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Illusion And Disillusion In Death Of A Salesman
Illusion And Disillusion In Death Of A Salesman
Death of a salesman realities of life
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“I have such thoughts, I have such strange thoughts.” (Miller 1671). This line from Act I of the story gives us insight into Willy’s struggle with dealing with reality. We see early on that something is going with Willy’s mental state as he describes to his wife Linda why he’s returned home from his business trip. As the story continues we see Willy having imaginary conversations with a woman that reveals a pivotal moment in the relationship with his son Biff. Another of the persons with which he carries out an imaginary conversation with is his brother Ben that continue throughout the narrative and results in Willy finally committing suicide.
The play opens with Willy explaining to his wife why he has returned from his business trip up to Maine. He explains to her that he “suddenly couldn’t drive anymore” (1670), and that “I absolutely forgot I was driving” (1671). Later in the first act, when Linda is speaking to her sons, Biff and Happy, we learn that there were a number of car accidents and that the insurance adjuster felt they may have been deliberate (1694). She believes that Willy is trying to kill himself and a further proof shows the boys a hose she found connected to a gas line in the basement that must have been put there by Willy. As the night wears on the boys hear their father having one of his imaginary conversations that grows in volume. Biff questions his mother as to why she never wrote him about his ranting and she tells him “How could I write to you? For over three months you had no address.” (1691). Later it’s revealed that Biff was serving time in jail (1731).
“I won’t have you mending stockings in this house!” (184), this exclamation from Willy ties into his imaginary conversations with an unknown woman w...
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...nteen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!” (1691), this ties into Willy’s final moments when an imaginary Ben tells him “The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds, Willy” (1733).
The play ends with the family at Willy’s grave and Linda remarking that no one else came but Charley. Willy choose to relive past glories rather than face the realities of the problems facing his family. This resulted in the dysfunctional relationship he has with his sons. His grief over his failures finally leads him to commit suicide. The story is a poignant reminder that not all is as it seems in the homes of our neighbors and should serve as a reminder to not get so caught up with appearances.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. Shorter 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 1669-1735. Print.
Willy pleads for Ben’s advice, and is constantly trying to get his attention, even though Ben has to ‘leave’. Ben is Willy’s older brother who has died. He, unlike Willy, has experienced a lot of success in the selling world. Willy is driven by Ben, and therefore tries to extract the keys to his success. Willy feels neglected when Ben does not speak with him, even though he is merely a hallucination.
At the beginning of the play it is evident that he cannot determine the realities of life, and so he repeatedly contradicts himself to establish that his conclusion is correct and opinion accepted. These numerous contradictions demonstrate that Willy is perturbed of the possibility that negative judgements may come from others. Willy strongly believes that “personality always wins” and tells his sons that they should “be liked and (they) will never want”. In one of Willy’s flashbacks he recalls the time when his sons and him were outside cleaning their Chevy. Willy informs Biff and Happy the success of his business trips and how everyone residing in Boston adores him. He mentions that due to the admiration of people he does not even have to wait in lines. He ultimately teaches his sons that being liked by others is the way to fulfilling one’s life and removing your worries. These ideals, that one does not need to work for success, demonstrate Willy’s deluded belief of achieving a prosperous life from the admiration and acceptance of others. This ultimately proves to be a false ideology during his funeral, when an insufficient amount of people arrive. Willy constantly attempts to obtain other’s acceptance through his false tales that depict him as a strong, successful man. In the past, he attempts to lie to his wife, Linda, about the amount of wealth he has attained during his
... Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print. The. Sherk, James.
Willy becomes more and more dependent on his drug as the story progresses. His next allusion to the past was during a conversation with his wife. Willy is downhearted about his failure to provide for his family, his looks, and basically his whole life in general. He begins to see some of the truth in his life: "I know it when they walk in. They seem to laugh at me."(Miller; The Death of a Salesman; pg. 23) By trying to see the reality in life, for once, he depresses himself so awfully, that he has a rendezvous in his head with his women that he sees on the side. He only uses this women to lift his spirits and to evade the truths that nearly scare him into his own grave.
In Willy’s flashback during his meeting with Charley, Ben explains how he became rich by explaining, “when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out… by God, was I rich!” (Miller 36-37). Here, Ben hints how his success was due to his brave and wild actions of entering the jungle in a manly manner. Willy is inspired by these words of a rugged man who is well-liked by others, and tries to take on these traits himself. However, these traits are not fitting for Willy’s occupation as a salesman, since at the time, a good salesman was considered a polite man with a few words who was convincing in what they were selling. Willy tries to follow Ben’s ways, acting brash and being talkative around customers, which end up giving him little success. However, Willy refuses to change, and even states “a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked… when [Biff] walks into a business office his name will sound out like a bell and all the doors will open to him!” (65-66). Not only do these words show how heavily impacted Willy is by Ben, but it also
He then faces some tragedy of failing his family by not giving them what they wanted at the time he was working as a salesmen then he committed suicide by killing himself in a car, so that his family will get an insurance cover so that his wife Linda will get money to help her and his two sons to open big businesses and they would never become hungry anymore. I think by doing this Willy was feeling guilt that he did not accomplish what he needed in life while he was working and his money was spent in the hotels with that mistress that Biff caught him with and forgot to fulfill his American dream.
Throughout the play, Willy has hallucinations of his brother Ben, who left Willy when he was young, “Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old,” (Miller 47), and the man later offered to take Willy with him, but Willy had a dream “There’s a man eighty-four years old-” (Miller 86) and he felt that he was going to accomplish that dream. “Willy retreats into a dream world consisting of his roseate recollections of the past and of fantasies,” (Hadomi), he hallucinates often, and this is a better way of saying he’s delusional. He did not, he failed miserably, he had to borrow money from Charley “If you can manage it-- I need a hundred and ten dollars,” (Miller 96), then he pretended it was a loan from him “I’m keeping an account of everything, remember,” (Miller 96), that he would pay back “I’ll pay every penny back,” (Miller 96), but Linda and Charley knew he was not going to pay any of it back. Willy had a hard time accepting defeat, and he wanted his boys to succeed where he failed, but Biff was always better with physical labor “when all you really desi...
