Death of a Saleman - Happy Loman Essay Example for Free

closing of a Saleman k this instanting Loman Essay blessed sh bes n 1 of the poetry that erupts from jab and that is buried in Willyhe is the stunted incarnation of Willys worst traits and the embodi ment of the lie of the happy American Dream. As such, euphoric is a difficult character with whom to empathize. He is wizard-dimensional and static throughout the coquette. His empty vow to revenge Willys demise by fin in ally beating this racket provides evidence of his critical narrow for intellectual, who has lived in the keister of the inflated expectations of his brother, in that respect is no escape from the Dreams indoctrinated lies. keens diseased condition is irreparablehe lacks even the tiniest spark of self-knowledge or message for self-analysis. He does share Willys capacity for self-delusion, trumpeting himself as the assistant buyer at his store, when, in reality, he is only an assistant to the assistant buyer. He does not possess a hint of the latent th irst for knowledge that proves Biffs salvation. Happy is a doomed, utterly duped figure, destined to be swallowed up by the force of blind ambition that fuels his insatiable sex drive.Character Analysis Happy might as well be Willy Jr., because this apple hasnt move far from the tree. Though he is relatively victoryful in his job, he has his dads totally unrealistic self-confidence, and his raised(a) dreams about getting rich quick. Like Biff, but to a lesser extent, Happy has suffered from his fathers expectations. Mostly, though, his father doesnt overcompensate that much attention to him. Willy was always a bigger fan of Biff. Happy, maybe because he always snarl second best, has to a greater extent of a desire to please his father. Despite his respectable accomplishments in business, and the many, many notches on his bedpost, Happy is extremely lonely.Happy is competitive and ambitious, but these feelings are misdirected. Unable to compete on his receive terms in the bus iness world, Happy blindly pursues women riden women purely for the sake of doing so. Looks like hes taken his sense of competition to the realm of sex. Of course, this, much like the world of business, fails to satisfy him.Most disturbing for Happy is the fact that he cant figure out why all this isnt working. Hes followed the rules, done all the by rights things, yet Happy estimable isnt happy. His name highlights the irony of his predicament. If you consider the fact that parents name their children, you could say that Willy foolishly bestowed the nickname on his son in yet another display of misguidance and delusion. Nice.Just as the saddest fragmentise of Willys suicide is his continued delusion, the saddest part of Happys ending is his own persistent misbelief. Still driven by what he feels he should want (money, a wife), he sticks to Willys foolish dreams to the bitter end.Happy Loman Hap is the Lomans youngest son. He lives in an apartment in New York, and during the play is staying at his parents nominate to visit. Hap is of low clean-living character constantly with another woman, trying to find his way in life, even though he is confident hes on the right track.Hap has always been the second son to Biff and tries to be detect by his parents by showing off. When he was young he always told Willly, Im losin weight pop, you notice? And, now he is always saying, Im going to get married, just you wait and see, in an stress to redeem himself in his mothers eyes. Hap also tries to be on Willys goodly side and keep him happy, even if it means perpetuating the lies and illusions that Willy lives in.In the end of the play, Hap cannot see reality. Like his father, he is destined to live a fruitless life trying for something that will not happen. Willy Loman did not die in vain, he says, He had a good dream, the only dream a man can have to come out number one man. He fought it out here, and this where Im gonna win it for him. remnant of a Salesma n By Arthur Miller Character Analysis Happy Loman Happy is a young version of Willy. He incorporates his fathers clothes of manipulating reality in set up to ca-ca attitudes that are more favorable to him. Happy grew up listening to Willy embellish the truth, so it is not affect that Happy exaggerates his position in order to create the illusion of success. Instead of acknowledge upting he is an assistant to the assistant, Happy lies and tells everyone he is the assistant buyer. This is Willys philosophy all over again.Happy also relishes the fact that respectable women cannot hold out him. He has seduced the fiances of three executives just to gain a perception of pleasure and power. He thrives on sexual gratification, but even more than that, Happy savors the knowledge that he has ruined women engaged to men he works for and also despises. He states, I hate myself for it. Because I dont want the girl, and, still, I take it and I love it Happy is similar to Willy in two wa ys. Both deny their positions and exaggerate expound in order to aggrandize themselves, and sexual interludes are the defining moments of both of their lives. Willys life revolves around his taste to forget his affair with the Woman, while Happys life revolves around an active pursuit of affairs with many women.Death of a Salesman addresses loss of identity and a mans inability to accept change within himself and society. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments, all of which fetch up the last 24 hours of Willy Lomans life. The three study estimations within the play are denial, contradiction, and order versus disorder.Each member of the Loman family is living in denial or perpetuating a troll of denial for others. Willy Loman is incapable of accepting the fact that he is a mediocre salesman. Instead Willy strives for his version of the American dream success and notoriety even if he is forced to deny reality in order to achieve it. Instead of acknowledging that he is not a well-known success, Willy retreats into the early(prenominal) and chooses to relive ult memories and events in which he is perceived as successful.For example, Willys favorite memory is of Biffs last football game because Biff vows to make a touchdown just for him. In this scene in the past, Willy can hardly wait to tell the bosh to his buyers. He considers himself famous as a result of his sons pride in him. Willys sons, Biff and Happy, adopt Willys habit of denying or manipulating reality and practice it all of their lives, much to their detriment. It is only at the end of the play that Biff admits he has been a phony too, just like Willy. Linda is the only character that recognizes the Loman family lives in denial however, she goes along with Willys fantasies in order to preserve his fragile mental state.The second major theme of the play is contradiction. passim the play, Willys carriage is riddled with inconsistencies. In fact, the only thin g consistent about Willy is his inconsistency. From the very beginning of guess I, Scene 1, Willy reveals this tendency. He labels Biff a lazy bum but then contradicts himself two lines later on when he states, And such a hard worker. Theres one thing about Biff hes not lazy. Willys contradictions frequently confuse auditory modalitys at the beginning of the play however, they soon become a trademark of his character. Willys inconsistent behavior is the result of his inability to accept reality and his tendency to manipulate or re-create the past in an attempt to escape the present. For example, Willy cannot resign himself to the fact that Biff no longer respects him because of Willys affair. Rather than admit that their consanguinity is irreconcilable, Willy retreats to a previous time when Biff admired and respected him. As the play continues, Willy disassociates himself more and more from the present as his problems become too numerous to deal with.The third major theme of the play, which is order versus disorder, results from Willys retreats into the past. Each time Willy loses himself in the past, he does so in order to deny the present, especially if the present is too difficult to accept. As the play progresses, Willy spends more and more time in the past as a means of reestablishing order in his life. The more fragmented and disastrous reality becomes, the more necessary it is for Willy to create an alternative reality, even if it requires him to live solely in the past. This is demonstrated immediately afterwards Willy is fired. Ben appears, and Willy confides nothings working out. I dont know what to do. Ben quickly shifts the conversation to Alaska and offers Willy a job. Linda appears and convinces Willy that he should stay in sales, just like Dave Singleman. Willys confidence quickly resurfaces, and he is confident that he has made the right decision by turning down Bens offer he is certain he will be a success like Singleman. Thus, Willys memory has distracted him from the reality of losing his job.Denial, contradiction, and the quest for order versus disorder comprise the three major themes of Death of a Salesman. All three themes work together to create a dreamlike ambiance in which the sense of hearing soak upes a mans identity and mental stability slip away. The play continues to affect auditory senses because it allows them to hold a mirror up to themselves. Willys self-deprecation, sense of failure, and overwhelming regret are emotions that an earshot can think to because everyone has experienced them at one time or another. Individuals continue to react to Death of a Salesman because Willys situation is not unique He made a mistake a mistake that irrevocably changed his relationship with the people he loves most and when all of his attempts to eradicate his mistake fail, he makes one grand attempt to correct the mistake. Willy vehemently denies Biffs claim that they are both common, ordinary people, bu t ironically, it is the universality of the play which makes it so enduring. Biffs statement, Im a dime a dozen, and so are you is true after all.Miller often experiments with record style and technique. For example, Miller includes lengthy exposition pieces that read as stage directions within The Crucible. At low gear glance, it seems that an audience must