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Info On Death Of A Salesman Summary Willy Loman, an elderly failing salesman whose salary has been taken away and works on straight commission, returns home from a sales trip that he could not complete. He is weary and tired of life on the road. His two grown sons, Biff and Happy have returned home to visit. Biff has lost his way in life and has returned home after 15 years of drifting. Happy, who lives in his own apartment is also home to visit. Willy has a conversation with his wife, Linda, as he gets ready for bed. Willy cannot understand why Biff is lost, with no job and no money to his name. Willy reminisces about the past and the reader sees for the first time that Willy sometimes lapses into another era, when he talks about opening the windshield on his car. Linda suggests Willy go to the kitchen have some whipped cheese before coming to bed. Meanwhile, the boys are having a conversation in their old bedroom. They discuss their father and the fact that he is becoming senile in his old age. They have been on a date, and through their conversation we see that Happy holds himself to low moral standards. They talk about success, their hopes, and all the while Willy is downstairs having a conservation with no one. Willy is immersed in one of his flashbacks, where he relives conversations and scenes from the past. The boys are embarrassed for him, and the scene transforms into a fall day, 15 years ago. Willy Loman Willy Loman is an elderly salesmen lost in false hopes and illusions. The sales firm he works for no longer pays him salary. Working on straight commission, Willy cannot bring home enough money to pay his bills. After thirty-four years with the firm, they have spent his energy and di... ... middle of paper ... ...this to Willy who is outraged. Willy shouts, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!" Happy Loman Happy is the Loman's youngest son. He lives in an apartment in New York, and during the play is staying at his parent's house to visit. Happy is of low moral character; constantly with another woman, trying to find his way in life, even though he is confident he's on the right track. Happy has always been the "second son" to Biff and tries to be noticed by his parents by showing off. When he was young he always told Willly, "I'm losin' weight pop, you notice?" And, now he is always saying, "I'm going to get married, just you wait and see," in an attempt to redeem himself in his mother's eyes. Happy also tries to be on Willy's good side and keep him happy, even if it means perpetuating the lies and illusions that Willy lives in.
A person’s attitude is mostly what everyone around him or her will view them as. From this they can tell many things. Whether it is if the person is funny or down to earth or even irresponsible. Many times people change personalities often and they would be classified as being a dynamic type of person. A person who is doesn’t change is classified as being a static character. Willy, from Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, is a static character for his inability to grasp reality, his poor parenting and his constant lying to his wife.
to go by car. He plucks up the courage to go by boat and after sailing
...him reach the truth. But he didn’t stop, he pushed on until he beat his dilemma. It was this mentality that helped him to succeed, he knew what he wanted to do and he wasn’t stopping until he achieved that.
Have you ever worked long and hard on a project, only to realize that it was effort wasted and the project was totally meaningless in the end? That is just what occurred in the play The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Willy Loman, the protagonist, spent decades in mind numbing work, only to discover that he had “built his life on shifting sand” (Nicholas). Through the course of his journey, Willy kept on the straight and narrow highway, which he thought would bring success and happiness. He often contemplated when he would draw his last breath and if he should. Willy begins to realize the futility of his journey when his son Biff Loman returned from college after he had flunked out. Willy had a prevailing hope that his son would amount to something, that he would be successful and become someone great. The cold and brutal reality was that both Biff and Willy were still living in the past. It takes until the final scenes in the play, for Biff to finally comprehend what his dad wanted for him; which was for him to go get a job in business instead of chasing his senseless dreams of being a rancher in Texas. It is in those final moments that Biff steps
"After all the highways, and the trains, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive," (Miller, 98). This quote was spoken by the main character of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman. This tragedy takes place in Connecticut during the late 1940s. It is the story of a salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s struggles with the American Dream, betrayal, and abandonment. Willy Loman is a failing salesman recently demoted to commission and unable to pay his bills. He is married to a woman by the name of Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Throughout this play Willy is plagued incessantly with his and his son’s inability to succeed in life. Willy believes that any “well-liked” and “personally attractive man” should be able to rise to the top of the business world. However, despite his strong attempts at raising perfect sons and being the perfect salesman, his attempts were futile. Willy’s only consistent supporter has been his wife Linda. Although Willy continually treats her unfairly and does not pay attention to her, she displays an unceasing almost obsessive loyalty towards her husband: Even when that loyalty was not returned. This family’s discord is centered on the broken relationship between Biff and Willy. This rift began after Biff failed math class senior year and found his father cheating on Linda. This confrontation marks the start of Biff’s “failures” in Willy’s eyes and Biff’s estrangement of Willy’s lofty goals for him. This estrangement is just one of many abandonments Willy suffered throughout his tragic life. These abandonments only made Willy cling faster to his desire to mold his family into the American Dream. They began with the departure of his father leaving him and...
