Mommy frequently argued with Grandma, revealing a surprisingly bitter relationship with her mother. Mommy also said that she married Daddy for his money, not because she loved him. In DoS, Willy’s relationship with his son Biff was also pretty rocky. Though he gained Biff’s respect and admiration in earlier days, it was a relationship based on empty promises and rhetoric. When Biff slowly realized his father’s flaws, he grew to resent him. In contrast, Hamlet featured a strong relationship between two siblings that cared for each other and had full trust in one another, Laertes and Ophelia.

Another thing that stood out to me was differences in the role of women in the plays. Unlike in Hamlet and DoS, women dominated the men in The American Dream. While Ophelia, Gertrude, and Linda were all pushed around by their male co-characters; Mommy, Mrs. Barker, and Grandma from American Dream were the ones who wielded control over Daddy and the young man. Yet this doesn’t mean that the women in Hamlet and DoS weren’t also different. In DoS, Linda was a wise, motherly figure to the Loman men. When Willy and his sons were riding a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows, Linda was a constant, level-headed voice of reason. On the other hand, Gertrude was hardly the strong, stable woman that Linda was. Gertrude quickly succumbed to the poison and deceit of Elsinore. She wasn’t a good, caring mother either. In fact, it was Hamlet who served as the voice of reason by opening Gertrude’s eyes to her sins.

I don’t know if Ms. Holmes is going to have us compare and contrast the three plays we’ve just read. But if she does, now I have some good starting points.

Close Reading #4

“Madonna’s Tone-Deaf Tattoo”

Meghan Daum

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1018-daum-yousafzai-madonna-20121018,0,1844038.column

In her article, “Madonna’s Tone-Deaf Tattoo,” Meghan Daum remarks on a recent incident where pop singer Madonna revealed a new fake tattoo during a concert. Emblazoned on her lower back was the name of Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl who has gained a lot of recent media attention after being shot by members of the Taliban. The article carries a strongly negative tone that ridicules Madonna and attacks her tattoo. Daum uses pejorative diction to style Madonna as obnoxious, which goes in sharp contrast to the honorific diction she uses to endear readers to Malala. The language throughout is very sardonic, often used to mock Madonna. Also, Daum’s deliberate choice of details highlights many of Malala’s good deeds while bringing up ugly things from Madonna’s history.

The article uses a very sardonic language that mocks Madonna. With the very first line in the article, “There goes Madonna, classing up the joint again,” Daum immediately sets the sardonic tone of the article, making it clear that Madonna is not going to get much love from her. It doesn’t get much more sarcastic than saying someone is “classing up the joint.” By calling Madonna the “Hottest Bod in the AARP,” Daum gives Madonna a backhanded compliment, more of an insult than a real compliment. It’s a demeaning title for Madonna, meant to ridicule and dismiss any remnants of her status as a sex symbol. Daum again ridicules Madonna’s tattoo as pathetic and ineffective against the Taliban. She says, “Take that Taliban! Mess with a girl’s education and you’re messing with a 54-year-old pop star in a leather corset.”  The sardonic and belittling language that Daum uses throughout the article doesn’t do anything to flatter the pop singer. Instead, readers get the sense that Madonna is classless and grossly promiscuous.

            Daum also uses diction to put critical labels on Madonna, while putting positive ones on Malala. She says Madonna has an “obsession with her body.” She calls Madonna an “extremist.” She describes Madonna’s tattoo-exposing as “relentless self-promotion” and “envelope pushing.” All of these words carry negative connotations for Madonna that depict her as obnoxious. On the other hand, Daum describes Malala’s face as “earnest” and “un-primmed.” She refers to Malala as a “modest Muslim girl.” Although these words don’t directly praise Malala’s character as fervently as Daum’s criticism of Madonna does, they highlight some of Malala’s qualities that endear the reader to young girl. Daum’s choice of diction in this article is subtle, but it still does enough to influence the reader.

Through her deliberate choice of details, Daum gives unflattering stories and examples of Madonna’s actions to depict her as disgraceful. For example, the article mentions that Madonna “superimposed a swastika on the forehead of French politician Marine Le Pen.” It mentions that she “called President Obama a ‘black Muslim’ while ‘endorsing’ him at a performance.”  Yet, the details that Daum chose to leave out of the article are just as meaningful as the details she chose to include. Madonna has had a long, successful career as a singer. Like many pop singers, Madonna has done volunteer work, charity concerts, and fundraisers. But of course, Daum doesn’t mention any of this. Why? This article is supposed to be explaining why Madonna’s stunt is inappropriate, as the article title suggests. By highlighting a lot of the stupid, ugly things that Madonna has done, Daum paints a negative picture of Madonna.

