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Comment on Arthur Miller's play death of Salesman
Character of Willy Loman in Death of Salesman
Themes and symbols in death of a salesman
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In Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” he demonstrates how a salesman goes through life struggling with his problems and reality. In the beginning, Willy Loman returns home from driving long hours to sell his products. When Willy begins to talk out aloud about a memory, the boys came down to figure out what he is doing. Eventually, the whole family started to fight. Next, in a flashback, Biff went to meet Willy to tell him about school but caught a woman in the room with him. From that day on, Biff never appreciated Willy and never put any structure him on. At the end of the story, Willy crashes the car, killing himself. Biff tried to explain to the family that Willy wasn’t true to himself or anyone else. In Death of a Salesman, Miller …show more content…
With plot, how a story shapes the action and gives the story a particular focus, Willy says and does certain actions towards Linda and Biff. Throughout the story, Willy has changed drastically towards his family. At first, he is nice and compliments Linda. “Willy: You’re my foundation and my support, Linda.” (Miller pg. 1560). For this reason, Willy and Linda get along so good together by how she is there for him. Until Happy made an idea of getting a store together with Happy that you can see how Willy treats Linda differently by how Biff reacts to him. “Biff: Don’t yell at her, Pop, will ya?” (Miller pg. 1584). Willy kept yelling at Linda to basically shut up while he was talking when half of the time he wasn't, she was just adding some pieces of conversation in and explaining her idea and understanding of it. But Linda still didn’t realize that Willy has gone down hill when Willy keeps doing it to her and even having flashbacks of when he cheated on her! And with Biff, oh boy, because Willy jumps back and forth with how good or bad Biff is acting towards his own life. One example of it is explaining perfectly how Willy changes his mind fast, “Willy: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace! (. . .) Biff is a lazy bum! (. . .) Biff Loman is lost. Greatest country in the world. . . with such-- personal attractiveness (. . .) hard worker (. . .) he’s not lazy.” (Miller pg. 1559). At first, Willy talks badly about Biff and then says he is not a lazy bum. Furthermore, he listens to Biff when and if he has a good idea for the future. However, Willy hasn’t changed much of his feelings towards his other son Happy but only saying keep up the good work. In addition, Willy has changed his feelings towards his family in different ways throughout the story. His position in the family with his goals and specific ways towards his family has failed them to discover that
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 and Biff were so close that no matter what Biff did Willy ignored it. For instance, in one of Willy’s Flashbacks for Act 1 there is a conversation between Willy and his sons about the football that Biff got. Biff tells Willy that he borrowed a football from the locker room and Willy tells him to return it back. However, when Happy
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
One problem Willy has is that he does not take responsibility for his actions; this problem only gets worse because of his lies. Biff looks up to Willy, so when he finds out that Willy has an affair in Boston, Biff is petrified. Biff realizes his hero, dad, the one he wants to impress, is a phony and a liar. Willy destroys Biff's dream of playing football by saying he does not have to study for the math regents, he also Willy telling Bernard to give Biff the answers. When Biff fails the regents, he does not want to retake the test because he is so disgusted with his hero and does not want to succeed. Not only did Willy destroy Biff's dream, he also broke his vows and refused to admit it. Biff is a failure, in Willy's eye, in most part due to Willy and what happened in Boston. Willy refuses to take responsibility for what he did, so he lies about Biff. Willy tells Bernard that Biff has been doing great things out west, but decided to come back home to work on a "big deal". Willy knows that Biff is a bum who has not amounted to anything, but he refuses to take responsibility for what happened in Boston, so he changes the story of Biff's success. Throughout Willy's life he continued to lie. It might have stopped if Linda did not act the way as she did. Linda is afraid to confront Willy, so she goes along with his outlandish lies.
