Willy Loman

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller crafts a play centered around a man, Willy Loman, who embodies all the wrong values regarding success, and sets himself as an example to reveal the consequences if one lives a life chasing these values. His dedication to his sales job for his entire adult life amounting to a career that is mediocre at best and his dissatisfaction with the careers of his sons are products of the emphasis he places on building a likable personality. Willy is a prime example of a person who is so engrossed in his own beliefs, that the apparent successes surrounding him do not deconstruct the foundations of his beliefs as they should, but rather motivate Willy to compete even more fiercely, and delving into his beliefs even

In the play, the sons’ work ethics and accomplishments are reflective of their respective fathers. Howard Wagner runs a seemingly successful business, which is the same business his father ran, which, according to Willy who “averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions”(60) must have been successful as well. Charley also owns a successful business, and it is revealed later in the play that Bernard is an accomplished lawyer. Willy’s sons evidently haven’t amounted to much in their early thirties. Biff is jobless on and off, and Happy is waiting for his boss to die to attain a managerial position in a department store company. The values the fathers instill in their sons have a direct affect on how their sons’ futures turn out. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge how Willy views teenage Bernard. When talking to Linda after discovering Biff failed math, Willy says, “You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s [Biff] got spirit, personality…”(26). Although Biff was a popular and talented athlete, and as high school teenagers Bernard held an immense amount of admiration for Biff, it was Bernard who attained a lucrative and financial stable career. Biff was dependent on Bernard academically, and when Biff couldn’t pass math on his own, he was forced to reevaluate his priorities and take summer school, or accept defeat and settle for opportunities for a high

Willy is there to borrow more money from Charley, and Bernard is about to try a case in front of the Supreme Court. However, this information isn’t revealed until after Bernard’s success, which emphasizes his modesty and indifference to gloat about his accomplishments. In comparison, Willy does the absolute opposite. When asked about Biff, Willy says, “Well, he’s been doing very big things in the West. But he decided to establish himself here. Very big” (68). The difference in perspective is immediately established; Bernard is modest about an actual, significant accomplishment, and Willy boasts about inaccurate information. The difference in age is crucial as well. Bernard is a young, vibrant lawyer at the peak of his career, and Willy is an older man, struggling to make ends meet at the tail end of his failing career. Bernard serves as an example to Willy as to how true success is acquired, and how pounding the same ineffective beliefs into his sons deliberately set them on a path for failure. Willy is so blinded by his own arrogance and corrupted by his pride throughout the entire play that it’s not until he sees Bernard, humble in his success, that he questions his responsibility as a father for the result of his sons’