Willy Loman sacrifices his life to allow his family to live- suffering is thus obligatory to him and the audience, creating an orthodox sense of pathos after his passing.
Willy Loman falls steadily from an imagined height; where his degradation seems inevitable and his suffering appears inevitable. Although he partially elicits his own way into being myopic to the economic climate in 20th century Boston- where salesmen jobs were within the relentlessly most underpaid brackets of employment- Willy’s continuation of hopefulness focuses sentiments of pathos into the hearts of audiences as they become bystanders to his suffering in a similar manner to Linda. Miller states that Willy’s death is not a “document in pessimism” and therefore the pathos audiences feel should be equally paired alongside hope for the future of his family; didactically suggesting that without hopefulness and relentless optimism (which are arguably illustrated through Willy’s characterisation) experiencing the monotonous journey of exploitation seems futile.
“Some attention must be paid”
Here, pathos within Miller’s audiences is intentionally heightened as Linda pleads for respect to be placed upon Willy’s name as a world without him seems unfathomable. Linda adores Willy and places him upon a heighted pedestal, her describing him as the “handsomest man”- the superlative here successfully illustrates how deeply Linda is in ore of Willy’s journey and therefore, through her eyes, the world would be a far worse place without him. The concept of respect is toyed with throughout Miller’s tragedy; arguably, the most heightened amount of disrespect is felt by Biff, when walking in on Willy’s affair with the – ominously presented- Women. From this poignant moment in the play, Biff feels a sense of disillusionment with his relationship with his father and this only allows him to escape the myopic view both Linda and Happy share about Willy and his suffering. As this segment is illustrated through flashback, it can be assumed by audiences that this was the most significant moment where Willy and Biff’s relationship demises from an authentic truthful height. Therefore, the pathos felt by audiences is emphasised through Linda soul-wrenching plead for ‘attention’ to be paid to the illusion of Willy’s life- the overtly unrealistic and undeniably idealistic screenplay of Willy’s existence. Biff illustrates his freedom from the rose-tinted glasses that Linda and Happy share in the requiem section, where Biff says that Willy had “the wrong dreams. All, all wrong”. However, Happy’s adrenaline-filled response (“almost ready to fight Biff “Don’t say that!”) suggests that he is prepared to defend capitalism’s inhumane exploitation of his father, implying that audiences can anticipate Happy continuing the cyclical nature of having ‘the wrong dreams’; further wrenching pathos within helpless audiences.
The betrayal of the nuclear family
The disequilibrium within Willy’s family unit arguably echoes Marxist critics beliefs that the nuclear family dynamic is solely a hub for consumeristic ideology to spread like wildfire and relentlessly devoured the minds of working-class civilians who strive to succeed within the American Dream’s standards. Willy’s garden is set out to represent his desire to create a good and stable life for his family where they’re all able to flourish- yet due to the invasion of industrialisation, “towering, angular shapes” “surround it on all sides”, Willy’s garden acts as an emotive microcosm for the barren nature of his life as a struggling salesman. Willy’s decision to commit suicide is made significantly in the garden, reflect his succumbing to the failure of the American Dream as the ‘towering building’ place him in an ultimate position of inferiority and vulnerability.
With thanks to EH – year 13 2022
A-Level English With Miss Huttlestone 