Happy Loman

When Arthur Miller originally drafted “Death of a Salesman”, he most likely never planned his play to be a psychoanalytic work; however illustrations of Freudian theories seemingly appear on every page. The reason behind the myriad of parallels derives from the fact that both psychoanalytical theory and the play revolve around the topic of family, parental influence and guidance. Freudian theory teaches that an apple doesn’t fall far from a tree. Perhaps a more suitable name for Happy Loman may be Willy Loman Jr. His magnificent get-rich-quick schemes and his quixotic self-confidence makes evident that Willy raised Happy in a carbon-copy manner that he was-- a lonesome life with minimal attention from his father. In Arthur Miller’s “Death

These adventures are all but professional. Happy is unable to compete in the world of business and, therefore, redirects his ambition by blindly chasing women purely because he can. Particularly, he has affairs with his superior’s significant others almost as if he has taken his competitiveness and ambition into the realm of sex, which after a while also fails to satiate him. Happy portrays the void quest of womanizing as “just like bowling. I keep knocking them over, and it doesn’t mean anything.”(15) Even though having wild encounters with "babes" is inseparably connected to the American Dream. Happy endeavors to draw Biff into the business world by encouraging him “any babe you

There are three particular instances in the restaurant where Happy’s manipulative being shows through his facade. First, the encounter with the “strudel” (Miss Forsythe) who later finds out that she is not “on call” (81), despite Happy’s insistence. Happy initially introduces Biff as a “great football player”. However, after Happy is certain that Miss Forsythe is not familiar with football he claims that “Biff is a quarterback with the New York Giants” (74). He then goes on to decorate his rhetoric with mentions of West Point Academy. Much like Happy deceives himself; he manages to hoodwink this girl. More and more Happy and Willy begin to look the same, and this may be why Willy formerly neglected his son because it felt like staring into a mirror. The second instance is where Happy and Stanley are having a conversation and Happy insists on an expensive meal because it’s a “little celebration”. He then moves on to lie that Biff “pulled off a big deal” and that they will start a family “business together” (72). However, Happy doesn’t know any of this for a fact-- He hasn’t even spoken to Biff ever since his meeting with Bill Oliver. Happy ultimately betrays himself into believing that he and Biff already have a noteworthy accomplishment to celebrate. Just like his father, he decides to hyperbolize and twist reality in an attempt to