Centered around the main character, Willy Loman, the play, “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller in 1949, tells a story of an aging travelling salesman who has pursued the American dream only to find that he has fallen short. Therefore, the question is, why had Willy failed in his pursuit? Playwright Arthur Miller, very carefully reveals this through his use of flashbacks and dialogue in the play. In fact, the reader can glean from the play that Willy Loman, though he had been a salesman for most of his life, wasn’t very good at his job. Furthermore, Willy was a narcissistic, self-promoting liar who appeared to suffer from insecurity and bouts of depression. However, Willy failed to recognize his faults because he was so self-absorbed …show more content…
This is evident during Willy’s dialogue with his wife Linda when he says to her: “I’m fat. I’m very – foolish to look at…” (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012, p. 978). Nevertheless, deep down, Willy knew he would never be more than a travelling salesman, earning a meager wage for his efforts, and that the American dream would always be just out of reach for him, but that was a secret that had to be kept at all cost. Consequently, keeping that secret resulted in him doing what he did best, he sold himself to others as more than he really was. To do this, Willy resorted to lying to himself, his wife, his children and others. Of course, one unintended consequence of this was two delinquent sons, one a thief who flunked out of school and the other a philanderer, both with little hope for a prosperous future. Regardless, Willy refused to change with the times and consistently recalled his past to escape the world around him. There is no doubt, Willy Loman failed to recognize his shortcomings, and became a bitter, hopeless old man suffering from …show more content…
Willy’s drive to be something he wasn’t to attain the American dream left him bitter and hopeless. He was left with no recognition and had achieved nothing but heartache in his life. At any rate, he had successfully alienated his children and drove a wedge into the family unit which would not be reconciled until the last day of his life. No doubt, Willy’s lying, philandering, narcissism, low self-esteem, insecurities and bouts of depression formed a dangerous cocktail culminating in his suicide. Willy felt he had no other choice and it was the only way he could ensure his family would get something from
Willy’s father, a “very great” and “wildhearted man,” made a living traveling and selling flutes, making “more in a week than a man like [Willy] could make in a lifetime” (Miller 34). Even though Willy barely knew his dad, he built him up in his head as an amazing person and role model, striving to be as “well liked” as him (Miller 34). Willy also idealizes his brother, Ben, as evidenced by his constant one-way conversations with him.... ... middle of paper ...
Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman is the story of a man, Willy Loman, gone deaf to the outside world. Though many try to help him, he shuts them out and creates his own reality in which he is successful and loved by everyone. In Death of a Salesman, Willy has many influences both good and bad attempting to direct his life; it is his refusal to choose the helpful advice that will ultimately lead to his downfall.
Willy Loman will bring his downfall upon himself as he entices his own disillusions and the bedrock of his values pertaining to success and how one can achieve it. His failure to recognize the fruitless outcome of his own idealism will seal his fated suicide and have a determining effect on the failures of his two sons that when adolescent, idolized their father as a guid...
Willy Loman has an innate ability for dreaming way beyond his capabilities. Throughout the play, Willy’s dreams represent more fantasy than truth, a behavior which his boys clearly imitate. Yet, despite the talk, there is an ongoing criticism for the world and the way things work. He brags about his sales for a trip, “I’m tellin’ you, I was selling thousands and thousands, but I had to come home” (1224). It’s difficult to tell if the stories Willy tells are what he believes to be true or what he imagines is correct; as a result, he continually tells lies to cover his shortcomings and mistakes. On the contrary, with all the “thousands and thousands” of dollars he is making, he complains about necessary repairs to mechanical objects around the house: “Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard” (1244)!
He is fervently determined to succeed in his contemporary competitive society. In a conversation with his children about Bernard, he enumerates a few features he presumes as important if one wants to have success. Willy tells his children that Bernard might get the best grades in school, but they will certainly have more success than he will as they are “[…] built like Adonis’s” (Miller 34). Willy assumes that it is necessary to be attractive to become successful. Additionally, he says that it is “[…] the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 34). Moreover, Willy states that “it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it – because personality always wins the day” (Miller 70). Willy believes that if he wants to become a successful businessperson, he has to impress people with his appearance and with his looks; he has to seduce his customers with his personality and his charm. Willy has his own role model he looks up to - it is Dave Singleman, who incarnates what Willy so adamantly wants to be, as he became a successful businessperson. Through him, […] [Willy] real...