Willy's main flaw is his foolish pride, this it what makes him a tragic hero. Yet there are many facets to his personality that contribute to the state he and the family are in during the play. His upbringing of the boys is one major issue, he raised them with the notion that if one is well-liked, he need not worry about qualifications, he believed that if his boys were popular they would come out on top. Sadly, he doesn't realize that the only way an ordinary person can get rich is through work (represented by Bernard) or through luck and good timing (Ben), and Willy missed the boat when it came to ...
Foremost, Willy has a problem with his inability to grasp reality. As he grows older his mind is starting to slip. For example, when he talks to the woman and his brother Ben. Throughout the story, Willy dreams of talking to the woman, because the woman is a person that he was dating in when he went to Boston. He was cheating behind his wife’s back. Willy basically uses her as a scapegoat when he’s hallucinating about her. He blames all of his problems on the woman. For instance Willy says, “ Cause you do… There’s so much I want to make for.” (38) This is the evidence right here. Also he dreams about his brother Ben. Willy wishes could be more like his brother who has just passed away a couple of months previously to the story. He also wishes he didn’t have to work and could be rich like Ben. He respects Ben for not really working and making a lot of money. Another example of Willy’s hallucinations are when he says,“ How are you all?” (45) This occurs when Willy is talking with Charley and he starts thinking about Ben. Willy’s inability to grasp reality never changed throughout the story.
Willy’s Distinct idea on the American dream is if your are well liked by people you will be successful. As said in the play by Willy "personality always wins the day”(Miller 1737). as said in the play by Willy. as read through the drama he looks at people who are successful and feels they have yet to attain full success. As they are surely intelligent and work hard, but do not live up to their true potential. For example, his son Biff, he feels he is wasted potential, as he is well liked yet has not obtained success. This is the point in which Willy has misunderstood, all because he had a good for nothing father. This led him to believe that the ideal success is the opposite of his father. Willy went through his life with this
The first comlication which occurs in Act I, is when the reader acknowledges that Willy put his whole life into his sons, Biff and Happy, and they turned their backs on him. Willy always believed that biff would be this great, successful businessman and it turned out that Biff is still searching to find himself, which disappoints Willy in the worst way. The conflicts between Willy and Biff are rooted very deep. It all started when Biff was younger and he had failed his math class. He traveled to Boston to visit Willy, who was on a business trip. He had told that he had let Willy down and comes to find out that Willy is with another woman. Biff leaves and never takes that math class over. Willy felt guilty about this and believes that deep inside that he is responsible for Biff's choices in life and his failure to be successful. This conflict makes Willy weak and tremendously guilty, which stays with him as a reminder.
Willy’s death was ironic due to all the of consequences that he faced each point of his life; however, he wanted to leave money behind by his $20,000 insurance policy for his family to prove he finally made success in life. After Willy death, Biff realized his true beliefs and changes his life’s path to the right direction. Happy on other hand, followed his father’s footsteps and aimed to become successful as a businessman. I believed that Willy’s character lead himself to his failures and miseries with his wife, his two sons, and his career. What Willy pictured in his mind of himself was not completed by his wrong ambition of being successful. “We’re free and clear. We’re free…. We’re free” (Death of the Salesman, Requiem. lines 66-67). Willy’s wife and sons were not a bit disappointed or saddened by the news of their father. Willy’s death defined a symbol of a new beginning for his family. Throughout my research I discovered all Willy wanted to be was a devoted husband, a father that his sons can be proud of, and a successful salesman; however Willy was unsuccessful in not completely to fulfill his dreams so his death brought him and his family a break from the
Willy's search to find his mistakes of his life failed because, even though he found out what happened to Biff, he did not search for the right thing: his identity. Willy found out that his affair made Biff envision his father as a fake and phony, but he did not realize that a salesman was not the right job for him. When Willy died, no one came to his funeral (Act II. Scene I). This just showed that Willy was not the man he thought he was. He thought he was a great salesman with an unlimited amount of friends, but, when he died, no one was at his funeral but his family (Act II. Scene I). It showed that Willy was just a simple craftsman, who only needed attention and love from his family, and did not need fame or to be well-known ("Arthur Miller and Others," 311-314)
Willy believes that he is much more successful than he is in reality. The first sign of Willy’s illusion about his life occurs rather early in the play. He has the illusion that “[he’s] the New England man. [He’s] vital in New England” (14). In reality any person could have taken Willy’s position at work. This illusion leads to his downfall because as his life begins to fall apart, he lives in the illusion that he has enough money to support his family, so he does not recognize that he has to put the pieces of his reality back together. More towards the end of the play, in an outburst of anger Willy refuses to be called “a dime a dozen” and states “I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman” (132), as if the Loman family is a special figure in society. His unclear view of his place in society leads to his destruction; with only one view of his life, Willy believes that he is living his life to the fullest.
Willy’s hubris makes him feel extremely proud of what he has, when in reality he has no satisfaction with anything in his life. Willy Loman’s sons did not reach his expectations, as a father, but he still continued to brag about Biff and Happy in front of Bernard. Willy Loman caused the reader to empathize with him because before his tragic death he did everything he could for his family. Empathy, Hubris, and Willy Loman’s tragic flow all lead him to his death that distends from the beginning. He is unable to face reality and realize that he’s not successful in life or at his job; he remains living in a world where he thinks he’s greater than everybody else because he’s a salesman.