What is a man, but, pieces of limbs made into a body and a mind, full of thoughts, beliefs, and dreams - dreams that urges one to try and convinces one to live. What if the dream, the reason to live, leads one to a futile life? In the Death of a Salesman, by playwright Arthur Miller, Willy the main character slowly dies as his dreams demise. In this play, one can discern how people surrounding Willy influenced his dreams and how his dreams influenced himself and his sons’ lives. This is best exemplified by the influence he received from his father, a famous salesman and his wife, who all aided in constructing his life to the wrong dreams and principles, and consequently destructing his sons’ future.
Family and people surrounding Willy Loman influenced his dreams and motives in life. Willy’s perception about life was carved by his father as he absconded him at the age of four for the pursuit of wealth, which indirectly taught Willy that materialistic gain is a primacy in one’s life and cost Willy a great deal of emotional distress as he says “dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel—kind of temporary about myself” (36). The tremendous amount of Willy’s father’s influence that he has had on his son is confirmed through the presence of his flute sound in Willy’s imagination even to this day. Having materialism as the primary goal in life, Willy meets Dave Singleman, a famous salesman, whom becomes an icon for Willy as he protrudes a very positive and elegant picture of being wealthy. Based on Singleman’s fame and luxurious living at the age of eighty four, Willy superficially decides salesman as his career. However, not knowing how one achieves wealth, he assumes incorrectly that on...
... middle of paper ...
...where I’m gonna win it for him” (104).
Within the play, Death of a Salesman, one can deduce that people surrounding the main character Willy, shaped the dreams and life of Willy and the next generation. As Willy’s goals were carved by others, he forgets about his own desires. His astray ambitions oriented his life towards deceit, delusions, failure, and finally death. As he taught the same erroneous philosophies to his progeny, he unintentionally set them up for a failure. Due to misguidance and following other’s dreams, the lives of Willy and Biff are sacrificed for their fathers’ dreams. Although having dreams in life can drive one forward, following wrong dreams can lead to a disaster.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." 1949. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. E. New York: W.W. Norton &ump;, 2012. 238-303. Print.
After seeing both his father and brother find success, Willy attempts to prove himself to his family by chasing after his own version of the American dream. Willy grows up in the “wild prosperity of the 1920’s” when rags-to-riches tales inspire everybody, making them believe that “achieving material success [is] God’s intention for humankind (Abbotson, Criticism by Bloom). Willy’s father, a “very great” and “wildhearted man,” made a living traveling and selling flutes, making “more in a week than a man like [Willy] could make in a lifetime” (Miller 34). Even though Willy barely knew his dad, he built him u...
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed.Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 1908-1972. Print.
... Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print. The. Sherk, James.
Although the characters are not of noble birth nor possess a heroic nature nor experience a reversal of fortune, many of the elements in "Death of A Salesman" fulfill the criteria of a classic tragedy. The downfall and crisis points in the play are directly linked to the Loman family's combined harmartias, or personal flaws. The Loman's have unrealistic ideas regarding the meaning of success. To Willy, the foundation of success is not education or hard work, but rather "who you know and the smile on your face." Moreover, Willy ridicules the education Bernard has earned, declaring that his sons, Biff and Hap, will get further ahead in the business world because "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked, and you will never want." Willy idolizes two men: his brother, Ben, who walked out of an African jungle a rich man, and an 84-year-old salesman who could "pick a phone in twenty or thirty cities and be remembered and loved, and finally honored by hundred of mourners at his funeral." To Linda, success is paying off a 25...
Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, primarily focuses on the flaws and failures of Willy Loman, Millers’ main character in this story. Willy’s distorted and backward views of the American Dream, paired with his inability to let go of the past lead him down a road of regret and in the end his biggest failure which was his wasted life.
“A salesman has got to dream” (Miller ). That sums up Willy Loman’s life in just one sentence. Willy is a sixty-three year old salesman with two son, Biff and Happy, and loving, supportive wife, Linda. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy tries to provide for his family while struggling with financial, emotional, psychological, and suicidal issues. Willy commits suicide at the end of the play, with the help of his dead brother Ben, in believing that the action is the only way he could provide for his family one last time. Willy was not the only one to suffer disillusionment over his life; his sons follow in step (Loos 2). Biff is lost through most of the play, but he finds himself. He achieves a sense of personal dignity and comes to understanding his rightful place in society” (Nienhuis 95). In this classic American play, Miller uses the themes of chasing the wrong dream and identity crises to influence the overall theme of tragedy.
