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Oedipus Rex

 

            In Death of a Salesman, the central character, Willy Loman, suffers great misfortune due to his denial of reality. His denial of reality leads to the absence of concreteness in his life. For example, he advises his son, Biff to be serious when going to talk to Bill Oliver, not to use boy's words like 'Gee', be modest or look worried. Instead he should begin with a few jokes to lighten things up, for personality always wins the day. "And if anything falls off the desk while you're talking to him - like a package or something - don't you pick it up. They have office boys for that." (Miller 64-67) The contradiction between advice to be serious and to tell jokes shows that Willy does not follow his own guidance. He starts his final speech in Act I with 'Gee', which he repeats soon after Act II begins and uses again when he enters the restaurant. Willy is worried and modest if not subservient when he sees Howard, his employer. At one point, Howard 'looks for his lighter. Willy has picked it up and gives it to him.' (Siebold 119).
             With nothing concrete in his life to hold on to, Willy has little choice but to cast all his hopes on his sons. Willy had always viewed his children as his future life. (Siebold 100) His own social failure was to be compensated by his sons' success and popularity. It is because of this that Willy stops creating dreams of his own success and replaces them with lies about Biff's success. "How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there?" Biff tells Happy about his visit to see Bill Oliver. "I even believed myself that I'd been a salesman for him! And then he gave me one look and - I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! We've been talking in a dream for fifteen years. I was a shipping clerk." (Miller 104) Towards the end of the play, Biff blames Willy for his unsuccessful career, "And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That's whose fault it is!" (Miller 131) With his lies about Biff's success that the entire Loman family came to believe, Willy is in great part responsible for Biff's failure and therefore the failure of his future as well.


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