The play opens with a description of the house. Which shows the house and Willy starting of as a failure, he fails by cheating on his wife and not respecting his friends.
“Towering angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides”
This shows at the beginning that Willy is going to be a failure as his house is old and is small compared to the others and they all lean over the old crooked building making it look small worthless and untidy. Which shows he has no money to buy a big house that leans over the others, and as a salesman you would have thought that he would have had a lot of money as he is a working salesman. This creates a affect that he is a worthless salesman who earns no money Arthur Miller uses the fact of him having no money or a big house to show that he is a not a good salesman.
Arthur Show Willy entering the stage carrying two large sample cases which shows he is a failure as he has finished a full day’s work and come home with everything that he left the house with. Miler uses this quote to show him as not being good at selling goods which is what a salesman main roll is.
“What do we owe?”
Arthur uses the quote above to show that he is a failure as he has to take loans to pay for things he has bought off which shows that for a successful business he has failed as he still owes money. This also shows that he makes no money which for him to be a good business man he needs to be able to make money so he doesn’t have to take loans.
He borrows money off Charlie his friend and goes home with the money saying he has had a wage which shows he lies to his family.
‘I’ll pay every penny back’
This says that the money he has borrowed he will give it back but he has to lend the money just to try and m...
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... him get locked up for 3 month.
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.
All this together just says that he has failed everything as he couldn’t bring up a family and could achieve his life goal.
Arthur Miller portray Willy as being a man who lies cheats and doesn’t care for no one but himself so he portrays Willy as a failure to life a failure as a salesman and a failure to a farther.
In ‘Death of a salesman,’ Miller uses Willy to depict the common man who “is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” Willy is a character whom is referred to as a “tragic hero” because he has been suppressed by society from succeeding as a salesman, and has been forced to “put thirty-four years into this firm … and now I can’t pay my insurance!” This idea ...
Willy Loman’s character is capable of making errors. He believes he is a very successful salesman and well liked. He also thinks that the company likes what he is doing. He once said, “I’m the New England man. I am vital in New England” (Miller pg. 32) Because of his false belief about his success Howard fired him. After he got fired charley offered him a job, but he refuses to accept, because he is too proud and jealous to work for Charley. His actions were wrong because at no time was a successful salesman. He is not a powerful character. Willy lives in his fantasies where he is the man. Who goes out to another place and comes out rich, he is love by everyone and admired by his family. In real life, he is lazy and does not live up to his own ideals. “As Aristotle explains, a tragic hero must be one of noble character and must fall from power and happiness.”(Www.ccd.rightchoice.org/lit115/poetics.html) but Willy neither has a noble characteristic nor does he fall from power because he does not have a position of power.
; After Willy was fired, for being too old, too inept or both supposedly, Willy pretends he's still working and doesn't let his wife in. on the bad news. Too stubborn to accept a job from his next-door neighbour. Willy is forced to lie to his family.
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's Tragic Flaw and the Effect it Has Upon his Sons in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the main character, Willy Loman, is a struggling salesman. Willy Loman is a complex character who confuses illusion with reality. In a way, Willy has two personalities in this play. The one we see in the present action is a tired man in his sixties. The other Willy is the one we see in flashbacks. He is young and confident.
Willy’s death was ironic due to all the of consequences that he faced each point of his life; however, he wanted to leave money behind by his $20,000 insurance policy for his family to prove he finally made success in life. After Willy death, Biff realized his true beliefs and changes his life’s path to the right direction. Happy on other hand, followed his father’s footsteps and aimed to become successful as a businessman. I believed that Willy’s character lead himself to his failures and miseries with his wife, his two sons, and his career. What Willy pictured in his mind of himself was not completed by his wrong ambition of being successful. “We’re free and clear. We’re free…. We’re free” (Death of the Salesman, Requiem. lines 66-67). Willy’s wife and sons were not a bit disappointed or saddened by the news of their father. Willy’s death defined a symbol of a new beginning for his family. Throughout my research I discovered all Willy wanted to be was a devoted husband, a father that his sons can be proud of, and a successful salesman; however Willy was unsuccessful in not completely to fulfill his dreams so his death brought him and his family a break from the
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...
He has always worried about how he looks. Miller used this aspect of Willy’s life to illustrate that not only America but half the world, puts too much importance on the outside image and outer facade. He has a lot of potential, but he also has a whopping case of self-deception paired with misguided life goals. A salesman for all of his career, Willy thinks that in order for him to have reached the goal of life he has to be well-liked and gain material success, “he 's liked, but not well-liked”. So what happens when he doesn 't reach these goals? Is it Total disaster. Willy is rather insecure. He lies to his family in order to try and make himself feel better.“I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.” In his world of delusion, Willy is a huge successful salesman. He disguises his profound anxiety and self-doubt with extreme arrogance. While unable to maintain this image of strength, Willy despairs and pleads with successful people around him for guidance and support. “You can 't eat the orange and throw the peel away, a man is not a piece of fruit.” Despite his efforts, it becomes clear that Willy Loman is not popular, well-liked, or even good at his job. In fact, he never was. In all likelihood, he never will be. Now an older man, Willy can no longer drive competently, pay his bills, or sell anything. “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you
The second complication that destroys Willy is his aging. By getting older he can't do the things he used to do. His aging affects his work because he is not the salesman he once was. He is not making enough money to support his wife, Linda, and himself. Being 60, Willy is getting too old for the traveling he does for his work. Willy asks his boss, Howard, for a raise and Howard fires him. Willy is really worn out and Howard knows this. This situation in end destroys Willy's pride and he could never ask his sons for money.
He kids himself into believing that he is well liked by his customers in the New England territory and by the company, who is sure to give him a promotion or opportunity to make more income. Willy's dream is to become like Dave Singleman, who was very popular with his clients and able to do business by just making phone calls. Because he was so well liked, when Singleman died, customers from all over his region came to his funeral. Willy dares to believe that his funeral will be similar to Singleman's. Ironically, when Willy commits suicide, almost no one attends the funeral, proving the error of his philosophies.
... that Willy dreams the dream and goes to pursue his own passions. Thus, the illusion of Willy’s life that resulted from him dreaming the wrong dream, ends up in his tragic suicide and the destruction of his family.
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's search to find his mistakes of his life failed because, even though he found out what happened to Biff, he did not search for the right thing: his identity. Willy found out that his affair made Biff envision his father as a fake and phony, but he did not realize that a salesman was not the right job for him. When Willy died, no one came to his funeral (Act II. Scene I). This just showed that Willy was not the man he thought he was. He thought he was a great salesman with an unlimited amount of friends, but, when he died, no one was at his funeral but his family (Act II. Scene I). It showed that Willy was just a simple craftsman, who only needed attention and love from his family, and did not need fame or to be well-known ("Arthur Miller and Others," 311-314)
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.