overlook-agonist
The Tragedy of Willy in the Modern
Capitalist Society: The
Marxist
Discussion on the
Death of a Salesman
云师大外语学院
外国语言文学班
宋美琼
Abstract:
Based
on
the
theory
of
Marxist
Criticism,
this
paper
aims
at
exploring
how
the
“
American
Dream
”
misled
by
the
capitalist
concept
get
an
ordinary
social
being like Willy into
both spiritual and economic dilemma by the
detailed analysis on
discussing
the reason of
Willy
’
s death and
his
misunderstanding to
his personal
life,
his occupation and his relationship
with others.
Key
W
ords:
American Dream;
Capitalism; Relationship; Selling Concept
摘要：
本
文运用马克思主义批评理论，
意在通过研究威利的死以及其对个人生活，
职业以及人际关系的诸多误解的原因的仔细分析，
从而达到揭示资本主义理念所
误导下的美国梦如何使诸如威利这样的小人物陷入精神与经济的双重困境这一
深层的社会原因的目的。
关键词
：
美国梦；资本主义
;
人际关系；营销观念
uction
1.1Reason
and Background
As the
masterpiece of
Arthur
Miller, Death of a Salesman
”
is a
modern social
tragedy
aiming
at
digging
and
exploring
human
beings
’
deep
spiritual
dilemma”
(Matthew,
2001:211),
and
it
is
a
perfect
product
of
the
combination
of
the
society
drama
and
psychological
drama,
what
’
s
more,
it
is
a
masterpiece
of
the
realism
and
expressionism. By reading and
discussing this work, the creation method of the
drama
and
many kinds of
techniques would be
grasped and
it
is
useful to
lay the
foundation
for the latter analysis of drama, and
what
’
s more important,
although happened in one
day
,
the action,
fantasy or
words
in the play
is simple but
clear to
help
us
to explore
the
deep
reason
of
Willy’
s
death,
which
would
trains
us
on
how
to
see
the
essence
through phenomena.
1.2
Research Questions or Thesis Statement
Using
the
method
of
Marxist
Criticism,
this
paper
aims
at
exploring
how
the
“
American
Dream
”
misled by
the capitalist
concept
get an ordinary social being
like
Willy
into
both
spiritual
and
economic
dilemma
by
the
detailed
analysis
on
discussing
the reason of
Willy
’
s death and
his
misunderstanding to
his personal
life,
his occupation and his relationship
with others.
1.3 Aim
By exploring
the detailed action,
fantasy or
misunderstanding
in
Willy
’
s daily
life
and memory
,
it is meaningful for us to explore the deep social
and institutional reason
of
Willy
’
s death and his
misunderstanding to the whole society and his
selling career.
1.4 Content
of This Paper
In order to make the topic clear and
specific, this paper would explain and discuss
in
four
aspects
and
totally,
this
paper
is
divided
into
six
parts
including
the
introduction and the conclusion parts.
1
The
first
part
is
the
introduction
of
the
paper
and
it
includes
three
layers:
The
reason of the choosing of
this topic; the
statement or
the
hypothesis of the paper; the
significance or meaning of the paper.
The
second part
is
the
literature review.
In this
part, several
groups of
idea
about
the discussion of the
work
given by different theories and
critics of the earlier studies
are
classified and analyzed here, and after summing
up these
ideas, the
limitation are
discerned and
my own comments and research methods are put
forward.
The third part
is
the theoretical
framework and critical approach. In
this part,
the
definition and critical approach
applied
in
the
latter paper
are
listed,
such as what
is
“
Marxist
Criticism
”
,
“
Capitalism
”
,
and
“
American
Dream
”
and
how
the
Marxist
approach is used in
this paper.
The fourth part is the theoretical
approach of this paper, in this part it would give
a
clear idea on how the
“
Marxist
Criticism
”
theory is closely
connected with this paper.
The
fifth part,
also the body or discussion part of the paper,
gives a specific and
fully
discussion
on
the
personal
and
deep
social
reason
of
the
hero
Willy
’
s
fantasy
,
misunderstanding
to
the
society
or
selling
concept
and
the
death
of
this
ordinary
salesman.
