9.2.6

Revenge

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Revenge

Revenge may not immediately seem relevant to Death of a Salesman but it does influence the motivations of some characters, Willy's sons especially.

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Revenge Tragedy

  • Revenge as a motivation for a character aiming to right a wrong has been an integral part of many tragedies since the early days of Greek drama.
  • But Revenge Tragedy is a relatively modern term, used by 20th Century critics to refer to Elizabethan and Jacobean drama at the turn of the 16th century.
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Christian societies

  • Revenge tragedies explored the dilemma of characters driven to revenge in Christian societies which forbade it and how destructive the impulse to revenge could be.
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Hidden motivations

  • On first reading, the concept of revenge may not seem relevant to Death of a Salesman: Willy is not consumed by the need to destroy another.
  • But it may be instructive to consider the motivations of his sons in the play.
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Happy

  • Happy’s compulsive womanising with the girlfriends and fiancées of the executives in his workplace is, in part, a form of revenge.
  • Happy tells Biff, “I gotta show some of those pompous, self-important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade”, revealing his bitterness and his need to ‘win one over’ his superiors at work.
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Biff

  • Willy also fears that Biff’s lack of success has been a deliberate act of “spite” in order to pay him back for his affair in Boston: “you cut down your life for spite!”
  • While the truth of this is never made clear, Willy’s accusation reveals his guilt, and perhaps his deepest fear.

Jump to other topics

1Introduction

2Act One

3Act Two

4Extended Passage Analysis

5Character Profiles

6Key Themes

7Writing Techniques

8Historical Context

9Literary Context

10Critical Debates

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