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

As Pamela Loos says, “Willy Loman fails to understand himself and esteems a career path that goes against who he truly is,” this keeps him from ever being happy with himself. It is easy to see that these problems hurt his personal relationships with Biff and Happy, and they keep them from having a stable family. As the story unfolds, the flaws that each character possesses begin to all come back to Willy, and the way that he conducted his life. Early on in the story, it is clear that the brothers are very different, but each of them shares something with Willy. Biff is the all-american boy, and seems to have everything going for him.

This furthermore leads to the downfall of Willy and his family, proving that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. To conclude, “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller satisfies the criteria for a tragic play because Willy’s pride is a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. Ultimately, Willy gains enlightenment of his false perception of life and realizes how he inhibits the success of his family. This epiphany leads him to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his family. During his lifetime, Willy’s pride caused him to have an overinflated ego, a bizarre idealistic view on life, and a false value system.

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 will bring his downfall upon himself as he entices his own disillusions and the bedrock of his values pertaining to success and how one can achieve it.

Willy?s devotion to his family is sabotaged by his misconceived ideas on how love is conveyed, as he attempts to endow his sons with corrupt objectives. Willy?s identity crisis brings him much despair because without comprehension of his true nature his aspirations are inappropriate. Willy?s relationship with Biff is unquestionably most significant in Death of a Salesman, for it emphasizes the theme of self-awareness and its importance in the novel. Willy?s existence consists of a ?patchwork of errors in judgement, mental and moral lapses, and misdirected hopes?, however, Willy?s ?greatest mistake is living far too long with the wrong dream? (Nelson 110).

His distorted perceptions of the American Dream ultimately ruined his life and the lives of his family. Sadly, Willy definitely failed as a father. He obviously favored his eldest son Biff over his youngest son Happy, and this constant neglect drove Happy to become more like his older brother as an adult in order to win his father’s approval. We can see this through his philandering behavior, something Biff was known for in high school, the golden years. Biff, on the other hand, had it worse because his father sold him lies about his importance in the business industry, which forced Biff to admire Willy and strive to be like him one day.

His external force is the change in the nature of business: success through reputation no longer holds true, eventually leading to Howard firing Willy. The last element is that Willy died with the fatal event of his suicide due to the fact that he believed it was a last resort towards his dream. Through the use of these characteristic and thematic elements, Miller is able to craft, to an extent, Willy into a tragic hero whose death was the consequence of his delusions of his dream. Willy Loman’s delusional dream continuously brings him into the past because he cannot accept that conditions of his current life. Willy incorrectly thinks that “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it — because personality always wins the day”, which is absolutely not true and causes him to be a poor role model for his children (Miller 65).

He is the reason for the failure of Biff's life because of his stubbornness. He would not just admit that he didn't know success and decided to lie and act as though he did and for that, Biff was met with defeat in life. Arthur Miller in the story The death of a salesman demonstrates the destruction that secrets and lies can cause and the harm it can do. Deception is the worst thing to do to someone because it can cause the destruction of their lives. Willy Loman ruins the life of his son Biff by feeding him false stories and keeping the truth from him.

In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the conflicts that formulate between Biff and Willy Loman build up to the death of Willy. Biff’s delusional perception of being liked in the world leads to a successful life which was an idea brought onto him by his father, Biff’s discovery of his father's affair, and Biff’s lack of business success all accumulate to the heavy conflicting relationship between Biff and his father, Willy. These contribute immensely to the idea that personal dreams and desire to reach success in life can negatively impact life with personal relationships, which causes people to lose sight of what is important. This ultimately leads to the Willy committing suicide from the build up of problems with his son. During the

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.

Resolution is brought to conflicts between Willy and his own disillusionment, Willy and his hopes for his boys, and Willy and the betrayal of his wife, Linda. Willy rejected a life of opportunity and became a salesman because of the promise outlined by the American Dream. However, because of his inability to grasp reality, his life results in a succession of lies that unwind themselves into devastating consequences. Willy does not understand that life requires more than good looks and a likeable personality in order to be successful and it is this illusion that causes the lack of substance in his being. In the Requiem Biff states, “… the man didn’t know who he was.” (138)  Here, Biff recognizes that Willy... ... middle of paper ... ...tly admits his failure in the chase for the American dream and confesses to the lies that have shaped his tragic life.