Barack Obama made history by being elected President of the United States, twice. This is just one more example that the American Dream is without a doubt achievable. Its pursuit is not easy; it requires undeniable hard work, modesty and optimism. Armed with these characteristics, seekers of this lifestyle will undeniably succeed. Success, though, is an interesting concept, for it can entail many superficial qualities. Willy Loman, the tragic hero of the play Death of a Salesman, sees only the superficial qualities of this dream. He views success solely as likeability (linked with attractiveness), and wealth. Ignoring all methods to honorably achieve these, Arthur Miller demonstrates how Willy’s search for the superficial qualities of the American Dream lead him to his own despair.
Like countless characters in a play, Willy struggles to find who he is. Willy’s expectations for his sons and The Woman become too high for him to handle. Under the pressure to succeed in business, the appearance of things is always more important than the reality, including Willy’s death. The internal and external conflicts aid in developing the character Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,Willy Loman, an unsuccessful businessman struggling to support his family is completely out of touch with reality throughout the plot line. Many characters throughout this play and their interactions with Willy have shown the audience his true colors and what he thinks is important in life. His constant lying and overwhelming ego certainly does not portray his life in factual terms, but rather in the false reality that he has convinced himself he lives in. Being raised by Willy, Biff and Happy are becoming failures and have no motivation to work hard to achieve anything in life. Throughout this novel, Biff has a few recurrences with stealing.
Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." Discovering Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays. Ed. Hans P. Guth and Gabriele L. Rico. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. 1211-82.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller concerns itself with the fall of a simple man perpetually in a steadfast state regarding his own failure in a success-driven society. The protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, will follow a tragic trajectory that will eventually lead to his suicide. Arthur Miller's tragic play is an accurate portrayal of the typical American myth that sustains an extreme craving for success and a belief in the illusion of the American dream, a dream attainable only by a handful of people. Having chosen a career in sales Willy Loman constantly aspires to become 'great'. Nevertheless, Willy is a poor aging salesman that considers himself to be a failure when comparing himself to his successful father and brother, but he is incapable of consciously admitting it. Consequently, Willy will measure his level of success with the level of success attained by his offspring, particularly his eldest son Biff. Their difficult relationship contribute to the play's main plot. Willy unfolds his deluded perception and recollection of the events as the audience gradually witnesses the tragic downfall of a man shadowed by a mental illness that has already began to take it's toll on his mind and personality.
The only way to become a truly happy person is to surround yourself with the things that make you happy. Setting logical goals and pursuing dreams is going to lead to a successful life. In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the reality of their lives. Biff is the only character who becomes self-aware by the end of the play. He realizes that his whole life has been a lie and that Willy’s standards for Biff’s achievements in life are simply unreachable. Happy is too caught up in himself throughout the play to realize that his father is in need of an escape from his dysfunctional life. Willy has lived his whole life setting these goals for himself that he simply can’t attain. Happy makes it known at the end of the play that he is planning to follow in his father’s footsteps. This foreshadows the downfall of Happy’s life to come. Linda is constantly reassuring Willy that the decisions he has made are the right choices. She finds out about his possible suicide attempts and she refuses to seek help for him. She constantly tells his that he is doing great when in reality his career is going nowhere and his relationship with his sons gets worse as the days go on. Willy was a man who claimed to have a good sense of pride. He believes that he thrived in his times of struggle. He lost the battle for his life and ended his life due to the constant disappointments and failures that he had to live with every day. Willy refused to see the truth in his life and continued to feed off the lies. He got so caught up in his lies that he lost what the truth really was.
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” The Norton Introduction to Literature 10. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 495-506.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a story about the dark side of the "American Dream". Willy Loman's obsession with the dream directly causes his failure in life, which, in turn, leads to his eventual suicide. The pursuit of the dream also destroys the lives of Willy's family, as well. Through the Lomans, Arthur Miller attempts to create a typical American family of the time, and, in doing so, the reader can relate to the crises that the family is faced with and realize that everyone has problems.
"Death of a Salesman By Arthur Miller ." Goodreads . N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .