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Willy Loman's Privilegement

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A major theme in Death of a Salesman is family can sometimes be the largest source of disappointment in your life. Willy is disappointed by his father leaving him at such a young age with only his brother to look up to, Biff is disappointed in Willy for cheating on his mother, and Linda is disappointed in Willy for leaving her the way he does. Arthur Miller uses many literary techniques within his play to drive home his ideas, including incidental music, symbolism, and foreshadowing.
Willy’s father left him before the age of 4, and Willy was left to look up to his older brother. Willy doesn’t necessarily realize it but he refuses to acknowledge his feelings of disappointment in his father, and instead has romanticized what memories he does …show more content…

Linda has stuck through thick and thin with Willy, when they had a little money and when they had none, and even when she knows of his infidelity and yet she stays because she loves him. Per the narrator, “she more than loves him, she admires him, as though his mercurial nature, his temper, his massive dreams and little cruelties, served her only as sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him, longings which she shares but lacks the temperament to utter and follow to their end.” (Miller, 1020). Her conversations often foreshadow the outcome of events, in the opening scene Linda is speaking with Willy when he says, “I’m tired to death” (Miller, 1020) foreshadowing his demise, and again in her argument with Biff and Happy, “Don’t you care whether he lives or dies?” (Miller, 1089). Linda is disappointed that after all the years of work and the worry over bills, that Willy has chosen to kill himself because he feels his family needs money more than they need him. Willy was everything to Linda and the irony of it all is that on the day of his funeral Linda makes the last payment on the house. “We’re free and clear.” (Miller, 1099). Linda repeats “we’re free”, referencing the fact that they are free of debt, they own the house “free and clear” and the fact that having passed on Willy is now free of the soul crushing need to be

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