Willy Loman's Character
Betrayed or Betrayer? Discuss theses two aspects of Willy Loman’s
character and comment on how they affect both Willy himself and the
other characters’ relationships with him.
Betrayed or Betrayer?
Discuss theses two aspects of Willy Loman’s character and comment on
how they affect both Willy himself and the other characters’
relationships with him.
‘Death of a Salesman’ is a play written by Arthur Miller and first
produced on stage in 1949. This play is Miller’s most famous work. The
play shows a conflict within one family but on a deeper level does
much more than that. This play deals with larger issues regarding
American national values. Miller examines the American peoples ideas
and beliefs. This play looks at the life of the Loman family in
particular Willy Loman who is the central character in this play.
Willy Loman is ‘past sixty years of age’, a husband, and father who is
exhausted and coming towards the end of his life. This play follows
his last 24 hours. In order to understand the conflicts leading up to
boiling point in the Loman household and the reason why Willy
eventually takes his own life, Miller uses ‘flashbacks’. Each
flashback somehow relates to the present. They also offer essential
background knowledge. The main relationship throughout the play is
Willy’s and his eldest son, Biff. Both characters believe that the
other has betrayed them; in fact, this is quite true. The theme of
betrayal runs throughout this play. The aim of this assignment is to
look at the different points of Willy Loman s character asking was he
betrayed or was Willy the betrayer. When analyzing this play it would
seem that Willy betrayed others because he had been betrayed.
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Death of a Salesman Auther Miller (First published) – 1949 York Notes (on)
Death of a Salesman Brain.W. Last (First published) –1980
Websites used:
http://www.geocities.com/soho/den/1151/miller/genre.htm
http://www.homework-online.com/doas/discussion.asp.com
http:www.sparknotes.com/lit/salesmanhomeworkonline.com/doas//ipbs.org/wnet/
americanmasters
Another person that represents the American dream is Dave Singleman.
Dave is the man who inspired Willy to become a salesman. Dave a
successful salesman was a man Willy had met many years before. He had
not only material wealth but popularity in society, something that
Willy craved ‘cause what could be more satisfying then be able to go,
at the age of eighty four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and
pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many
different people?’
The play "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller, follows the life of Willy Loman, a self-deluded salesman who lives in utter denial, always seeking the "American Dream," and constantly falling grossly short of his mark. The member’s of his immediate family, Linda, his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy, support his role. Of these supportive figures, Biff’s character holds the most importance, as Biff lies at the center of Willy’s internal conflicts and dreams, and Biff is the only one in the play who seems to achieve any growth.
Many dilemmas throughout the recent decades are repercussions of an individual's foibles. Arthur Miller represents this problem in society within the actions of Willy Loman in his modern play Death of a Salesman. In this controversial play, Willy is a despicable hero who imposes his false value system upon his family and himself because of his own rueful nature, which is akin to an everyman. This personality was described by Arthur Miller himself who "Believe[s] that the common man is as apt a subject for a tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (Tragedy 1).
One of the main characters in Of Mice and Men is a man named Lennie Small. Lennie is a, "huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders" (46). Lennie has been causing lots of trouble for himself because of his mental disability. Every time he touches something, specifically an animal, he squeezes so hard yet does not know his own strength. In other words, he does not realize it when he strangles animals to death. To him, it might seem like a normal hug, but to others, it might feel like they are being choked to death. By the time he stops squeezing, the organism he strangled is already dead. Lennie is seen holding a dead mouse, a dead puppy, and a dead woman, all of which Lennie killed due to his love of petting soft things. But because he has a mental disability, these actions are not Lennie's fault. One of his actions happens to be the
When I first saw Auggie Pullman walk towards me, I couldn't hide my surprise. It's not like his mother didn't warn me, but you can't prepare for these kind of thingsin a couple of days.
Lennie is lonely because he is different. He processes the world differently than everyone else. All though that's not a bad thing, it’s very hard for lennie and that makes him lonely. I don’t believe that anyone actually understands his thought process. Granted George makes him feel less lonely, and so do little critters. But they can not understand him. Not being able to function like other men and having to rely on George is very difficult.
