1

Ahmina Poe
04/24/17
Period 6
Literary Analysis Essay

Psychoanalytic analysis : Death of a Salesman

In the Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller there is an abundance of desire

represented by mostly all of the characters. This can be easily seen by analyzing the book with

the Psychoanalytic criticism theory. This theory is best to describe this book. Feud the man who

studied this theory would most likely agree that this theory is best for this book given that many

humans are being motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs , and conflicts which they are

unaware of. ( Purdue owl website). It is apparent that these characters are going through

desires , fears, etc but yet have no idea that they are experiencing them.

Willy the main character of the book was the main advocate for this theory. Looking at

willy through the psychoanalytic lense Willy has a desire to get away from the issues that are

going on at home, while desiring for more in his life. Example being when Willy was at the hotel

having an affair with another women to which he desired or pleasured. The pleasure principle

as Freud calls it which is wanting pleasure and avoiding having pain and that is what wille

struggled with the most. He also desired a certain type of lifestyle he wanted the perfect job, the

perfect sons , in other words he wanted the American dream. Also Willie wants to be like his

idol which is his brother yet he sees that that is not going to happen ( him being like his brother)

therefore he is forcing his sons to try and be like his brother which is inflicting conflict

something freud described and Willy is truly trying to live through his sons. This problem can

generally be seen as a problem from Willys childhood or as freud calls it the ID, ego, and
 2

superego. Freud maintained that our desires and our unconscious conflicts give rise to three

areas of the mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy, to childhood, to

adulthood is what Purdue owl cited when describing the problematic childhood issues. The

problem in willys childhood would have to be his father , he barely remembered his father. In

the play Death of a salesman willie remembered his father a man with a big beard, and I was in

mamas lap and listening to some kind of music. Looking at how much willie thought and

hallucinated about his brother Ben because of how much Willie looked up to him, the reason

being that his brother was his only male figure to actually look up to.

Willy was not the only one with the psychological issues Linda who is willys Wife

was also dealing with some psychological problems that can be looked at through this theory.

Linda at most times let Willie treat her so wrong because she thinks that how willie feels is way

more important than how she feels. Like when Willy crashed the car and she simply asked him

what happened he got upset and said I said nothing happened. Didn't you hear me? giving her

much attitude and being quite disrespectful, but Linda just pretended like it was nothing. This

issue she deals with (says Purdue owl) is freud's discovery of The Unconscious, The Desires,

and the defenses method (says Purdue owl). The fact that she is unaware that her feelings are

based off of willy's feelings puts that issue in the Unconscious category.

Linda, though she did not fight back with Willy when she actually needed to, blamed

people around for Willys downfalls which is a psychological issue because she is unaware of her

husband not doing the right thing, and just puts the blame on someone else's back , Such as her

blaming her sons for how crazy Willy was acting.

Happy who is one of Willie's sons fits into the category of the Opedix complex. Freud

argued that both boys and girls wish to possess their mothers, but as they grow older "...they
 3

begin to sense that their claim to exclusive attention is thwarted by the mother's attention to the

father..."(Boundless website ) . Happy wants attention from his father, especially because he sees

that Biff who is his brother has all of Willys attention, he pays more attention to How biff is

doing in school, and how biff is doing in Football , than caring about what Happy is doing.

Which leads to how Happy acts in his relationships, he fools around with women who are

married and that is being used to get back at his father and or get his father's attention. If you

analyze Happy more with the Opedix complex you can infer that he like women who are married

because he may think of the man of the women as his father , and he wants to betray him or

make him sad.

Biff can also be placed in the opedix complex, in some sense he was the reason of of his father's

death because he lost respect for Willy , and he also took advantage of his mother. Which is

wanting the attention from his mother, In other words Biff wants to take over his dad's position.

Going back to the Unconscious, The Desires and the Defenses point in the

psychoanalytic theory Willie shows signs of defense. When people ask him about his job he says

it's doing great pushing aside the fact that it really isnt. He uses the method defense of relapse

which is taking the thoughts you have and putting the in your unconsciousness. Such as him

claiming that he is living the American dream pushing aside the fact that he really is not living

as he says he is. Another way relapsing shows up is when he daydreams , because he usually

drifts off into his daydreams when something he rather not happen actually happens which is

pushing aside his problems . This is also apart of freud's pleasure principle wanting pleasure

and avoiding the pain. Also him being jealous of people who are higher than him is apart of

relapsing.
 4

In the midst of all these issues the ultimate issue of this whole entire family in the play is

the American dream . "...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires,

fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware..." (Tyson 14-15). is what Freud says and

this is the conflict that the Loman family is unaware of. Every psychological issue that each

character has is linked to the conflict of the American dream. It's all a chain reaction Willy

wanted the lavish life so bad he forced it mainly on biff Happy retaliates because of it and linda

loses her dignity so that Willy can be happy with his American dream.

The Lomans all have a different type of level of psychological issues individually. Willy

being the main victim of this theory is clear to be the one most affected, Willy took part in all

three categories of freud's The Unconscious,The Desires,and the defense,but every single

character was also involved in his psycho world that is why the Psychoanalytic theory is best to

Describe the Death a Salesman.

Works Cited

Boundless Concept version 16 .Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

:Allen Brizee, J. Case Tompkins, Libby Chernouski, Elizabeth Boyle. Purdue owl

,Psychoanalytic Critisim
5