The
Value of a Life
“A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.”
When does a dream become an illusion? What does it take to make a man’s dreams the substance of his reality? What was it in Willy Loman’s history that made him lose touch with reality? What forced the obviously deluded man to become so in the end? The problem of determining the source of Willy’s delusion is multi-faceted, yet it is key to trace these chronological delusions to determine the cause of his ultimate suicide. Miller portrays Willy in a light which would indict society in a heartbeat, yet one wonders if this indited indictment has any more than a superficial credence. That Willy is a product of his environs is obvious enough, yet Ben, and Bernard, and Charlie live in the same environment, and they are unscathed. Does the monetary stigma to which Willy is a slave come from society, or does it stem from a deeper source? Miller would have you believe that the capitalistic cutthroat society is the root of Willy’s problems, yet it is Willy who ultimately cuts his own throat. The impetus, as Miller would have one believe, for Willy to kill himself was that the washed up old man could not “cut it” in the fast paced world. In truth Willy died the death of a salesman. Willy Loman was the greatest salesman ever, for he sold himself a life that was not his to live. He sold himself a life that was true only in his mind. The sale of Willy’s life was like the sale of a house, for indeed only in Willy’s mind did he himself live. The sale was finalized, and the mortgage paid for Willy long before he died, and in his prophetical words “Work a lifetime to pay off a house, you finally own it, and there’s no one to live in it.” Willy could sell himself a life of illusion, but he could not live in it. Through three episodes Willy’s illusions will be traced to illustrate and dramatized the theme that it was in fact Willy’s emersion into delusion which forced him to kill himself, and it was in fact his own tortured soul, not society’s that forces him to do so.
The opening quote is in fact one of the last in the play. Charley, Willy’s “only true friend”, speaks these lines in response to Biff’s defamation of his father’s name. Biff claims that Willy “never knew who he was”, and this is true – to Biff at least. Biff believes that Willy’s entire life was a lie, and though most of it was, Charley believes otherwise. Charley believes that it is a salesman’s place to dream, and that Willy was only fulfilling his duties as a salesman. That Willy is a dreamer, is evidenced by his obsession with his brother Ben. Willy regrets not setting out with Ben, who “when [he] was seventeen walked into the jungle, and when [he] was twenty-one [he] walked out. And by God [he] was rich.” Willy “dreams” so much about Ben for two reasons. Firstly Ben became a rich man, and money was of the utmost importance to Willy. Secondly Ben became rich because he followed his dreams. To Willy, a dreamer is a fool, if his dreams aren’t realized. If, however, a dreamer is rewarded with fulfillment, then he is an enviable success. Willy thinks that Biff is a fool for squandering his life out West, for Biff is a dreamer and it has got him nowhere. Ben on the other hand succeeded with his dream. Thus by his own definition, Willy, is a fool. He lives in a world of regrets where the eternal question is “What if?”. Willy dreams in the past of the future. As evidenced by the Ebbets Field game flashback, Willy is forced to relive the happier times of his life with the tint of desperation. Ever flashback is laced with sorrow, and Willy’s sorrow carries into his real life. The mist pitiable thing is that it takes the complete loss of his “real” life to shatter the illusion of his false one. Willy’s shattered dreams force an agnorisis, in which Willy realizes that his life has been one lie after another. Biff cannot tell him that his life was a lie, for he has not the authority to do so. The only person who could show Willy the truth was himself.
