770 Milton, John
work as a salesman. Even though planting, building,
and working with his hands makes him happy, he
goes against these natural inclinations and chooses a
career that he believes will help him achieve success
and notoriety.
Another example of Willy’s pride is evidenced
in his not going to work for his brother, a wealthy
mine owner. Ben had prospects in Alaska, and, in
a flashback, asks Willy why he does not want to
help him. The offer is on the table, and it will make
him rich. Willy, however, with his skewed vision
of success, believes that he and his boys are on the
precipice of something great. He chooses to stay
in the city and continues to live out his miserable
existence, hoping that a better future is just on the
horizon.
When Willy is nearing his lowest point, he is
offered a job working for Charley, his neighbor.
Instead of accepting it, Willy assures him that he
already has a job, and that he likes being a sales-
man. The truth is that Willy has just been fired.
Charley does not understand why Willy will not
work for him because it is a guaranteed salary.
Willy never explains his reasoning, and refuses
to work for Charley, even though he is no longer
employed.
This is where Willy’s pride problem becomes
complicated. He will not take a job from Charley, but
he has no problem taking his money. After refusing
to work for him, Willy admits to his neighbor that
he needs to pay his insurance bill, and that he does
not have the money. “I’m keeping strict accounts,”
Willy tells Charley (98). It is learned through this
encounter that Willy has sought Charley out every
week for money. Charley does not know what Willy
is doing with the money he gives him, or how Willy
will survive without employment, but lends him the
money just the same and urges him to take care of
himself (98).
There is also nothing prideful in Willy’s suicide
at the end of the play. There have been many failed
attempts, as Linda mentions to her sons that Willy’s
car accidents were not accidents at all, and that she
found a rubber hose in the basement where Willy
tried to asphyxiate himself. His final attempt, which
is a success, comes with the realization that his sons
will be better off if he is dead. He dreams of the
wonderful things they will be able to do with the
insurance money. His suicide, in fact, is a very self-
less act, one of the few Willy manages during the
course of his life.
Willy Loman is a very simple yet complicated
character. He is unwilling to accept anything other
than the life he has chosen for himself, even as it
drives his family to ruin. He is, however, willing
to throw his entire life away on the prospect that
his death will bring success and a good name for
his two sons. Willy should have chosen a different
career, one he was more equipped for, and adjusted
his perception of success. Ultimately, Willy’s pride
keeps him believing that his future depends on his
being “well liked” as a salesman.
Erin BresciamiLTon, joHn Paradise Lost (1667)
Amid the volumes of Milton’s poetry and prose,
where can the average, modern reader begin to
understand Paradise Lost? In a likely place: the
beginning (1:1–26). John Milton establishes the
poem’s rhetorical situation by first identifying at
least two characters who participate in the narration:
the “Muse” and the “I” (Milton’s poetic persona).
The fall of humanity, or the story told in the Book
of Genesis, is the subject of the poem, established
by the opening line: “Of Man’s First Disobedience”
(1: 1). He further establishes the epic form that
his poem is to follow, by echoing Homer’s formal
petition to the Muse, with the command to “Sing
Heav’nly Muse” (1: 6). Fourth, when Milton’s poet
calls on the “Spirit” for illumination and support, we
see the poet’s audience and primary purpose: “That
to the highth of this great Argument / I may assert
Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God
to men” (1:24–26). In other words, the poem will
attempt to explain why and how man and woman
“fell” in the Garden of Eden. But Paradise Lost
seems to show the impossibility of such a justifica-
tion; here we see that Milton’s ends may differ from
the speaker’s in the poem. Similar to Milton’s poem
“Lycidas” (1638), Paradise Lost is an outstanding
imitation of a poem written by a “hireling” (or bad)
poet, who does not share the same perspective of the
Fall as the author. Although designed to confront