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The play death of a salesman by arthur miller, setting characterization symbolism
Father son relation in death of the salesman
Situation of death of a salesman
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What would you do if you failed both your family and yourself? In a small house in the New York a man has done exactly this and has failed his son in such a way it ruins his life. A young man's life is ruined because of the delusional thoughts of his father. The father causes his son and his family to fall under a spelled mixed with lies and secrets which has an outcome of the destruction of his family and his beloved sons lives. The abandonment and betrayal seen in the novel The Death of a Salesman is shown in this family and between the relationship between the father and son. Willy Loman, Father to Biff and Happy Loman and husband to Linda Loman is a man who has seen no success in life and is drove out of reality. In order to …show more content…
Biff Loman, The oldest son sees Willy as the hero of his life, the man that has done all and has succeeded at life. Biff sees his father this way because Willy deceives his family from the truth and lets them believe that he is successful when in reality he is a failure and an unsuccessful salesman. Throughout Biff’s life he follows the path of his father thinking it was the path to a perfect life when really it was the path to defeat, and somewhere on that path he discovers the truth about his father which then caused his life to achieve unfulfillment as well. In Willy’s Life Willy cheats on his wife linda and betrays her, ruins Biff’s chances of graduating high school, and fills his family with lies, secrets, and betrayal. Willy Loman in The Death of a Salesman is responsible for his own sons …show more content…
He is the reason for the failure of Biff's life because of his stubbornness. He would not just admit that he didn't know success and decided to lie and act as though he did and for that, Biff was met with defeat in life. Arthur Miller in the story The death of a salesman demonstrates the destruction that secrets and lies can cause and the harm it can do. Deception is the worst thing to do to someone because it can cause the destruction of their lives. Willy Loman ruins the life of his son Biff by feeding him false stories and keeping the truth from him. He ruins Biff by cheating and deceiving him and Biff discovers the shocking truth he is mortified and quits on life. Biff’s life goes into pieces and he then sees the truth of his popularity at Willy’s funeral. Biff sees that he wasn't all that popular and successful and that his father was a deceptive liar. Willy Loman lived a life that destroyed
In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the conflicts that formulate between Biff and Willy Loman build up to the death of Willy. Biff’s delusional perception of being liked in the world leads to a successful life which was an idea brought onto him by his father, Biff’s discovery of his father's affair, and Biff’s lack of business success all accumulate to the heavy conflicting relationship between Biff and his father, Willy. These contribute immensely to the idea that personal dreams and desire to reach success in life can negatively impact life with personal relationships, which causes people to lose sight of what is important. This ultimately leads to the Willy committing suicide from the build up of problems with his son.
Found within the storyline, Willy implements features of a tragic hero as he shows the reversal of events in his life due to his own actions. Willy, through the downfall with his son, Biff, shows that his actions have caused a bridge between him and his son in which his son chooses to grow apart from his family. As seen at the beginning of the play, Willy represents a tragic hero as he is distressed and troubled as he comes home from another failed sales trip. Although Willy represents a tragic hero in many cases, there are also others found within Death of a Salesman that help implement the role of a profound hero. Willy’s wife, Linda, implements the heroine as she presents herself with many wise and understanding words for Willy has he faces his hardships. Throughout the story, it is seen that Linda represents herself as a put together woman for her husband but is often found distraught by her husband’s actions in which readers and audiences can empathize with
Willy Loman’s false pride leads him to believe that he has been successful as a father. He remembers how he was once looked up by his children, especially by his son Biff. However, Willy fails to realize that the relationship he once had with his son Biff has been broken, due to the fact that Biff caught Willy in an affair he was having with another girl; Biff was heartbroken to fin...
