1979. Choose a complex and important character in
a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the
character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized
essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the
work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot
summary.
In the play Death
of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is seen through multiple
viewpoints. Throughout the play readers
feel anger and frustration towards Willy Loman due to his immoral and evil
actions, but at other times readers feel guilt and maybe even sympathy towards
him. Willy Loman is a complex character who
can evoke the desired emotion from readers when appropriate. Readers feel anger towards Willy when they
find out about his affair and his constant lack of authority when it comes to
his son Biff, but readers feel sympathy when they learn about Willy’s situation.
At the beginning of the play readers find out that
Willy Loman has been having “flashbacks” that readers and his sons blame on Willy
just being crazy. As the play goes on Linda
Loman explains that Willy’s salary has been taken away and he’s solely working
on commission, Willy has been traveling hundreds of miles per week, and he is
suicidal. At this point Arthur Miller evokes
feelings of sympathy from the readers, and also from Willy’s sons who now see
Willy in a new way. Miller conveniently
added this piece of information right after readers find out Willy is having an
affair, so they don’t feel like he’s only a bad guy.
Adultery is definitely seen as an immoral action, and
Willy Loman is guilty for cheating on his wife with another woman while he is
out on his business trips. Readers find
out that this affair may be more than just for fun when the woman says “I’ll put
you right through to the buyers.” This
means that Willy could be using her just to get ahead in the business world,
and that would just cause more anger towards Willy. Linda’s kind and understanding attitude
towards Willy angers readers even more, because Willy is taking Linda for
granted, and going off to fool around with another woman.
Lastly Willy has no sense of morals when it comes to
his favorite son; Biff. Biff is a thief
and doesn’t care about school, but Willy has no sense of authority, because he
believes Biff will get ahead in the real world due to his looks and
likeability. At the beginning of the
play Biff steals a football in one of Willy’s flashbacks and when Willy finds
out he says “Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he?” This just shows that Willy doesn’t have a
good sense of morals and believes Biff can do no wrong; this action evokes
anger from readers because Willy isn’t acting as the authority figure, but
rather as Biff’s friend. Also when Biff
tells Willy that his math teacher is only failing him because he doesn’t like
Biff because Biff imitated him in front of the whole class Willy just asks if
the other students thought if it was funny.
This proves that Willy doesn’t discipline his sons for their bad
behavior, but just wants them to be well liked.
Arthur Miller did a great job creating the complex
character of Willy Loman who manages to be evil, yet still have readers
cheering him on due to the sympathy they feel.
Willy Loman is a very different character who manages to be loved and
hated at the same time.
Great choice of prompt! This prompt fits perfectly with Will Loman in Death of a Salesman. The main thing I think you need to work on his to equally focus on the different view points. You stated in your thesis that "Willy Loman is seen through multiple viewpoints" but you really only seem to mention two. The majority of the paper for that matter only focuses on one viewpoint, and that is that he is an immoral character. Your ideas and examples were great for what makes him immoral but I think you need to elaborate a little bit more on his redeeming qualities. Perhaps you could describe how he seems to be senile? Or that he works incredibly hard to support his family and that the affair may have just been and immoral way to try to support them better? Overall I think you had great ideas and your paper is structured nicely. I especially liked the way you showed how the way Linda acts effects the way the readers perceive Willy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danny that Death of a Salesman was a perfect choice for this prompt, especially because we had just discussed all the deeper struggles towards his character. I also was going to say how what you have written make Willy still seem kind of like a bad character. I think the prompt is asking for more of the hidden meaning of the character, not the obvious feelings that readers find themselves thinking. Maybe another thing you can talk about is his pride and how he wants his family to think of him as purely successful, on his own. He didn't want to come across to them as someone that needed help, and really that's all he needed. Overall, this is a really good essay and the work you chose is great for the prompt!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great choice, Willy really is a complex character, and there are a lot of emotions that an audience can feel when it comes to him. When watching the movie/reading the play, I didn't like Willy at all because of his criticizing of Biff just for not doing what Willy wanted him to do in his life, and later on with the affair. However, when you look at how his pride is shot when he has to borrow money and tell people he has work when he actually got fired, and the fact that he feels like a failure to his family and is suicidal, all of the sudden he isn't really the evil character anymore.
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