A Horneyan Interpretation Of Willy's And Biff's Neurotic Personalities In Death Of A Salesman

Arthur Miller,a famous American playwright,devoted all his life to observing the life of the underclass in American society.By using realistic descriptions about American society,Miller creates many different native American characters to reflect the social conditions at that time,exposes the living situation of the lower class in contemporary America,and criticizes ugly social phenomena.It is Miller who always has a keen observation on the nature of contemporary American society and expresses it through his characters.Death of a Salesman,one of Miller's most famous plays,tells the story of a salesman Willy and his family struggling at the bottom of society.Death of a Salesman has been studied by many scholars since its publication.Numerous scholars interpret it from multiple perspectives,especially the analysis of characters which are too numerous to enumerate.But few scholars analyze the characters from the perspective of neurosis.Therefore,from the perspective of their psychological characteristics,this thesis offers an analysis of the neurotic personalities of the two major characters,Willy and Biff,on the basis of Karen Horney's neurotic personality theory,and explores the thematic concern of Death of a Salesman.The point of this thesis is that the ravages of society on human nature can be revealed by the analysis of Willy's and Biff's neurotic personalities,which is also the reason why Miller created this play.Horney puts emphasis on the importance of social environment to the formation of neurotic personality and emphasizes that characters' neurotic characteristics should be analyzed in the social context,instead of just being analyzed in their own growth and living environment.The absence of paternal love,failure of his sons,and pressure from society all contribute to Willy's anxiety.Willy tries to satisfy his hunger for love by pursuing the affection of others.It seems that Willy has taken a series of defensive strategies,but in fact it is just his escape from anxiety.Without the courage to face inner anxiety,Willy ends his life by committing suicide.Biff's anxiety stems from his father Willy.Willy's betrayal of Linda causes Biff's anxiety,and his own failure intensifies his inner anxiety.Not knowing how to face reality,Biff chooses to escape from his family and society.Fortunately,far away from everything,Biff has the opportunity to reevaluate his life,face his inner conflict,and finally overcome his inner anxiety.The thesis consists of five parts: the introduction,three chapters and the conclusion.The introduction is a brief introduction to Arthur Miller and the plot of his Death of a Salesman.Then,it details the general situation of researches on Death of a Salesman at home and abroad.Finally,the significance of this thesis is pointed out.Chapter one comprises two sections.The first section is a detailed introduction to the life of Karen Horney and the evolution of her neurotic personality theory.The second section explains several professional terms involved in this thesis,mainly including: the neurosis,basic anxiety,basic hostility,basic conflict and neurotic trends.Chapter two is a detailed analysis of Willy's neurotic personality.First of all,it analyzes the main causes of Willy's basic anxiety from the aspects of family and social environment.Then,according to the three neurotic trends in the theory,the main characteristics of Willy's neurotic personality are presented one by one.In the end,it expounds on the result of Willy's mediating his inner conflicts.In the play,Willy dares not face reality and go out of his world.What he does is to escape from reality,and he can not fundamentally remove his inner anxiety completely,so he is doomed to fail.Chapter three is a specific analysis of Biff's neurotic personality.Firstly,it explores main causes of Biff's basic anxiety from the perspectives of family and social environment.Then,according to the three neurotic trends,the leading characteristics of Biff's neurotic personality are listed one by one.Finally,the result of Biff's mediating his inner conflicts is explained.After a series of attempts and explorations,Biff successfully eliminates his inner anxiety.He realizes and admits his ordinariness,and no longer lives in the fictional world created by his father Willy,and bravely moves towards reality.The conclusion summarizes this thesis.By applying Horney's neurotic personality theory,this thesis provides readers with a new perspective to analyze Willy's and Biff's personality characteristics,and thus they can gain a deeper understanding of their behaviors.In addition,through this thesis,readers can also get a general understanding of neurotic personality theory and a preliminary understanding of neurotic patients,then they will be better able to deal with the neurotic patients they may encounter.