Linda does not lose respect for Willy for his actions as much as Biff does. Biff cares about his mother dearly and does not like to see her being yelled at. He grinds his teeth when he sees his father yell at his mother, because he knows that if he argues, there will be that much more tension between him and his father. However, Biff cannot take it much longer because he is losing respect for his father. He knows his father should never get physical with his mother, and he finally takes action before it gets violent. He grabs Willy by the arm and screams at him not to yell at her. Willy gets angry at first, but then goes to bed guilt-ridden.
It is stated by Standage that, “Sandage believes Willy Loman was a success. But the message of the play, he says, is that “if you level off, you have to give up. You might as well not live”” (Baird 25). This is quite ironic because all Willy does is push to be successful and he when he can’t he puts expects his son’s to follow through so he gives up. He constantly reminds them, “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 67). This is also ironic because Willy is the man who creates personal interest in the business world, but when everyone passes away he is left with nothing but the past to remember. This false reality that Willy creates for Biff brings on the conflicts between the father and son duo due to the fact that Biff fails as a result of the way he was raised. So by the time Biff goes to interview for his first job he thinks that his success will come with no effort
Willy and Biff never got along due to Biff finding out that his father had an affair, and Willy tries to forget the event. Willy also constantly tries to make Biff out as the greatest thing ever, even when one could easily see Biff is a loser. He wants to distort another reality, and believe Biff can make it. But he a lingering thought in his head that goes against this, and that is Bernard. In another of Will’s flashbacks, Bernard comes up and says, “Mr. Birnhaum says he’s stuck up.” This is in reference to Biff, and this shows that Willy really did know he was making Biff out to be something he could never be, but he tries very hard to go against this thought and dwell in his own
Willy's main flaw is his foolish pride, this it what makes him a tragic hero. Yet there are many facets to his personality that contribute to the state he and the family are in during the play. His upbringing of the boys is one major issue, he raised them with the notion that if one is well-liked, he need not worry about qualifications, he believed that if his boys were popular they would come out on top. Sadly, he doesn't realize that the only way an ordinary person can get rich is through work (represented by Bernard) or through luck and good timing (Ben), and Willy missed the boat when it came to ...
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.
In fact, it is Willy's emphasis on likeability that leads Biff to brush aside his education in the first place. Bernard, the friend next-door who begs Biff to study for the Reagents, is described by Willy as a...
Willy is very indenial by the end of the play. He’s so focused on other people and their lives that he completely forgot about his. Biff’s and his father’s relationship with each other was very rocky and Willy never seemed to understand why. Willy always criticized Biff and how his career is going to always thought of him as the “lazy” child. Willy wants the relationship between him and biff back, but instead the two constantly
This provides the reader with evidence that the ideas that Willy presented to his sons would make history repeat itself in the next generation. Unlike his brother and father Biff Loman feels compelled to seek the truth about himself. He is Willy's pride and joy, being the first-born; Biff is the personification of all of Willy's dreams, he would be respected and "well liked". As a teenager, Biff worshipped his father. He was everything Willy wanted him to be -- star athlete, popular with the girls, "well liked" by everyone, he was "Like a young god.
...am. It's the only dream you can have-to come out number-one man.(…) I'm gonna win for him" (p.138-139). He thus reinstates that Willy's dream is realistic and attainable. Biff on the other hand, has a firm grasp on reality, and chooses not to make the same mistakes his father made: "He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong."(p.138).The contrast between Happy and Biff definitely re-emphasises an ongoing gap between reality and illusion throughout the entire play, and brings about a better understanding of the depth of Willy Loman's tragic flaw. Hence, this strive for success as defined by the American dream has only room for a few men. An impossible dream for the average man that Happy will never attain, a dream rejected by Biff that finally searches within himself for happiness rather than in the eyes of the one that beholds this fallacious dream, his father.
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's goal throughout life was to climb out of his social class. As a salesman, Willy was a failure and he tried desperately to make his sons never end up like him. As a result, he loses his mind and his grasp on reality. Throughout the story, Willy often has flashbacks of the conversations that he and his brother Ben once had and the author intertwines them in past and present very nicely.