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abstract: Death of a Salesman is not about one or two individuals; rather it is about a family system, a unit of interlocking relationships, which shapes individual members' behaviors and attitudes. Using family systems theory and interpersonal acceptance and rejection theory, the authors explore the father and son's problematical relationship and analyze the reasons for the dysfunctional Loman family. Support for the argument includes unpublished draft material from Miller's working notebook of Death of a Salesman. The notebook includes Miller's explanations of the motivations for the behavior and attitudes of the characters, notes on the plot, and dialogue.
keywords: Death of a Salesman, family systems theory, interpersonal acceptance and rejection theory, unpublished working notebook from Harry Ransom Center
Interpersonal acceptance and rejection in the Loman family are at the heart of Death of a Salesman. Of particular importance is this pattern in the relationship between Willy Loman and his oldest son Biff for that volatile relationship has upset the Loman family cohesion. So much of the unhappiness, undermining of self-esteem, and tension in the Loman family is a consequence of the conflict between Willy and Biff. Each feels ambivalent toward the other. Biff wants his father to accept him as he is and fears that he will be rejected for his reluctance to agree to his father's ambitious plans for him. Willy fears that Biff hates him for adultery, which Biff discovered when at seventeen he surprised his father with a woman in a Boston hotel room, and the salesman worries that he is responsible for his son's becoming a drifter. Willy fervently believes that his elder son can be a great man who can achieve unparalleled success in business, as Willy's older brother Ben supposedly did when at seventeen years of age he walked into the jungle and walked out four years later a wealthy man. But Death of a Salesman is not about one or two individuals; rather it is about a family system, a unit of interlocking relationships, which shapes individual members' behaviors and attitudes. Using family systems theory and interpersonal acceptance and rejection theory, we will explore the father and son's problematical relationship and analyze the reasons for the dysfunctional Loman family.1 We will support our argument with unpublished draft...