Memory and Memory loss in Death of a Salesman and Soucouyant
The Death of a Salesman and Soucouyant both broach the topic of memory, in opposite but complementary ways. Where ‘Death’ is about falsifying positive memories, and Soucouyant is about ‘forgetting to forget’. Where adeles memories are a trauma, and very much tried to forget, willies memories are a solace to him, and a way for him to cope with his failures. Both detail an unchronological slip of a figure into mental illness, and both end in death. Both glorify the ‘American’ dream (in the case of soucouyant, the Canadian dream) and the main characters of both are outliers on this dream, coming close but never seeming to reach it. However, in Adele and Rogers case, this is due to
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You’ve got to make up your mind now, darling, there’s no leeway anymore. Either he’s your father and you pay him that respect, or else you’re not to come here.
This is paralleled in Rogers statement about adele. ‘Hey, boy, stop that now. She only forgetting, worser thing have happen’ (22)” Although there is obviously something wrong with adele, and wrong with Willy, it is not discussed and must be forced out into the open.
This shows that although Linda is shown to know about Willys suicide attempts, and how skewed his reality is ‘ Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived.’(39), through the hose pipe and the car crash, she fails to do anything other than to react, putting the hose on after Willy has tried to kill himself, and then trying to sweep it under the table, even as Biff is trying to confront his father with reality. Both texts also have the theme of deep seeded cultural identity and its effect on memory. Cultural identity is shown through the manifestation of the memory through both their illnesses, leading back to what is ingrained deeply in them. For adele, it is the songs and traditions of her culture, through the many different types of mangos and half-remembered baking recipes, as well as the reality of the country she grew up in as a child. For Willy, his cultural identity comes
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Adele is many times too prideful to admit that she has forgotten things, such as her sons name, or what day of the week it is. It is Adele's pride which also stopped her from telling her sons about her past. This pride is conveyed by Merra near the end of the book, in her own remembrances of her childhood. ’This is the seventies, Meera. This is Canada… You have endless opportunities for wealth and happiness. Always make sure to capitalize. Always make sure to distinguish yourself.’ (157). This quote mirrors Willys own assumption that because the American dream is available, it is certain that he will achieve it if he works hard enough. Likewise, Meera is told by her mother that her new cultural identity is Canadian, and her cultural identity of being black and a woman should not get in the way of
How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).
As the play progresses, one begins to feel sorry for Willy and his problem, but at the same time angry and frustrated with him for his foolish pride. With this trait, it prevented him from accepting a job from Charlie, something that could have saved his life. Also, it is with this false pride that has been sparking the family flame for years, the fact that the Loman name was well known and well-liked. The family lie that was amongst themselves is revealed during the climax of the play. One example is the way in which Willy led Biff to believe that he is a salesman for Oliver, which at the end left Biff disappointed. The reason for this estimation of the truth may be because of Willy’s idea that he has not raised Biff and Happy the right way.
Willy undermines her authority with the boys. He denies any negative comments out of her mouth when their children are discussed. He interrupts her. He shouts at her. Linda reacts with veiled hostility to Willy?s disrespect. She laughs at the idea of planting a garden, pointing to Willy?s past failures at growing a garden. Every time Linda pokes at his failures, she is retaliating against Willy?s failures and the fact that she has been pulled into Willy?s dead end dream against her will.
But, most specifically the isolation of Willy Loman. Each family member takes unlike routes in building barriers between them an Willy. As aforementioned, Linda does nothing, leaving Willy to his own devices; instincts that are severely hindered. Anger, follows Biff and Willy’s conversations, severing all ties between the two. Happy, to busy trying to impress his father, misses out on his father’s problems. Finally, self-isolation. Willy chose to refuse help, chose not to speak of it, and took his life because of
‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ are two texts that vary in several different ways but are fundamentally similarly themed, as they both centre on individuals who undergo several catastrophes which lead to their untimely deaths. Whilst it is clear that Miller has made death and suffering inevitable from just the ominous opening of the play - evident by the Loman’s kitchen having ‘three chairs’, in which the number 3 is often associated with bad luck, as opposed to four (the number of people living in the household) which foreshadows the death of a single character later on in the play – Keats also gives an impression of death being inevitable in the poem from the setting of the poem, which is implied to be autumn – the season
Biff said when realizing the type of house he grew up in. Everyone in the Loman household was unsatisfied, the family left unstable. The top of the causes for the problems in the Loman household lead to Willy. Growing up Willy never had a true support system. His father left him at a early age. And his brother went to Africa. With all this abandonment in life, Willy learns to live on the dependency of being well approved of by others, and following a dream he saw as the “American Dream”. This dream led Willy into more failure than it did success. Willy never knew when to look at reality or chase a dream. When it came to a point in life when he realized he could no longer achieve this American Dream, he tried to live it through his sons. He never held his kids accountable for their faults because they were “well liked” Willy sees how much people like you as an equivalence to a human's success in life. Linda once said, “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.” Willy filled all his actual doings in life, with dreams and visions of a successful him or of anything to make the pain of his actual life
The theme, confusion between reality and illusion leads to a downfall, applies here because in a way suicide is the ultimate downfall. Charley, a voice of reason, counter argues that “nobody’s worth nothin’ dead” (98). Charley is consistently in reality and is one of the most successful people in the play. So, the fact that Charley recognizes reality in the harshest and brightest light is what kept him from experiencing a downfall in his life. If the Willy was not confused about the reality of his life, there may not have been such a great fall when his life amounted to less than he expected, and when Biff’s life did not turn out to be what he had hoped.
