Blog About Death of a Salesman

Throughout Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of a Salesman, are many profound subtexts. For this week’s blog entry, I am going to take an analytical approach on a few of these subtexts that I came across during the plot's progression. I am also going to take some partial focus on Willy’s psychological function that seemed to have some correlation with these subtexts.
When first reading the play, the author starts to describe the setting of the Lomans’ house. When this house was first bought, we can infer the surrounding area was all open space, containing potential to be anything, such as Willy’s dreams when he was younger. Notice how the author describes the house to be presently hemmed in by apartment buildings on all sides, where sunlight probably doesn’t touch often. Now that the house is besieged by apartment buildings, coincidentally, so are Willy’s dreams. Although there are a few silver linings and rays of sunlight, with the passing of time, the play’s gloomy outcome proves it to be a little too late for Willy to start over and so to speak, break through those apartment buildings. Even  the movie depicts the house itself to look as though it aged too drastically to make any room for improvement. Also notice, how later on, when we find Willy talking to his wife Linda about how they should to the country, towards more open space. In other words, he subconsciously wanted to move on to find more potential.
While on the subject of Willy’s dreams, I’ve found that he is probably a better dreamer then a salesman. He doesn’t exactly dream of selling big, either. At least not directly. Willy thinks that being “well-liked” has some positive correlation to success because he demonstrates a constant trend to shoot after a good reputation then actual success in his business through fidelity. But, do you ever find out what Willy exactly sells, or even the name of The Woman? No, because Willy finds these details irrelevant. Willy uses the woman as a tool to feel “well-liked” because she regards herself as a means for Willy to get buyers more efficiently.
In addition, because of his presently somber situation, his “episodes” function as an escape from his current distress. However, his flashbacks don’t truly illustrate the past because he seems to edit his past and look for his mistakes regarding his relationship with Biff and trying to figure out how exactly Biff ruined his future. As for Biff, his father never gives him the discipline that every parent should give their child. While he continues to contradict himself about Biff’s laziness (meanwhile he asks Linda why he is “always being contradicted”), he showers Biff with praise about his natural talent for football. I would guess that the reason psychologically for that is, that Willy probably just didn’t want to hurt Biff’s ego because of how insecure he is himself, and just wanted his son to like him. Willy also seemed to thrive and function off of Biff’s high school success and popularity through affiliation.
Currently, we find Willy now trying to reiterate his dreams through his son, contradicting Biff’s real ambitions and natural inclinations. Biff wants to be nothing like his father, and would be happier outside of the city working in a ranch out in the west. Even so, you find that Willy’s wistful fantasy of living in Alaska shows he chose the wrong profession anyway. He also compared the professional and private aspects of his life with those people of false prosperity. Ben’s success was merely a blind stroke of luck while he completely missed the fact that Singleman was still working until the age of 84 and died on the job. His funeral was also accompanied by the people who just happened to be there while he died.
In summary, Willy just falls to notice anything. He is too old to start over. He can’t possibly become an overnight success, and neither can his son. Meanwhile, his other son’s success, Happy, is barely taken note of. Instead of looking at his family’s reputation, he should of looked at the bigger picture, that being, what the future held for the family. Instead of worrying about everyone else, he should of diverted that amount of attention towards his family. Willy failed to see the love Linda and his son’s held for him. He failed to be able to draw he line between himself as a salesman and himself as a husband/father.