Willy Loman is not the only victim of his tragic flaw. The rest of the Loman family is also affected by Willy's problem. Willy's wife, Linda, is the only one who supports and understands Willy's tragic flaw completely. Linda supports every far-fetched claim her husband makes. She is even described as having “infinite patience” whenever she is conversing with Willy (Miller 99). Willy's two sons, Biff and Happy, are also affected by his flaw. Happy, when in the company of two ladies, claims that Willy is not even his father, and “just a guy” (Miller 91). Later in the play, Biff decides that he does not want to be in his father's life anymore. Biff's problems are simply too much for Willy to handle with his current state of being, even though Willy needs Biff in his life. After both internal and external conflict, Biff reveals to Willy that Willy had been lied to for a number of years, and that the life he lives is essentially a lie (Miller 104).
Willy Loman had the, “wrong dreams,” for his sons to become well-liked salesmen. Due to his own lack of popularity and success as a salesman, Willy forced Biff to try and become the salesman that he never was. However, Biff was an independent thinker unlike Happy and knew that he wanted nothing to do with corporate America. Still, Biff had more than just one reason why he did not want to be like his father which the reader discovers in the flashbacks throughout the story. In the story, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s unique use of flashbacks illustrates how Willy and his torn relationship with his sons was affected by his past failures as a parent.
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
In many literary works, family relationships are the key to the plot. Through a family’s interaction with one another, the reader is able decipher the conflicts of the story. Within a literary family, various characters play different roles in each other’s lives. These are usually people that are emotionally and physically connected in one way or another. They can be brother and sister, mother and daughter, or in this case, father and son. In the Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of A Salesman, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Happy and Biff, allows Miller to comment on father-son relationships and the conflicts that arise from them.
Most critics can agree that Biff idolizes his father and enjoys working alongside him. However, Biff finally comes to terms that he has been living a lie his entire life. Even though some critics may or may not believe that Biff Loman is the reason that Willy ends his life, one can assume that Biff plays a significant role in the life of Willy Loman.
Perhaps it is due to the abandonment by his father that Willy Loman experienced at a very young age, or the subsequent abandonment, a few years later of his older brother Ben, that underlies the reason Willy so desperately seeks to be loved and accepted. He continually makes reference to being “well liked” as being of the utmost importance. Physical appearance, worldly admiration, and the opinion of others are more important to Willy than the relationship he has with his own family. These and several other references throughout “Death of a Salesman” portray the troubled relationship between Willy and his two sons, Biff and Happy.
In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller,Willy Loman, an unsuccessful businessman struggling to support his family is completely out of touch with reality throughout the plot line. Many characters throughout this play and their interactions with Willy have shown the audience his true colors and what he thinks is important in life. His constant lying and overwhelming ego certainly does not portray his life in factual terms, but rather in the false reality that he has convinced himself he lives in. Being raised by Willy, Biff and Happy are becoming failures and have no motivation to work hard to achieve anything in life. Throughout this novel, Biff has a few recurrences with stealing.
The Characters of Biff and Happy in Death of a Salesman No one has a perfect life; everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these personal conflicts can differ as much as the people themselves. Some insist on ignoring the problem for as long as possible, while others face up to the problem immediately to get it out of the way. Biff and Happy Loman are good examples of this, although both start from the same point, they end up going in different directions with Happy still living in his world of lies and Biff, being set free by the truth. Happy Loman is Willy's youngest son and is often over shadowed by his older brother Biff and ignored
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)
Although the parents in Arthur Miller 's play Death of a Salesman want their sons to be successful, their sons Biff and Happy struggle to communicate with them, which results in fights that creates further dysfunctional relationships in the Loman family. Success is crucial to the father Willy, who believes he is above other salesman, giving him the wrong idea of his position. When Willy saw his brother Ben as a success, jealousy swept over him. Willy is a pushy father who wants to show his children Biff and Happy that success is most important. Biff is a realist and wants his family to accept the fact that they may never live the dream. Happy has his father’s traits but is much more understanding with Biff.
My final thought on Death of a Salesman and the plot is that Willy Loman lived in his own world. Talking to himself quite often, living in the past and dreaming of the future. He only seems to focus on success and what could have been all the while living with regret. Even though he had two sons he only focused on one, his oldest, Biff. He wanted Biff to have a successful life since he was the high school athlete with such a promising future and when that didn’t happen he felt guilty and responsible. So much so that he took his own life hoping this will give Biff a brighter future.
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.