Death of a Salesmen

13 Pages 3303 Words

m Willy looked upon with great admiration for becoming extremely wealthy and the ripe old age of 21. However Willy also becomes very depressed when Ben leaves, the fact being that he re-realizes the meagerness of his own life, and that he is still making payments on all of his possessions. Willy then comprehends that by the time his worldly possessions are paid for, they shall no longer be of any use. For example, the Loman house has become virtually unnecessary now that the two sons have moved out. It isn't until after Willy's death that the final mortgage payment is made for a house with no one inside it. The one example of this is the statement given by Linda during the final paragraph of the play,
"I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there will be nobody
home. We're free and clear . . .we're free . . .we're free . . .we're free," (page 139).
As the plot thickens, Willy the salesman plummets deeper and deeper into depression until his most likely route of action, which of course is suicide. However the reasoning behind this course of action, we find, is his genuine love for his family, along with Willy's deep longing to supply his family with as much money as he can possibly get his hands on. In spite of the fact that this play has been described as a modern tragedy, I feel by the definition of a tragedy this is far from holding it’s own. The reason being that it does not accompany the standard protocol of tragedy. Traditionally speaking, a tragedy usually begins with the main character in the midst of a prominent position of piety and over the course of the play becomes transformed and that character flips to a lower level of status. A tragedy is also reputed to acquaint its audience with regard to life. The audience should leave a tragedy feeling virtuous about themselves, even though the tragedy concludes on a note of melancholy. This is why scholars say they cannot include this ...