Alistair Deacon from As Time Goes By once said that, “The people in the book need to be people.” The main character in a story or in a play always has to be somewhat likeable or relatable. Who doesn’t like to feel like they can relate to their favorite character in a story? In many cases the authors of stories or books always try to make the reader feel like they are not the only ones with problems or going through a crazy situation. Wanting the reader to become engaged in the characters' conflicts is what they aim for. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, many people were gripped by Willy Loman’s, the main character, problems because they too struggle with many of the conflicts that Willy faces. Willy could not keep his life together, failing to see reality and pursuing the wrong dream, with a wrong viewpoint, ended up causing others around him and himself to hurt.
In the play “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller , there is a main character name Willy Loman who greatly wants to see his two sons be successful salesman , also be greatly love by his wife and two sons, but tragedy comes when he dies from suicide hoping his son Biff will use the insurance money of his death to start a business of his own. “What is Tragedy”? According to Aristotle “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also having magnitude complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language... ” Tragedy can be defined as a series of events leading up to great suffering. Which in the Play “Death of Salesman”, tragedy is shown twice. First being Willy Loman committing suicide, from the thought of thinking his death would be the only way for his son Biff to
The play "Death of a Salesman" shows the final demise of Willy Loman, a sixty-
WILLY: [with pity and resolve.] I’ll see him in the morning; I’ll have a nice talk with him. I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time. My God! (Act 1)
Although there are many things we do not know about the characters in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, in the beginning we are left worried about the attitude of one of the main characters—has he had a relationship crisis? What causes him to act the way he does? There is one thing we are sure of from the start: He is an exhausted, hot-tempered, old man. In the play “Death of a Salesman” the setting fluctuates between either the late 1940s or the daydreams of Willy’s past. During this time, men’s roles were very high, due to the fact that they were the breadwinners. With the progression of the play we see some of the many complications Willy faces within his life. Willy’s daydreaming flashbacks give us a sneak peek into the life he used to live, and also important details from the past needed to understand the meaning behind other parts of the play. Willy was once “on top” with sales and wanted the best for his son Biff. Miller’s style helps the reader see into the life of the old man enough to have a clear understanding as to why he does the things he does and act the way he does. Later we find out that not only his current predicament is affecting him, but also his oldest son, Biff’s, predicament. Throughout the story there is a series of events that takes us into the lives of these characters and also their past. A major concern within the story is with the theme failure to success. In Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” the use of characterization and symbols are central to the structure of the theme.
Willy has two sons, Biff and Happy but he seems to focus more on Biff. He seemed angry that Biff didn’t do more with his life. Willy Loman, the aging salesman, is worn out to the point of breakdown by his many years on the road. But he remains a firm believer in capitalist values and has transfer...
The play Death of a Salesman is a tragedy written in 1949 by Arthur Miller. A tragedy is a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character. Following that definition, Death of a Salesman is a tragedy because there is an unhappy ending with Willy’s death. Death of a Salesman is also a tragedy because of several tragic events that occur before Willy’s death, such as him losing his job, and Biff’s discovery of Willy’s infidelity. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Arthur Miller himself believed the common man was a tragic hero. A quote from an essay he wrote for the New York Times states, “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense askings were. On the face of it this ought to be obvious in the light of modern psychiatry,which bases its analysis upon classific formulations, such as Oedipus and Orestes
Almost everyone has come upon a fork in a path, and not been positive which way to go. The path we choose is very important; it gets us to where we are today, whether it was the right or wrong decision. For every path we take in life, there is a path not taken. The wonders of what that path could have held are almost unbearable at times. The biggest question we have in life is if we should take the worn down path everyone else takes, or the path less traveled. Years later how are we going to feel about the path we had chosen so long ago? This common occurrence in life is portrayed very effectively in Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”
In the play, Death of A Salesman there are many characters but the main one that it always seems to circle back to is the father, otherwise known as Willy. Willy has two sons and a loving wife. Sadly, he does not seem to accept this fact for what it is. Seeing as he is sixty-three years old his brain his failing him. He no doubt has Alzheimer’s Disease or at least that’s what all the signs throughout the play points too with a huge red finger.
Willy the deceptive victim of Capitalism-He will kill himself in an automobile wreck-shows us how we must assimilate a changing society and character in order to survive. This is one goal why, Linda insists, "courtesy must finally be paid to such an individual"(Miller, 2005, 1736). But possibly the most fitting lines of the play were articulated by Willy's friend Charley: "Nobody dust faults this man. For a salesman there is no rock-bottom to existence. He doesn’t put a pin to a nut, he doesn’t tell you regulation or give medicine... A salesman has got to vision, boy, it comes with the region"(Miller, 2005, 1778). And just as Charley stated the region is to blame for Willy's disastrous end because he never had a chance to flourish in this capitalistic society.