Реферат: The Tragedy Of One Man Essay Research

importance and they often show a lack of empathy and the need of admiration (Sue,Sue & Sue 252). Throughout the play, Willy exaggerates his own achievements, and the talents of his son, Bill. He

is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success and power. His personality is seen as insulting and impatient, but this is just a result of his lack of empathy. He constantly seeks admiration from his wife and sons because he wants to be seen as a success. But to dismiss Willy Loman as just another obnoxious NPD is to miss the enduring pain of those depleted souls who suffer the empty depression of mirrored ambitions (Welleck 214). It is in this sense that Willy Loman is tragic men as Heins Kohut understood him.

Heinz Kohut is a social psychologist who has done extensive research on the influence of a person’s psyche on their psyche. Kuhut used his definition of the self- “the self is the center of the psychological universe and it is a conceptualization of the structure whose establishment makes possible a creative-productive, fulfilling lie.”-and the concept of shame to examine the character of Willy Loman and the drama Death of a Salesman (Welleck 213). Kohut labeled Willy as Tragic Man because as many people Willy’s struggle to grasp comfort and stability is destroyed in a universe lived imperfectly (Welleck 215). Arthur Miller uses this concept of the self and shame to illustrate the downfall of the central character.

The concept of a declining and weakening self image is seen through out the play. Willy Loman epitomizes Tragic Man trying desperately to balance his fragile equilibrium. “I’m tired to death” he declares (Meyer 1714). This statement reveals a state of self depletion, which the character is not truly aware of. Willy’s cocky and often arrogant attitudes often shadowed by a sense of doubt. He brags of his popularity and how well liked he is, but often worries that he is talkative, and perhaps laughs too much. He is bewildered in a universe that is hard to grasp and seems out of

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control. Willy is constantly at ends with refrigerators that breakdown, and a car that is in perennial despair. These continuous action can be interpreted as attempts to concertize the pervasive feelings

of a crumbling and unpredictable self (Welleck 214).

Willy’s temperament is in constant flux, he is easily frustrated and angered, his mood is often shifting. The character searches for reassurance from the those around him, in order to cope with a puzzling and unsupportive world. For example, Willy forces his wife linda to act in exact conformity to his psychological and physical needs, he will not tolerate any form of separation. He never allows her to speak her own mind she is only there to support him and his ideas.

Willy is constantly struggling to gain control of his self and the world around him but he see this as being unattainable: “I can’t stop myself-I talk too much”, and “the trouble is people don’t seem to take to me”(Meyer 17). Estranged from the continuity of life he is oddly unconnected. “There’s something my father should have taught me,” he musses, and poignantly, “I still feel-kind of-temporary about myself”(Meyer 1734).

Willy, seeing his life is not going anywhere and that he has not become the success that he envisioned, uses his son, Biff, to revitalize himself. Will manipulates Biff into trying to become the great salesman that he wanted to be, even though Biff longs for another life. Will is using Biff in this way to fulfill his thwarted ambitions. But this is not the only time Willy has tried to use Biff to revitalize his self esteem. Biff has always been an important source of self esteem for Willy and through his football prowess he acted out his fathers exhibitionism and grandiosity. Willy was popular and handsome. It is noted that when the self is in danger, when it is basically fragile, there is no room for empathy (Welleck 218). This causes the individual to focus primarily on restoring the crumbling self, however possible. Ultimately, it is this that causes Willy to focus primarily on

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his own overwhelming needs, and to block out those closest to him. This sense of detachment has led Willy to identify with his shameful life.

“Shame involves painful self knowledge followed by self-reproach. In shame one asks, “What kind of person am I?” And the answer is, “I am not as I should be.” It is in this sense that shame overwhelms Willy Loman, Tragic Man (Welleck 220).

When Willy looks back on his life, he becomes painfully aware of his failures, to his self and those around him. He realizes the error in his persistent determination to be well liked. He is ashamed that he did not become the successful-admired salesman that he envisioned, nor did he become the father of great sons. Nor did he continue in the footsteps of greatness that his father, and brother, Ben, left behind. With each of these realizations comes the shameful awareness that he is with out a sensible value system, and has never developed the reasonable ideas and goals that are essential to a healthy suit (Welleck 220).

