DMSUNDERLINES: Death of a Salesman Part 2- Dadasaheb Sanadi

[00:00:00]Today we are going to talk about the characters in the play. The play is of course death of a salesman. Willie Loman happens to be the central character in the play.

[00:00:15]All the story, all the story of the play rotates around his character, his choices, his preferences, his dreams, his aspirations. They are the basic stuff of the play. It largely reflects the American dream which was which was the characteristics of American life.

[00:00:44]Now the president of America apart from the war has said let us make America great again. American dream was great belief in us in 1930s. It had the core principles and the principles were first one opportunity. It simply mean request it it it simply meant equal access to all. The second was upward mobility. It mean the chance to develop economic and social status.

[00:01:21]The third one is of course hard work.

[00:01:25]Of course, it was to put oneself into the hard work. Perseverance. It was not considered as the birthight.

[00:01:35]Next one is freedom and equality.

[00:01:39]It was to mean good ground and underlying principle of the democracy.

[00:01:45]Financial success, home ownership, education and entrepreneurship.

[00:01:51]They were they were the important key co components of this of this particular American dream. You can compare this with the Indian situation as well. We do have dreams and the only dreams. You understand what I mean?

[00:02:11]If we try to assess the play as the base for the American dream, we can see that Willie Lman is just a salesman and in the end he feels frustrated in the accident he dies. We can we can ask did he fulfill the as aspirations of American dream.

[00:02:37]Billy is pretty old about 63 years of the age. His whole life is lost into achieving a small a very small measure of success.

[00:02:51]Even tries to see uh it in his son Biff.

[00:02:56]He too had a big dream which was almost impossible to become a reality.

[00:03:04]He finds that his son misdirects his energies and did not use it properly.

[00:03:13]Though after working for 35 years he feels frustrated and rather defeated.

[00:03:22]His relations with his with with Biff his son is stained because of because Biff's continuous failure.

[00:03:32]This is a salesmanship.

[00:03:35]We are not sure of the thing what actually he sells but by and large he represents the American dream.

[00:03:47]In American dream, the most important thing is cherishma and the luck. It does not recognize the hard work. Will Roman has been always telling his family that he is on the verge of ultimate success.

[00:04:08]But he knows But he knows that his own sons are totally away from that success.

[00:04:18]That is why perhaps that is why perhaps he recalls the past and finds a kind of a dreaming in it. He has not risen to the height he is capable of. It could be understood by the remark in the end of the play. At one point he says that his hard work did not mean anything.

[00:04:46]In spite of that he wishes that his children should get the job and achieve the success. His death finally turns himself just as a commodity.

[00:05:00]The shallowess of life could be very vividly seen. Of course the life insurance policy can be used by the family. Other aspects of the of the life are immaterial.

[00:05:18]This is more tragic. This is really more tragic. How human beings are trapped in the false dream till the last breath.

[00:05:29]They are in the illusion. This is the common lot of general people. We find that Willie Lman is always contradictory. He's always angry and obsessive. He has not been able to grasp the reality which makes him as a static character. If we go by the name Willie, Willie has been historically embedded with bravery and grander.

[00:06:04]But we do not find anything of this kind in this this bill. He spends a very common life by American standards. He represents a very common thoughts and success can be achieved by hard work through struggle. In the end of the play, he is seen as a very poor only one thing that he has not begged. Will has been a good father and of course a very good husband as well. Linda Linda understands him thoroughly well.

[00:06:45]She manages to keep his spirit up though she could see him collapsing in the earlier context.

[00:06:55]Willie has been seen.

[00:06:58]He has been seen a very a very resourceful person and individual who navigates the most challenging environment.

[00:07:09]He no doubt he no doubt shows the survival spirit that the rather than a malacious intent will represents working with limited success. Friends, even today we hold something from America. From the America is the best. This has become a habit with us with global economy. Things have been changing almost changed.

[00:07:42]We we no more are obsessed with what we call as a foreign because we because nowadays we are we are globe taught us to use TS elites word but once upon a time it was great great advantage I remember in my village a person who had a relative in America got a transistor from there the whole day he would roam in my village holding the transistor and that famous famous song was was foreign one. We hardly find these things today. We may think that can this kind of a man be a hero because because our traditional knowledge tells us that hero has to be a main character.

[00:08:48]He should be he should be a promiscuous person. He should be king or queen or at least a prince. But my dear friends, we are talking about modern tragedy.

[00:09:04]No such rules for a modern hero. Modern tragedy. Mind it. Well, one transition we note in Willie is that his memory becomes weak as the play progresses.

[00:09:20]It becomes it becomes very uh irrational and he has not been able to establish any relation with the past life and the present reality. The present is not pleasant. It indeed is contrary to the past. He suffers from schizophrenia.

[00:09:42]We understand from Linda that he has tried to commit a suicide. suicide many times. A quite a quite advanced stage of schizophrenia. His uh some remarkable words are gut get some seeds.

[00:10:02]Nothing nothing is planted.

[00:10:05]I don't say he is a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. His name was His name was never in the papers. He is not the finest character that ever lived but but he is a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him.

[00:10:31]So until attention must be paid. He is not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. These and many such words are heartbreaking.

[00:10:46]No more lofty dialogues like we find in Shakespearean plays.

[00:10:53]We need to we we uh no need even at this stage in the darkness of the theater.

[00:11:01]These common words pierce the heart and we question.

[00:11:07]We question what kind of a life we lead, what kind of a success we run for.

[00:11:14]Friends, I remember somewhere it is said and well said.

[00:11:20]We are running in a rat's race. Even if we win, we ultimately remain a rat.

[00:11:29]This is finest tragedy and Willie Lman stays with us. Anyways, this strategy adds many more characters as well. Let us see them in next episode. You don't forget to forward, like and subscribe my channel.

[00:11:50]Thank you very much.