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck develops Lennie into a beloved but rather stoic character to pull at the heartstrings of his readers. Lennie loves to pet soft things, is blindly devoted to George and their vision of the farm, and possesses incredible physical strength. John Steinbeck also makes Lennie seem doomed from the beginning. Steinbeck develops Lennie’s character through dialogue throughout the story. When Lennie is first introduced in the story it is done by George scolding him about his memory “‘So you forgot that awready did you?’” (Steinbeck 4). The quote gives an insight into Lennie’s life and how he is very forgetful. His forgetfulness is part of what makes him doomed in life. Lennie is also portrayed as a static and flat character.
Easter Seals once said “The worst thing about a disability is that people see it before they see you.” In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are two men Lennie and George who are traveling to a ranch where they can get away from Lennie’s troubles he had in the last town. Throughout the novel, Lennie obeys George’s commands and stays loyal at all times. Lennie Smalls is one of the main characters in the novel and plays a big role. Lennie is a huge, shapeless man who is sometimes referred to as an animal. Lennie has childlike behaviors and is innocent and mentally handicapped with no ability to understand abstract concepts like death. He is extremely strong and does not realize it due to his disability. Lennie does not quite understand loyalty and thinks that
George has been taking care of Lennie for a long time and he knows him very well. In the world that Lennie and George were brought up to live in, being strong is the only way to survive. This is difficult for a lot of people including Lennie. Even though Lennie is a big strong guy, he is not bright and has trouble dealing with his differences. Even George does not know what to do with Lennie. At the end of the story, George made a very hard decision that would affect his whole life and Lennie’s.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller depicts the story of a man who at the end of his life has failed to be a success in almost anyway. Miller expertly portrays Willy Lowman as a character who refuses to accept his true identity; a character whose constant lying is enough to fool even himself. Willy Lowman refuses to accept the situation he and his family are in, so he relies on lies and exaggerations to keep going. Willy pathologically lies during common conversation, his lies are enough to cause himself and even others to doubt themselves, and among other things his lies destroy himself and the ones he loves. He is a man who has lost his identity, and as he defines himself as what others believe him to be, it only brings him closer to self-rejection
The main idea of the piece “Death of a Salesman,” is that Miller tries to address the loss of personality and what a man is capable of achieving when he feels powerless to change. Miller uses the Loman family Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy to develop a cycle of inconsistency with relationships. The acknowledgment that Willy is unfaithful to Linda affects Biff. Biff understands that Willy has made a false image of himself for his family, society, and for himself. By committing suicide, he believes he will be helping his family economically. The play finishes up with Willy’s burial service. In the piece “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry she explains how the Younger family learned lessons on how dreams can sometimes be a curse.
Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman is the story of a man, Willy Loman, gone deaf to the outside world. Though many try to help him, he shuts them out and creates his own reality in which he is successful and loved by everyone. In Death of a Salesman, Willy has many influences both good and bad attempting to direct his life; it is his refusal to choose the helpful advice that will ultimately lead to his downfall.
Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman is a complex tragic character. He is a man struggling to hold onto the little dignity he has left in a changing society. While society may have caused some of his misfortune, Willy must be held responsible for his poor judgment, disloyalty and foolish pride.
Throughout Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman displays an array of psychological issues which result from his negative childhood experience. A distorted childhood combined with the lack of a father figure put Willy in a strange state where he is unsure of his own identity. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman’s paternal abandonment is the cause of his mental instability.
“Death of a Salesman,” written by Arthur Miller follows the story of Willy Loman as an aging traveling salesman and the hardships he encounters. Willy rarely saw his brother Ben and his father abandoned him at a young age, which results in him having an incomplete sense of approval. This abandonment, along with his self-absorbed personality, skews the way he handles situations and affects how he brings up his children. Willy drives himself mad by trying and failing to be as successful as those around him and is haunted by hallucinations of the people from his past. Willy’s abandonment during his childhood and his madness, which develops as a result of his own narcissistic personality, are closely connected and affect the people around him,
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 distends from the beginning. He is unable to face reality and realize that he’s not successful in life or at his job; he remains living in a world where he thinks he’s greater than everybody else because he’s a salesman.