Eugene August describes Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ as a profoundly male tragedy, one in which its protagonist is destroyed by a debilitating concept of masculinity . Masculinity is of course an ambiguous term and araises a gamut of views. Willy Loman, a failed salesman, embodies the deluded values and aspirations that could be said to originate from the American Dream, which infiltrates every aspect of his life. Whilst Willy is influenced by material and consumerist success, reflecting the play’s setting in the increasingly urbanized, cosmopolitan New York, Stanley Kowalski in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ defends imperilled masculinity in his less socially progressive community of Elysian Fields by resorting to primitive male behaviour in order to assert his dominance and territory. Despite the playwrights’ portrayals of masculinity, both suggest that male behaviour is shaped by their society’s concept of masculinity in order to survive.
Despite differences in their values or aspirations, the male protagonists of both plays appear to have the same disrespectful view towards women. On the night of the Poker game, in scene 3, Stanley refuses to get up when Blanche and Stella enter the room, perhaps because as females they have wrongly intruded in their masculine game: a game of risky, high stakes that relies on luck and chance; where to succeed you cannot show emotion, mental and physical weakness. Kernan states Stanley hates Blanche and has to prove his dominance by raping her. The chronological structure of the play ironically shows how respect is only shown when Blanche is nearly entirely broken. This could imply that men are kinder towards broken, unquestioning women, although it also suggests that they are insensitive ...
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...o him with pejorative and radically charged terms such as swine and polak. Therefore it could be said Stanley cannot be blamed for protecting his marriage; however by raping his sister-in-law, surely his defensiveness goes too far and, ironically, he proves Blanche’s point of his animal-like behaviour. Eddie is also intent on preserving his honour as he demands, I want my name back after the other characters lose their respect of him when he betrays the immigrants. Having a bad name is also shown to have a negative impact in ‘Death of a Salesman.’ This is illustrated with Willy’s fantasy of the crowd shouting Loman because for Willy this shows his popularity and people’s appreciation and admiration for what he has done; ironically, however, a crowd chanting merely underlines his inferiority, as if the name is naturally tainted and associated with Willy’s failures.
When Stanley beats Stella in Scene 3, the abusive side becomes noticed and readers come to the conclusion that it was not the first time that this act of violence has occurred. (Williams 40). But Stella ends up coming back to him after he cries out to her, and their relationship resumes as it did in the times prior. He is also the one who investigates the protagonists’ (Blanche’s) past; as he knows there are things she is hiding. This need to know about Blanche’s history is driven by his hatred for her aristocratic ways. Furthermore, Stanley makes his dominance apparent through the expression of his sexuality. At the end of the play, he rapes Blanche as a way to regain his dominance in the household. Throughout the play, Blanche slowly gains some control over Stella, and causes disruption to Stanley’s
She takes Blanche’s side and tells Stanley, “You didn’t know Blanche as a girl” (140). The conflict between Blanche and Stanley is over Stella’s attention. In Scene Four, Blanche goes on about how Stanley “acts like an animal” (121) and Stanley is listening, but the women do not know it. She tells Blanche, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant” (120).
Many dilemmas throughout the recent decades are repercussions of an individual's foibles. Arthur Miller represents this problem in society within the actions of Willy Loman in his modern play Death of a Salesman. In this controversial play, Willy is a despicable hero who imposes his false value system upon his family and himself because of his own rueful nature, which is akin to an everyman. This personality was described by Arthur Miller himself who "Believe[s] that the common man is as apt a subject for a tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (Tragedy 1).
Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has no consequences for his actions against his wife and is never held accountable for treating the people around him poorly; this lasts until Blanche arrives. Blanche is an outwardly demure, but spirited young woman who after experiencing untold misfortune breaks mentally and decides to no longer care what others may think of her. She lives her life lavishly and foolishly by having dalliances with younger or richer men who shower her with gifts and attention to get sex from her all too willing form. Her effect on Stanley is one of temptation and challenge; she continually tries to convince her sister that she is too good for the man and in turn fosters a resentment for her in him. Stella acts as the antithesis of Stanley and Blanche’s extreme personalities. She is innocence and purity where they are the darkness that threatens to overtake her life. Throughout, Stella is a pawn that they both try to use against the other to no real avail as she is determined to make the best choice for herself. In th...
Willy Loman, one of the few tragic heroes in the modern era, is not very different from other tragic heroes which precede him. Willy, similarly to other protagonists in Aristotle’s tragedies, has a tragic flaw which leads to his eventual downfall. However, Willy’s demise in the 1940s play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, cannot be contributed purely to Willy’s own faults, but also to the actions of surrounding characters. These characters will go on to push Willy into a corner, making it even harder for him to overcome his circumstances, eventually playing a part in the tragic end of Willy Loman. By the end of the play, it is Ben, Biff, and Charley who contributes the greatest to the ultimate demise of Willy Loman.
A white picket fence surrounds the tangible icons of the American Dreams in the middle 1900's: a mortgage, an automobile, a kitchen appliance paid for on the monthly - installment - plan, and a silver trophy representative of high school football triumph. A pathetic tale examining the consequences of man's harmartias, Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman" satisfies many, but not all, of the essential elements of a tragedy. Reality peels away the thin layers of Willy Loman's American Dream; a dream built on a lifetime of poor choices and false values.