The
sixth part is the conclusion of the paper, in this
part the main idea and content
of
this
paper
would
be
reviewed
and
the
main
founding
of
this
paper
would
be
showed,
and also, the
limitation and suggestion
of the paper writing
would be
listed
for the further study
and writing.
ture Review
The articles
about
the theme of
“
< br>Willy
’
s tragedy
in the
modern capitalist
society
”
are
countless
both
in
China
and
abroad.
When
it
comes
to
the
detailed
reasons
of
Willy
’
s tragedy
and confusion, there remains several categories as
follow:
2.1 The International Studies
Basically and honestly speaking, the
internationally scholars have ignored most of
the tragic reason related with the
capitalist social system; rather, they paid much
more
attention on the characteristics
or the selling concept itself.
2.1.1
The Poor Management
Some
scholars
in
the
western
society
have
attributed
Willy
’
failure
in
the
capitalist society to the poor
management of him, they are considering
Willy
’
s selling
concept
and
technique
in
the
process
of
selling
products.
“
The
personal
charm
and
short-
term
appearance
is
not
the
grail
to
a
salesman
”
(Mattew,
2001:
222)
Generally
speaking, Willy
has confused the concept of what
is selling and what
is real
business,
so he spends
lots
of time
in
vaunting
lectures or proclaiming,
in
fact the real and
true
marketing
approach
is
the
solid
selling
foundation
and
the
believable
product.
And
also,
it
is
the
“
confusion
of
the
feeling
in
one
’
s
personal
life
and
the
feeling
in
the
working
that
led
to
the
suspicion
and
incontinence,
so
it
is
natural
to
be
self-
condemned
and
hypocritical
when
he
failures.
”
(Kamp,
Retrieved
on
August
22nd,
2010 from Gale Resource center) So we can see that
it is believed that the poor
management
of
Willy
in
his
selling
concept
and
selling
action
that
led
to
both
his
failure
and death.
2
2.1.2 The Distorted Relationship
Here
theorists
consider
that
it
is
not
Willy
’
s
bad
relationship
but
the
hypocritical
relationship
that
makes
him
fail.
“
Willy kept
a
lot of
things
from
his wife,
including
the
income,
failure,
suffering
etc,
to
maintain
his
illusion
of
perfection
in
front
of
others.
”
(Offo,
1978:
46)
And
it
is
also
the
same
that
Willy
can
’
t
manage
his
relationship with
his son
Biff
very
well,
for Willy
vs.
Biff
have an
increasingly
tense
relation.
Willy
pins
his
hope
on
Biff
but
never
helps
him
to
correct
the
stealing
or
other
bad
habit,
which
makes
Biff
give
up,
like
the
broken
pot
that
has
broken
and
fallen.
All
in
all,
the
distorted
relationship
has
contributed
a
lot
to
Willy
’
s
pain
and
confusion
when
facing
the
reality
and
fantasy
,
and
then
he
gives
up
his
life.(Offo,
1978: 46-48)
2.2 The Domestic Studies
The
domestic
comments
are
mostly
on
the
topic
of
Willy
’
s
death
and
the
deep
reason
behind
the
contradictions
of
capitalism.
There
are
general
two
ideas
when
concerned
about
the
disaster
of
capitalism,
and
because
of
the
space,
the
other
comments not so related have not been
listed.
2.2.1 Willy: The Victim of
American Dream
“
The
nature of
fluctuate and
fictive
in the American dream
is
always
misleading
its
followers,
and
however
hard
they
try
,
they
always
end
up
with
failure
and
depression.
”
(Wu,
2007:114)
It
is
not Willy
’
s
fault
to be
frivolous and
unconfident
or contradictory
,
in
fact,
it
is the
value of the whole
society
that
makes them
so.
“
A
lack of
understanding to
the
panorama of American dream
gives Willy
a
fantasy and
illusion about
the
materialistic
society
.
”
(Zhao,
2008:146) So, it
is
the
vain American
dream that
makes a great amount of ordinary citizen
crazy
.
2.2.2 Willy: The Victim of Materialism
“
As
an old
salesman
without a
healthy body and open
mind,
Willy
is
labored
in
managing
selling.
