Willy Loman as a Complex Character in Death of a Salesman The dream and his desire to be a good father ultimately lead him to suicide. However, Miller's tragic character is very different from the idea of tragedy proposed by Aristotle. Aristotle argued that tragic figures had to be noble and successful, which Willy certainly is not. Despite this definition of a tragic hero, Miller himself states, "The common man is as fit a subject for tragedy as a great man," an echo of Linda's words towards the middle of the play. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The decision to make Willy a common man instead of someone of higher status, as Aristotle suggested, means many people, particularly those who can draw on aspects of Willy's life, can easily identify with Willy and, therefore, it is much easier to feel sympathy for him. Furthermore, Miller identifies the villain, not as a person, but as the society of which the tragic hero is a part. To say that Willy is a "congenital madman", however, is not true. Miller never introduces the audience to any of Willy's relationships throughout the show, with the exception of Ben, and even then he is a figment of Willy's imagination and consequently an unreliable source. Genetics, therefore, is not to blame; rather, as David Calder says, “the system that exhausted this man”. Miller's view, which went against the typical American view of the time, was that capitalism and the American dream could harm a person despite the grand image it projected. This idea was considered radical at the time of publication, so much so that the first film adaptation of the play characterized Willy as psychotic. People simply couldn't see that anyone could be against capitalism, or at least find fault with it. Throughout the play itself, the character of Willy is one who evokes sympathy but also pity and anger. Some of his actions are difficult to justify and he does not have the typical stature of a tragic figure like Othello. Although Willy is not a noble, high-class figure, Miller still manages to convince his audience to feel for him, despite his "volatile nature, his temper" and his inability to admit the truth to himself. From the beginning of the play, Miller describes Willy as exhausted. He's going crazy, but he vehemently denies it and is encouraged by his devoted wife Linda that there's nothing too wrong with him: "Maybe it's your glasses," he says, and "Your mind is overactive." In the first lines of the play, Miller exposes capitalism through Willy's voice: "the way they've trapped us" and the captions of the house: "towering angular shapes...surrounding it on all sides" suggesting the isolation, especially if we take into account that Willy is a rather small man both physically and in comparison to society. By writing this, Miller implies that it is not Willy himself, but the pressure that the American dream puts on people and corrupt American society that has driven Willy mad. He's trapped in a system where the most important things in life are money and luxuries, and Willy firmly believes that being liked equates to success. His madness, therefore, is certainly not hereditary, but the product of the country in which he lives. Willy's skill (or lack thereof), though, is something that's quite difficult to define. It's easy to argue that he has below-average ability inmany aspects, which contrasts greatly with Aristotle's vision of a very capable tragic figure. Surely Willy's career fails completely when he is fired: "there's just no place for you here", and Miller presents Willy as a failed salesman well before he is fired by Howard - he doesn't earn much and his family is very poor, as demonstrated by the lack of material goods (once again linked to the fragility of the American dream), and we are reminded that for some to be fabulously rich there must be some who are correspondingly poor. Willy's constant protests that he is a "big shot" in the business world are revealed to be false at the play's denouement: his own funeral, where instead of the hundreds of people Willy imagines, there are only five. As Miller says in his essay, Willy has a “need for immortality” that he can never fully satisfy. For this reason the audience feels sympathy towards Willy: he has "destroyed the boundaries between now and then", and is truly convinced that he is much loved and remembered when in reality the opposite is true. As well as his failure in the professional world, Willy also fails in his personal one: his fatherly qualities are lacking, although by the end of the play it is obvious that a motivating factor in his suicide is obtaining a large sum of money for his family . Despite this, he encourages Biff to steal as a youth without any regard for moral guidelines: "The coach will probably congratulate you on your initiative", which leads to a huge flaw in his son that culminates in Biff confessing to having "stolen a dress". in Kansas City” which led to him being sent to prison for three months. He also pushes Biff to follow not his dreams, but the dreams that society imposes on him: "How can he find himself on a farm?" – and while this can be seen as Willy wanting the best for Biff, which he obviously does, it's still not the right thing to do. For this reason the audience loses sympathy for Willy, as he proposes the sake of the material success he has pursued in vain. Happy, on the other hand, is relatively ignored by Willy compared to Biff. He often tries to get his father's attention ("I'm losing weight, have you noticed, dad?") but he never succeeds as he would like. The audience, therefore, loses some sympathy for Willy due to his failing skills as a father, and it is Miller's great skill to evoke him in other ways. How other characters think and react to Willy is key to Miller's evocation of sympathy for him. The only person who truly loves him throughout the show is Linda: "Willy is to me the dearest man in the world." Despite this, however, Willy is often impatient with her, and his anger towards her is completely unjustified: "Why am I always contradicted?" It could be argued, however, that Willy is so overcome with guilt over his affair that his negative reaction towards his wife is a reflection of the guilt he feels for abandoning her. Furthermore, the relationship between Willy and his children is probably the most important in the play. Biff and Happy don't like Willy and often feel embarrassed towards him: "No, that's not my father." This complete contempt for the father increases the audience's sympathy for Willy: he strives, especially in Biff's case, to ensure that his children succeed in a materialistic society: "never quit a job until you're done" , and instead of caring and helping Willy, they abandon him in his time of need – namely in a restaurant “babbling in a toilet”. A key character that Miller uses to evoke sympathy for Willy is Linda. Throughout the play, she is the only character who is consistent in her feelings for Willy:.” (1949)