This gradual fall and loss of her sense of reality is truly tragic. Blanche is a person largely driven by the part of her that wants to be liked and be accepted. She cares greatly about how she is viewed and how she looks which is seen throughout the play. Even at the end when she’s living almost completely in the imaginations of her mind she asks Stella and Eunice how she looks before being taken away to an insane asylum. Tennessee Williams, the author of the play, uses all the conflict between Blanche and others, specifically Stanley, to show that fantasy is unable to overcome reality. Stanley and Blanche are both the epitomes of fantasy and reality. Stanley is a man focused on sexual drive, work, and fighting. He is exhibited as animalistic and strongly driven by his desires which is shown when he says, “Be comfortable. That's my motto up where I come from.” Stanley loves and searches after reality which is why he is so set on breaking down the facade he sees in Blanche. Blanche on the other hand is running from her reality and her past. Her fantasy of being high class and chaste is the exact opposite of her reality which is why she wants a life like that so badly. She wants marriage and stability, two things she was jealous of Stella having after arriving in New Orleans. Her fantasy she was building in her new life is shattered when Stanley is able to learn of her past and bring reality crashing down on her. Williams
The ideology of male dominance has existed since the beginning of mankind. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, it is especially apparent that Stanley, who is a working class man, feels the need to assert and reassert this principle of power constantly. Williams makes clear, through the character of Stanley, that the yearning for others’ recognition of their power and capability is the motive behind men’s masculine inclinations.
At first, Stanley acts physically dominant over both Blanche and Stella, by rifling through Blanche’s possessions (Williams 124), by quoting to Stella and Blanche that "every man is a king" (Williams 197-198), by throwing the radio out the window in a drunken frenzy and by actually striking his pregnant wife (Stella) (Williams 152-155). However, towards the end of the play, Stanley realizes his power over Blanche and he acts a lot wiser, but still with the same intentions.... ... middle of paper ...
In scene three Stanley is having his poker party (pg. 57). At this point he is very drunk. Blanche distracting Stanley by listening to the radio instigates him to grab it off the table and toss it out the window. Stella in a state of panic tells everyone to go home which angers Stanley so he chases after her and hits her. This type of behavior is not normal of any human being involved in any relationship. Stanley repeatedly gets what he wants by use of any means possible. In addition the person whoever threatens the existence of his poker game receives a beating, in this case his wife. This scene demonstrates Stanley’s viscous animal like traits with such violence. If what happened here was repeated in today’s society he would find himself in a jail cell with a pending divorce.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the story of a man trying and failing to obtain success for him and his family. Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, has been trying to ‘make it big’ for the majority of his life. Miller’s play explores the themes of abandonment and betrayal and their effects on life’s success. Willy sees himself as being abandoned by his older brother, Ben, and constantly views his sibling’s betrayal as one that changed his prospects forever. Willy, in turn, is guilty of a different type of abandonment and betrayal of his sons, especially Biff.
“Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller in 1948 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of Willy Loman, a mercurial 60-year-old salesman, who through his endeavor to be “worth something”, finds himself struggling to endure the competitive capitalist world in which he is engulfed. Arthur Miller uses various theatrical techniques to gradually strip the protagonist down one layer at a time, each layer revealing another truth about his distorted past. By doing this, Miller succeeds in finally exposing a reasonable justification for Willy’s current state of mind. These techniques are essential to the play, as it is only through this development that Willy can realistically be driven to motives of suicide. The very first section of the first scene, already defines the basis of Willy’s character for the rest of the play.
Repetition of the poker game from the beginning of the play is used as a device to suggest a similar tense atmosphere and the intensifying build up to a very dismal event for Blanche. In both games Stanley is winning which suggests his dominance and control, which symbolises the rape scene and how helpless Blanche was. The symbolism of Stanley’s aggressive poker playing reflects his real life aggression and violent habits towards women. The poker game also symbolizes the luck and gamble of Blanche’s life, as well the dishonesty and deception of the others around her. ‘You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky!...I was lucky.’ suggests Stanley has got away with his vulgar behaviour and Blanche’s life is deteriorating rapidly. The poker game also represents the change in Blanche's behaviour. In contrast to the first poker game, in which Blanche is eager to convey the best of her physical appearance and make the men notice her, ‘how do i look...i feel so hot and frazzled. Wait till i powder before i open the door. Do i look done in?’ shows her eagerness to impress the ‘gentleman’ and her insecurity and obsession about her appearance which
“. . . Women internalize the feminine wound or feminine inferiority so deeply, there's little or no female authority and esteem to fall back on. So they seek it by adopting and pleasing patriarchal standards.” (Sue Monk Kidd, the Dance of the Dissident Daughter)
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman examines outside influences on the individual. These influences include society as a whole, the family as a societal unit and beliefs which the individual thinks he should espouse. In order to understand Willy Loman and the struggles with which he is dealing, the society in which he exists must first be understood. He is relying upon a slightly different set of values and motivations than everyone else seems to be, and this sets him apart. A prime example of the rest of society is Willy’s brother, Ben.