The Cost of Blind Self-deception The Loman’s frequently use self-deception to mentally escape the reality of their lives. Self-deception is the process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence. This means the family denies the truth they really live in. Soon enough the oldest son Biff is the only Loman to become self-aware of the toxic reality the family made. 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. …show more content…
This means she is a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behavior in another. The whole play Willy is immersed in self-deception including suicidal thoughts. Linda knows about these thoughts and even attempts of suicide but instead of helping she brushes it all off. Edward W. Younkins also wrote in his article Arthur Miller’s death of a salesman; A case of self-delusion “Linda feeds into his delusion by reassuring him.” Instead of giving Willy the help he needs she gives him excuse after excuse for him. In Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” Linda says “Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses.” It is clear that Willy is so distraught and needs help, but instead Linda can’t admit the truth and always hides from it. Linda continues to go along with his thoughts instead of saying or helping her husband while Willy is struggling with his own mind. While Willy thinks he is slick with his finances Linda knows about all the money, even about Willy borrowing money from Charlie. Linda believes it is better for her to go along with it then say something to her husband. Knowing this Linda still thinks the family will make it money wise. The couple uses self-deception thinking this is all
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...
In Willy Loman's life, guilt played a big role. He lived many years feeling remorseful of what led and followed after cheating on his wife. "Now look Biff, when you grow up you'll understand about these things. You mustn't overemphasize a thing like this." (p.120) When Biff first caught his father cheating on his mother he reacted in a very harsh, way leaving his father feeling guilty. Biff began to realize his whole life was a fake. "You fake! You phony little fake! You fake! Overcome, Biff turns quickly and weeping fully goes out with his suitcase. Willy is left on the floor on his knees"(p.
Linda Loman is the enabler of the Loman family, and also uses self- deception to escape her life mentally. Linda never spoke up to Willy, and did nothing but feed his unrealistic dreams. Linda lived a life of “what ifs” with Willy. They both did the bare minimum in every aspect of their life, which is why
The first instance where Linda Loman serves as the family destroyer is in Act when Willy Loman comes home and tells her, "I suddenly couldn't drive any more. The car kept going off onto the shoulder, y'know?" (1402). Linda replies, "Oh. Maybe it was the steering again. I don't think Angelo knows the Studebaker" (1402). Willy says, "No, it's me, it's me. Suddenly I realize I'm going sixty miles an hour and I don't remember the last five minutes. I'm--I can't seem to-- keep my mind to it" (1402). Linda says, "Maybe it's your glasses. You never went for your new glasses" (1402). Linda knows throughout this conversation that her husband, Willy, is trying to kill himself in a car accident. Yet she continues to listen to the excuses Willy makes up for the car accident. To make matters even worse, Linda even makes up he...
From the very beginning, we can see that Willy is unable to keep up with the competitive demands. This leads to him feeling hopeless because he is unable to support his family, which could possibly lead to them being in debt. As the story goes
Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I wanted to talk to you about dad for a long time, Biff. Something’s – happening to him. He – talks to himself” (Miller 21). Willy, as a father, cares about his children but he wishes they would do better. He believes Biff should have been an athlete. According to Harrington, “Even figuratively, Willy is haunted, and particularly in Biff’s failure to achieve success as a sports figure” (108). This haunting is part of what led to Willy’s slow plunge into madness. As Willy’s career in sales fails, he also fails, even failing his family. Heyen adds: “He didn’t have anything of real value to give to his family, or if he did, he didn’t know what it was” (48). His debilitating flashbacks and delusional hallucinations with Uncle Ben cement his horrifying realizations that he has let down his family. Willy Loman blames the economy for his downfall in his career. In one of his more extreme outbursts he exclaims, “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. ...
Willy's main flaw is his foolish pride, this it what makes him a tragic hero. Yet there are many facets to his personality that contribute to the state he and the family are in during the play. His upbringing of the boys is one major issue, he raised them with the notion that if one is well-liked, he need not worry about qualifications, he believed that if his boys were popular they would come out on top. Sadly, he doesn't realize that the only way an ordinary person can get rich is through work (represented by Bernard) or through luck and good timing (Ben), and Willy missed the boat when it came to ...
Foremost, Willy has a problem with his inability to grasp reality. As he grows older his mind is starting to slip. For example, when he talks to the woman and his brother Ben. Throughout the story, Willy dreams of talking to the woman, because the woman is a person that he was dating in when he went to Boston. He was cheating behind his wife’s back. Willy basically uses her as a scapegoat when he’s hallucinating about her. He blames all of his problems on the woman. For instance Willy says, “ Cause you do… There’s so much I want to make for.” (38) This is the evidence right here. Also he dreams about his brother Ben. Willy wishes could be more like his brother who has just passed away a couple of months previously to the story. He also wishes he didn’t have to work and could be rich like Ben. He respects Ben for not really working and making a lot of money. Another example of Willy’s hallucinations are when he says,“ How are you all?” (45) This occurs when Willy is talking with Charley and he starts thinking about Ben. Willy’s inability to grasp reality never changed throughout the story.
Willy is blind to the reality around him. This blindness, is his tragic flaw like that of Oedipus Rex. Willy is a dreamer who is unable to face the realities of a modern day society. Willy builds his whole life around the philosophy that if a person is well likedand good looking, he will be successful. Willy says to Biff, "I thank Almighty God that you are both are built like Adonises." Later, Willy makes the comment, "Be liked and you will never want." His need to be well liked is so strong that his choices throughout his life, and his blindness to the reality around him, prevents Willy from realizing his dreams and values were flawed.
Lying is a string that ties together a great part of the plot in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The Lomans are all greatly self-deceptive, and in their particular fancies and delusions to reality, they fuel and nourish off of each other. Willy convinces himself that he is effective, overall loved, and that his children are bound for significance. Unable to adapt to reality, he totally forsakes it through his vivid dreams and eventually through suicide. Linda and Happy also accept that the Lomans are going to become showbiz royalty. Not at all like alternate parts of his family, has Biff developed to distinguish that he and his relatives reliably bamboozle themselves, and he battles to escape the cycle of lying.
The line between reality and illusion is often blurred in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. Whether it is incorporated in the content or the actual structure, this struggle between recognizing reality from illusion turns into a strong theme; it eventually leads to the downfall of Willy and his family. Willy is incapable of recognizing who he is, and cannot realize that he, as well as his sons, is not capable of being successful in the business world. Happy and Biff both go through some battle between reality and illusion that cause a collapse in some part of their lives. The line between Willy’s flashbacks and current time also send him into turmoil when he cannot distinguish between the two.
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.
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.