Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Character study death of a salesman
Character study death of a salesman
Death of salesman themes essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the play Death of a Salesman, the plot is affected by three minor characters: Ben, Charley and Howard. The minor characters help the story's protagonist, Willy, develop extensively throughout the course of the play; therefore, they are key elements in the advancing story line. This story line blends and contrasts Willy's closest companions, Ben and Charley. They represent two aspects of Willy's ideals. Howard, Willy's boss, functions in order to heighten the destruction of Willy's dream. The characters Ben, Charley and Howard are influential in the play's outcome and help develop the main character, Willy.
Ben is a figment of Willy's imagination who represents his idealistic view of prosperity. Ben is symbolic of the success of the American Dream. "when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich"(48). Ben earned his affluence without the help of an education or job. Willy is continuously misled with delusion illusions of grandeur by Ben. "What are you building? Lay your hand on it. Where is it?"(86). Ben questions the success of Willy's sales job and states that in order to be prosperous, one must physically touch it. Ben represents the success of the American Dream and functions in order to make Willy doubt the actions of hard work.
Charley is Willy's closest friend and he displays the failure of Willy Loman's ideals. He is a very realistic character who attempts to convince Willy that his ...
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.
Throughout the plot of Death of a Salesman, Willy Lowman believes in chasing the American Dream of wealth and fortune. Symbolized within the storyline, Willy has many visions that relate to his brother and father that represents success and failure. Ben, Willy’s brother, often appears within Willy’s daydreams wearing a white
Miller’s use of personification and symbolism in the book shows the situational irony that surrounds Willy. This highlights the overall message of blind faith towards the American Dream. The major case of irony in the book is Willy’s blind faith in the American Dream. This belief is that if one is well-liked, they will become successful. The truth is actually completely opposite. The real belief is that if one works hard, with no regard to how well liked they are, they will be successful. This relationship is shown between Willy and his neighbor Charley. While Willy believes likability is the only way to success, Charley works hard and does not care how people think of him. Through his hard work, Charley started his own business, and is now very successful. Willy, however, ends up getti...
Willy is a multi-faceted character which Miller has portrayed a deep problem with sociological and psychological causes and done so with disturbing reality. In another time or another place Willy might have been successful and kept his Sanity, but as he grew up, society's values changed and he was left out in the cold. His foolish pride, bad judgment and his disloyalty are also at fault for his tragic end and the fact that he did not die the death of a salesman.
Death of a Salesman, a play written in 1949, by Arthur Miller, has been Miller’s most famous work thanks to how relatable the play can be to almost every citizen in America. The play is told from the point of view of the principal character, Willy Loman. The play examines Willy’s perception of success, and the conflicts that his perception creates in his household. Having a wrong perception of likeness, lying, and cheating can lead to an individual to make decisions that can be irreversible and have many consequences. The family of Willy Loman is an example of how the life of each one of the members of the family can be defined by the mindsets of only one person.
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.
He "walked into the jungle, and came out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich." DOS, p41. -. When Ben went to Africa, he found diamonds in the mines and as a result he became rich. This incident has made Ben's life successful and ever since, Willy has been regretful. If Willy was to take the risk, he too would be successful.
This scene displays Willy’s regrets and pride; he wants to provide for his family but isn’t willing to give up his dream to do so. At the beginning of the play, Charlie is described as vulgar and mundane, however he is portrayed as sympathetic and caring to his less fortunate neighbors. Willy has a developed mindset throughout the story, this mindset being one of allusion. Willy is convinced that the more people that like someone, the farther they will go in life. The issue here is that Willy claims to be very well-liked and that is how he got as far as he did. Though in all reality, Willy did not make it very far in life, which is what brings him to his neighbor’s house to beg for money and support, which his neighbor is already giving him. His neighbor Charlie has a son named Bernard, who is seemingly a perfect child who makes Willy jealous, for his own son’s sake, who can’t do simple math. This jealousy corrupts Willy’s mind further, and only makes him want to take further actions to taking from his neighbor. Willy is all about success and providing for his beloved family, though this is not shown through his actions. As aforementioned, Willy is not willing to give up his dreams to support the family, he is the type of person who is all talk and no walk. This shows even through his attempts to take his own life, these are also actions of
Willy?s identity crisis brings him much despair because without comprehension of his true nature his aspirations are inappropriate. Willy?s relationship with Biff is unquestionably most significant in Death of a Salesman, for it emphasizes the theme of self-awareness and its importance in the novel. Willy?s existence consists of a ?patchwork of errors in judgement, mental and moral lapses, and misdirected hopes?, however, Willy?s ?greatest mistake is living far too long with the wrong dream? (Nelson 110).
Willy Loman will bring his downfall upon himself as he entices his own disillusions and the bedrock of his values pertaining to success and how one can achieve it. His failure to recognize the fruitless outcome of his own idealism will seal his fated suicide and have a determining effect on the failures of his two sons that when adolescent, idolized their father as a guid...
Moreover, the psychological view of Willy Loman is shown as a person who works as a traveling salesman and decides to commit suicide because the “American Dream” overwhelms him. As Charley says in the story: “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell”. He is a normal person “who embodies traditional American values of success.”(Hansberry) In fact, Willy Loman wants to a great extent believe that he is one of the finest salesmen, a winner in life and a great father. For Mr. Loman, the accomplish...
The play, Death of a Salesman, is a tragic drama about an aging salesman who tries to do all he can to support his family and make them lead successful lives. The struggling salesman, Willy Loman has two sons, Biff and Happy, whom he tries to drive towards success. Willy believes that being well liked and making a good and lasting impression are the keys to success and tries to teach this philosophy to his two sons. Biff, being the favorite son of Willy, has worked as a manual laborer and Willy believes that Biff can do so much more with his life. While Biff is happy, he does not meet Willy’s criteria for success. Biff is unable to fulfill Willy’s dream because Willy’s idea of success is not a life Biff wants to pursue.
Willy has two sons, Biff and Happy but he seems to focus more on Biff. He seemed angry that Biff didn’t do more with his life. Willy Loman, the aging salesman, is worn out to the point of breakdown by his many years on the road. But he remains a firm believer in capitalist values and has transfer...
He is Willy’s only friend, and offers him a job when the old salesman is fired. Willy’s egotism gets in the way, however, and he cannot bring himself to work for Charley, since this would be admitting failure. Charley symbolizes reality- a reality that Willy never acknowledges.
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.