In contrast, Daum chooses to highlight certain details about Malala that depict her as a virtuous person. For example, the article mentions that Malala has written a blog for BBC. It mentions that she was the first ever to receive Pakistan’s National Youth Prize. It mentions that “Desmond Tutu nominated her for an International Children's Peace Prize.” These impressive accolades definitely make Malala a respectable and morally righteous young girl.

            In the article, not only does Daum express her disgust with Madonna’s tattoo, but she also reveals her disgust with the pop singer in general. This is clear in her heavy use of sardonic language, negative diction, and biased choice of details to define and describe Madonna.

Open Prompt Response #4

1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's." However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short story.

Often in literature, the protagonist encounters a problem or dilemma that calls for the help of a close, trustworthy friend. This trustworthy character is the protagonist’s confidant. In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, the eponymous main character, Jay Gatsby, is troubled by his inability to win back his old sweetheart, Daisy. Throughout the course of the novel, Gatsby confides in the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick is one of the very few people Gatsby opens up to. Because of his exclusively close relationship with Gatsby, Nick gives the reader a good perspective into Gatsby’s life and thoughts, thereby helping the reader better understand the motives for Gatsby’s mysterious actions. Also, Nick is an outsider to the gaudy lifestyle of wealthy Long Islanders, which makes him the ideal narrator of Gatsby’s actions.

Jay Gatsby is a man who keeps himself hidden from the public eye. Though he’s mysterious and ultra-wealthy and famous for throwing extravagant parties, few have actually met him. Nick is one of the very few people Gatsby opens himself up to. As Gatsby’s confidant, Nick has a very revealing window into Gatsby’s life. And because the story is narrated and told from his perspective, the reader is able to see a very candid version of Gatsby. Without Nick’s access to Gatsby, the reader wouldn’t get the interesting details of Gatsby’s past life and motivations. For example, Nick was the only one who saw Gatsby staring out at the green light across the river. This is a key detail that illustrates the level of Gatsby’s devotion/obsession for Daisy. And being Gatsby’s confidant, only Nick is able to report this kind of intimate details about Gatsby.

Nick is also a level-headed, observant, unbiased character, which gives him more credence as a reliable narrator for the reader. Coming to Long Island from the Midwest, Nick brings a quiet, down-to-earthiness that Gatsby lacks. Nick’s a lot less preoccupied with flaunting his wealth or maintaining his reputation than Gatsby is. As Gatsby’s close friend, Nick serves as a visible foil to Gatsby. Nick is passive and conservative, while Gatsby takes risks and exhibits extravagance. Through his role as a foil to Gatsby, Nick helps highlight Gatsby’s extravagance and eccentricity even more. Without Nick, the reader might have a harder time recognizing the extremity of Gatsby’s obsession over Daisy. If the narrator was Tom, or Myrtle, or some other New Yorker, the reader would be viewing Gatsby from the perspective of someone who’s just as extravagant and image-obsessed as Gatsby. Since Nick is an outsider, he shares more in common with a typical reader. Therefore, readers can trust him to report more accurate opinions and insights of Gatsby.

                As Gatsby’s confidant, Nick serves to help the reader understand Jay Gatsby better.  As Henry James would say, Nick is as much “the reader’s friend” as Gatsby’s. Since Nick has exclusive close access to Gatsby, he’s able to give the reader more details about Gatsby than other characters would. And because of the fact that Nick is an outsider looking into New York, he’s less likely to get caught in the gaudy, image-obsessed way of thinking that New Yorkers have. Therefore, he’s more reliable of a narrator, too.

Summary and Analysis of Death of a Salesman

Author:

Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 by Arthur Miller, an American playwright. Miller wrote many other plays, like The Crucible and All My Sons, featuring discontented characters railing against stifling social conventions.

Setting:

The play is set mainly in the Loman house in Brooklyn, NY. Willy Loman makes business trips throughout New England. The play takes place some years after WWII, a time when consumerism was starting to become prevalent in American society.

Characters:

Willy Loman has been a traveling salesman for the same company for over thirty years. He’s a sub-par salesman who works long hours, earns little money, and gets little respect. Yet, he deludes himself with the belief that he’s got it made. He repeatedly tells himself, his boys, and his wife that he’s “well-known in Boston” or that things will pick up the next day. He constantly comes up with excuses for his failures. His self-delusion and denial of cold, harsh reality only delay the inevitable trauma of having to face it later. Being forced to see Biff for who he really is, a bum, is the tipping point that brings Willy to commit suicide at the end of the play.

