Death Of A Salesman Ambition

Ambition. A strong desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination or hard work. Ambition can encourage people to achieve their dreams, and can oftentimes lead to great success in attaining goals. However, sometimes ambition can negatively impact a person’s life, and the lives of those around them. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Arthur Miller walks readers through the life of Willy Loman, and his goal of achieving the “American Dream.” His sole purpose in life was to be well liked, have a good job and to be seen as the family man everyone aspired to be. It does not seem like a terrible dream on the surface, but when the only way to achieve this is to lie about successes, one can get themselves into a dangerous situation.

In the play, the Lomans are constantly struggling to find their identity in truth, and not the lies they have made throughout the years. The American dream was detrimental for the Loman family, and the ambition of Willy Loman greatly impacted himself, his wife Linda, and his son Biff.

Willy’s ambition to achieve the American dream affected his wife in very subtle ways. Linda loved Willy more than anything in the world, and almost cared about his feelings too much. Although she may not have truly believed his lies, she did not want to hurt his feelings, and chose the pretend to believe them. She did this in attempt to protect Willy from the criticism of others, but it really only harmed both of them. Pretending to believe his lies only encouraged Willy to keep up with the false reality he had created for himself. Linda was constantly being put down and degraded by Willy, never being able to voice her opinion without Willy telling her to be quiet. I truly believe that Willy did not love Linda half as much as she loved him. Willy was so afraid to lose his reputation as a good husband, he let his marriage suffer, instead of telling the truth. The silk stockings are used as a great symbol of the betrayal of Linda, as Willy was quick to

Although his aspirations and dreams caused him to work hard to achieve things, he had the wrong goals, and the wrong ways to achieve them. Instead of working towards the goals of happiness, and peace, he is driven by the hopes of financial success and popularity. He is driven by the desire for success, and believes that popularity is the only way to achieve this success. “Willy, when’re you gonna realize that them things don’t mean anything? You named him Howard, but you can’t sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman and you don’t know that.” Willy figured because he was so well liked by Howard’s father, he had no choice but to continue to keep Willy as an employee. This caused Willy to become astonished when he was fired by Howard. Willy was constantly living in this false reality, and when the harshness of real life caught up to him, he would slip into a flashback. These memories allowed Willy to deny the truth and its consequences, and to allow some sort of order back into his life. Willy loved working with his hands, and found joy in gardening and building. Miller used the seeds to represent Willy’s desire for physical evidence of success, because although a paycheck at the end of the week was evidence of hard work, it went into the bank and was not enough to please Willy. I believe if he had become a mechanic or a carpenter, Willy would