Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman shows us how one man's blind faith in a misconception of the American Dream becomes an obsession of accomplishment that destroys his life and nearly that of his family. Miller's main character Willy Loman somehow comes to believe that success always comes to those who are well liked and good looking. His downfall is that he does not equate success with hard work and perseverance. This faulty thinking keeps him from achieving his goals of wealth and status. His boys Biff and Happy are taught the same faulty values and are destined to fail as well. The devastating effects of Willy's obsession are seen throughout the family starting with Willy who begins to lose his mind and his confidence that he will someday prevail. He is torn between denial that he is …show more content…
When he tries to ask for a local job his boss fires him after many faithful years of employment. In a cutthroat business world there is no loyalty any more. Willy, outraged tells his boss Howard "I put thirty six years into this firm, Howard, and now I can't pay my insurance! You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!" (p 289). Adding insult to injury Willy must now borrow money from Charlie to make his month's bills. It is during this degrading moment that he tells Charley "Funny y'know after all the highways and the trains and the appointments and the years you end up worth more dead than alive" (p 300). Miller, not without some irony ends the play with Willy finally realizing that his family's love for him is a significant thing. With this new realization brings a new dream; Biff's success. Willy exclaims "That boy is going to be magnificent!" (p324), he then imagines how much more magnificent Biff would be with $20,000. Willy then kills himself, finally achieving what he couldn't in life, a grand amount of money from the life insurance
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
Throughout the play, Willy can be seen as a failure. When he looks back on all his past decisions, he can only blame himself for his failures as a father, provider, and as a salesman (Abbotson 43). Slowly, Willy unintentionally reveals to us his moral limitations that frustrates him which hold him back from achieving the good father figure and a successful business man, showing us a sense of failure (Moss 46). For instance, even though Willy wants so badly to be successful, he wants to bring back the love and respect that he has lost from his family, showing us that in the process of wanting to be successful he failed to keep his family in mind (Centola On-line). This can be shown when Willy is talking to Ben and he says, “He’ll call you a coward…and a damned fool” (Miller 100-101). Willy responds in a frightful manner because he doesn’t want his family, es...
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...
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...
They argue that the character Willy Loman fits the mold of a tragic hero, a misguided man unaware of his flaws who comes to discover them through his journey but ends up dying in a tragic way in the end in grand release of tension. However, Willy Loman doesn’t reach the standard of a high status that is required to be a tragic hero. He is simply a typical man, a simple salesman. Willy is not even great at being a salesman or even a husband and father, the only roles he plays in his simple life. He never comes to discover his many flaws, he is deluded until the very end. The only consistency Willy has with a tragic hero is the tragic end. But the audience does not experience a catharsis of emotions, the audience can anticipate the miserable way Willy goes out but when it happens there is still a lingering air of unresolved misery and , especially for his
This paper will be an analytical, interpretive essay about Death of a Salesman (1949), the most profound work by author and playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005). Death of a Salesman received the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the year of its creation and has been reproduced over seven-hundred times. This analysis will concentrate on Willy Loman the central character of the play but also on the play as a whole. It will show that Arthur Miller’s critiques of American society still hold true to this day. That he was not just making a statement about the corporate social structure failing those that served it, or about how the American Dream in which those agencies perpetuate was dying. He was stating that the American Dream had never existed at all.
Linda, Willy’s wife, seems to have a fairly small role in the play. She believes that the American dream is achievable by anybody, and supposedly is even the reason that Willy is un...
In brief, it is apparent that Willy’s own actions led to not only his own demise, but his children’s as well. The salesman tragically misinterpreted the American Dream for only the superficial qualities of beauty, likeability and prosperity. Perhaps if Willy had been more focused on the truth of a person’s character, rather than purely physical aspects, his family’s struggles and his own suicide could have been avoided. On the whole, Arthur Miller’s play is evidence that the search for any dream or goal is not as easy and the end result may seem. The only way to realize the objective without any despair is the opposite of Willy Loman’s methods: genuineness, perseverance and humility.
In the play, Miller introduces the readers to the way that Willy looks at Biff, the oldest one of his two sons and how he loves them both, but feels frustrated at their outcomes in life and talks about it with his wife, Linda, throughout the play. “Willy's son Biff adored Willy when he was young, he believed all Willy's stories, and even subscribed to Willy's philosophy that anything is possible as long as a person is ‘well-liked.’ The realization that Willy is unfaithful to Linda forces Biff to reevaluate Willy and Willy's perception of the world. Biff realizes that Willy has created a false image of himself for his family, society,
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
During their quest to reach the top of the totem pole, Willy Loman and his two sons slip and are left behind. Deluded and troubled traveling salesmen like Willy Loman do not come around every day. His belief that the American Dream consists of simple success and wealth is extremely sincere. Nevertheless, he never manages to achieve it. Instead, Willy is stuck with the hope that his sons will succeed where he has failed. One of his sons, Biff, experiences a dazzling life in high school with almost everything going his way. However, Biff fails math and as a result he is not able ...
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...
The pursuit of the American Dream has been a long sought ambitions of many men. Generally speaking the American Dream is the ability to become prosperous, successful and to be free. In “The Death of a Salesmen” by Arthur Miller each characters have their own perception of the American Dreams. Likewise, “The Death of the Salesman” challenges the perception of the American Dream. Throughout the play the dialogue and actions of the characters illustrate the various concepts of the American Dream.
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.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Character is made up of principles and values that give one’s life direction, meaning and depth. Famous figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson have believed that one can only experience true success and happiness by making character the foundation of our lives. However, in the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller depicts the last days of a tired old salesman who throughout his life, believed that personality will make one successful. However, this salesman, who goes by the name of Willy Loman, was not granted happiness and fulfillment. These come from developing character. Thus, Willy’s failures as a businessman, husband, and father stem from his failure of character.