But
as
a
matter
of
fact
one
’
s
value
is
demonstrated
when
his
production is
high.
”
(Qing, 2008:170) The
group of critics like Qing considers it is the
materialism in American society that
forces Willy to shoulder the burden of collecting
money
and
raising
the
whole
family.
The
man
’
s
value
is
declined
as
the
value
of
material,
the
big
gap between
Willy
’
s wish
for
being
rich and the cruel reality pushes
him to lie, to cry
, and at
last, to commit suicide.
2.3 My Comment
With
regard
to
the
comment
of
Willy
’
s
death,
both
the
international
and
the
domestic critics has
mentioned the reason of the society
,
and the concept of American
dream
and
capitalism
have
been
mentioned
time
and
time
again,
to
be
general
and
simple, the detailed and
scattered
ideas should be concluded and
synthesized
to
make
it
comprehensive
and
practical
and
impartial,
the
reasons
of
the
characteristic,
the
social
or
the
systematic
should
be
included
in
the
new
paper,
so
it
comes
as
the
original
aim of producing this paper.
III.
Theoretical Framework
3
3.1 Marxist
Criticism
criticism
is
not
merely
a
'sociology
of
literature',
concerned
with
how
novels
get published and whether they mention the working
class. Its aim is to explain
the
literary work
more
fully; and this
means a
sensitive attention
to
its
forms,
styles
and
meanings.
But
it
also
means
grasping
those
forms,
styles
and
meanings
as
the
product of a particular
history
.
, 1981: 46)
3.2 American Dream
The
American
Dream, sometimes
in the
phrase
hasing the
American Dream,
is
a
“
national
ethos
of
the
United
States
in
which
freedom
includes
a
promise
of
prosperity and
success.
”(Murray
,
1981: 441)
In the American
Dream,
first expressed
by
James
Truslow
Adams
in
1931,
should
be
better
and
richer
and
fuller
for
everyone, with opportunity for each
according to ability or achievement, regardless of
social class or circumstances of
birth.
（
”
Kamp, Retrieved on August 22nd, 2010
from
Gale
Resource
Center
）
,
the
idea
of
the
American
Dream
is
rooted
in
the
second
sentence
of
the
Declaration
of
Independence
which
states
that
men
are
created
equal
and
that
they
are
by
their
Creator
with
certain
inalienable
Rights
including
（
Kamp, Retrieved on August
22nd, 2010 from Gale Resource
Center
）
3.3 Base
and Superstructure
“
The
production
of
ideas,
concepts
and
consciousness
is
first
of
all
directly
interwoven with the material
intercourse of man, the language of real life.
Conceiving,
thinking,
the
spiritual
intercourse
of
men,
appears
here
as
the
direct
efflux
of
men
’
s
material
behavior…”
(Zhu,
2001:
64)
and
the
social
relationships
between
men,
in
other
words, are bound up with the way they produce
their material life.(Murray
, 1981:
111)
IV.
Research Methodology
：
This paper applies the method of
Marxist Criticism explore the deep reason of the
tragedy
of
Willy
’
s
death,
which
is
closely
related
with
the
theory
of
“
base
and
superstructure
”
,
which
tells
us
that
the
social
relations
between
men
are
bound
up
with
the
way
they
produce
their
material
life,
and
the
capitalist
production
mode
makes
people
of
that
society
into
a
collective
of
self-interests,
lacking
moral,
fuzzy
about
value
and
worshipping
money
,
(Guerin,
2004:
443)
and
the
concept
of
“
American
Dream
”
would be illustrated
in this paper to show how the false value gets
an ordinary people into both spiritual
and economic dilemma.
V
. Discussion
5.1 The
Disillusion of American Dream
“
The
flatulent and unrealistic dream of being a top
salesman is really an American
dream
”
(Offo,
1978:
46)
to
Willy
Loman,
and
in
the
struggle
of
realizing
and
inheriting
it,
his dream dies,
which causes
the suicide of
him, Willy
Loman,
the
hero
of
Death
of
a
Salesman,
is
“
a
salesman
without
self-confidence
or
down-to-earth
4