The play, The Death of a Salesman contains several significant themes. One such obvious theme is the theme of the American Dream, which we have all mentioned countless times. The theme of the American Dream involves the idea that hard work will produce wealth and great advantages in life. However, the positivity of this theme is not displayed in the play, rather the failure of the American Dream is displayed through Willy's life. Willy's life is shown to have a miserable quality along with large amounts of failure, including in his sons. The failure of Willy's pursuit for the American Dream wonderfully segways into another theme.
A great, but unfortunate theme, in The Death of a Salesman is that parts of life don't always turn out to be the way they present themselves. Willy's entire life show this theme through his constant troubles at home and at work. Although Willy constantly pursues his American Dream through great work and ownership of a house and even a car, Willy's life still contains cracks here and there. Willy's house and his possessions are in states of needed repair such as his car, his ceiling and his car. Furthermore, his career life is failing him and ultimately making him miserable. The unfortunate course of Willy's life shows how his initial thoughts of hark work to gain great advantages are not only different from what he imagined, but almost completely opposite.
One more theme of the Death of a Salesman is the fact that everybody has only a limited amount of time in life and that it is important to keep track of your time. Willy, as usual, is the character in the book that goes against this theme. Willy keeps no way to manage or track his time, therefore he has little bearing on where he is in life. Although Willy is getting old, especially in his career, he fails to recognize this fact and insists on continuing his work despite the loss of his good reputation and credibility. Therefore, due to Willy's loss of time, his life is slowly deteriorating without his realization.
I really like what you said about parts of life not turning out as wonderfully as they're expected to be. I think that's totally true in DOAS, and that it contributes even more to Willy's feeling of failure, even though he *has* succeeded in some areas, like owning a car and a house.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that Willy doesn't fully realize his failure. I think that Willy is incredibly stubborn and somewhere in his mind he still has hope that he's going somewhere in life, which is probably why he keeps flashing back to the time in his life where he actually did have hope.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd have to agree that Willy's failures stem from his failure to understand his situation. Perhaps if he had better perception he wouldn't have worked his way into a predicament at all.
ReplyDelete