Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

After either, as egotistical as Willy certainly is in his extracurricular dalliance, and in his inclination to be a success as a salesman, he nevertheless is doing what nine has taught him is the right thing---to work hard and fork out for his family. The primary naturalistic element of the play is found in Willy's belief that if he works hard he and his family allow for be rewarded with a good bearing. However, Miller clearly suggests that the socioeconomic system which has shaped Willy's aspirations is also the force which prevents him from fulfilling those aspirations. Miller, therefore, employs a sociological version of naturalism. Willy believes he is free to authorise decisions and pursue goals which guild pass on allow him to achieve because that is what he has taught by that society. However, society has deceived him because in the naturalistic framework of the play he is non the recipient of society's rewards but rather the victim of its false promises.

The wonder of the play, then, considering Miller's sympathy for Willy and his family, is whether Miller holds out any hope for changing that socioeconomic system which has crushed Willy. Miller leaves no uncertainness whatsoever that Willy himself has learned nothing from his envision. Whatever recognition he might have won of his helpless predicament, Willy is shown at the land up of the play to still be under the spell of t

The realistic elements of naturalism prevail as long as the characters accept the definition of life presented by society. However, when the characters---or at least Willy and pummel---recognize that the struggle has been futile and that the naturalistic forces will inevitably crush them, then the non-realism and vector decomposition of expressionism emerge.

Similarly, pull's own experience with the disintegration expressed in Miller's use of expressionism (the flashback to the infidelity scene, for example), is manifested finished a sudden awareness of facts which he had previously denied or simply been unaware of. For Biff, the disintegration is not of his personality, for Biff has not invested his entire being in the ideas with which his father does wholly identify.

Biff is young enough to accept the disintegration of his father's ideas and i behaves without experiencing such disintegration himself. Also, Biff is already in a state of semi-rebellion against his father's professed ideals originally he finds out about his father's lies and infidelities. This is expressed in a number of scenes. For example, even golden recognizes that Biff lives a life separate from his father's ideals. Biff asks, "Why does Dad mock me all the time." Happy vaguely recognizes that Biff has invested a great deal of hope in Biff: "He just wants you to make good, that's all." Again Biff asks why Willy is hard on him. Happy says, "I think the fact that you're not settled, that you're still up in the air" (15-16).

Had no character learned anything from Willy's tragedy, the lecturer would be free to see the play in more than purely naturalistic terms, but Biff's gradual awakening---beginning with the discovery of his father's extramarital sexual involvement---gives the play a more humanistic color. Also, had Biff shown nothing but bitterness and a sense of virtuous and fatherly betrayal toward his father, as he expressed by and by that discovery, the play would similarly be far more naturalistic than it is. Up
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