Willy Loman Died a Coward in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

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.

Willy Loman is No Tragic Hero in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman In Arthur Miller’s essay about “Tragedy and the Common Man,” he argues that the common man is as appropriate a subject for tragedy as the very highly placed kings and noble men. Mankind keeps tragedy above all forms because they are given the same mental abilities as the nobles. In “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman is a common man and a middle class worker, enough saving to provide food for his family. So if the tragic hero can be a common man, does Willy fit in that category?

The Two Willy Lomans in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman There are two Willy Lomans in The Death of a Salesman. There is the present broken, exhausted man in his sixties, soon to end his life. And there is the more confident, vigorous Willy of some fifteen years before, who appears in the flashbacks. One actor portrays both, readily shifting from one representation to the other. To some extent, of course, the personality remains constant.

Family and people surrounding Willy Loman influenced his dreams and motives in life. Willy’s perception about life was carved by his father as he absconded him at the age of four for the pursuit of wealth, which indirectly taught Willy that materialistic gain is a primacy in one’s life and cost Willy a great deal of emotional distress as he says “dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel—kind of temporary about myself” (36). The tremendous amount of Willy’s father’s influence that he has had on his son is confirmed through the presence of his flute sound in Willy’s imagination even to this day. Having materialism as the primary goal in life, Willy meets Dave Singleman, a famous salesman, whom becomes an icon for Willy as he protrudes a very positive and elegant picture of being wealthy. Based on Singleman’s fame and luxurious living at the age of eighty four, Willy superficially decides salesman as his career. However, not knowing how one achieves wealth, he assumes incorrectly that on...

Death of a Salesman, a play written in the late 1940s by Arthur Miller, is a play that tells the story of a middle class family known as the Lomans. Willy, the head of the house is an aging salesman. He is no longer effective in his field and is struggling to make money to provide for his family. The pressure of trying to find work, having to borrow money, and having a poor relationship with seemingly everyone in his house takes a heavy toll on him, practically driving him to insanity. Willy Loman suffers from schizophrenia which manifested itself in his frequent hallucinations, disorganized thoughts and actions, and the absence of other normal behaviors.

Willy Loman's American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman is the story of Willy Loman, a middle-class salesman who, in the course of a single day, comes to realize that the American Dream, which he has pursued for 40 years, has failed him. Willy's relentless, but naive pursuit of success has not only affected his sense of his own worth but has dominated the lives of his wife Linda and his sons Biff and Happy. In the course of the play he realizes his true position in life, and in a final attempt to secure his personal dignity and provide a future for his sons through his life insurance, he commits suicide. Willy Loman is, for Miller, the antithesis of the classic tragic hero. As his name implies, he is a `low man', an ordinary man, whose dreams and expectations have been shattered by the false values of the society he has put his faith in.

His two sons had to carry upon themselves the ideals that his father placed on them after years and years of living inside his house; “Thus Willy's refusal to accept life on its own terms results in nothing but disorder and fragmentation for those he loves most.” (Scheidt) The Death of the Salesman is an example of the mindset that many people in America had back then, and can allow to an individual to see the desires that we share with Willy Loman in the present time such as cheating, lying and wrong perceptions about

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a tragedy that recounts the journey of Willy Loman, a salesman in his sixties, who attempts, but fails to achieve success through his own approach by being popular and well-liked. Miller uses several motifs to develop his theme, which is that people who are suffering, but continue not to be mindful of their actions and ideals, and not adapt to the current situation, will continue to suffer. Willy’s idea of success and his stubbornness to this idea is revealed using the motif of popularity. Furthermore, the flaws in Willy’s idea of success are revealed through the motif of contradictions. Lastly, through the motif of Willy and his appliances being worn-out, Miller elucidates the fact that Willy’s pursuit of his idea of success is detrimental to himself.

The dramatic play Death of a Salesman, composed by Arthur Miller in 1949 portrays the hours leading up to Willy Loman’s death. Willy is a sixty-year-old salesman living in Brooklyn New York with his wife Linda and after thirty-five years working as a traveling salesman he feels defeated by his lack of success and difficult family life. As a salesman, Willy Loman focuses more on personality and being well liked by everyone than actual skills. When he returns early from a business trip it is apparent that he is extremely distressed and confides that he almost got into an accident. All thought the play we get to witness Willy’s brain unravel and his tragic character flaws that all seem to stem from being abandoned by his father and brother. This abandonment leaves Willy with an extreme need for approval and direction but he’s also riddled with fears and insecurities. This fear ruins his character, making him an emotionally desperate and needy man who feels that the only way you can ever be successful in life is if you’re “well liked”. Which is heartbreaking because it becomes apparent throughout that he is not really liked or successful at all but living out fantasy scenarios to soothe the pain. His brother was the man he admired the most but throughout the play Ben is revealed as being a mean, nasty man who believe that being rich is the only sign of success even thought he stumbled upon his wealth thought pure luck. We began to see his open wounds from being abandoned that leads to this obsession with needing to be liked by everyone, why he and Biffs’ relationship is so tense and irreversibly broken but also why he’s so disrespectful to Linda.

Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman”: Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 1991: 280-317