Happy In Arthur Miller's Play 'Death Of A Salesman'

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Death of a Salesman Passage

Happy: All right, boy. I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him.
In Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman," Happy reflects a huge number of his father's negative qualities. The fact that his name is Happy in the play serves as a symbol of the falsehoods that have plagued and defined his life. Like his father, Willy, Happy refuses to recognize that he is just ordinary. He works an ordinary job, but identifies himself as better than everyone else at his job. He brags about accomplishments that are not real. He is always trying to get his father’s attention just like Willy is trying to get the attention of those above him. Most importantly, Happy holds onto the same false, deluded dreams as his father. …show more content…

He holds steadfast onto the American Dream and all that comes with it. During the Requiem, even after his father has died a victim of his own ambition, Happy refuses to let go of the unrealistic dreams his father was consumed by. Unlike Biff, his brother, Happy refuses to see that there exists happiness outside of the average American Dream. Though Happy is relatively successful in his job, he has inherited his father’s unrealistic self-confidence and grand dreams of getting rich quick. As a result, despite his respectable job and the countless women Happy has come to be with, he is extremely lonely and unsatisfied with his life. In the same way that Willy bestowed Happy with a misguided, delusional name, Willy has left Happy with a continued delusion even after his

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