Biff is the elder of Willy’s two sons. Biff, unlike his father, is unable to completely ignore things by. He resents his father for bringing him up with empty rhetoric and false expectations. Towards the end of the play, he unleashes all this resentment in a long, angry outburst. Biff repeatedly tells  When he finds out that Willy is having an affair with another woman, the emotional distress hits him so hard that he loses the will to go to the University of Virginia.

Happy is Willy’s younger son. He works a miserable, low-paying job as an assistant to an assistant. At Willy’s funeral at the end of the play, Biff asks Happy to come with him (out west). Happy responds with “I’m staying right in this city, and I’m gonna beat this racket,” making it clear that he’s a doomed static character. Unlike Biff, he doesn’t learn from his father’s mistake of blindly chasing an unrealistic dream. Happy is destined to carry Willy’s legacy of blindly and unsuccessfully chasing the American Dream. 

Linda is Willy’s loyal and loving wife.  But in the play, even she plays more of a role as Willy’s over-protective mother than that of a wife. She never confronts Willy about his ridiculous self-delusional behavior and all the suffering it brings to everyone, especially her. Rather, she puts up with her lot in life, having to maintain the house on a shoe-string budget, mend stockings that she knows other women have been wearing, and keep a horrifying rubber hose in the house. She shields Willy from reality by continuously going along with his elaborate excuses. Rather than scolding Willy for being irresponsibly blind to the suffering he’s causing everyone, she attacks Biff and Happy for not doing more to help.  All she gets in return from Willy is disrespect.

Plot summary:

Death of a Salesman begins when Willy Loman has returned home early from a business trip. His two sons, Biff and Happy, are back home for the first time in years. Biff is now jobless, after having worked numerous temporary jobs out West. Happy lives in his own small apartment in NYC, working in a demeaning, low-paying job. The two of them, in a bedroom upstairs, start fantasizing about living a life out west working outdoors, where they can be free.

Meanwhile, Willy begins to lose himself in a daydream of a memory of Biff and Happy during their high school days. Younger Biff is confident, popular at his school, and a star football player with multiple colleges recruiting him. Willy is gleefully bragging to his sons, telling them that he’s a popular and successful salesman all throughout New England. Their studious neighbor, Bernard, runs onto the scene to remind Biff that he needs to start studying to avoid flunking math. The three Lomans laugh at this and ridicule Bernard, agreeing that “he’s liked, but he’s not well liked.”

But later, he reveals to Linda that his New England sales were modest. He complains that he’s being disrespected for being talkative and fat. Willy’s daydream ends on a less-than-glorious note, as Bernard and Linda are nagging Willy about Biff’s irresponsible behavior (not studying, driving without license, stealing the football, being rough on the girls).

Willy’s neighbor, Charley, comes over to check on Willy. They play cards. Charley offers Willy a job, which he refuses. In the middle of their game, Willy has a conversation with imaginary Ben, Willy’s brother. Angry and confused, Charley leaves. Willy goes on daydreaming again, remembering the last time he saw Ben.

Biff, Happy, and Linda see Willy daydreaming. Linda scolds Biff and Happy for not being supportive of their father, telling them that he has tried to kill himself multiple times. At this, Biff and Happy earnestly promise to try to succeed to make Willy happy. When they tell Willy about their plan to start a business and meet with Bill Olliver, Willy instantly cheers up and has a new hope in Biff. Willy enthusiastically gives tips to Biff for his meeting with Bill Olliver.

The next day, Willy goes into his boss’ office asking for a promotion to be assigned as the company’s New York City salesman. The boss rejects the idea and fires Willy. Dejected, Willy goes to Charley’s office for a loan. There, he sees Bernard, now grown-up and a successful lawyer. He desperately asks him why Biff hasn’t succeeded in life, but Bernard doesn’t know and just tells Willy that it’s best to let Biff be. Charley offers Willy a job, which Willy again refuses out of pride. When Charley gives Willy the money, Willy tells Charley, “you’re the only friend I got.” By revealing such a humbling truth to Charley, Willy has made it clear something in him has changed.  At this point, nearing the end of the play, Willy has come to accept the reality of his humiliating situation. Having been fired by his company, Willy doesn’t have any earning power. Even though it was clear to the reader that Willy wasn’t making much money, it took being fired for Willy to realize his predicament. Willy used to envy Charley way too much to even acknowledge him as a friend. Even when Charley would offer Willy financial help in the past, Willy’s pride got in the way of any thought of accepting it. This quote by Willy shows that he recognizes his tough financial situation.