Willy tries to settle on calming, soothing images from his past, but instead the memories become riddled with shame and humiliation. For instance, he tries to focus on the relationship he had with his son, Biff, but this is overshadowed by an adultrias affair that destroyed there relationship and Biffs future. Willy also tries to focus on the success of his brother, Ben, but inevitably he must turn to his own failure. Willy’s shameful past is brought to a dramatic realization as it is pushed into the present. Willy begins to feel at fault for Biff’s failure, he will not admit this, but it is evident in his behavior; as he ask Bernard what went wrong in Biff’s life that caused him not to succeed. In reality Willy is not angered at Biff for being a “bum”, but he is ashamed of himself for the mistakes he has made like the incident in Boston. This is why Willy sees Suicide as a glorious way out of his shameful life. Suicide will allow Willy to give Biff his life back in the

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terms of twenty thousand dollars.

The psychological demise of Willy Loman is further illustrated through the setting and

language of the play. Willy often alludes to how he is becoming boxed in by the industrialized world around him. But is this observation intended to be taken literally or does it symbolize the realization of the character. The more Willy realizes about his past life and his future ahead of him, the more he feels the wall are closing in on him. In a way Willy is not being surrounded by the buildings around him but the shame of his life. This point is further illustrated when Willy tells Ben, “The woods are Burning”(Meyer 1762). This statement depicts the emotional chaos involved in the character’s life. To Willy it appears as if everything in his life, past and present, is surrounding him from his adultious affair to his termination at work. Willy world is coming to a climatic downfall due to the shame that he bestowed upon himself.

Arthur Miller wrote, “The tragic feeling is evoked when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his personal dignity” (Hadomi 162). This statement is critical in determining which of the two standpoints best describes Death of a Salesman as a tragedy.

When viewing the drama from the Marxist stand point one is forced to believe that the changing capitalistic society is at fault for Willy’s personal demise and his suicide. This view point wants the reader to believe that Willy Loman was a pathetic fool, who killed himself to escape a world in which he had outlived his usefulness. But if this is true. How does preserve his personal dignity? By taking his own life-for this reason-Willy has done nothing to preserve his dignity, instead he has become a ma?tre to other poor and unfortunate soul’s who are confused by such a changing capitalist system. The Marxist stand point also wants the reader to believe that society is

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at fault for the tragedy in Willy Loman’s life. It states that brute economics is the reason Willy is unstable and on the brink of disaster. But if this is true why is it that Willy is the only one effected

by this? Charley, Willy’s friend, is depicted as a successful man who has his own business and has a son who argued a case before the Supreme Court. Even Willy’s brother, Ben, has succeeded in such a society, he has made millions off of the diamond business. This proves that society can not be the cause of the Tragedy evident in Willy’s life. The only one responsible for the tragedy seen in the play is Willy himself.

The psychological standpoint most accurately depicts the tragedy of one man, Willy Loman. It supports Miller’s quote regarding the tragic feeling. This perspective states that Willy took his own life to make a menc for his life of shame, by giving his sons the only thing he had left, the insurance policy. As Willy ponders committing suicide he tells his dead brother Ben,”He thinks I’m nothing, see, and so he spites me”(Meyer 1772) , and goes on to say, “Can you imagine the magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket”(Meyer 1776). Willy Loman is prepared to take his own life because he feels there is dignity in a death that will give his son a life.

This may be the only dignified thing Willy has done throughout the play. Willy is depicted as a pathetic man who is crushed by the world around him. Although, the psychological standpoint concludes that Willy is not destroyed by society but his own personal unconsciousness. Willy is haunted by his past which leaves him disillusioned about his future: “I still feel-kind of-temporary about myself”(Meyer 1734). Willy has lived a life of shame which has resulted in his weakened self image, he is no longer sure if he even still possesses the one tool essential to his trade-a good personality. He often worries that he is too talkative and that people do not take to him. Willy has become unsure of himself and this is what leads to the tragedy of the play not the Capitalistic

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system. This reduces Willy to a feeble man forced to wallow in his own self pity and this is the true tragedy of this play.

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