Rachel Mendiola
The 20th century marked the beginning of an industrialized nation and the end of rurality forever. New ways of life emerged, enslaving Americans to machinery and corporations. Self worth was now determined by materialistic entities and no longer by character. As a result, a series of epistemological crises of modernity emerged for those born years before. People struggled to adapt to a new lifestyle, making them more prone to existential confusion. This existential confusion was channeled in modern drama through expressionism, illuminating the protagonist, or dreamer’s, subjective view of the world as a means to define their person hood. Such elements of expressionism utilize character and setting to represent the dreamer’s emotions and motives. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the dreamer, struggles to maintain his identity as he is caught in the middle of a changing system pertaining to the way a person makes their living. This is because his traditional belief of being "well-liked" in a new corporate society causes his stable sense of self to perish. He begins to lose control of his own life, making him unfit for survival in this new society. In this essay, I examine Miller’s use of psychic memories from the past to emphasize the long-lasting damages that result from Willy’s choices based on this value. This is crucial because Miller displays how these past events are responsible for Willy’ psychological deterioration through the way he interacts with other characters in the expressionist work.
Expressionism, like many other 20th century literary and artistic techniques, is experimental in the realm of how we see ourselves. Linguistics and comparative literature scholar Ishfaq Hussain Bhat defines expressionism as “an artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person... as a reaction against materialism... rapid mechanization and urbanization” (Baht 14). Bhat’s definition of expressionism is important because we, as audience members, are allowed into a character’s psyche and are shown things as they see them, even if we don’t necessarily understand them. The play’s universe, which is actually Willy’s mind, is subjective and indeed, shadows elements of opposition toward materialism and the mechanizations of modernity. These oppositions reflect a fear and rejection of change.
Willy’s passionate belief of being liked prevents him from taking the risks necessary to survive in the corporate world, causing him to fall into a pit of self-destruction. This occurs in the scene where he steps into the psychic memory of a conversation with his successful brother, Ben, while playing cards in the present with his neighbor, Charley. In this scene, Willy develops the urge to compare himself to Ben because he tells Charley “It's Brooklyn, I know, but we hunt too” (Miller 35) when speaking about professions. Significantly, Willy’s words mean a lot more than what they seem. They emphasize an unresolved lack of self worth. He feels the need to prove himself to Ben even though Ben is not physically present. One must pay attention to the fact that Willy is in the middle of psychic memory while physically present in front of Charley. As an aged man, this flashback leads Willy to the realization that the opportunal risk to acquire wealth in Alaska is long gone. Although unsuccessful, he tries to hold on to any remnants of success and material worth. Furthermore, saying that he “hunts too” exhibits Miller’s representation of a battle between rurality and 20th century capitalism. The brothers’ interaction also suggests a relationship of competition rather than one of love and support, shadowing modern societal belief.
Willy cannot mentally cope with this new mode of competition, causing him to reluctantly accept defeat since he now learns that his salesman job has grown unsuccessful in the long run. This lack of success disillusions him because he begins to regret abandoning his rural life- a life that was once temporary, but comfortable. Later on, the effects of disillusionment become more apparent when Willy admits to Ben that he has a difficult time determining his identity, reminiscing that in the past, he “was such a baby and never had a chance to talk to [their father] and still feels-kind of temporary about [himself]” (36). Clearly, Willy “feels temporary about himself” because not having talked to his father demonstrates an unresolved attachment to the old-fashioned selfhood consisting of 19th century ideals, such as working with one’s hands and maintaining personal, unmaterialistic relationships. His father was well-liked and successful because he hand-crafted flutes and sold them. His father followed said ideals, making him the only model of charismatic success in non-corporate society. This is comforting for Willy. However, the fact that his father is gone emphasizes fear of the new world. Willy now has no one to depend on. Without his father’s guidance, Willy’s selfhood shatters because overtime, he had grown so obsessed with being well-liked that he never took the risks necessary for survival in the modern world. With that being broached, Willy is slammed by the fact that nothing in life is permanent, causing him to spiral into denial of change. He becomes emotionally and mentally distraught at the reality that hand-crafting and genuine friendship, like in his father’s lifetime, do not hold up in modernity. As a result, he is left in a state of existential confusion because it is far too late to mimic Ben’s capitalist behavior as a means to reach wealth and success.
Willy’s suicide marks the catastrophic end of his ability to psychologically cope with living in a world that no longer embraces his ideals. Miller exerts the intensity of Willy’s incoherence through a rapid shift in mindset, starting out when Willy tells his wife, Linda, that “the trees are so beautiful up there, [they] are so thick, and the sun is warm... And then all of a sudden I'm goin’ off the road!” (3). For a moment of observing “the trees” and “sun,” Willy is tied to nature. Nature is a reminder of his life in the nineteenth century before corporate culture. He becomes engulfed in his desires for rural life, suggesting his attachment to being respected and known. Even so, the “road” (modern infrastructure) is a symbol of the new world that he struggles in. As stated earlier, Willy is trying to find any signs of comfort and nature to distract him from the reality of corporate domination. Additionally, by “goin’ off the road,” he demonstrates a loss of control, leading him to give up on his own life. The phrase suggests a lack of effort to live, and Willy exerts this in his detached interactions with Linda. Their disconnection illustrates his psychological incoherence because despite Linda giving him plenty of love and respect, Willy still chooses to leave her behind by choosing death. The pressures of corporate society and the downfall of rurality’s friendliness lead Willy to step into another psychic conversation with Ben, saying “There’s all kinds of important people in the stands”(108). Significantly, these are his last words, creating the denouement (day-noo-mont) of the playas all previous events lead up to a final decision. By claiming that there are “important people in the stands,” he expresses that those who are worthy of respect are the individuals who are able to succeed in the corrupt corporate world. He also suggests a tone of envy because it internally shatters him to know that he does not belong in this group no matter how hard he tries. More importantly, he feels that the system is incomprehensible, and that he could no longer live in it. Ultimately, he began to treat himself like an object rather than a person. Miller creates this sudden shift in Willy’s mind to show audiences that he lacked the adaptability to corporate society, and how as a consequence, loses everything. He finds ultimate liberation through death.
In conclusion, Miller’s use of expressionism explores the gradual process of Willy’s psychological deterioration by revealing his failed relationships with others. As the dreamer, he is given the power to craft all events in the play because said events are sheer representations of how he sees himself. He loses his grip on a stable identity because the rise of corporations robs him of the joys that rural life had once given him. He suffers in existential confusion, confirming that the obsession with being “well-liked” clouded his ability to overcome the cognitive challenges that wrecked him.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
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