Open Prompt #3 Revised

2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote

    Much madness is divinest Sense-

    To a discerning Eye-

Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

           

            Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller has a classic example of a character that goes through eccentric behavior. Willy, the main character, is a salesman, father, and husband. He has reached the point in his life where everything seems to be falling apart, which is when this play takes place.

            It is mentioned throughout the novel that the rest of the business world thinks Willy has officially gone crazy. When other characters in the story see him, they see a man who mumbles and talks to himself. However, as the reader, we know that it’s more than that. Willy is actually having hallucinations and sees images of people like his brother Ben, whom he thinks he is talking to. He has flashbacks of memories from the olden days, when everything was going right for him, and he imagines himself there talking to the people. His wife Linda explains at one point in the story that Willy talks to himself because he is tired of all the disappointment in his life. Everything that he had looked forward to had failed him; he lost his job, he didn’t strike it rich in Alaska like his brother, he lost his relationship with Biff, and he blames himself for Biff’s failures. With all these negative events and thoughts in his life, it makes sense that Willy tries to remember the times when things were going well and there was still hope for being rich.

            Willy’s mad behavior is important to the play because it’s what the entire play revolves around. He switches back and forth from reality, to a flashback/hallucination, and then back to reality again. As the reader, we get an inside view of the madness going on inside of Willy’s head and we can see how the other characters react to him while he is going through that episode. The boys are initially cold to their father but as they see the struggle he goes through daily to make a living, they realize they should support him. They try to help him overcome his hallucinations by attempting to bring success to their own lives, which is all Willy wanted in the first place, especially for Biff. This is why Biff tries to make a big sports deal. Willy’s mad behavior is essentially what threatens to tear the family apart but then ends up bringing the family back together right before his untimely death.