Death of a Salesman: “well-liked”
Okay, I admit this is a bit odd. But when Donald Trump (yeah, Trump; but don’t worry, this post is not really about Trump) disses Cruz and others about their likability, for me it conjures up the way Willy Loman talks in the play “Death of a Salesman.” Here’s a typical quote from Trump on the subject:
…[Cruz is] a nasty guy, nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He’s a very ”“ He’s got a edge that’s not good. You can’t make deals with people like that.
You might think it’s ridiculous of me to think of Willy Loman in connection with Trump. You might even say that Loman is Trump’s opposite. After all, Trump is fabulously successful, and Loman was a failure in business who had once managed to eke out a living but by the time the play starts was about to be put on the shelf, a has-been. So why was I thinking about the character?
Well, I’ve seen that play many, many times, on the stage and in the movies. My favorite version is the 1951 Frederic March black-and-white movie, the first one I ever saw, on TV when I was a child. It made a deep deep impression on me. I might not have understood every word and every nuance, but I got it, all right (and yes, as an adult I know that Miller was a leftist and that the play fits in with leftism; but I saw it, and still see it, in very human and individual terms). I was transfixed by the pathos of March’s performance, the warm glow of his memories—for example, of playing ball with his sons when they were still teenagers, when all was new and promising for him and for them, before disillusionment and heartache and betrayal had set in.
Loman’s character made an indelible mark on me. His emphasis on success, on being liked—well-liked (the words are mentioned over and over in the script) was a hallmark of what he felt a person should strive for. And yet the trajectory of the play was cruelly ironic. Trump’s words about Cruz made me think of the way Willy spoke of his rivals.
This YouTube video is of the entire movie. If you’re interested in a somber but brilliant rendition of the play (far better, in my opinion, than the Dustin Hoffman version, which I cannot stand), please watch the whole thing. Here’s the scene, one of many flashbacks or fantasy sequences where the older and despondent Loman, whose relationship with his sons has degenerated over time, steps away from the present into memories of a far more pleasant past. Willy’s statement about being “well-liked” takes place at around 17.30 (he’s speaking of a successful neighbor, “Uncle Charley,” who’s achieved a lot but isn’t liked). But I’ve started the clip at the beginning of the scene, late in the evening. It begins with Willy alone in the kitchen, speaking to his present-day grownup sons even though they aren’t there, and something sparks a journey memory (notice the change in the light as Willy steps into the past):
Then there’s this, which starts in the present when Willy is playing cards with the afore-mentioned neighbor Charley (then one who isn’t “well-liked”), and begins to remember an occasion when his mega-successful brother Ben (successful in the monetary, Trumpian sense, but without a “likable” Trumpian personality) came to visit and gave him some advice about success:
Likeability is a meaningless plus factor that the media can control so it’s given undue weight in the balance for that obvious reason. The media has convinced a lot of people that it’s a meaningful criteria because they talk about it all the time ostensibly because the “most likeable” candidate is the one who almost always wins. That’s not at all absurdly arbitrary and suspicious reasoning. Of course people are going to say that they “like” their candidate best. And then once the candidate wins, the herd will want to like the winner and winners are generally happier (more likeable) than losers.
“Likeability” as a factor leads to people thinking that they need to feel an imaginary personal relationship with the candidate or the candidate is lacking something. It’s an offshoot of the lefty “personal is political” meme. It’s BS and has led to the Obama/Trump phenomena. It needs to stop.
Likeability as projected to a mass audience may be quite different from likeability one-on-one. Is Obama liked by people he has actually worked with?…apparently he was not too popular when he was an adjunct professor, and I doubt that he was all that popular in legislature or Congress. Yet the majority of people in the electorate perceived him as “caring.”
First Frederic March, a very fine actor indeed, who made the portrayal of his character look effortless.
Where the comparison between Loman and Trump falls apart is that Trump could care less about likability. Trump wants to be feared by his enemies and wants his supporters to worship him from afar.
That few in our corrupt Congress like Cruz speaks well of him. Cruz refuses to play along to get along. Lots of people personalize disagreement, in today’s world, a man who puts principle first is going to be disliked by a lot of people, perhaps even most people. None of us want our ox to be gored.
Trump of course says whatever he thinks will lead to advantage and could care less as to the truth of an accusation. I think his real problem with Ted Cruz is revealed by his last sentence; “You can’t make deals with people like that.”
Making ‘the deal’… with Trump, it’s all about making the deal… which is my greatest fear regarding Trump. He’d make a deal with the devil, if it got him what he wants and, I suspect he’d cavalierly give up what cannot be surrendered, just to gain an ephemeral victory.
Geoffrey Britain:
I disagree. Trump is almost as obsessed by likability as he is by financial success and fame. Almost, although not quite.
Pay attention to what he says about himself. One of his bragging claims is how many people like him, how likable he is compared to other candidates, and this emphasis on likability is not new. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying Trump cares about likability because he cares about what other people actually think and feel. It’s not about empathy for him. It’s about likability (affability, in his case) as a tool to get what he wants from people. Trump is likable for the same reason con men are likable, and he is interested in it for the same reason. For Trump, his “likability” is also a measure of success. As with Willy Loman.
My father was a sales rep, and he found Death of a Salesman to be incredibly depressing.
My father worked in sales as well, on the business to business level, and the one time he and my mother saw Death of a Salesman, he walked out at the intermission (the only time he ever walked out on a play). He was … hurt by the portrayal, saw it as cruel and unfeeling, with no respect for a man’s role in providing for his family. And yes, as incredibly depressing.