CHAPTER III THE ANALYSIS OF SYMBOLS IN ARTHUR MILLER’S THE
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
3.1 Symbols of Diamonds
Willy Loman is an insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves
it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. When Willys illusions begin to fail under the pressing realities of his life, his mental health
begins to unravel. The overwhelming tensions caused by this disparity, as well as those caused by the societal imperatives that drive Willy, form the essential conflict of Death of
a Salesman. Despite his desperate searching through his past, Willy does not achieve the self-realization or self-knowledge typical of the tragic hero. The quasi-resolution that his
suicide offers him represents only a partial discovery of the truth. While he achieves a professional understanding of himself and the fundamental nature of the sales profession,
Willy fails to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional,
spiritual understanding of himself as a literal “loman” or “low man.” Willy is too driven by his own “willy”-ness or perverse “willfulness” to recognize the slanted reality that his
desperate mind has forged. Still, many critics, focusing on Willys entrenchment in a quagmire of lies, delusions, and self-deceptions, ignore the significant accomplishment of
his partial self-realization. Willys failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to the climax of his torturous day, and the play presents this
incapacity as the real tragedy. Despite this failure, Willy makes the most extreme
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sacrifice in his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream.
To Willy, diamonds represent tangible wealth and, hence, both validation of ones labor and life and the ability to pass material goods on to ones offspring, two things
that Willy desperately craves. Correlatively, diamonds, the discovery of which made Ben a fortune, symbolize Willys failure as a salesman. Despite Willys belief in the American
Dream, a belief unwavering to the extent that he passed up the opportunity to go with Ben to Alaska, the Dreams promise of financial security has eluded Willy. Ben - Willys
wealthy older brother. Ben has recently died and appears only in Willys “daydreams.” Willy regards Ben as a symbol of the success that he so desperately craves for himself
and his sons. There are several connections to the concept of the American Dream in Death of
a Salesman. One can be found on act 1 page 1319 when the principal character Willy Loman expresses his jealousy towards the successes of his brother Ben. Ben knew what
he wanted, Willy : “He started with the clothes on his back, walked into the
jungle and came out enormously rich at the age of twenty-one owning several diamond mines”. Willy continues: “That man
was a genius, that man was success incarnate”Death of a Salesman 1319
Another example of a man’s success, and therefore also of the American Dream, is found on page 1323. Willy’s imaginary memory of Ben describes their father as a great inventor
who traveled with his whole family westwards through America. He was successful in selling his inventions and he also became rich. On page 1340 Willy remembers one
occasion when his son Biff was playing at Ebbets Field. There was this glow around him
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and people cheered his name when he came out. He was a star then and this kind of personal success is also a typical example of the American Dream, Willy himself
experienced a personal success in his work. At the end of the play, act 2 page 1362, Ben :” The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy”. .
Death of a Salesman .p. 1362 The jungle metaphor is continually bought to the readers attention throughout the novel.
Like Ben, Willy hopes to strike it rich in the business world of New England. Yet Willy never finds the diamonds success, and he leaves life without fortune or fame. In many
ways, the jungle also represents the American Dream ideal that Miller often criticized. The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds”—turns Willys suicide into a
metaphorical moral struggle, a final skewed ambition to realize his full commercial and material capacity. His final act, according to Ben, is “not like an appointment at all” but
like a “diamond . . . rough and hard to the touch.” In the absence of any real degree of self-knowledge or truth, Willy is able to achieve a tangible result. In some respect, Willy
does experience a sort of revelation, as he finally comes to understand that the product he sells is himself. Through the imaginary advice of Ben, Willy ends up fully believing his
earlier assertion to Charley that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”
Ben:” One must go in to fetch a diamond out”. Death of a Salesman
Ben encourages Willy to enter the “jungle” finally and retrieve this elusive diamond that is, to kill himself for insurance money in order to make his life meaningful.
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Bens final mantra of “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds” in Act II turns Willys suicide into a moral struggle and a matter of commerce. His final act, according to Ben.
Ben :“not like an appointment at all” but like a “diamond … rough and hard to the touch.” Death of a Salesman .p.1362.
As opposed to the fruitless, emotionally ruinous meetings that Willy has had with Howard Wagner and Charley, his death, Ben suggests, will actually yield something
concrete for Willy and his family. Willy latches onto this appealing idea, relieved to be able finally to prove himself a success in business. Additionally, he is certain that with
the 20,000 from his life insurance policy, Biff will at last fulfill the expectations that he, Willy, has long held for him. The diamond stands as a tangible reminder of the material
success that Willys salesman job could not offer him and the missed opportunity of material success with Ben. In selling himself for the metaphorical diamond of 20,000,
Willy bears out his earlier assertion to Charley that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”
3.2 Symbol of jungle
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