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Character study death of a salesman
Character study death of a salesman
Death of salesman's character
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Everybody knows in order to get a great job or anything good in life we all must be able to do certain things. Doing such things can result in success which in then leads to stability. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the main characters demonstrates this. Which portrayed contrast of those that reached great heights (Ben) and became successful and those who were stuck with one thing and kept at it (Willy). One moved on and lived life, while the other had a dream and was stuck in the same place trying to go after it. To be successful in life there is many things you must do and overcome in order to do this. Ben, was able to do this and left to make it big which soon lead to his stability, whereas Willy was still struggling at the age of 84, asking his boss for an office job just not to travel. From the text we will see how Willy praises Ben and looks …show more content…
Boys! Boys! [Young Biff and Happy appear] Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben! Ben: Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich! Willy : (to the boys) You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen! (Act 1 page 48)” In this quote we also witness Willy talking to his sons, how anything can happen, while this is true it is also due to the risk that Ben took to walk into the jungle. This leads Willy into thinking that riches can happen all of a out of nowhere from Ben’s sudden success misguiding Willy. Then allowing him to have an easy life, that he could enjoy and relax. Another quote from the text that supports this is “ Willy: Without a penny to his name, three great universities are begging from him, and from there the sky’s the limit, because it’s not what you do. It’s who you know and the smile on your face! It’s contacts, Ben,
From the very beginning, we can see that Willy is unable to keep up with the competitive demands. This leads to him feeling hopeless because he is unable to support his family, which could possibly lead to them being in debt. As the story goes
Ben left the Willy behind in hopes of finding their father in Alaska when Willy was an adolescent. With Ben leaving, he caused Willy to develop this false interpretation of what the “American Dream” is. Willy takes interest in Ben being so success and rich. Willy looks up to his older brother and sees that everything Ben does is right. After their father left, Ben, being the oldest, was supposed to be Willy’s “go to man “serving as not only a sibling, but a father figure too. Ben abandoned Willy just as much as their father did. Ben visited very rarely in his trip to and from Alaska. Willy feels as though he—along with his family, could’ve been successful had he gone to Alaska with Ben. Ben is a mirror image of what Willy Loman could’ve been but failed to
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
On Willy’s funeral, Charley says that “He [is] a happy man with a batch of cement.” As Linda also recognizes, Willy is “wonderful with his hands”. It shows that Willy actually is a man who loves to work with tools and he is good at fixing and building things at home. Willy’s talent can have made him an excellent carpenter as Biff said in one point. However, Willy chooses to sacrifice what he is really good at, to be a successful salesman as Dave. Moreover, Willy refuses to go to Africa to assist his brother Ben and gives up the opportunity to be rich. Because Dave’s successful image is deeply rooted in Willy’s mind, he believes that one day he can achieve his expectation. Even though Willy understands the difficult financial situation of family, he still refuses Ben and the opportunity to be rich because he considers he is struggling for his unfulfilled expectations. When he is fired by Howard from the company he worked for last thirty-four years, he still refuses to take a job from Charley. Since Willy still want to follow his dream of being Dave, he would not do any other job but trying hard to be successful salesman in business. It is also a part of his sacrifice for his unfulfilled
Throughout the play, many events show Willy appreciation to traits such as good looking and popularity. He uses this as a principal to not only live his life but also encourage others to do the same. like his son. He gives a condescending look on people who do not agree or live or the same ideal that he does when he does not think Bernard will be success because he is a nerd that only focus on school work. However, that one thing, hard work is more important to become successful than anything of the superficial perception of look and popularity that Willy has. Only until very end of life, he realizes that look and popularity is not what it takes to live a happy life.
He had gone to Alaska and become rich, and, subconsciously, Willy wishes he had gone with him. In this scene, Ben “appears” to Willy, “encouraging” him to suicide in order for his family to receive money due to his life insurance policy. Willy, being in a desperate situation and poor state of mind, did not stop to consider the consequences and acted upon his impulse to provide for his family, thus resulting in his suicide. [CS]
In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman experiences turmoil within himself, feeling as if he has to fit the mold Willy has set forth and disregard his sentiments about his future. Biff’s tension as he conforms outwardly while questioning within conveys the play’s message: the definition of success is subjective and sometimes, one has to simply go against others’ belief to obtain happiness. As a young boy, Biff grew up with ideas of what success is through Willy’s sayings. Willy does not fail to remind his son of what he considers successful. He perpetuates the idea that popularity and being well-liked will greatly aid Biff in his future career in the business world (21).
Happy, Willy's youngest son is truly a mess. He follows in his father's footsteps into the business world, where he is admittedly unhappy, yet continues because it is what is expected of him. He, like Willy believes that success is the measure of a man. He says "I gotta show some of those pompous, self important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade" (p 250). We see his blind desire to succeed and know he's headin...
Willy admired the character of his brother Uncle Ben. In addition, they had a great brother-to-brother relationship. Occasionally, Ben appeared in Willy’s dreams. Furthermore, this was a sign that depicted how strong the relationship between the two was. Also, Ben was a rich man, who had who got his success and fortunes from mineral exploitation in Africa. Ben stated, “…I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich” (Miller, 1449). One reason, Willy looked up to ben with hope was because he was wealthy.
Of course the tragedy of “Death of a Salesman” still moves to its ordained conclusion. Willy’s discovery of his son’s unshakeable love, the love that kept him wandering the country, fitfully attempting to fulfill his father’s dreams even as he knew they had poisoned his very soul, cannot release him from the grip of a life spent chasing after the only goal he recognized as worthy of a man’s laying down his life: financial success.
Willy Loman equates success as a human being with success in the business world. When Willy was a young man, he heard of a salesman who could "pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living." (81) This salesman is Willy's inspiration; someday to be so respected and so well known that he can still provide for his family, even at an old age. Of course, Willy is no good at being a salesman because his heart isn't in it. The only time Willy puts his heart into anything is when he works with his hands, and his son, Biff, comes to realize this. "There's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made." (138) Willy never comes to the realization that it is not being a salesman that he cares about, but rather being well known and, perhaps more importan...
One of the discussions that is held is what the true definition of the “American Dream” is. There are beliefs that think money and power are the ideal things to strive for. Still others believe that personal success is truly hard to measure and that there is no bench mark. In the play, “Death of a Salesman”, the main character Willy Lohman thinks that success is measured by how many people know you and how well liked you are. This success coupled with all the material possessions he has acquired, makes him feel complete in his quest for the dream.
From that day on Willy wanted people to see the best Willy he could be. This when he began to sell himself to people so he would be loved and admired by people after his day has come. This ideology that Willy had messed with his family. For starter, his wife Linda thinks of her husband as a great salesman and husband. She has no idea that it is just a character that Willy has been playing for all those years. This ideology puts a gap between him and his son Biff that never gets fully put back together. Unlike Biff Happy is completely bought into the ideology that his father raised him with. Everything that was Willy’s undoing and damnation is embodied in his youngest son Happy. He is so mentally damaged by his father’s “American Dream” that he can never be shown the real
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.
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 ...