Drama Response: Death Of A Sales Man As A Typical Modern Day Tragedy

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Death of a Sales Man
Death of a sales man is a typical “modern day tragedy”. It is a realistic drama that appeals to psychological and emotional senses of human beings. The story is a complex one because it is based on a lifetime of betrayals, denials and lies. When Willy fails to make it as a travelling sales man, he tries his luck finding a stable job in New York, only for his boss to later fire him (Miller, Elia & Alec 21). As this happens, Willy has several bills to pay. His burdens increase when his thirty-four-year-old son Biff returns to New York hoping to get a white-collar job. Together with his younger brother, Biff moves back to his parent’s house with several lamentations of their failures to achieve their life goals. When Willy realizes that instead of Biff getting a job, was sent away for stealing the pen of the interviewer. At this point, Willy’s whole life comes to a standstill and what he can do is to reflect on what could have been done. The events are too much for him to bear and he decides to end it all through a suicide.
The author sends an important message on the American dream, casting a cold eye on it. The author is trying to talk about the morals compromised to achieve the American dream. He uses Willy to show how people struggle to achieve it. In the pursuit of American dream, people lose their identity. People lack the ability to recognize the changes in them and in their surroundings. By using the three family members, the author wants to send a message of “order versus disorder”, contradiction, and denial (Caywood & Gene 86). Miller uses the affair that Willy had to reveal how a single event can define individuals and how they can try to do away with the event. The message the author is trying to send is that events in our past lives can shape our future permanently. The author often wants us to know the reality of life. Often when fathers feel like they have not been so successful in their life, they would want to encourage themselves so that they can achieve the success they missed through their children. The parents end up putting too much pressure on their children to succeed in order to make up for their own failures. In the end, the children’s only interest would not be disappointing their parents at the expense of their own desires and happiness (Parker 151). The author alludes to the fact that the children would want to live a simple life, and yet they still feel the urge to please their parents. In the end, when they come to their own dreams and rebel, family ties would suffer forever.
Death of a Sales man addresses three main themes: betrayal, abandonment, and the American dream. The theme of betrayal is brought about by the fact that Willy betrays the love of Biff and Linda through his affair (Miller 3). Yet willy himself believes that Biff betrayed him. His expectation was that Biff would fulfil the promises he had and yet Biff had the guts to keep off on those ambitions that Wily had for him. Willy believes that Biff betrayed him after discovering that he also betrayed Linda through his affairs. It is a back and forth as Willy and Biff both believe that they were the ones betrayed. Biff believes that...