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When it comes to change many people have a hard time accepting the fact that things are going to be different. Some people do not want things to change, they want things to stay exactly the same which can sometimes lead to one's downfall. In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller one sees how Willy struggles to accept change whether it is in his own life, the social world, and the economic world. One sees how Willy struggles to face reality when it comes to his relationship with Biff,and how he does not like to change the type of cheese he eats. One also sees how Willy struggles with change when it comes to being well liked and when he loses his job. Willy has many difficulties accepting change in the world around him which leads to his destruction.
Things that change in your life might be hard to get use to, and can lead to one's ruin. Willy does not seem to understand or realize that sometimes things are going to
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change in his life. Willy is always complaining when things change. One sees how when Linda tells Willy that she got him a new type of cheese he starts to get mad and frustrated because he does not want a different type of cheese he wants the exact same thing that he has always had. One also sees how Willy has a rough time undertaking the change in his life when it comes to his relationship with Biff. One sees how Willy struggles to face reality. When Biff catches his father cheating on his mother, their relationship ruined.. It is really hard for Willy to accept this change because they used to be so close and now they Arcadi 2 are not, because of this Willy is always replaying the good memories he has with Biff over and over again in his head.
causing him to always go back in time. By Willy always replaying these good thoughts in his mind shows how he cannot accept the fact that his relationship with Biff has changed and will never go back to the way it used to be. One also sees how Willy gets really mad when Linda buys a different type of cheese as one sees when he says, “I don’t want a change! I want Swiss cheese. Why am I always being contradicted” ( Miller, 17). Willy clearly does not like change, even though it is something as simple as cheese. Willy is always saying how he does not like change but then Linda goes and buys another type of cheese. Things like the change in Willy’s relationship with Biff and the change in the type of cheese lead to Willy always starting fights with his family. Although Willy faces many changes that are hard to face for him in his own life one sees how he also faces many difficulties as things change for him in the social
world. Willy has many difficulties facing change in the social world. One sees how Willy is one who enjoys being well liked and will not change anything for that. He tells his sons that if you are well liked you will be successful in life. Willy will not ask his boss to move somewhere closer to work because where he works he is well known and everyone likes him, He also does not ask to move because he will not be able to get used to the change in community,this is proven when he says, "They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England” (4). This quote shows how even though people are looking out for Willy’s best interest he does not care because he does not like to change things. Once he gets used to something like he has in Boston he will not change it even if it means that he has a greater chance of getting into an accident because he does not pay attention to the Arcadi 3 road. Willy will not accept the fact that changing where he works might be better for him. He will not accept the fact that change has happened and that he is not well liked in New york and this is why he will not ask to change where he works. Willy has a rough time accepting the fact that sometimes he needs to change things this can be seen even more when he has to deal with change in the economic world. Willy’s struggle with the economic world when it comes to losing his job. Willy cannot accept the fact that he has lost his job. Willy loses his job after asking for a promotion. His friend Charley tries to help him out by offering him a job. Willy will not accept this job because he does not like change he has been working for Howard and his father for most of his life and will not change now. When Willy goes to Charley for money Charley says, “I offered you a job. You can make fifty dollars a week. And I won’t send you on the road” and Willy responds by saying,”I’ve got a job” (). Willy will not accept Charley’s job because he feels like he is being insulted and because he does not want to change his work just so that he does not have to travel. This quote also shows how Will will not change his job because it will be hard for him to adjust to things. Even though he lost his job he still will not accept the offer from charley because he still cannot accept the fact that he might have to change something in order to make money. This will lead to the destruction of Willy because since he is not making any money or enough money to support his family and will not accept change for a new job, he commits suicide so that his family will get his life insurance money. One sees how change can sometimes be really hard to face and how it can lead to bad things. One sees how difficult one's life can be when it comes to change and what it can lead to. One sees how Willy struggles to find himself when it comes it comes to his relationship with Biff. One sees how he Arcadi 4 cannot accept the change and how he always goes back into time and remembers the good times with him. One also sees how Will not accept the fact that change has happened and that he is not well liked in New york anymore therefore he will not ask to work somewhere closer. Lastly, Will’s work has changed very much leading him to lose his job and not accepting one from Charley. This causes Willy to commit suicide. Change might be very difficult to adjust to but it is always happening and we can not change that.
According to Frye's definition, tragic heroes bring suffering upon themselves. Willy Loman is delusional and has a skewed view on the world he lives in. Willy asserts that he is young, popular, and respected among his family and workmates. Flashbacks of past memories, which interrupt the present day flow of time, prove that Willy is not everything he used to be in his younger years. This constant misconception of time is Willy Loman's main flaw, and he is the main victim in this suffering. Willy's misunderstanding of the world around him is shown in key scenes, such as his conversation with his brother Ben in the garden near the end of the play (Miller 99). The death of Willy Loman is also a consequence of his flaw: Willy's disorganized state of mind causes him to jump into a car and crash.
