English Paper on Death of a Salesman
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Felicia Arroyo
English 112
12/11/2012
Final draft
Willy Loman: Merely a Victim of Depression
Willy Loman is a character in the play, The Death of a Salesman. He wants nothing more than what is best for his family. He works hard as a traveling salesman to provide for his family, to promote his version of the American Dream and tries to set the right example for his family, but nothing ever seems to go right for Willy. Willy is sixty years old and is going through a tough time financially and mentally. Things that happen to Willy leads one to believe he can be suffering from a type of depression. Willy has a lot of self critism, mood swings, has a hard time concentrating (along with delusions), and he has thoughts of committing suicide, which are all signs of depression (Beck 9-12).
Depression can build up and eventually cause the troubled and depressed individual to break down, they start picking apart the bad things in life and they do not enjoy life for what it is. Perhaps this is what happens to Willy Loman because of his financial trouble and his misfortunes that continue to progress. Willy wants to make things better for his family but when he arrives home from selling he always noticed that things are not doing as well as he thought, which causes him to “self criticize” (Beck ) what he is doing with his life. Willy feels like his accomplishments are not good enough like when he states, “Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and theres nobody to live in it” (Meyer). He is searching for the answers to the questions of why is he working so hard for his family? What does he have to show for all the hard work besides a paid off house with no children left at home. These questions are hard questions to answer and will leave a person trying to understand the purpose of their life and start questioning the past and how things could have been different. This often leads to depressed individuals to thinking they are not good enough or they are not doing a good enough job.
When a person starts questioning their self-worth then they tend to get moody and most of time it is against the ones that love them the most or the ones that are most important in their life. Willy took anger out on his wife, Linda, and he had an anger episode with Howard his bossman. Willy loved his wife but never really gave her the opportunity to speak out on things like in this science below: (Willy is talking to his son Biff first when Linda tried to state her opinion). Willy says to Biff, “Go back to the West! Be a carpenter, a cowboy, enjoy yourself!” Linda says to Willy,”Willy, he was just saying -Willy then snaps at Linda, “I heard what he said!” (Meyer 1427). Another time when talking to Biff Linda tries to talk about Biffs old boss and she gets the wrath of Willys anger once again:
Linda says to Willy: Oliver always thought the highest of him–
Willy says to Linda: Will you let me talk?
Biff says to Willy: I dont like you yelling at her all the time, and Im tellin you,
thats all
Biff goes on to say: Stop yelling at her! (Meyer 1429).
Linda is attempting to make the conversation better and Willy is getting more and more angry with her. Anxiety or anger is considered mood swings unlike being just happy or sad (Beck 9, 10). The emotions of happiness or sadness are one of the other and the mood swings are the emotions that are between being happy or sad.
Willy even gets angry at other people that are important in his life, his boss and his friend/nieghbor Charley. Willy knows that he is not able to drive anymore and goes into his bosss office in order to ask for a desk job of some kind. This is parts of the conversation and it will show the way Willy reacted to what is being said:
Willy says to Howard: Thats what I want to talk to you about, Howard. You got a
minute?
Howard: What happened? Whatre you doing here?…
Willy: Well, tell you the truth, Howard. Ive come to the decision that Id rather
not travel any more…
Howard: …Well, I couldnt think of anything for you Willy.
Willy: I tell ya, Howard. The kids are all grown up, yknow. I dont need much
any more. If I could take home -well, sixty-five dollars a week, I could swing it.
..Willy (talking to himself): Pull myself together! What the hell did I say to him?
My God, I was yelling at him? How could I! (Meyer 1436-1437)
Willy gets very angry and tries his best to not act out but he can not control his angry because the answer he is given is not the answer he is looking for. Willy is neither happy nor is he sad at this time and he is getting a little out of control with this simple conversations with his boss.
Willy also gets angry with his neighbor, Charley as well. Charley stops by Willys home to talk and play some cards with Willy and the conversation about Willys job gets a little heated when Willy gets angry.
Willy: I got a job I told you that. What the hell are you offering me a job for?
Charley: Dont get insulted
Willy: Dont insult me.
Charley: I dont see no sense in it. You dont have to go on this way.
Willy: I got a job, I told you that. What do you keep comin in here for?
Willy seems to be pushing Charley away because Charley wants to help Willy. Willy is not trying to hear that because he believes he has a great job but is not ready to face the reality. He is scared to accept help from anyone. He wants to do things on his own and not get the help of other unless he ask for their help, like when he asks to get loans from a friend to make ends meet from week to week.
Willy feels that since he has not done a good job in providing for his family, he feels worthless and thoughts about what could have been done differently and how good the past was makes Willy loose his concentration. Having a hard time concentrating and delusions are other signs of depression (Beck, 12). Willy often forgets what is going on around him or what he is doing as shown in his statement below: