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.
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