I am still unsure about how I feel toward the entire family. They're trying really hard to be the perfect American Dream-- Biff is supposed to go to college and has been the golden boy all his life, WIlly us supposed to bethe almighty successful salesman, Linda is supposed to be the perfect house wife who never disturbs the "peace" of the family, and Happy is supposed to be...well...happy. Happy is kind of left ouf of the perfect American dream because he is just in the background to the rest of his family's lives. The funny thing is that this perfect family is one of the most dysfunctional I have ever heard of or read about. I feel like they are so focused on success and perfection that they cause their own dilemmas. No one cares enough or love senough in the family. This is apparent by the funeral when Linda cannot cry and Biff seems angry at his father. The irony in this "American Dream" is that this is probably more typical of American families than we think. There are many, many families in the world and in America who just do not have enough love in their lives and it is what causes evil in the world.
Posted in
American Dream,
Death of a Salesman
Dramatic suspense is subtly created in this story through the progression of the story. It is very difficult to follow at times trying to figure out if it is the presenet or not. I feel like this story is modeled after Willy's mind because of the chaos in his life. The audience though has littler insight into Willy's mind and future events. There is a lot of foreshadowing and connections to death within the story. This includes the title and Linda point out to Biff that Willy has been attempting suicide. The audience can figure out that Willy will eventually meet his demise because of this foreshadowing. While Willy's death is expected, it is never fully explained because in the requiem we must assume that he killed himself in a car wreck. The ambiguous ending adds to the chaos of the whole play. Either way, this all story points back to what I said in my last blog post about Willy not having a strong enough support system to help him sustain his life and get help for whatever issues he was having. It all comes down to family support when someone is truly struggling.
Posted in
Death of a Salesman,
dramatic suspense
This play is a tragedy because in the end of the story Willy's pain eventually kills him. He is also the protagonist in this story but he is also the antagonist. He drives himself to his own death because he drives himself crazy in his job. The whole time I read this play I imagined everything dark and chatoic because it switches back and forth among reality, the past, and Willy's crazy mind. It's very imminent that this play is a tragedy because of the title, but until one begins reading it, it is difficult to figure out if it is the death of his mind or physical body. It ends up that both ahve occured and Willy has been out of his mind for quite a while. In the end, his hubris, himself, brings him to his demise. I don't think he could have saved himself though sadly enough. If anyone could have helped him it would have been his family but he did not seem to have a good enough support system to try to look past all of the crazy things in his life and actually help him out.
Posted in
Death of a Salesman,
tragedy
