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Death of a Salesman
In the play Death of a Salesman, appearance vs. reality is one of the major themes
throughout the story. Biff says it himself, “I’m tired of living in a dream.” Willy
represents appearance. His perspective on life was clouded by his need for the
“American Dream”. Biff represents reality. Biff saw things for what they truly
were and didn’t lie to himself or others. This shows that Willy and Biff are opposite
characters who each represent the theme of appearance vs. reality in the play.
Willy was an old man with a wife and two sons. He worked as a salesman
and his job was very important to him. Willy never got to live his dream. His life
passed him by and he was left without anything to show for. Now in his last days
he is dwelling on the fact that he has lived his life without achieving the goal he
wanted to achieve. He was ignorant to think that a person could be successful in
life based on being well liked. Willy was a bad father because he raised his children
without any morals or values. Willy didn’t realize the reality of his situation.
...
“BIFF [crying, broken]: Will you let me go for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?” By saying this Biff tries to address his family on the giant rift between Willy’s dreams for him and reality. He tries to explain that all he wants is for Willy to let go of those dreams and high standards he has set for him so he can create his own reality rather than fulfill his father's dream. Willy's dreams for Biff were very unrealistic for the reality of his situation,which caused him to fill unsuccessful and push himself away from his father. The reason Willy wanted his children to do so well and had such big dreams for them was because he wasn't able to achieve the dream and had a fear he had failed and so he wanted to force his dream to be fulfilled by his children. Therefore, due to Willy’s wildly unrealistic amount of pride, causing him to make poor decisions, betray his family by having a mistress and finally his unrealistic dreams for his sons, he paved his way towards his failure and his deep fear of isolation and
Willy’s father, a “very great” and “wildhearted man,” made a living traveling and selling flutes, making “more in a week than a man like [Willy] could make in a lifetime” (Miller 34). Even though Willy barely knew his dad, he built him up in his head as an amazing person and role model, striving to be as “well liked” as him (Miller 34). Willy also idealizes his brother, Ben, as evidenced by his constant one-way conversations with him.... ... middle of paper ...
At the beginning of the play it is evident that he cannot determine the realities of life, and so he repeatedly contradicts himself to establish that his conclusion is correct and opinion accepted. These numerous contradictions demonstrate that Willy is perturbed of the possibility that negative judgements may come from others. Willy strongly believes that “personality always wins” and tells his sons that they should “be liked and (they) will never want”. In one of Willy’s flashbacks he recalls the time when his sons and him were outside cleaning their Chevy. Willy informs Biff and Happy the success of his business trips and how everyone residing in Boston adores him. He mentions that due to the admiration of people he does not even have to wait in lines. He ultimately teaches his sons that being liked by others is the way to fulfilling one’s life and removing your worries. These ideals, that one does not need to work for success, demonstrate Willy’s deluded belief of achieving a prosperous life from the admiration and acceptance of others. This ultimately proves to be a false ideology during his funeral, when an insufficient amount of people arrive. Willy constantly attempts to obtain other’s acceptance through his false tales that depict him as a strong, successful man. In the past, he attempts to lie to his wife, Linda, about the amount of wealth he has attained during his
Throughout the play, Willy can be seen as a failure. When he looks back on all his past decisions, he can only blame himself for his failures as a father, provider, and as a salesman (Abbotson 43). Slowly, Willy unintentionally reveals to us his moral limitations that frustrates him which hold him back from achieving the good father figure and a successful business man, showing us a sense of failure (Moss 46). For instance, even though Willy wants so badly to be successful, he wants to bring back the love and respect that he has lost from his family, showing us that in the process of wanting to be successful he failed to keep his family in mind (Centola On-line). This can be shown when Willy is talking to Ben and he says, “He’ll call you a coward…and a damned fool” (Miller 100-101). Willy responds in a frightful manner because he doesn’t want his family, es...
What Willy bestows his sons is not affluence, but deeply rooted character flaws. These deficits prevent their personal growth, and are barriers to self-fulfillment.
Willy is the head of the household. For the most part everyone looks up to him. Because of him the family lives in the self-deception that they do. His two sons were taught “it’s about whom you know, not what you do”. This shows them to never really work hard, just like Willy did his whole life. He tells them popularity is everything.
Willy’s own paranoia about life stems mostly from his unacceptance of his older son, Biff, as seen when Willy is speaking to him, “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!”(Loman 16). Willy imagined his son to be a huge success in the sales business but much to his obvious dislike that never happened. The main character continues to push his son to become what he envisions and refuses to embrace his son for who he really is. Willy’s familial relationships would be better if he surpasses his prideful stereotype of who he thinks his son, Biff, should live up to. Another example of Willy Loman’s unwillingness to change his ways is declining Charley’s offer to employ him, saying “I got a job, I told you that” (Loman 43).
