Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
History of america in american literature
Critical analysis of miller's death of a salesman
The character of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: History of america in american literature
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman as Classic Greek Tragedy
Miller’s Death of a Salesman is an interesting and complex play set at a time of great change in America. Some people believe that it is one of a few classic tragedies written in modern time. While on the surface this play and characters don't appear to hold the definition of tragedy that Aristotle described. In a modern context I believe it may be very close to fitting that mold.
Willy is a person that has always been a dreamer. Willy is very proud and self reliant in his approach to life. So much so, that his attitude contributes to his overall downfall. Willy's character lives during a time of great change in America. Willy's job along with the American way of life he loved and felt secure with has outgrown him. As his life and job slip away from him, Willy's attempts to hold his dreams and family together continue to deteriorate to a point that all he has left are his memories.
The main character Willy Loman has a certain rough appeal. He is married and a father, and supports his family both financially and emotionally. Willy shows encouragement to his children when they are younger. Willy certainly shows the ability to be great, at least in the eyes of his family and children and that seems important to him.
Willy's children and wife see him as a great man and father, as all small children and loving wives do. The children, especially Biff, idolized him as a person in their youth. This is characterized in the way Biff "simonizes" the car as a child. Biff hangs on every word from his father; wanting to know where he's been on his trips and if he can come along and carry his valises. When Biff discovered he'd failed math, surely his greatest time of...
... middle of paper ...
...te for Willy to be in, it certainly is not necessary. His house is almost paid off, his other bills are also almost cleared. He has been given a job offer numerous times by Charley. Willy he can't have someone else give him the answer or fix things for him or give him a job like Charley or Ben offered a number of times. Willy has to do it himself, he has to accomplish the task because he's Willy Loman. This is certainly the case when he decides to end his life and he is not sad about doing this. Willy is actually excited and enthusiastic. He's figured out a way to give Biff a chance to make something of himself with the life insurance money, and he gets himself out of having to admit he's not the man he's portrayed himself to be. Willy isn't doing this for profit or to hurt anyone, it's a solution to a problem that Willy can provide. The ultimate sale so to speak.
The theme of this play is centered around time; the value of the little time we have been given and how that time should be used to live for what is right and what truly matters.
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 ...
In a flashback Willy has, it is shown that Willy jokes about Charley’s son, Bernard, a “nerd” who helps Biff with his math so he doesn’t fail, by claiming that despite Bernard being smart, he will not get far in life because he is not as “liked: as Biff, who at the time was a football star. After Biff saw his father with is mistress, he began viewing his father more negatively, rejecting all of Willy’s future plans for him, calling him a “phony little fake”. Biff’s rejection of Willy’ future plans for him sends Willy into a downward spiral, making him more and more delusional. Ironically, Willy failed to sell his plans to his own son, when his main profession is selling products to people, as he is a
Murray, Edward. “The Thematic Structure in Death of a Salesman.” Readings on Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1999.
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
Willy also has very poor parenting skills. He has two children Biff and Happy. Willy excuses Biff for a lot of events when he was younger. If Biff stole something, Willy just brushes it off and says that is was no big deal. He didn’t even care when Biff failed math and did not graduate from high school. He measured success in how many people you knew not what your grades are. In one breath Willy would say that Biff is lazy and then in the next say he’s not.
Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, is appreciated by its audience as a result of its recognition and popularity. Along with the play’s acknowledgment and praise some people have even recognized it as the greatest American tragedy. However, Stephens’ article, “Our Town -Great American Tragedy?”, has challenged this claim. Also, in this article, Stephens makes arguable claims on the effectiveness and the tragic nature of Wilder’s play. Furthermore, Stephens’ argues that there is a weak emotional connection between the play and the audience and minimal depth in the characters. Still, the depth of the characters and cathartic moment in Our Town capture the tragic nature of the play.
