2 Feb. 2014. Heims, Neil. "CRITICAL CONTEXTS: King Lear, King Oedipus, And Willy Loman: Tragic Strategies In Death Of A Salesman." Critical Insights: Death Of A Salesman (2010): 62-75. Literary Reference Center.
"LitCharts | Death of a Salesman: Act 1 Summary, Analysis & Themes." LitCharts | Death of a Salesman: Act 1 Summary, Analysis & Themes. LitCharts, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
His grand error of wanting recognition drove him crazy and insane and lead to his tragic death. 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 distend for him the beginning.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. The Brief Wadsworth Handbook. United States: Thompson, 2008. Miller, Arthur. Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
29 Apr. 2014. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. The Norton Introduction to Literature.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Dec. 2010. Martin, Robert A. "The Nature of Tragedy in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman."
"Historical Context for Death of a Salesman - Elise." Historical Context for Death of a Salesman - Elise. SPH International, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
He – talks to himself” (Miller 21). Willy, as a father, cares about his children but he wishes they would do better. He believes Biff should have been an athlete. According to Harrington, “Even figuratively, Willy is haunted, and particularly in Biff’s failure to achieve success as a sports figure” (108). This haunting is part of what led to Willy’s slow plunge into madness.
The Loman family created dreams and illusions that were far better than their reality. In Death of a Salesman, these dreams overwhelm the two characters Willy, the father, and Biff, his favorite son, but the stark reality of life eventually overcomes these illusions and forces them to face the truth. As Willy and Biff are forced to realize that they have been living in a dream world, this disillusionment becomes a prevalent theme of the play, pointing out how illusions can only hide so much for so long before the truth is unveiled. Wilson explains that The Loman family has such exaggerated, grotesque fictions about each other that the truth is bitterly weak in contrast (Wilson 80). Their illusion are so grand and so full of fantasy that when reality is discovered, they are shocked, devastated.
Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Thompson, Terry W. "Miller's Death of a Salesman." The Explicator 63.4 (2005): 244+. Literature Resource Center.