Yet, his strive for success is what leads him to put a gap between him and his family. “Because he is focused on financial success, he often ignores the more important things in life. It is clear that Willy truly loves his family, although he is very misguided.” (Schultz). It can be seen that Willy loves his family, but the constant love for money overshadows his thoughts which leads him into a bad relationship with his family. This love for money is also what leads him to his death as Angela Schultz points out. Willy tries to help his relationship with his sons by trying to provide them with riches. This, of course, is the only way he knows to mend their relationship. He realizes though that he has no money, so he commits suicide so that they can get the money from his life insurance. “In fact, he kills himself for money. Because he confuses materialistic success with a worthiness for love, he commits suicide to give his son Biff the insurance benefit as a stake for more business.” (Cardullo). His family, however, did not think the same way as Willy, and they did not live by the same lifestyle. His family cared more about him than they did about the money that he could provide. Willy did not see this though, In his mind, the life insurance money was worth more to them than he
Willy was never able to say he was a good father to his sons. He prioritized his job o...
His focus in life was to be popular and well known to the world, but wasn’t able to make it there, so he actually looks at his two sons as heroes more than he see’s himself. Even Biff’s not a saint...Ever since High School Biffs been fired from his past jobs because of his habit of stealing, but although Biff does these terrible things he is glorified by his father rather than punished. In the story Biff steals a football from school and Willy just justifies it by saying “It’s ok...He’s popular.” Also Biff lacks discipline and also education, for example Bernard is a person who takes education and school serious and informs Willy that his son is failing class, but Willy response/excuse was “Bernard can get the best marks in school, . . . but when he gets out into the business world . . . you are going to be five times ahead of him. . . . The man who makes an appearance in the business world . . . is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want" with so many praise to both “Biff” and “Happy” they aren’t raised to humble but rather to feel like everything should be handed to them in their
Willy’s actions were truly worse than his words. In order to alleviate his sense of loneliness, Willy had an affair with another woman. After Biff catches Willy in the middle of the affair, the person Biff once looked up to became a “phony little fake,” (95). This unfortunate encounter with Willy made Biff ashamed of his father and detached from his family leading him to steal and get into trouble. Time and time again, Willy forced the idea that being popular or “well-liked” would lead his kids into success, Biff was originally a successful football player, but because of this notion Biff did not work hard in school and ended up failing a class. He finally realizes his misguidance and laments “I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is!” (105). Willy’s approach to raising his kids the way he felt would lead them to success and closer to the American Dream, only lead them closer to failure. Similarly Happy, (Willy’s second son) manipulates his own reality to create a more pleasurable existence. In one instance, Happy claims that he is the assistant buyer of the company he works for rather than telling the truth that he is an assistant to the assistant buyer. Happy along with Biff both have the idea ingrained into their minds by their father that being “well-liked” will lead to successes in life. Willy does not only manage to live his life in an alternate reality by chasing the American Dream to find success, but also puts his family into the same
The second complication that destroys Willy is his aging. By getting older he can't do the things he used to do. His aging affects his work because he is not the salesman he once was. He is not making enough money to support his wife, Linda, and himself. Being 60, Willy is getting too old for the traveling he does for his work. Willy asks his boss, Howard, for a raise and Howard fires him. Willy is really worn out and Howard knows this. This situation in end destroys Willy's pride and he could never ask his sons for money.
Willy's goal throughout life was to climb out of his social class. As a salesman, Willy was a failure and he tried desperately to make his sons never end up like him. As a result, he loses his mind and his grasp on reality. Throughout the story, Willy often has flashbacks of the conversations that he and his brother Ben once had and the author intertwines them in past and present very nicely.
Growing up, Willy doted on Biff the most, which reflects the way his own father doted on his older brother Ben. Their father-son relationship was strong until the incident with The Woman caused a rift to grow between them. Willy feared seeing his son due to the chance of being exposed, and Biff did not want to be reminded of his father’s betrayal. However, near the end of the play, Biff and Willy had a heart to heart which seemingly did some repair work on their relationship. Biff grew to forgive his father and confessed that he loved him despite their past. He experienced growth through the events of the story, making him another candidate for the
Willy lived everyday of his life trying to become successful, well-off salesman. His self-image that he portrayed to others was a lie and he was even able to deceive himself with it. He traveled around the country selling his merchandise and maybe when he was younger, he was able to sell a lot and everyone like him, but Willy was still stuck with this image in his head and it was the image he let everyone else know about. In truth, Willy was a senile salesman who was no longer able to work doing what he's done for a lifetime. When he reaches the point where he can no longer handle working, he doesn't realize it, he puts his life in danger as well a others just because he's pig-headed and doesn't understand that he has to give up on his dream. He complains about a lot of things that occur in everyday life, and usually he's the cause of the problems. When he has to pay for the repair bills on the fridge, he bitches a lot and bad mouths Charley for buying the one he should of bought. The car having to be repaired is only because he crashes it because he doesn't pay attention and/or is trying to commit suicide. Willy should have settled with what he had and made the best of things. He shouldn't have tied to compete with everyone and just made the best decision for him using intelligence and practicality. Many of Willy's problems were self-inflicted, the reason they were self-inflicted was because he wanted to live the American dream. If he had changed his standards or just have been content with his life, his life problems would have been limited in amount and proportion.