Within Death of a Salesman - a critically acclaimed play written by Arthur Miller (1949) and Keats’ collection of poems, moments of happiness are utilised to heighten tragic outcome. In Death of a Salesman, moments of happiness are presented within Willy Loman’s past and heighten the sense of tragedy within the play as they represent Willy’s inability to accept the truth of reality. Willy Loman’s confinement to his idyllic past represents his confinement to the American Dream - and it is this refusal to accept reality that leads to his tragic death in Act 2. Potentially, Miller uses moments of happiness within the play to comment on the dangers of refusing to acknowledge the harsh yet truthful parts of life in favour of the happy but false promises of the American Dream. In Keats’s poem Lamia, moments of happiness are not presented as rare as they form quite a substantial part of the poem. However, they are bracketed by moments of suffering.These moments of happiness exist outside moments of reality and truth as Keats presents the two entities as directly opposing one another - as illustrated through Lamia’s fear of the philosopher Appolonius. The result of this is the depiction of happiness outside of reality as unsustainable and an appeal to adopting a balance between both.
Death of a Salesman is set within in the 1940s consumerist society of America - the land of the free and home to the American Dream. The prevailing ideology of the American Dream promoted the belief that success was available to all who worked hard and that key markers of success were materialistic possessions and positive perceptions of a person. Miller uses the tragic protagonist of Willy Loman to comment on the false hopes of the American Dream and the danger it posed to society as a whole. Miller primarily achieves this through the moments of happiness depicted in Willy’s past which conflict with the truth of his situation and his present state. Willy’s refusal to accept the reality of his situation and his desire to cling to his idyllic yet false perceptions of his past form the prerequisites to his death in Act 2. A key example of Willy’s hamartia can be found early within Act 1 where a resurfacing of the idyllic past which overtakes Willy is prompted by the recollection of the ‘Chevvy’ which Biff ‘loved’. During this recollection of his son’s childhood Willy is seen to show great affection and love towards his now estranged son. Willy ‘[kisses Biff]’ and is - according to the stage directions - ‘[totally immersed in himself, smiling faintly]’. Willy’s happy state and loving relationship with his son in the past juxtapose his present situation - where he is no longer happy but rather ‘tired to death’ and he thinks his son is ‘a lazy bum’ whom he perceivably ‘hates’. The contrasting qualities of the past and present imply that Willy’s happiness in the past was false and unsustainable due to its absence in the present. Further on in the play this loss of happiness is attributed to the false promises of the American dream which prompts Willy’s internalisation of superficial values like - ‘be liked and you will never want’ and ‘the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead’. It is Willy’s placing of high value on superficial and physical markers of success that corrode his happiness as he is always pursuing economic success. This type of thinking leads to Willy’s suicide in Act 2 where in pursuit of a ‘twenty thousand dollar’ life insurance payout which he believes Biff will ‘worship [him] for’ - he commits suicide. Willy’s obsession with the promises of America - materialistic success - are attributed to his pursuit of happiness and
inability to be content. Willy’s present no longer consists of the happiness of his past and he fails to see that it was his lies and false hopes that destroyed this. Through moments of happiness Miller heightens the tragic outcome of the play as the loss of happiness, or inability to acknowledge it (contentedness), is attributed to Willy’s faulty belief system and obsession with the promises of the American Dream.
In Keats’s poem Lamia, moments of happiness are not presented as rare - they are bracketed by moments of suffering and are depicted as experiences outside of truth and reality. These moments of happiness come before the climatic reversal of the protagonist’s fortune, and this is often preceded by a moment of fulfillment which Theresa Sowerby refers to as ‘both the peak of their happiness and prelude to disaster’. Through presenting them as so, Keats represents moments of happiness as unsustainable due to their basis in fantasy and their opposition to the truth. As a result Keats promotes the ideology of the Romantics by advocating for a balance between the suffering of reality and the happiness of fantasy. One could argue that the poem Lamia - due to its strong mythological basis - was the most suitable poem for Keats to convey his beliefs through. The poem opens with the suffering ‘vermillion-spotted’ creature who longs to pursue Lycius in the human world. Keats presents her transformation as a terrifying image of dissolution through scientific terms in noun phrases like ‘Flash’d phosphor and sharp sparks’. From early on in the poem Keats presents Lamia’s transformation as a mixture of magic and science - a form of harmony between fantasy and reality. This harmony is disrupted in Part 2 of the poem during the wedding feast where cold reason and philosophy overpowers fantasy. Keats draws on contemporary mythological beliefs and utilises the common cultural capital of the audience in regards to the genre of folklore to present Lamia’s marriage as unnatural. A common feature of mythological literature was prohibiting the mixture of the human and faery world - both races could not marry. Through attempting to marry Lycius, a prospect which she initially feared (‘the lady’s cheek trembled’), Lamia disrupts this balance and therefore thwarts the happiness of her and Lycius. The moment of happiness in the ‘purple palace’ of ‘heavy gold’ and ‘wealthy lustre’ is brought to a close by the ‘mere touch of cold philosophy’. Whereas - as exhibited in her transformation - Lamia was once in harmony between reality and fantasy - she is now directly opposed to reality - which the philosopher Appolonius embodies. Appolonius’s philosophy and truth represent reality’s ability to ‘conquer all mysteries by rule and line’. The death of Lamia as a result of the power of reality which melted her ‘into shade’ represents the danger of full submission to fantasy and the neglect of reality. In Lamia, through moments of happiness, Keats celebrates the power of imagination to enrich and celebrate the experience of the world. Yet through bracketing these moments with suffering, Keats explores the dangers of withdrawal from reality. Even within the poem, Keats in accordance with the Romantic Context, finds a balance between representing fantasy and reality as he describes Lycius’s and Lamia’s passion with great detail and time. As a result he praises both the indulgence of fantasy and the adherence to reality.
As exhibited through both texts: Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and Keats’s Lamia, moments of happiness within tragic texts are not rare. They may only appear rare due to their positioning within the text. As in Death of a Salesman, moments of happiness exist mainly within the past, whilst in Lamia, they are always bracketed by suffering so they appear less profound and
powerful due to their unsustainable nature. These moments of happiness always heighten the tragic outcome as they form key roles in the development of the tragic plot and the occurrence of the great reversal of fortune which preludes the protagonist’s downfall (peripeteia). Moments of happiness vary in specific purpose as they are inextricably linked to authorial intent, as in Death of a Salesman Miller uses them to comment on the dangers of the American Dream and in Lamia Keats uses these moments to promote the ideals of the Romantics.