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Ian Kuo
Ms. Smit
12 AP English
3 November 2014
Death of a Salesman: Diving into a Life of Regression and Repression
Neurons, synapses, connections, and dendrites. These parts or processes make up the
more commonly known organ, the brain. The brain works in mysterious ways so memories are
stored, signals are sent, and thoughts and desires are developed. Many scientists still do not know
how these series of neurons can cause all these functions. Other scientists like psychologists do
not fully understand how the brain controls all the feelings, desires, and thoughts and how they
are seen in different behaviors. This concept of looking at the conscious and subconscious
behaviors in literature is psychoanalysis. This psychoanalysis is a method of mind
investigation that was created by Sigmund Freud to research behaviors and other characteristics
of the mind (What is Psychoanalysis). In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the
audience glimpses into the mind of the main character, Willy Loman, during a difficult time in
his and his familys lives. Through the use of the psychoanalytic lens, Willy represses his own
feelings about his present reality creating illusions of his sons success and even causing a
regression to his past when there was still hope of the American Dream and success in their lives.
Willy Loman is a father of two children named Biff and Happy and married to a loving
wife named Linda. However, it is quickly seen that Willy is not happy about his current life. He
sees his son, Biff, as lazy and has even tried to kill himself. This set of bad experiences in
Willys life has triggered a state of repression within himself. Repression is the process in which
there is an unconscious concealment of uncomfortable thoughts and desires (Fournier). These

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thoughts and desires are usually too painful to deal with in reality. In order to cope or manage his
disappointments, Willy has created illusions about his family and his life in which, he can grasp
onto for hope in this bleak and bereft reality. For instance, when Biff goes to pitch a business
idea to his former employer Bill Oliver, Willys excitement is so outwardly expressed that he
assumes that when Oliver gets a look at [Biff] he will remember that Biff was supposedly one
of his best salesmen (Miller 67). Willy grips this piece of news as hope that his son will still
reach great things like he was supposed to back in high school even though Biff being one of
Olivers best salesman, in reality, is not necessarily true. As a result, Willy does not want this
notion that his son is still the best and the brightest to be dashed. Therefore, he does not want
anything to disrupt this illusion. When Linda, who can be considered the voice of reason, tries to
interject thoughts into the conversation about the Oliver meeting, Willy cuts her off yelling at her
to let [him] talk acting as a symbol of Willys subconscious that he wants this moment, no
matter how brief, to restore his faith in reality (Miller 65).
However, there are times when these illusions do shatter around Willy. One of the major
instances of this comes from the dinner that Willy and his sons go to in order to celebrate the
accomplishment of getting a loan from Bill Oliver because Oliver did not remember Biff as one
of his employees. When Biff expresses his feelings to his dad that he could not obtain a loan,
Willys demeanor begins to deteriorate. Willy does not understand the reason behind why his
superior cannot receive a simple loan from an employer that, through Willys eyes, held Biff
with such high respect. This misinterpretation, as a result, creates a tone of disarray within
Willys mind. Basically, the world around Willy begins to unfold and the illusion breaks down.
As well, this experience brings a past memory back to Willy of the news that Biff failed math.
This memory begins to break Willy as he falters away from the table as a sign of a painful

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experience resurfacing (Miller 113). In psychology, long term memory is produced when
memories are stored and retrieved by association (McLeod). This association of the present
day argument with Biff about Oliver brings rise to the long term memory of his infidelity and
that abysmal news. Willy begins to remember the similar feelings he had when he found out his
son would not attend college because he failed math. These same feelings about Biff with Oliver
were the same feelings that Willy repressed back when Biff had come to Boston to tell Willy that
he had failed. Until that dinner, those memories and feelings in Boston are still repressed as he
even would not reveal what happened to Bernard. As well, Willy trying to hide the experience
and what that mean[s] contributes to the idea that the memory is still too painful to be brought
back to Willy (Miller 94). As a result, in present day, Willy begins to push back those feelings
again by focusing his mind on other tasks like planting the garden. Willy does not want to hear
that his son is not good enough or is not succeeding like in high school, so his subconscious
pushes back those thoughts and feelings about Biff in order to reconstruct that illusion of his
familys success.
These repressed feelings also create a condition of regression within Willy. Regression is
a mechanism in which people revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development in
times of stress or anxiety in which other coping strategies are discarded (Cherry). There is a
causal relationship between the regression and repression felt by Willy. The regression is caused
because Willy does not want to face the reality of his life not turning out the way he dreamed.
This is especially seen within the type of American dream Willy desires: spending the years
after high school work[ing] through the levels of shipping clerk, salesman, [and] business to
be well-liked by many having spirit and personality. As a result, Willy represses the feelings that
are associated with that unwanted reality (Miller 22). Willy continually has flashbacks to his

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past. However, even more strangely, he talks to his dead brother, Ben, who abandoned him as a
child to follow his father. Willys behavior reflects the past when Ben was still alive. Willy
represses his feelings about the boys not being successful in the present and regresses back to a
former version of himself where he can talk to an example of a man he sees as successful: Ben.
Willy regresses to that point in time when all this success was still possible. For instance, Biff
was still able to go to college before he failed his math. Willy wants his sons to be like Ben when
they are seventeen and [they] walk into the jungle, and when [they are] twenty-one they walk
out rich and successful (Miller 48). In order to gain that success Willy sees in Ben, Willy also
regresses back to childlike reactions. For example, Willy knows that in order to be successful
Biff needs to pass. However, when Bernard comes in to get Biff to study for the test, Willy
immaturely threatens Bernard to give him the answers and tells Linda he does not want Biff to
be a worm like Bernard so Biff does not have to study (Miller 40). Ben represents the
accomplishments of life that Willy sees when he regresses to a younger self at the time Ben
became successful. Throughout his life, Willy continually tries to climb that ladder of success,
but is disappointed and needs to repress those feelings in order to feel happy again.
There is a casual relationship between the regression and illusions that Willy creates in
his own mind. These defense mechanisms are used in order to veil the true reality from Willys
own eyes. However, this veil is used because Willy does not want to see the sad reality of his
life. When all these mechanisms are destroyed when Ben finally disappears at the end of the play
and the illusions of his sons success are destroyed, Willys mind cannot manage the abject
realities of their lives. His mind, as a result, causes the death of the salesman. The mind is
understandably still being studied because how can a bunch of neural connections cause so much

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turmoil to lead to death. The mind, as a result, is a place that may never be fully understood by
our own mind alone.

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Work Cited
Cherry, Kendra. "Common Defense Mechanisms People Use to Cope with Anxiety." About.
N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_10.htm>.
Fournier, Gillian. "Repression." Psych Central. N.p., 21 July 2010. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.
<http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/repression-2/>.
McLeod, Saul. "Memory, Encoding Storage and Retrieval | Simply Psychology." Simply
Psychology. N.p., 2007. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.simplypsychology.org/memory.html>.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1976. Print.
"What Is Psychoanalysis." Psychoanalysis. AROPA, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/definition.html>.