The story ‘Death of a Salesman’ written by Miller focuses on a man doing all he can to allow him and his family to live the American dream. Throughout the story it is shown how the Loman’s struggle with finding happiness and also with becoming successful. Throughout their entire lives many problems come their way resulting in a devastating death caused by foolishness and the drive to be successful. Ever since he and his wife, Linda, met she has been living a sad and miserable life, because she has been trying support his unachievable goals. Also by him being naïve put his children’s lives in jeopardy and also made them lose sight of who they really were. Miller uses the Loman family to show how feeling the need to appear a certain way to the public and trying to live a life that is not really yours can turn into an American nightmare.
Although Biffs relationship with his father didn't change after he discovers about the affair and how he lied to make himself look good to society he then loses motivation to succeed to anything in life. As Willy goes on with his life and tends to get a little older, sales become a little more difficult for him as memories start to come back to him. He could never tell himself the difference between reality to a fantasy and since he wasn't able to, he alienated himself from other people and struggles to survive in the present during the play. His life becomes really dysfunctional and has a disorder and practically forces himself to completely withdrawal memories from the past where in his mind order exists while reconstructing his mind with certain event and relive the past. While reading this story, it relates to me and a lot of other people simply because it showed that Willy had a self-deprecation with a sense of failure with regret and many emotions. The audience can relate to this story because everyone has experienced all of these things at one time or another in life. Although Willy ended his life, most do not, people can connect with Willy because he was driven to succeed. Im sure many people had a lot of sympathy for Willy because he felt that his only answer was suicide simply because he didn't meet his standards in success. I on the other hand had no sympathy for Willy because he lied to his family and friends and found the easy way out. Willys life and situation was not unique, he only made a couple of mistakes and found the worst through
Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend
Willy Loman’s family and few friends are affected by his mental breakdowns brought on by his career and disappointment with Biff. In high school Biff was the star of the football team until he failed his mathematics course which led to Willy’s anger, frustration and disappointment towards Biff. His wife is especially concerned with Willy’s relationship with Biff, saying “There is no time for false pride, Willy. You go to your sons and you tell them that you’re tired. You’ve got two great boys, haven’t you?” (Miller 83). Willy, however, has other things on his mind. He is upset about the current industrial atmosphere. This is seen when he comments:
Willy is offered help by his friend Charley, a successful Business man, Willies all time friend and only friends he has left, when Charley offers Willy a job, yet willy full of pride and envious of Charley rejects it yet does not rejects it but continues to borrow money from him. This is due to Willies flaw in his desire of being higher in society than anyone else.Willy cannot let go of the past and continuously refers to 1928, when his career was at its peak. His withdrawal into the past is a defense mechanism as he refuses to come to terms with his failure as a salesman. His illusions of grandeur lead to fierce exaggerations of himself. He tells Biff to "Go to Filene's go to the Hub, go to Slattery's, Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!" (Miller, 62). He refuses to realize his personal failures and falsely believes that he is successful. Memories of a happier past Willy losing a grip on reality and on time escapes into the past. Despite his desperate searching through his past, The deep probing of dreams and memories in Death of A Salesman where quite important in illustrating Miller's point. Willy is a man stuck in the past reminiscing about times when things where good fabrication of those times really were as good as he imagines them to be? Like his inflated dreams of the future, the past may well be embellished by Willy's wild imagination. It seems
In ‘Death of a Salesman’ Miller writes Linda’s situation as being one of an exceptionally difficult and intractable nature; we see that she is aware of Willy’s suicidal tendencies as well as his financial issues and yet keeps them to herself. Stuck in an invariably volatile relationship, Linda is shown to be doing her best for her husband and sons, yet struggles with the burden of responsibility. She seeks solace in what she deems to be the only way possible; almost by ignoring the problem rather than confront them. Whilst some may denounce Linda as a form of tragic villain, it seems more fitting to view her as a victim of circumstance, her
Willy Loman is a troubled and misguided man - a salesman and a dreamer with an extreme preoccupation with his own definition of success. Willy feels that physical impact is greater than the elements of his self-defined success. However, it is apparent that Willy Loman is no successful man, even by the audience's standards. He is still a travelling salesman in his sixties with no stable location or occupation, but clings on to his dreams and ideals. He compares his sons with Bernard, using him as a gauge of success. Nonetheless, he stays in the belief that his sons are better than Bernard. Willy recollects the neighbourhood years ago, and reminisces working for Frank Wagner, although he was also in the same condition then as now. He feels that the older Wagner appreciated him more, yet it was himself who voted Howard in. Arthur Miller presents Willy as a man with great bravado but little energy left to support it. He is always tired and has dementia, contradicting himself in his conversations and showing some memory loss, living in his world of illusions and delusions. He argues with Biff, both men without knowing why. The two sons of Willy display the physical appearance of adulthood, but their talk and attitude displays immaturity. Billy finds that he is a failure because of his lack of `success', while Happy thinks he is unfulfilled because he lacks failure.
Willy is the aging salesman whose imagination is much larger than his sales ability. Willy's wife, Linda, stands by her husband even in his absence of realism. Biff and Happy follow in their father's fallacy of life. Willy's brother, Ben is the only member of the Loman family with the clear vision necessary to succeed. Charlie and his son Benard, on the other hand, enjoy better success in life compared