The Theme of Misunderstandings in Death of a Salesman

Anytime a party misunderstands or misconstrues the words or actions of another, it has the potential to create conflict. Poor communication is frustrating no matter the setting but especially when it occurs within the family or with close friends it can easily have detrimental long and short term effects on the parties involved. In Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman, these constant dysfunctional misunderstandings lead to major continually growing conflicts in the story such as his inability to communicate honestly within his family, his lengthy arguments with his son Biff which eventually lead to his rebuttal and downfall, the conversation involving Willy and Howard, where evidently Howard heavily misunderstands Willy, and his viewpoints, which leads to Willy`s rage at his vision or dream.

Willy’s complete inability to communicate honestly within his family cause long lasting rippling effects throughout the story that end up coming a lot. An example of where Willy fails to communicate is when he kicks Biff out of the house. The planning ends when Willy scolds Linda for interesting his excitement for the boy s plans. He says to Linda “stop interrupting! Will you Stop!”. Biff rises to his mother's defense by saying to Willy “don t yell at her pop, will ya? “. Willy angered, in return says “What re you, takin over this house?”. This makes Biff angry. Willy leaves feeling remorse about the incident he had with his son. The cause of the hatred between them is made unmistakably evident. Willy and Biff should have gone back to New York and talked everything over and told Linda and Happy the truth. Him hiding this information shows the lack of communication and the dysfunctionality of this family present. WILLY [to Biff]: “Is that where you had the drinks?”BIFF: “Yeah, he gave me a couple of — no, no! “HAPPY [cutting in]:” He told him my Florida idea. ” Here we see between Willy’s excitement and Happy’s lies on his behalf, Biff begins to fall back into the family's cycle of deception and the dysfunctional misconstrued communication continues. HAPPY: “We always told the truth!” BIFF [turning on him]: “You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant aren’t you?” HAPPY: “We’ll I’m practically —” BIFF: “You’re practically full of it! We all are! And I’m through with it. ” [To Willy]: “Now hear this Willy, this is me”.

Here is yet another example of extreme dysfunction in regards to communication, Biff desperately struggles to demand truth amid the chronic deception that his family maintains. He takes a stand against all the lies, leading to tragic consequences. His lengthy arguments with Biff which lead to his denial. We see proof of how naive Willy really is regarding Biff’s feelings when Willy is talking to Bernard before Bernard leaves. “Willy: Why? WHY!? Bernard, that question has been trailing me like a ghost for the past fifteen years! He flunked the subject, and laid down and died like a hammer hit him. ” (page 93) It is Biff’s fault for not being precise to Willy. Biff later shows that he doesn't just hold resentment against Willy for his cheating incident, contrary to what Willy seems to think according to his flashback on pages 116 to 120, but primarily because he blew Biff up with hot air, or in other words make Biff overconfident. “Biff: and I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!”. Biff not once in the story states his feelings (toward his father or the fact he does not want to be a businessman but rather he want to choose his own future) toward Willy and in turn this damages the father-son bond between them heavily.

If Biff had been clearer to Willy about not wanting to go into sales, almost none of the feuding in the family would have happened. Willy didn’t mean to make Biff overconfident, but Biff never expressed it as a problem to him until it was too late. Perhaps Willy was just trying to build confidence in Biff and overdid it. Willy’s true intent was to make him feel like a king, because Willy truly did believe that Biff would grow up to be famous. BIFF: “Oh, he keeps congratulating my initiative all the time, pop”. WILLY: “That’s because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball there’d be an uproar. So what’s the report, boys, what’s the report?” Willy’s discussion with Howard, in which Howard misunderstands Willy, and Willy’s perspective of the world, which leads to anger at his vision.

Howard seemed to never realize Willy’s psychological state and although his words were harsh did not have a malignant intent. Proof that Howard was unaware is on page 81 when he says, “Howard, barely interested: Don’t say. ” Howard wasn’t paying attention at all, and didn’t realize what he was doing (perhaps it’s not for the better if one’s boss is in the dark about one’s situation). It is a possibility that he wouldn’t have been so harsh if he had understood the situation of Willy unable to get his boys to work better. Proof that Howard didn’t realize that Biff and Happy are jobless is on page 83, when Willy says that he can’t be fired because he has to make money. Then Howard asks him, “Where If Howard had payed attention, like a good boss should, he probably wouldn’t have put Willy in a worse place than he was. I think if Howard knew the conundrum Willy got himself into, Howard would have looked harder for a job for Willy, or even give him a pension. Howard could have been mean even if he had understood Willy’s conundrum, but from the way he treats his family members, he seems like a caring guy. If he were as cruel as Willy believes, he would likely still be single. In Willy’s eyes, Howard is like this: “Willy: If old man Wagner was still alive, I’d a been in charge of New York by now! That man was a prince, he was a masterful man. But that son of his, that Howard, he don’t appreciate. When I went north the first time, the Wagner company didn’t know what New England was!” When really Howard is like this: “Howard (talking about his son): Listen to that! All the state capitals in alphabetical order!”Howard definitely would have helped Willy out, seeing that he is so kind and loving to his family. If Willy didn’t like the way Howard treated him he could’ve gone to see someone else about the problem.

After all, no good company would have one person in charge of everything. In short, Willy’s conflicts with others are a cause of miscommunication. Willy, Biff, and Howard communicate their thoughts poorly in their conversations. Most problems in real life also start from miscommunication. One should always be crystal clear when expressing themselves, because you never know how someone else will interpret what you do, just like in Death of a Salesman.