either read the information in the program or listen to a long-winded narrator. Upon further inspection however, it becomes apparent that Millers inclusion of background material allows actors and directors to study character pauperization and internalize the information, thereby portraying it in the performance.Miller provides audiences with a unique experience when it comes to Death of a Salesman. In many ways, the play appears traditional. In other words, there are actors who interact with one another, there is a basic plot line, and the play contains standard dramatic elements such as exposition, rising doing, conflict, climax, and so forth. However, Millers manipulation of time and space creates a very non-traditional atmosphere that is unsettling but effective because it mirrors Willys mental state, thereby allowing the audience to witness his mental instability and take part in it.Stage directions call for a complete house for the Lomans. An audience will not simply watch the follow through take put up in the kitchen but can go on several rooms within the home. This sounds as if it would be distracting since an audience can view several things at once. After all, what should the audience look at? If more than one character is on stage, whom should the audience pay attention to? Miller solves this problem through lighting. Only characters that are talking or involved in direct action are lit on stage, all other rooms, characters, and support remain in shadow.The result is a vast number of rooms and props that can be utilized immediately. The audience does not have to wait while a impudently set is erected or an old one torn down, but instead moves directly and instantaneously into the following(a) scene. Such movement without the benefit of time delays or dialogue transitions produces a disjointed and fragmented rate of events, much like a dream. In fact, the stage directions in Act I describe the house as follows An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream arising out of reality.Miller does not stop there. take down though the action of the play can shift from one part of the house to another without delay, the action is still limited to the present. Willys dreams, memories, or recollections of past events must be revealed in a manner that is clear from actions taking place in the present. This is important for two reasons First, the audience must be able to scar between the present and the past in order to follow the action of the play second, Willys increased unrest must be apparent to the audience, and there is no better way to reveal it than to have the audience observe his inability to separate the past from the reality of the present.Miller achieves this effect by manipulating the space and boundaries of the rooms. When action takes place in the present, characters observe wall boundaries and enter and exit through the doors. During Willys recollections of the past, characters do not observe wall boundaries, and the action generally takes place in the area at the front of the stage, rather than within the house. As a result, the audience can distinguish present events from Willys memories. For example, in Act I, Scene 3, Willy pours a glass of milk in the kitchen, sits down, and begins to mumble to himself. He is in the present. He then remembers a past conversation with the teenage Biff and resumes the conversation. Since this is a past event, Willy directs his speech through the wall to a guide offstage. This cues the audience that Willy is digressing in the past.Sound is also used to create a dreamlike state for both Willy and the audience. A flute melody is associated with Willy, Ben has his own melody, laughter cues the Woman, and so forth. Once the sound is introduced with the appropriate character, the audience automatically associates the sound with that same character. As a result, Miller is able to prompt reactions and expectations from the audience, whether they are assured or not. For example, in Act II, Scene 14, it appears that things have finally been settled between Willy and Biff. Even though Biff is leaving in the morning, he and Willy have reconciled. This puts the audience at ease, but once Bens music is heard, it is evident that the play has not reached its final conclusion. In fact, Bens appearance may create anxiety for the audience because it suggests an alternate, more disturbing, end to the play.As the play progresses, the action shifts to the front of the stage. In other words, the audience becomes increasingly aware that the majority of the action is taking place inside Will ys head. It is difficult enough to watch an unmarried lose his or her identity. It is extremely unsettling and disturbing to be forced to experience the individuals memories, illusions, or perhaps delusions resulting in mental instability. Miller takes that into consideration and then pushes his audiences to the extreme. As Willys mental state declines, the audience is forced to watch and to react. As a result, the play may be called Death of a Salesman, but it is a death observed and experienced by every member of the audience.