Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller was first presented in 1949 and has been studied and reproduced countless times since. The plot revolves around a salesman named Willy Loman and his family. Willy is 63 years old, and on the decline. His career as a traveling salesman is going badly, and during the play he is let go. Willy’s flashbacks to a better past take up much of the past, and are brought on by the return of Biff, Willy’s favorite son, who comes to visit from out west. Biff is 34 and Willy’s favorite son, but Willy’s high expectations him cause many issues for both of them. The overall tone of the play is sobering as we watch the family (especially Willy) fall apart because of various reasons, including the way they treat each other. One reason that this play is well known is because many of the characters are identifiable with ourselves. Willy is a burnt-out businessman with no special talents or qualities. Linda is a kind and dedicated housewife, but she has not accomplished anything noteworthy. Biff has a habit of theft and a number of pent-up frustrations. Happy tries to smooth out the tensions in the family, but he is also unsatisfied. The only “successful” major character in the play is Bernard, but even he was considered “liked, but not well-liked” by the Lomans when he was young. There are not any heroes or bad guys in the play. The characters are all very human, and very flawed. While the worse characteristics of these characters can be identified with, their actions are still difficult to accept. For example, there are many times throughout the play where I found myself very annoyed with Willy. I didn’t appreciate his attitude towards Linda (or toward Biff and Happy) in Act 1 where he doesn’t let... ... middle of paper ... ...h drove Willy to suicide, considering that money is a large part of what our culture’s world revolves around. I know that I care about wealth more than I should, and it’s a very easy trap to fall into. I know that I deal with questions regarding money daily, asking myself things like “Should I work extra hours this weekend?” “Do I have enough to buy that dress?” “Is this major going to get me a job that pays well?” and it can easily become an obsession. Instead of being generous and grateful, money can make someone hard and envious. This is what I think happened to the Loman’s, Willy in particular. His value of “personal attractiveness” was closely followed by success (meaning money,) and then that system blew up in his face. It’s an important lesson for the rest of us. Money isn’t everything, and it won’t (and can’t) always give you all you think you want.
Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are all characters that use self- deception as a way to mentally escape the terrible reality of their lives. As the play progresses, and ends Biff is truly the one and only character that becomes self- aware. At the end of the play Biff accepts the lies his family and him have been living in for years. Biff makes huge changes mentally at the end of the play, which cannot be said for the rest of the Loman family.
... hero while Willy is a common man and resembles a modern tragic hero, both protagonists demonstrate excessive amount of pride and arrogance. The hubris of the two characters is evident throughout the play as seen through Oedipus, who attempts to alter his fate and Willy, who rejects Charley’s offer for work. The flaws that these characters possess cause them to inflict harm towards themselves, as Oedipus stabs his own eyes and Willy commits suicide. Also, these protagonists are blinded by their own realities. Oedipus tries to change his fate and shows disrespect towards those who speak the truth that he does not want to hear. Willy Loman believes he is a successful businessman and continuously lies to himself so he can prove that he is very well liked. Both Oedipus and Willy have goals to try and prove something, but as tragic heroes, fail to prove themselves.
Patterns and Themes: One of the more obscure themes I discovered was about nature. For example, in the beginning of the play, Willy's small apartment is being towered by many enormous apartment buildings. Because of this, the plants in his garden don't get enough sunlight to grow. Essentially, this represents how his artificial world is stopping his from growing into a better person. Also, Willy doesn't haven't enough courage to actually go out into nature, like his brother Ben did, and discover his true passions. Instead, he chooses to sell himself to the superficial urban world.
It taught me a lot like how a family should be and how a family should not be. The play makes you think wow this can really relate to me as a high school student and athlete. Linda needs to learn to speak her mind no matter what her husband says because people have rights and she should be able to talk about what she thinks is going on with her family. “When Linda converses with her husband it’s almost as if se walking on eggshells and almost that she is taking to a frail eggshell that is her husband’s mental state.” (Source 2). Nothing Linda says to try to help her husband will work because she is someone who gets under her skin and makes it a lot worse to willy but too anyone else she is doing anything in her power to help him much like and other wife would do for their husband. A couple weeks after willy dies after all that the family has been through with him it’s a very sad dad but the family is very mad at him still so it is a very hard position to be in and I know I would never want to be to in the position that this family is in. willy was a very mean and angry person to his family and had a lot of stress going on in his life this is why we need to realize that all he wanted was to make his family happy but it was just something he could not do so he gave up and just took all of his anger out on
The main characters in this play are Willy Lowman, his wife Linda Lowman, and his two sons Biff and Happy. Happy is a successful business man who enjoys women and the fast paced life of the city. Biff has recently returned home because he cannot keep a steady job and does not know what he wants to do with his life yet. Growing up, Biff was obviously the favorite due to his good looks and great athletic ability. As time grew on, Biff’s ambitions faded and his father’s fondness grew to disappointment. Willy also feels as if his family does ...
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.
Throughout history many families can’t face reality. In the play Death of a Salesman the main characters Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the reality of their lives. Biff is the only character who becomes self-aware by the end of the play. Willy wants to live in his dream world; Linda and Happy don’t even realize that they’re in a dream world. Biff had no idea he was in a dream world until he had an epiphany.
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.
... morals and personality towards his goals and at the same time trying to pass those values onto his sons, making him lose their respect, which is one of the many reasons that ended up taking his life. For the most part one can see that issues like Willys cannot only be seen or heard of in a play but also in the real world. Everybody in general wants to conform and be liked in today's competitive society, which is one of the reasons why many people don't get to accomplish the things they want to accomplish because they are either to scared or don't have the courage to step out of the social norms and achieve what they what to achieve. If anyone learns anything from this tragic character, one can say that truly knowing ones-self can really help in the long run because if one doesn't know who they are, they can end up leading a miserable life, in a miserable world.
In short, Willy Loman's unrealistic dreams caused his downfall. By trying to be successful with material desires and being "well-liked" he failed. By the play's end he had to lose his own life just to provide funding for that of his family. He put his family through endless torture because of his search for a successful life. He should have settled with what he had, for his true happiness included a loving family. Willy's example shows that one must follow their own dreams to be truly accomplished.
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.
Throughout his life, Willy Loman thinks of himself as well-liked in the play "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. It is the most important attribute to him. Willy lived his life thinking he had thousands of friends all over the New England territory and that he would be recognized anywhere he would go. He boasts this to his sons and they think he is the greatest man on Earth. He raises his two sons, Biff and Happy, to be well-liked and Willy does not care about their grades. He believes they will be better prepared for the business world if they are well-liked, and does not think education matters as much as personality, appearance, and physical skill. Although he has set high standards for sons, his morals are being well-liked, he thinks he is the best salesman in his firm, and he claims to be extremely loyal to his family; despite this, he is none of these.
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.