Is Willy Loman a average man?
Arthur Miller once said: "Tragedy requires a . . . balance between what is possible and
what is impossible. And it is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century
after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief --- optimistic, if
you will --- in the perfectibility of man. It is time, I think, that we who are without kings
took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly
lead in our time --- the heart and spirit of the average man." In Miller's play Death of a
Salesman the main character Willy Loman refuses to believe that he is an average man,
this is proved by the way he views his job, a conversation with his brother Ben, and a
conversation between his friend Charley.
At the beginning of the play we learn that Willy was driving to go make a sale and
he began to daydream and he had to stop, turn around and go home. His daydreaming is a
sign that he's tired of constantly moving around and he is ready to retire, but in his own
mind he was just tired and he tells his wife, Linda, how everything is good. His wife tells
him that "There's no reason why you can't work in New York" (1478) and Willy
responds by tell her, "They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm
vital in New England" (1478). She begins to try and explain to him that he should retire,
"But your sixty years old. They can't expect you to keep traveling every week" (1478).
But he will not listen to what she says, "I'm supposed to see Brown and Morrison
tomorrow morning at ten o'clock to show the line. Goddammit, I could sell them!
(1478). Here his wife is telling him how he is to old to be driving all over the place and
that he should retire, and while she tells him this he is...