Wednesday, July 24, 2013

What does the company owe Willy in Death of a Salesman Act II?Linda says, "He works for a company thirty-six years this MArch, opens up unheard-of...

This is an excellent question and the answer lies at the heart
of what Arthur Miller is trying to communicate through this outstanding play. The short answer to
your question is: nothing. The point of the play is that we are presented with an impersonal
capitalist system which only values a man by the amount of money he is worth. If you are not
worth anything, as Willy is not by his failure in his salesman role, you are discarded. This is
part of the tragedy of this play--that Willy can work for so long in his job and put so much of
himself into it, and then be thrown away as if he were useless orange peel, as the quote you have
identified suggests.


Note how, in his conversation with Charley,
Willy reflects on the irony of the situation:


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Funny, y'know? After all the highways, and the trains,
and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than
alive.



It is following a strictly
capitalist view that results in Willy's suicide, as he follows this logic through to its
conclusion and takes his own life so that he can be "worth" something to his family and to the
world through the insurance money he will receive. Miller then forces us to examine very closely
the morality of a world where it is logical for a man to take his own life because of the sum he
will receive.

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