Willy Loman becomes incredibly involved in work-related matters, instead of the happiness surrounding his family life. He discourages Biff to take his own path, and instead, nearly forces him to become a salesman, in hopes that Biff will be more successful than he turned out to be. Willy tells Biff that his dreams will “cut down (his) life…!” Willy cannot simply hope for Biff and Happy to attain satisfaction in life, which is the element that Willy misses. He is so consumed by the idea of success that he had not once stopped to reflect on being a good father or loving his wife. Having an affair was one of his main problems-he could not put enough love into his family, so he put it anywhere else he could. He visited his mistress on business ventures, which is the only aspect of his life he truly appreciated. Therefore, his home life became full of lies, Biff saying that they “never told the truth for ten minutes.” Miller is, again, critiquing American households, since their typical values revolve more around money and presentation than a loving, kind, and caring home. Willy had a family who loved him, but he neglected to notice this, which lead to his unhappiness. Never placing any type of value of love and kindness can cause a person to become cold and bitter, which is exactly what Willy became. He may have avoided suicide if he had realized the love and care he could have been surrounded
By the time Willy got to be an old man, his life was in shambles. *One son, Biff, was a hopeless dreamer who wasn’t able to hold on to a job. He could have been successful through an athletic scholarship, but he blew the chance he had to go to school. Happy, the other son, had a job, but was basically all talk, just like Willy. Now near the end of his career as a salesman, Willy realizes his whole life was just a joke, and the hopes he placed in the American Dream were misguided. At the end of the play, his only hope is to leave something for his family, especially for Biff, by taking his own life and leaving his family the insurance money. Through his death, Willy thinks he can achieve success and fulfill his dream.
Through flashbacks and events in the play, it is apparent that Willy, at least subconsciously, believes his life has been terrible. He wishes he could have been as great as Uncle Ben, who made his fortunes in the African diamond mines and not on the rice patty. Willy was having an affair with another woman in Boston, and Biff found out about it after his last year in high school. Incidentally, this event probably led to Biff's failure to complete math in summer school, which led to him not graduating high school. Willy tried numerous times to commit suicide with his car and the gas furnace.
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 is a salesman. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked and popular and has tried desperately to instill his notions to his two boys Happy and Biff, Willy's biggest aspirations in life. His wife Linda is extremely supportive and is Willy's only connection to reality. While raising his boys and trying to instill his "American Dream", he fails to teach them any sense of morality, leading them down to what he feels is the wrong path. At one point, he defended Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player.
I am a Greek Orthodox Christian who grew up close to the church. The two morals which have truly helped shape me into the person I am today are to give my community and to help those in need. I feel those morals come to me naturally, similar to the French during the Second World War. If everyone were to help and give back to the community, there would be this connectives which would allow people to bond and almost become one. People during the time period we are living in do not take the time to get to know each other. The ideal plan would be able to all connect together, not just within the communities, but with a community and another community. There would be a synergy which would allow the world to benefit greatly conquering mountainous tasks which one nation would not be able to accomplish. Aiding
To fully appreciate life as it happens is something that many people struggle to do. The play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is set in Grover’s Corners, a small town in New Hampshire. Two members of the town, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, grow up and get married. When Emily dies during childbirth, she experiences what happens after death, and meets other people she knew that have died. Emily has the opportunity to relive parts of her life, and decides to do so, even though the other people warn her not to. After doing so, she realizes many things she didn’t know about herself and other people. The residents of Grover’s Corners do not appreciate life to its fullest until it is too late, making them narrow-minded, and dying with regrets.
When Biff is young, Willy lives vicariously through Biff’s popularity and success in high school. He sees them as proving his view of life; that popularity equals success. This keeps Willy from realizing that he is neither a good father nor a good salesman, and that he is failing in his own life. Comparing Bernard to his own sons he says, “Bernard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out into the business world, y’understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him.” When Biff fails over and over after high school, Willy sees this as a rejection of him. He accuses him of spite, and returns to better times more and more often in his mind, becoming more delusional and failing to deal with the reality of his life. Linda notes that Willy hallucinates more when Biff is around. “And then the closer you seem to come, the more shaky he gets, and then, by the time, you get here, he’s arguing, and seems angry at you.” In the final scene, Biff tells Willy the whole truth and starts to cry. Willy realizes Biff really does love him. Willy has already decided to kill himself, but now he believes that Biff will love and admire him even more for doing so. “Always loved me. Isn’t that a remarkable thing? Ben, he’ll worship me for it!” His relationship with Biff, in some ways the most important of his family relationships, keeps him from recognizing the truth of his life at every stage.