Thanatos and Eros in The Death of Salesmas Play Assignment

Thanatos and Eros in The Death of Salesmas Play - Assignment Example In Death of Salesman the betrayal of love is evidenced when Willy betrays the love of Linda as well as the trust of Biff with his affair. Willy, as the main love betrayer, is preoccupied by some fear of love betrayal. He frequently accuses Biff being spiteful. This only reflects his understanding of the failure of Biff in business to be a rejection of his own dreams that he will be successful, and more importantly that the inability of Biff to keep the job safe is related to the love affair of Willy. The death of a salesman also has some elements of Thanatos, the drive of dying. Willy is not happy in his life and in the middle of a night, he is talking to himself very loudly that everybody wakes up. Linda his wife admits to their sons that as their parents they are financially struggling. Moreover, Willy, their father, has been on a suicide attempt mission. We clearly see the drive of death instinct-Thanatos operating strongly is the death of the salesman. Willy is unhappy with his l ife and he let the drive to kill himself overwhelms him. We see Happy and Biff returning home after their dates and they find Linda, their mother was waiting for them to arrive. Linda is fuming mad that her sons have left their Willy at the restaurant. This results to a massive argument and everybody is not interested in listening to Biff. However he still manages to put his point across- he find it difficult to live up to Willy`s, his dad, unrealistic expectations. He therefore basically considers his dad just a failure. The fight ends and Willy realizes that Biff, despite considering him a failure, he still seems to really care and love him. It`s unfortunate that Willy cannot get beyond the "failure" bit and he thinks the biggest contribution that he perhaps can make toward Biff`s success is just to commit suicide. He hope that by doing away with his life is the best way Biff could make use of the life insurance cash to perhaps start a business. The drive of love, Eros is definite ly taking stage in the death of a salesman. There is some considerably high level of love within Willy`s family.