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Who is Willy Loman in the drama Death of a Salesman
Examine the role of Linda Loman in the life of Willy Loman and her children in Arthur Miller’s death of a salesman
Death of a salesman thematic essay
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For Willy and Linda, life's accomplishments and sources of pleasure are simple. This statement gives an excellent judgment of their lives because they lead very average lives for the time, and any depth is ignored on their part. This little scene exemplifies this point by showing a focus in their lives, being the mortgage on the house. For twenty-five years Willy and Linda have been working to pay off their mortgage, and once they do that, they will attain a sense of freedom, or the "American Dream". That dream, especially pertinent at that time of growth in the United States, presents a perfect representation of their goal. This goal is clearly outlined by dollar signs and a sense of ownership, two key points to personal success.
The key thing which leads to Willy and Linda's depressions, is their inability to face reality in the present. Their lives are lived in the future, and even in this scene as Willy states; "You wait, kid, before it's all over we're gonna get a little place out in the country."(p.72), we see his ability to constantly speak of unpractical dreams. Their last payment on the mortgage gives closure to this life filled only with dreams, and will allow them to realize some of their idealistic thoughts. Their entire lives have been concentrated on this house, their one meaningful possession, therefore this last payment is an accomplishment beyond any other.
Willy is a salesman, always traveling from state to state staying in motels away from home. This increases the importance of a house to him because it is not only a place of habitation but a representation of stability in his life. It is a concrete item which cannot be taken away from Willy once he has made the last payment. While discussing his sons with Linda, he states; " And they'll get married, and come for a weekend…". He shows the same pride for his ownership of the house as he did for Biff during his football years. The house is the center of Willy's being, and now that he almost has it, he can see that it has been his life's work. He is a character who remains content only by trying to believe that he is living the "American Dream", and pride of his most valued possession is all he has to hold onto.
Although, at this point in his life, Willy Loman is beginning to notice where all of this dreaming has led him.
Living the American dream was a goal that most families were attempting to reach. Living the dream included simple things such as being true to your spouse, raising your family with love and earning an honest living. At points, this goal may have seemed out of reach and this is where the lies came in. The blatant disregard for honesty, eventually leading to destruction, can be seen in both literary works, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gasby. Both novels touch upon similar themes regarding the instability and ignorance of the two main characters, Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby. The two find themselves living in fantasy worlds, Willy is still convinced that even at his age and stature he is capable of obtaining the American dream, where as Jay is very much in love with a woman just beyond his reach but still insists on creating a life for the two of them. Over excessive pride, adultery, and false material security are some of the issues that our protagonists are bothered with, all causing bitterness and disappointment. Relying on their imaginations instead of reality is something both Willy and Jay struggle with and is directly related to their ability of acquiring their unique versions of the American dream.
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 lives in a house which has “towering, angular shapes” surrounding it. These buildings represent the American Dream and all the fortune that it can bring. His house is amid an “orange glow” which represents the pollution of the city’s high rising buildings. Just like how his home is inferior to the skyscrapers’ pollution, Willy is to the American Dream. He is a slave of the philosophy that surrounds him, and he will never achieve what others have. The tall buildings and closing in on the “fragile-seeming” home and they are overpow...
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 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.
Linda Loman is the enabler of the Loman family, and also uses self- deception to escape her life mentally. Linda never spoke up to Willy, and did nothing but feed his unrealistic dreams. Linda lived a life of “what ifs” with Willy. They both did the bare minimum in every aspect of their life, which is why
As seen in the loss of his job and his failure to succeed. The house also represents grief and deception. For when Linda, Willy's wife, finds the house, she is distraught over its intended purpose. The deceptive nature of the house is apparent when Willy is confronted about it by Biff, his son, and Willy denies its existence. A similar denial is also evident when Willy is confronted with the tape recorder in Howard's office.
Willy couldn’t accept the realities that the life he lives has presented to him. He thinks the utmost that he can provide for his family now is his life insurance policy, and imagines that he can be successful once again by freeing his family from debt, but leaves them without a friend, husband, and father. Willy chooses to run away from reality altogether by selfishly committing suicide, which is a permanent end to a temporary problem.
A second aspect of Willy’s American dream is material possessions. The Loman's do not have nice things, and Willy believes that what he possesses says he is not a success. He is very aware that he has not achieved this part of his dream, and he is envious of those who have. He tells Linda, "Charley bought a General Electric [refrigerator] and it's twenty years old and it's still good, that son-of-a-bitch" (1488; Act 2). Willy Loman also believes his children would love him more if could give them more.
We know that both of our protagonist’s dreams involve wealth, which is the basis for almost all elements of the standard American dream, but what is it in particular that Walter and Willy are striving for? For Walter, the American dream involves becoming a successful business entrepreneur. This dream relies heavily on the idea of wealth, because Walter is both in need of the money to fund his liquor store venture, but also because with the profits of his venture he will be able to support his family on his own. The exchange between Mamma and Walter “Oh—so now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change . . . No—it was always money, Mama. We j...
Willy has worked hard his entire life and ought to be retiring by now, living a life of luxury and closing deals with contractors on the phoneespecially since increasing episodes of depersonalization and flashback are impairing his ability to drive. Instead, all of Willy's aspirations seem to have failed: he is fired from his jobwhich barely paid enough anywayby a man young enough to be his son and who, in fact, Willy himself named. Willy is now forced to rely on loans from his only real friend (and the word is used loosely at that), Charley, to make ends meet. None of Willy's old friends or previous customers remember him. Biff, his 34-year-old son, has been unable to 'find himself' as a result of his inability to settle down (caused by Willy drumming into him the need to 'make it big within two weeks'), and Happy, the younger son, lies shamelessly to make it look like he is a perfect Loman scion. In contrast, Charley (who, Willy tells his boys conspiratorially, is not well-liked), is now a successful businessman, and his son, Bernard, a former bespectacled bookworm, is now a brilliant lawyer. We are told how Willy had at least one affair while out on business trips, one particularly that was witnessed by Biff (which broke his faith in Willy). Finally, Willy is haunted by memories of his now-dead older brother,
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.
...y he is so obsessed with trying to attain it. He is the product of his own illusions and of a society that believe that with hard work everything is possible. The reader can understand that Willy’s skewed perspective of the “American Dream” is due to his distortion of his life and the dream that he thinks he lives in everyday.
After a confrontation with Biff, which occurred because of Linda’s insistence, Willy gains a better perception of his life. Or, at least, he thinks he does. Willy believes that, by committing suicide, he can gain dignity in the eyes of his family. By doing this, they can live off the insurance money, and he will finally be able to provide for them. Even though this is a twisted perception, Willy thinks he has finally discovered an answer to his misery.