Examples+of+Rationalizing

Michael Ren

Examples of Rationalizing seen in Act 1 Scenes 1, 3

Scene 1 As soon as we see Willy return home he begins telling his wife about his troubles lately with driving so late at night. He claims to be falling asleep, to be unable to stick to the road.etc. and seems overall very bothered by this disability. His wife, Linda, however seems to always find a reason why it ISN'T actually Willy's fault that his driving is bad. She comes up with various reasons, such as the steering hasn't been fixed, or his glasses are out of date. We see here that Linda is trying to rationalize Willy's faults, either to lie to herself that her husband is good, or to give her husband a little more confidence.

Willy, when he talks to his wife about his job transfer to the city, he makes this statement : "If old man Wagner were alive, I'd be running new york city. This new guy Howard doesn't know how to appreciate." Here it seems that Willy is very convinced about his own skills as a businessman and rationalizes that the only reason he has such a terrible position is because no one knows how to appreciate him

Willy begins to talk down on his son Biff, who is already 34 years old but cannot even find himself a secure job. Willy tells himself that it's not that Biff is lazy by any means that he doesn't have a job, and it's not Biff's problem in anyway because he is so full of "personal attractiveness". Biff is proudly raised by Willy, and he would never go to admit that the product of his teachings is faulty.

Biff had stolen a car back when he was under employment of Oliver, and it was soon after this incident that he was fired from the ranch. Biff is planning to go to Oliver and ask for a loan to start a sporting goods company, and so he hopes that Oliver did not fire him because of this bad impression. Happy rationalizes and tells Biff various other reasons that may have led to him being fired, as to avoid the inevitable fact that Oliver does not like Biff one bit.

Scene 3 Willy just came back from a selling trip down in New England, and is bragging about his amazing sales when Linda reminds him that his earnings were not enough to clear the debt. Willy rationalizes, telling his wife that the fact that he did not make enough money was because three stores where closed down, otherwise he would have "broken sales records".

Linda again adds in some comforting words to help Willy feel better about his actually miserable existence. Some things she said were:

"Well next week you'll do better."

"Few men are idolized like you are by their sons."

"You are the most handsome man I know."