That night, Willy, Biff, and Happy meet at a restaurant to talk about their day. Willy tells his sons that he was fired from his job. Biff tries to tell Willy that his meeting with Mr. Oliver didn’t go well, but Willy keeps interrupting and finishing Biff’s sentences for him. In the end, Biff claims that he got a lunch date with Mr. Oliver, but can’t go of embarrassment. Willy’s emotions overtake him and he falls into another flashback from Biff’s high school days. He and Happy leave the restaurant with two girls, leaving their babbling father behind.

In his flashback, Willy thinks back to a night in a hotel room he spent with a mistress. Willy and the woman are playing in bed when they hear a knock at the door. Willy tries to hide the woman, but when young Biff comes in he’s horrified to see with his father with the woman. Biff bursts into tears, calls his father a phony, and angrily storms off. Willy’s flashback ends and Willy leaves to go home.

At home, Linda yells at Biff and Happy for abandoning their father. When Willy comes home, Biff confronts him and forthrightly tells Willy that he should accept him for who he really is, a bum. The two of them erupt in anger and argue. At the end Biff is sobbing, which touches Willy. After everyone else goes to bed, Willy talks to imaginary Ben about whether to accept a $20,000 proposition. He goes outside, speeds away in his car, and kills himself in a crash. Willy killed himself so that Biff would get $20,000 in insurance money.

Author’s Style:

This play is essentially written from Willy’s point of view. It frequently cuts to Willy’s flashbacks. It frequently features Willy’s imagined conversations with Ben. Rather than looking at Biff and Happy’s night out with the girls from the restaurant, the play keeps its eye on Willy as he daydreams in the restaurant bathroom. By taking Willy’s point of view, Miller’s play gives the reader critical insight into Willy’s abnormal and often confusing thought process. The reader gets to see Ben just as Willy sees him, so we empathize with Willy a little bit more. Without witnessing Willy’s frequent flashbacks and hallucinations, the reader would have no idea why Willy suddenly erupted in anger during his card game with Charley. This is ultimately a play centered around Willy and his reactions to triumph and failure.

Theme:

Freedom and confinement, a major theme in this play, shows up again and again in the Loman family.

Biff is the most outwardly expressive of his urge to be free. Unlike Willy and Happy, Biff repeatedly rejects the notion of being stuck in a job he doesn’t feel comfortable in. Biff spent some years working on farms and ranches out in the West. He tells Happy he loves to work outdoors, where he can feel free and alive.

Meanwhile, Willy is stuck in a demanding, rat-race job as a traveling salesman. He’s confined by his own expectations and ambitions to make it big. Not only does he confine himself, but he also takes Biff’s freedom by putting lofty expectations and ambitions on him.

Especially at the end of the play, it’s clear Happy is destined to be confined just like Willy. At the funeral, Happy boldly declares, “I’m going to show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man.” Even after seeing Willy’s unhappiness and obsession lead to a life of lies and misery, Happy still doesn’t get it. Willy’s example was not meant to inspire, but rather to warn people against being so stubbornly devoted to a single, inflexible goal. Happy is going to grow up to be confined by his stubborn ambition, just like his father was.

Even Linda finds herself confined by Willy. Having to constantly fret over Willy’s contemplation of suicide, Linda is confined to a life of mothering a grown man. In the very last lines of the play at Willy’s funeral, Linda says, “We’re free…We’re free…” 

Response to Course Material #4

Now that we’ve finished our last reading of Death of a Salesman, I’m surprised at how little my views of the book have changed. Since the very first time I read Death of a Salesman, I always despised Willy Loman. I tried to bring myself to feel sympathy for him and see him as the tragic hero that Arthur Miller says he is, but I couldn’t. I see him as the root of all of the family’s problems. He gives his wife, Brenda, all sorts of hell that she doesn’t deserve by angrily lashing out at her for interrupting him. He earns very little money, causing her to stress out and struggle to maintain the house on a shoestring budget. Yet, he doesn’t even acknowledge his problem, leaving Brenda with no one to get mad at. He leaves the rubber hose out, giving her the burden of worrying about him committing suicide. And he cheats on her with a mistress!

He also raised Biff and Happy on false values, teaching them that being likable is the only thing a man needs to survive. Also, by having an affair with a mistress, Willy permanently traumatized Biff and took away his motivation to go to college. Ultimately, Willy prevented Biff from succeeding.

In my mind, Biff doesn’t owe it to Willy to bring back riches and success. I think Willy owes it to his family to stop the charade, acknowledge his failure as a breadwinner, and apologize for everything.