Death Of A Salesman Analysis

His brother’s influence deluded him into believing that being “well-liked” and “personally attractive” are all it takes to acquire the American Dream, not hard work and innovation. As a result, Willy sets unrealistic goals for himself. He emphasizes his image and the need for material success, as seen when he complains to Linda about the out-of-date brand of their refrigerator. The ideas of appearance and materialism corrupting the American Dream parallel some themes of The Great Gatsby. After years of chasing the wrong dream, Willy refused to admit his failure, spiraling his mentality downward as he struggles to differentiate between his dream and reality.

Willy frequently lies to his family about his income and status while keeps borrowing money from Charley, because he still believes he is a hugely successful salesman in his own world of delusion. Instead of acknowledging that he is a mediocre salesman, Willy simply goes into the past and chooses to relive the past memories in which he considers to be successful. Influenced and inspired by a successful s... ... middle of paper ... ...ands the reality that he chooses the wrong dream in the first place even after he dies. Throughout his life, Willy has constructed many fantasies to deny the evidence of his downfall in order to fulfill his expectations which have ultimately led to his failure in life. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller describes Willy Loman as a tragic character who failed to succeed his dreams.

He believes that to be well liked is to be successful. Willy would rather be in a world with dreams than realize that he was a failure. In the play there is a lot of Daydreams. Daydreams are just another way for Willy to escape failure. He daydreams about his sons being s... ... middle of paper ... ...w he never reaches this because he kills himself in the end to continue this dream for his son Biff.

This turns sour however, after Biff discovers the father he idolizes was not all he had thought him to be. Afterward, familial dynamics are never the same, as Willy continues to hope that Biff will succeed, ignorant- perhaps purposely so- that his son is failing out of spite, knowing that all his father’s hopes are resting on his shoulders. Willy’s relationships with his two sons are tentative at best, but Happy and Biff are partly to blame for this downhill spiral- as their relationship is just as complex. In the play, “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman remembers scenes from years previous, particularly idyllic times when his two sons were still young and full of promise. Willy’s memories focus on Biff: Biff’s chances at success, Biff’s talents, Biff’s popularity.

When his son, Biff, for example, is trying to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he had the wrong dreams." In many ways Biff is similar to his father. In the beginning of the play we see that Biff shares many of the same ideas as Willy.

Happy is affected differently than Biff because Happy never realizes that his father is a failure. Happy is always competing for his father’s attention but is never able to steal the spotlight away from Biff. Throughout the play Happy defends his father and never admits to himself that his father is the main reason for his and his brother’s failures in life. A downfall of the Loman boys is their father’s ideas of how to be successful in life. Willy builds up his sons so much that they end up failing.

In the play The Death of a Salesman Willy Loman and Biff seems they don’t like each other. Although Willy love his son Biff. When Biff was young Willy was always there supporting Biff in everything and was very proud of him. And he was the son that Willy had attached him dreams upon. According to the statement “I am not the leader of men, Willy, and neither are you.

(Thesis). In the play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller proves he is America’s social critic when he criticizes Willy’s relationship concerning his family, his lack of success in achieving his goals and his dreams along with his inner turmoil and personal collapse which result in suicide. In the onset of the play, Willy told Linda that you “work a lifetime to pay of a house. You finally own it, and there is nobody to live in it” (Cohn 56). This quote shows how Willy strives his whole life to make a home for his family and by the time he sees the realization of that one dream, his family has drifted apart and he is alone with his haunting thoughts and his ghosts.

His boss was looking to fire him for a long time. His whole life, he has had the wrong idea. “Success doesn’t come from just luck, popularity, or personality. All throughout the Death of a Salesman, Loman tells his two sons, Biff and Happy, that the key to success in life is to be “well liked” and that all you need is “a smile and a shoeshine.” (Brett) However, Willy completely ignored his true calling of working with his hands, to become a business man. He was so infatuated with the American Dream, he didn’t realize that he wasn’t a good Salesman, and would have succeeded as ... ... middle of paper ... ...ity to indulge in a world that doesn’t exist.

The central tragedy in Death of a Salesman is exemplified by the central character and father figure Willy Loman. His weakness of personality, self-destructive pride and disillusioned vision of reality is what ultimately causes him to not realize until the very end the truth about his life. All his hopes for the future and his wishes he had in the past have not been fulfilled. So he tries to build up a kind of dream world in which his sons are popular and successful business-men. But it is just an illusion he lives in.