Charley is ignorant of the true Willy Loman. He views Willy as a dreamer, when the fact of the matter is that Willy is merely a man living in his own illusions. When Charlie tells Willy that “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell, and the funny thing is that you’re a salesman and you don’t know that.” Charley’s words are apodictic, for indeed Willy has only what he can sell both in the real world and the world of his own illusion. When Willy cannot sell anymore in the real world, he is forced to sell himself on the idea of his illusionary world. The link between the real world and the one of his own delusion, though it dwells more oft in the latter world, is false pride. The so called pride of Willy Loman can be evidenced by many events. “What the hell are you offering me a job for? I got a job. It told you that.” To this remark Charley replies that a job without pay is not a job at all. It is obvious that Willy needs Charley’s money, for he walks in every week to pick up his check. What then is Willy’s problem with working for Charley? The problem is Willy’s blind pride. Charley asks Willy if he is jealous of him, but Willy is not jealous of Charley, but disgusted. “A man who can’t handle his tools is disgusting.” Willy cannot understand how someone who is “not – liked” can be a success in the world, as Charley or Bernard have been. According to Willy’s mantra “Be liked and you will never want.” If Charley is not liked, whether this be a figment of Willy’s imagination or the truth, how then can he be a success? Furthermore, how can Willy subjugate himself to someone who his pride tells him is less than he is? Willy cannot bring himself to work for Charley, because he is contemptuous of his success. He is not jealous, but contemptuous, because he believes that Charley should never have attained such success as such a worthless and “disgusting” person. The voice of Willy’s pride will not let him work for Charley, a lesser person. He has no trouble, however, taking Charley’s money.
The
most telling event of Willy’s loss of touch with the real world comes in the
form of the scene in the office between Howard and Willy.
A derisive scene from the audience’s standpoint, Willy is subjected to
humiliation brought on not only by his own self-deceit, but also by the
insouciant stance which Howard takes concerning Willy.
Howard’s recorder is a symbolic object.
In and of itself it indicts capitalistic society and damns Willy.
The recorder spouts out the names of states without emotion.
This seems of no consequence, but there is much in this episode.
The fact that Howard is preoccupied with the machine shows his contempt
for Willy. Moreover, the repetition
of states and their capitals hearkens to the states in which Willy has performed
his job over the years. The
systematic itemization and qualification of all objects into material things is
evidenced by Howard when he says, “This is the most fascinating relaxation I
have ever found…they’re only a hundred and a half.”
What Howard is saying to Willy is that happiness can be bought for money.
Money which Willy doesn’t have, nor will ever have.
The mechanical tone of the machine is echoed in the mechanical tone of
Howard’s swift denial of Willy’s pleading.
Nearly all of Willy’s illusion comes in the form of a flashback, yet in
the scene with Howard, Willy’s illusion in real time comes into play.
Up to this point in the story, Willy’s illusions have all come in the
form of unrealistic views of himself. “Call
out the name Willy Loman and see what happens!”
“I can park my car in any street of
When Willy has lost his job, and his last shred of dignity had been ripped away by Howard, Charley, and Biff, he is forced to re-evaluate his life. Willy, however, it too far gone to realize the truth. Rather he sees only that his son Biff must succeed in life. Willy’s idea of success is having money, and therefore for Biff to succeed he must acquire money. At the end of the story Willy’s life has no value for himself. There is nothing for Willy to live for. Even his illusions are falling apart at the seams. The only value Willy’s life holds is the twenty thousand dollar life insurance policy, which he has religiously paid for years. Willy doesn’t believe Charley’s statement that “nobody’s worth nothin’ dead”, for Willy does not see any value to his life at this moment since he cannot make any money. It is an indictment of society that Willy lives only for money, and therefore is not “a great man. He never made a lot of money.” It is an indictment of Willy however that he values his life only as much as the yield resulting from the termination of it. Furthermore, Willy cannot see his true life through the haze of illusions which he creates. The illusions he holds toward himself are the only thing that keeps him sane, while they in turn damn him to insanity. Flashbacks are innocent enough. Remembering the “good times” also has no harm, but living vicariously in “the now” through the past is what causes Willy’s downfall. Because he so despises his life in the present, he shuns it, and forces himself to live in the past with Ben and the young Biff. When however his illusions begin to fall apart, he becomes deluded. He cannot bear to hear that Biff did not get the job with Bill Oliver, and so he doesn’t. He cannot bear to listen to Charley tell him that he is worth nothing dead, and so he doesn’t. He cannot see that his son Biff loves him, until it is too late. When Willy, free of illusion and delusion, discovers that Biff loves him he feels obligated to do something. Again reverting to illusion, he decides to make Biff an instant success, i.e. to give him lots of money. He does so by cashing in his life, which he has rendered useless by means of living in an illusion.
