Arthur Miller’s Play Death of a Salesman - Male Expectations

The Effects of Male Expectations

Male expectations are ever present in our world creating an adverse effect on men making them feel inferior if they are unable to succeed financially. Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman explicitly shows just how harmful these expectations can be to a person and their families. The main character in the play Death of a Salesman Willy Loman is greatly affected by these male expectations. The man is expected to not only support his family but must also be able to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Willy’s inability to succeed financially as expected from society in turn affects his two sons Biff and Happy and his loving wife Linda.

Willy’s oldest son Biff is the most affected by his father’s failures. Biff is more affected by his father’s failure to his mother than his father’s financial failures. Biff’s whole life is ruined when he finds out that his father is cheating on his mother after all she has done for him. When Biff realizes that he has been idolizing a failure he is devestated. Biffs life begins to tumble downhill uncontrollably. Biff is so affected by is father’s wrongdoings that is creates never-ending animosity between Willy and Biff. Biff feels that the reason him and his father are always fighting is because “he’s a fake and he doesn’t like anybody around who knows!” (Miller 1221)

Happy, Willy’s younger son, is also greatly affected by Willy’s antics. Happy is affected differently than Biff because Happy never realizes that his father is a failure. Happy is always competing for his father’s attention but is never able to steal the spotlight away from Biff. Throughout the play Happy defends his father and never admits to himself that his father is the main reason for his and his brother’s failures in life.

A downfall of the Loman boys is their father’s ideas of how to be successful in life. Willy builds up his sons so much that they end up failing. Willy fills his sons with hot air because he himself is the failure and cannot imagine his sons being the same way. Because of everything his father has instilled in him, Biff is so sure that being popular and well liked is the key to success. This belief leads to him flunking out of school and not making anything of his life. Willy has convinced his children that the most important thing in life is to be well liked. For example when Bernard tries to help Biff by encouraging him to study for math because he knows he may fail it Willy just wants Bernard to give Biff the answers. Even after all Bernard is trying to do for Biff Willy still thinks of Bernard as “a worm” (Miller 1211)

Willy’s wife Linda has always been right by her husbands’ side to support, encourage, and love him. Even when Linda knows that Willy is no longer able to support his family “he has to go to Charley and borrow fifty dollars a week and pretend to me that it’s his pay” (Miller 1220) she still encourages and believes in him. Linda never confronts Willy about his financial situation or mental state because she does not want to embarrass him. Linda is greatly affected by Willy’s behavior although it is not as obvious as the affects Willy has on Biff. The stress put on Linda is something a person should not have to go through. She has to live with the knowledge that Willy is planning on killing himself and that he lies to her constantly. When Willy feels he is not idolized or respected by his sons any longer Linda is there to pick him right back up “Few men are idolized by their children the way you are.” (Miller 1209)

With everything Linda, Biff and Happy try to do to encourage their father, Willy still eventually comes to the realization that he is a failure. Before this realization strikes Willy he seems to have a high opinion of himself believing that he is extremely successful. The article “Critical Misconceptions,” by Lee Siegel, goes into detail about Death of a Salesman, “setting the play inside the protagonists head as a way to socialize the human psyche.” (Siegel) With the play taking place inside of Willy’s head his false ideas and beliefs are revealed. When he comes to the realization that he hasn’t made anything of his life things begin to fall apart.

The male expectations that Willy falls victim to are being extremely successful and being at the top of your field. According to Fred Sander, “In Miller’s play an appreciation of intergenerational conflicts is seamlessly interwoven with social criticism of America’s obsession with material success.” (Sander