Student Question
What is the relationship between satisfaction and regret in Death of a Salesman, and what causes and effects does it have?
Quick answer:
In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman's satisfaction with his past successes and popular persona provides a retreat from the hardship of his present life. However, this refuge in nostalgia only makes his current problems worse, leading to regret at the way in which he has failed to make progress in his career and to change along with the circumstances.
The men in the Loman family, Willy Loman in particular, find the present and their position in it uncongenial, and regret the circumstances that have brought them to such unsatisfactory lives. Willy's remedy for this, and Biff's as well, is to escape into a more satisfying past. However, this nostalgia only makes their situation worse, emphasizing how much poorer their lives are now and giving them unrealistic expectations.
Willy dwells on the past glories of Biff's life, as well as his own. Early in the play, he says,
I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up.
This is an excellent illustration of the toxic effect of nostalgia. Willy connects Biff's ability to make a good living in the future with his...
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status as a star athlete in high school, which has no bearing on his employment prospects.
Willy has always brought his sons up with the gospel of success, derived from Samuel Smiles's book Self-Help, the foundation of an entire genre. He holds himself up as an example despite his lack of concrete achievement, telling them,
Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait inline to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.
Throughout the play, Willy is always differentiating those who are "well liked" from those who are not, placing himself in the former category. This idea gives him cause for satisfaction, but he cannot align it with the fact that he has not become wealthy. When he decides to use the influence and respect he believes he has built up to persuade Howard Wagner to give him a job in New York, he talks to Howard at length about his philosophy of popularity and success, concluding with a lament for the way things used to be:
In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear—or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me anymore.
Willy's satisfaction at his memories of the popularity he has enjoyed turn to regret as that popularity disappears without bringing him the material rewards for which he had hoped.