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Cyclical Victimization in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, the protagonist
in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is no more the ...
Submitted by sawyer on October 25, 2006
Category: English
Words: 2116 | Pages: 9
Views: 334
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Willy Loman, the protagonist in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is no more the victimizer of his family than he is a victim himself. Miller explores the possibilities of cyclical mental abuse passed on through familial generations, resulting in failure and confusion of one’s priorities and goals. Biff, Willy’s eldest son, was the victim of too much love and attention. Happy, the youngest boy was victimized by having received no attention and very little love. Willy’s wife, Linda, is a victim of her husband’s overzealous promises and lack of execution. Although Willy inflicted such calamity upon his family, there were similar conditions produced in his childhood that were responsible for his clouded judgement, causing him to fall prey to his own family’s faulty beliefs, values and treatment. Raised during turn-of-the-century America, Willy is seduced, like many, by the American dream of capitalistic success. Above all, his worst enemy is time as he is a victim of old age.
Willy loved his son, Biff, too much. The constant attention he instilled on Biff stifled his child’s ideals and mental development, making it difficult for Biff to discern right from wrong and attain responsibility. Always being the favored son, he could do no wrong. When he began to “borrow” footballs from school, Willy, knowing that this was wrong, protected his son’s integrity by endorsing this behavior stating: “Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative!” (30). Willy also began to instigate thievery among his boys by promoting the theft of lumber from a local construction site (50). Any positive role model Biff had, such as his studious friend Bernard, were criticized and belittled by Willy (33) while he set Biff atop an imaginary pedestal for little to no accomplishment. Willy suppressed concerns about Biff’s adolescent behavior, such as “driving without a license” or being “rough with the girls” (40), in an attempt to protect his favorite son from...
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