Topic > Willy Loman as a Complex Character in Death of a Salesman The dream and his desire to be a good father ultimately lead him to suicide. However, Miller's tragic character is very different from the idea of tragedy proposed by Aristotle. Aristotle argued that tragic figures had to be noble and successful, which Willy certainly is not. Despite this definition of a tragic hero, Miller himself states, "The common man is as fit a subject for tragedy as a great man," an echo of Linda's words towards the middle of the play. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The decision to make Willy a common man instead of someone of higher status, as Aristotle suggested, means many people, particularly those who can draw on aspects of Willy's life, can easily identify with Willy and, therefore, it is much easier to feel sympathy for him. Furthermore, Miller identifies the villain, not as a person, but as the society of which the tragic hero is a part. To say that Willy is a "congenital madman", however, is not true. Miller never introduces the audience to any of Willy's relationships throughout the show, with the exception of Ben, and even then he is a figment of Willy's imagination and consequently an unreliable source. Genetics, therefore, is not to blame; rather, as David Calder says, “the system that exhausted this man”. Miller's view, which went against the typical American view of the time, was that capitalism and the American dream could harm a person despite the grand image it projected. This idea was considered radical at the time of publication, so much so that the first film adaptation of the play characterized Willy as psychotic. People simply couldn't see that anyone could be against capitalism, or at least find fault with it. Throughout the play itself, the character of Willy is one who evokes sympathy but also pity and anger. Some of his actions are difficult to justify and he does not have the typical stature of a tragic figure like Othello. Although Willy is not a noble, high-class figure, Miller still manages to convince his audience to feel for him, despite his "volatile nature, his temper" and his inability to admit the truth to himself. From the beginning of the play, Miller describes Willy as exhausted. He's going crazy, but he vehemently denies it and is encouraged by his devoted wife Linda that there's nothing too wrong with him: "Maybe it's your glasses," he says, and "Your mind is overactive." In the first lines of the play, Miller exposes capitalism through Willy's voice: "the way they've trapped us" and the captions of the house: "towering angular shapes...surrounding it on all sides" suggesting the isolation, especially if we take into account that Willy is a rather small man both physically and in comparison to society. By writing this, Miller implies that it is not Willy himself, but the pressure that the American dream puts on people and corrupt American society that has driven Willy mad. He's trapped in a system where the most important things in life are money and luxuries, and Willy firmly believes that being liked equates to success. His madness, therefore, is certainly not hereditary, but the product of the country in which he lives. Willy's skill (or lack thereof), though, is something that's quite difficult to define. It's easy to argue that he has below-average ability inmany aspects, which contrasts greatly with Aristotle's vision of a very capable tragic figure. Surely Willy's career fails completely when he is fired: "there's just no place for you here", and Miller presents Willy as a failed salesman well before he is fired by Howard - he doesn't earn much and his family is very poor, as demonstrated by the lack of material goods (once again linked to the fragility of the American dream), and we are reminded that for some to be fabulously rich there must be some who are correspondingly poor. Willy's constant protests that he is a "big shot" in the business world are revealed to be false at the play's denouement: his own funeral, where instead of the hundreds of people Willy imagines, there are only five. As Miller says in his essay, Willy has a “need for immortality” that he can never fully satisfy. For this reason the audience feels sympathy towards Willy: he has "destroyed the boundaries between now and then", and is truly convinced that he is much loved and remembered when in reality the opposite is true. As well as his failure in the professional world, Willy also fails in his personal one: his fatherly qualities are lacking, although by the end of the play it is obvious that a motivating factor in his suicide is obtaining a large sum of money for his family . Despite this, he encourages Biff to steal as a youth without any regard for moral guidelines: "The coach will probably congratulate you on your initiative", which leads to a huge flaw in his son that culminates in Biff confessing to having "stolen a dress". in Kansas City” which led to him being sent to prison for three months. He also pushes Biff to follow not his dreams, but the dreams that society imposes on him: "How can he find himself on a farm?" – and while this can be seen as Willy wanting the best for Biff, which he obviously does, it's still not the right thing to do. For this reason the audience loses sympathy for Willy, as he proposes the sake of the material success he has pursued in vain. Happy, on the other hand, is relatively ignored by Willy compared to Biff. He often tries to get his father's attention ("I'm losing weight, have you noticed, dad?") but he never succeeds as he would like. The audience, therefore, loses some sympathy for Willy due to his failing skills as a father, and it is Miller's great skill to evoke him in other ways. How other characters think and react to Willy is key to Miller's evocation of sympathy for him. The only person who truly loves him throughout the show is Linda: "Willy is to me the dearest man in the world." Despite this, however, Willy is often impatient with her, and his anger towards her is completely unjustified: "Why am I always contradicted?" It could be argued, however, that Willy is so overcome with guilt over his affair that his negative reaction towards his wife is a reflection of the guilt he feels for abandoning her. Furthermore, the relationship between Willy and his children is probably the most important in the play. Biff and Happy don't like Willy and often feel embarrassed towards him: "No, that's not my father." This complete contempt for the father increases the audience's sympathy for Willy: he strives, especially in Biff's case, to ensure that his children succeed in a materialistic society: "never quit a job until you're done" , and instead of caring and helping Willy, they abandon him in his time of need – namely in a restaurant “babbling in a toilet”. A key character that Miller uses to evoke sympathy for Willy is Linda. Throughout the play, she is the only character who is consistent in her feelings for Willy:.” (1949)