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.
One problem Willy has is that he does not take responsibility for his actions; this problem only gets worse because of his lies. Biff looks up to Willy, so when he finds out that Willy has an affair in Boston, Biff is petrified. Biff realizes his hero, dad, the one he wants to impress, is a phony and a liar. Willy destroys Biff's dream of playing football by saying he does not have to study for the math regents, he also Willy telling Bernard to give Biff the answers. When Biff fails the regents, he does not want to retake the test because he is so disgusted with his hero and does not want to succeed. Not only did Willy destroy Biff's dream, he also broke his vows and refused to admit it. Biff is a failure, in Willy's eye, in most part due to Willy and what happened in Boston. Willy refuses to take responsibility for what he did, so he lies about Biff. Willy tells Bernard that Biff has been doing great things out west, but decided to come back home to work on a "big deal". Willy knows that Biff is a bum who has not amounted to anything, but he refuses to take responsibility for what happened in Boston, so he changes the story of Biff's success. Throughout Willy's life he continued to lie. It might have stopped if Linda did not act the way as she did. Linda is afraid to confront Willy, so she goes along with his outlandish lies.
Willy's first flash to the past was when his son, Biff, returns home from the west. Willy discusses his disappointment in Biff with his dear wife Linda. When Willy fails to cope with this misfortune successfully, he returns in his head to a time when everything was going well and life was more fortunate to him. It is perfectly normal for one to remember more fortunate days at the more dispirited times of life, as long as they can return to the present and deal with the reality of the situation. However, Willy never does return to the original problem, he just continues on with life, fleeing from the troubles that cross his path. His refusal to acknowledge reality becomes so significant, that he honestly believes the past, and he lives his entire life through a false identity never looking at the truth of his life.
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
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 speaks of their home, with some fond memories, but then shares thoughts of being little and over run by the progress of Brooklyn. He sows seeds, knowing that planting is futile. Throughout the play, Willy’s flashbacks reflect on times
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...
Willy Loman for example, in Death of a Salesman demonstrates the inability to differentiate between what he has free will over and vice-versa. Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy attempts to ensure both himself and his family a good job, at the cost of his life and his mental sanity. Unfortunately for Willy, this does not play out well, and instead of ensuring a stable economy for both himself and his family, Willy commits suicide, leaving doubt whether insurance money will be given to his family to create a new business. Willy, as the quote mentions, fails to accept the things he cannot change. As opposed to accepting aspects of his life Willy can't change, Willy attempts to change them. For example, at the end of the novel, when Biff yells at Willy that he's a failure and will never become a successful businessman, and orders Willy to accept this inevitable fate. However as opposed to following Biff's request, Willy perceives this as Biff attempting to fulfill Willy's dream, and instead commits suicide, hoping the
Which Willy expects him to live up to his expectations however Willy couldn’t live up to his expectations as he wanted to be a successful salesman like a man called Dave Singleman. He wanted his funeral to be like Dave’s where loads of people from all over turn up at his funeral to show he was a successful salesman, but at his funeral only one person turned up and that was his wife Linda. This shows he is a failure to life because he couldn’t even achieve a goal which he set for himself which means he’s failed his life.
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 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.
Willy still struggles to find out why his son, Biff, has not made anything of himself yet. Instead of a stable job, Biff has been a farmhand across the country earning only $35 a week (Act I. Scene I). Willy does not know where he has gone wrong with raising his kids, with his job, and overall with his life (Krutch, 308-309). To find the solutions to the problems driving him insane, Willy looks to his past. While he is day-dreaming he actually talks to himself and makes his family worried about his health and sanity. He daydreams and feels as if he is actually encountering the past once again in his journey. Willy is desperately trying to find out what has gone wrong in his life, why no one responds to him in the positive way that he used to, and why Biff does not have a stable job or a family. Through his trek to finding his mistakes in life, Willy finds r...
Willy believes that he is much more successful than he is in reality. The first sign of Willy’s illusion about his life occurs rather early in the play. He has the illusion that “[he’s] the New England man. [He’s] vital in New England” (14). In reality any person could have taken Willy’s position at work. This illusion leads to his downfall because as his life begins to fall apart, he lives in the illusion that he has enough money to support his family, so he does not recognize that he has to put the pieces of his reality back together. More towards the end of the play, in an outburst of anger Willy refuses to be called “a dime a dozen” and states “I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman” (132), as if the Loman family is a special figure in society. His unclear view of his place in society leads to his destruction; with only one view of his life, Willy believes that he is living his life to the fullest.
Willy is a multi-faceted character which Miller has portrayed a deep problem with sociological and psychological causes and done so with disturbing reality. In another time or another place Willy might have been successful and kept his Sanity, but as he grew up, society's values changed and he was left out in the cold. His foolish pride, bad judgment and his disloyalty are also at fault for his tragic end and the fact that he did not die the death of a salesman.