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Work ethics of the Loman family members

The novel “Death of a Salesman” classifies American as the nation of tragedy. The

author, Arthur Miller, focuses on individual choice and moral decisions and provides the

unfolding events in the context of the economic, social, and political milieu of that era. Miller

applied various aspects of theatrical techniques, both conventional and unconventional to

communicate the themes of the narrative alongside the quality of characters. Particularly, the

theme of work and ethics revolves around morals of the characters in the play. Much of the

characters’ personalities stems from respective individual parent reflecting the entire process of

child rearing practices. Arthur Miller’s novel highlights the elements of work ethics in the

American context because of parents’ laxity regarding the relationship of the Willy Loman

family.

It is a common belief that everyone needs to work and love to survive. The life of a man

is inseparable with work and a man with his family. In Miller’s novel, the theme of work and

ethics deeply evolve with characters. A German sociologist, Max Weber is one of the ancient

thinkers that first coined the significance of work ethic. In his view, work was important in the

society, which people achieved through correlation to Protestantism. Stealing and dishonesty are

the profound unethical behavior in work that appears in the novel. Willy Loman was a

salesperson who had an unstable past in the past few months. Rather that admitting his failure to

Linda, he lied about his income, which makes her believe that her husband earns more than the
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actual salary. His unethical behavior further appears when he borrows more and more and cannot

repay as he continues to live in a lie (Miller 72-73). Similarly, Biff becomes dishonest as he lied

to Linda, which is against work ethics.

Moreover, Loman’s poor treatment of others depicts his unethical character related to

work. The relationship between Willy and his sons raises ethical questions in the family. After

failing in school, Biff’s kleptomania makes him fired from every job he gets. Miller uses various

parenthetic stage directions and descriptions to reveal how an actor or actor in a theater would

reveal various lines. For instance, in the case of Linda, he employs words like “very carefully,

delicately, resigned, sensing the racing of his mind, fearfully, and with some trepidation. The act

of high rate of employment turnover in Biff’s life represents a major work ethic concern that

makes him fired. Besides, Happy Loman compensates for nurturing his relentless sex drive and

professional ambition. Whereas he gets work as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department

store, he practices bad business ethics and sleeps with the girlfriends of his seniors. Lastly,

Linda’s disloyalty emerges when his husband commits suicide. Despite understanding that Willy

had a suicidal mind, she never confronts him concerning his suicidal tendencies of his delusional

conversation. Considering that woman in the ancient period were working as caretakers of home

and hearth, and children, Linda becomes unethical for failing to protect his husband committing

suicide despite having had an idea.

Overall, the theme of work ethics appears in the novel as the author portrays the

relationship between the Loman family members as individuals who lack ethics and morals in

the American society. Through the characters, Willy Loman, Linda, Biff, and Happy, the author

demonstrated that work ethics is an important aspect of the society and without proper ethical

backgrounds; people would not be able to work in the community and end up in immoral lives.
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Work cited
Miller, Arthur. Death Of A Salesman. New York: Viking Press, 1949. Print.