In Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman", the protagonist Willy Loman sets out to pursue the American Dream only to find complete failure. With hard work and devotion, Willy believes that he will one day be a success in a booming economy. As one critic states, Willy's character is of a common man. He is not anything special, nor ever was. He chose to follow the American dream and he chose to lead the life it gave him (Death of a Salesman: The Culture Of Willy Loman). Willy dies an unsuccessful person, with the realization that everything he had worked for was not achieved.
There are many angles that Willy Loman can be examined from to sort out what type of man he really was. He was a man who lacked vision, drive, and ambition, which lead to his failure. Willy believed that he would one day retire with all the riches that a successful businessman deserved. During the time period he lived in, it was a given that if you worked hard at a profession the American Dream was a guaranteed deal. Willy thought he had everything it took to be the best; unfortunately he lacked the necessary prudentials to succeed.
Willy was simply a salesman who was old fashion and could not change with society's new trends. He was oblivious to new ideas concerning his profession and his family. Willy did not have a very broad imagination, which made him ignorant to the everyday changing world he lived in. He had just one concept that consisted of hard work that one day would lead to wealth. People like Willy spend an entire life playing the role of a common person, then passing away with no accomplishments, except their families who deal with the problems left behind.
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Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman. Retrieved 20 February, 2004 from
<http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/quickstep/1103/book95.htm>.
Death Of A Salesman: The Culture Of Willy Loman. Retrieved 20 February, 2004 from
<http://www.courseworkbank.co.uk/coursework/death_a_salesman_culture_willy_loman_995/>.
Untitled. Retrieved 20 February, 2004 from
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Untitled. Retrieved 22 February, 2004 from
http://www.death-of-a-salesman-essays.com/
The play, “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller, presents Willy Loman, as a salesman, who fails to earn a living and slowly loses his mind. Willy continuously seeks the past to find out where he went wrong. During his years in life, Willy wanted his two sons, Biff and Happy to become someone they’re not; Willy wanted them to become a salesman like him. However, because of his obsession in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, he created a life full of lies for himself and his sons. In the end because of “his misconception of himself as someone capable of greatness” leads to his downfall and the end of his life (Death of a Salesman).”
support is a pathetic effort to protect his identity. Linda will never admit to herself,
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.
BANG! Your father is dead. Within a few seconds, although he attempted many times, your father dies. He gave up. All the fights, all the disrespect, and all the struggles are behind you. However, all the hope, all the passion, and all the love is still there. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the main conflict is between Willy Lowman and his son Biff. Most of their struggles are based on disrespect; however, much of the tension throughout the play is also caused by the act of giving up.
picture of how the wrong ideas to succeed in the business world have not only kept Willy from
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.
What encompasses the American Dream? Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” offers a realistic, stark picture of lives overflowing with dreams wished and dreams broken; yet, there are no dreams realized here. Their dreams comprise glory and fearlessness over those which genuinely can be achieved. Although Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy, as individuals, still believe in the American Dream, it’s clear that it represents something different for each.
No one’s life can be classified as “normal”. Everyone has conflicts that they have to eventually deal with. People do in fact deal with these personal conflicts in different ways; some take it easy some take it hard. Some ignore the problem as long as possible and some deal with it right away to get it out of the way. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Lowman’s technique to his problem solving leads to severe consequences. Willy never does anything to help the situation; he just escapes into the past to happier times when there were few problems. He uses this escape as if it was a drug, and as the play goes on, this drug becomes dangerous, leading him to his death.
The playwright Arthur Miller once insisted that any great play must deal with the question, "How may a man make of the outside world, a home." It was his belief that the most tragic issue which one could document was the embittered battle between society and the individuals which it was supposed to protect and nourish. Contrasting forms of this topic are well evidenced through his works, especially the plays All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. Both of these plays archive a day or so in the lives of the Keller and Loman families’ respectively. While the climax of both these plays lies in the present, invariably most of the major action takes place in the past. Events are revealed throughout the course of the play that further complicate a seemingly straightforward issue. However, Miller attempts to answer his essential question of, "How does a man adapt to the society in which he lives" in two very different ways, both of which represented in each play by the fathers of both families. In All my Sons we are introduced to the seemingly kind-hearted Joe Keller, a man who has refused society’s dominion over him, and has attempted to put his own family’s well being above all else. In contrast, Death of a Salesman portryas Willy Loman as quite the opposite; Willy has completely succumbed to society’s will, and is trying to forge a life for him and his family in the way he believes society preaches success. Disturbingly enough, even though both men are sundry to the core and would never be friends had they met, their divergent strategies towards living within society deals them parallel fates.
The Loman’s complicated views of success make it hard to achieve happiness: Willy and Happy are focused on Willy’s dream of money and popularity, while Biff is willing to tell the truth, and admit that being a salesman is not the right job for any of them.
Willy Loman got lost in chasing the American Dream. As a salesman in the concrete jungle, Willy had unrealistic aspirations which left him “boxed in”. He is surrounded by high rising skyscrapers which engulf not only him but his whole family. Because of this Willy has a false sense of the American Dream and in trying to achieve it, he fails. The skyscrapers and his own references to being “boxed in” serve as a metaphor for his life. He chased after riches and materialistic possessions rather than his own happiness which consequently led to his death.
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” written by Arthur Miller in 1948 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of a Willy Loman, a mercurial 60-year-old salesman, who through his endeavor to be “worth something”, finds himself struggling to endure the competitive capitalist world in which he is engulfed. Arthur Miller uses various theatrical techniques to gradually strip the protagonist down one layer at a time, each layer revealing another truth about his distorted past. By doing this, Miller succeeds in finally exposing a reasonable justification for Willy’s current state of mind. These techniques are essential to the play, as it is only through this development that Willy can realistically be driven to motives of suicide.
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.
Willy Loman is a firm believer in the "American Dream:" the notion that any man can rise from humble beginnings to greatness. His particular slant on this ideal is that a man succeeds by selling his charisma, that to be well liked is the most important asset a man can have. He made a living at this for 30 years, but as he enters the reclining years of his life, people have stopped smiling back and he can no longer sell the firm's goods to support himself. His ambition was one of greatness, to work hard and to be a member of the firm; and if he could not succeed in this respect, that he should at least be well-liked and be able to sell until the day of his death: When his friends would flock from all over the country to pay their respects.