Although, his narcissism exhibits the common issue with American capitalism-it leads to greediness, unhappiness, and anger. This yearning for success can also cause an obsession with appearance and the self, which is a main focus in Willy Loman’s life. He says that to get somewhere, it is good to be “built like (an) Adonis,” which he tells his sons. At one point in his life, he felt he never had to ask for anything, and that when he walked in a room, he got what he wanted because “‘Willy Loman is here!’” Eventually, Willy ages and lacks the flair that he once had, and is left with unimpressive salesman skills. Due to America’s obsession with appearance, old-age is a plague to American society. The superficiality causes those to enjoy charisma over passion. This leads to arrogance, a common American worker to be. Willy Loman is a mirror being held up to the faces of American worker-bees. He avoided risks, and continued living a monotonous, easy life. Miller is attempting to say, monotony is a dangerous habit America has. This play intends to steer readers into a direction of following their own path, rather than following the norm; the norm is nothing new, and fails to reach anything
Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I wanted to talk to you about dad for a long time, Biff. Something’s – happening to him. He – talks to himself” (Miller 21). Willy, as a father, cares about his children but he wishes they would do better. He believes Biff should have been an athlete. According to Harrington, “Even figuratively, Willy is haunted, and particularly in Biff’s failure to achieve success as a sports figure” (108). This haunting is part of what led to Willy’s slow plunge into madness. As Willy’s career in sales fails, he also fails, even failing his family. Heyen adds: “He didn’t have anything of real value to give to his family, or if he did, he didn’t know what it was” (48). His debilitating flashbacks and delusional hallucinations with Uncle Ben cement his horrifying realizations that he has let down his family. Willy Loman blames the economy for his downfall in his career. In one of his more extreme outbursts he exclaims, “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. ...
To begin, Willy’s methods of searching for likeability are erroneous. He believes that the superficiality of attractiveness goes hand in hand with being well liked. Willy’s downfall started with his impression of Dave Singleman, an 84 year old salesman. According to Willy, he had “…the greatest career a man could want.” Sure this man was liked in cities around the world, but Willy’s altered perception of the American dream masked the realities of his life. Willy failed to see that instead of being retired at 84, Dave Singleman was unwed, still working, and in the end “dies the death of a salesman”; alone and without love. Believing in this dream, ultimately leads Willy to his hubris; too proud to be anything but a salesman. Throughout the play, Charlie often asks Willy, “You want a job?” Instead of escaping his reality of unpaid bills and unhappiness, Willy’s shallow values lead him to refuse the switch from him attractive job, to that of a carpent...
Willy's dream causes him to live in a world of lies and deceit, which ultimately leads to his tragic end. In conclusion, it is evident that the demise of Willy Loman came from him dreaming the wrong dream. This is evident through
Willy lived everyday of his life trying to become successful, well-off salesman. His self-image that he portrayed to others was a lie and he was even able to deceive himself with it. He traveled around the country selling his merchandise and maybe when he was younger, he was able to sell a lot and everyone like him, but Willy was still stuck with this image in his head and it was the image he let everyone else know about. In truth, Willy was a senile salesman who was no longer able to work doing what he's done for a lifetime. When he reaches the point where he can no longer handle working, he doesn't realize it, he puts his life in danger as well a others just because he's pig-headed and doesn't understand that he has to give up on his dream. He complains about a lot of things that occur in everyday life, and usually he's the cause of the problems. When he has to pay for the repair bills on the fridge, he bitches a lot and bad mouths Charley for buying the one he should of bought. The car having to be repaired is only because he crashes it because he doesn't pay attention and/or is trying to commit suicide. Willy should have settled with what he had and made the best of things. He shouldn't have tied to compete with everyone and just made the best decision for him using intelligence and practicality. Many of Willy's problems were self-inflicted, the reason they were self-inflicted was because he wanted to live the American dream. If he had changed his standards or just have been content with his life, his life problems would have been limited in amount and proportion.
Willy Loman has surrendered the life of himself and his sons to a dream of success, while this dream is not particularly reprehensible, it is nevertheless unsuitable for him and can only be kept alive at the expense of his selfhood. Because Willy does not know himself, his ambitions ?are based on false conceptions of one?s talents and capacities? (Eisenger 331). He is incapable of viewing himself and the world as they truly are, and will sacrifice his existence rather than the ideal he has relied on. His dreams ?may provide a momentary respite from a harsh reality,? but are more devastating over time and result in disillusion (Abbotson 47). Willy desires to meet the demands he believes society dictates: American determination for wealth and renown??an almost virtuous pursuit? (Abbotson 48). He is torn between two contradictory lifestyles: the agrarian life that his father led and suburban city life. He genuinely cannot tolerate the latter, demonstrated in his constant dissatisfied grumbling: the apartments that restrict him??Bricks and windows, windows and bricks? (Miller 17). Not to mention the streets ?lined with cars,? the absence of fresh air, the grass that ?don?t grow any more,? and the demise of the ?two beautiful elm trees? that once grew in his back yard (Miller 17). Willy prefers to dr...
...self to be happy by thinking of his past, which destined him to do what every coward does when faced with problems: run. He runs from his problems, from his friends, from his family, and from himself. I think that Willy could have resolved his issues a lot easier if he had been brave enough to admit that he did have problems. Instead, he bottles them up, hides them deep inside himself, and lives vicariously through his past.
The first component of the American dream, in Willy’s eyes is a successful career. Always the dreamer, he attempts to make his mark as a salesman because “selling [is] the greatest career a man [can] want” (1492; Act 2). But when he falls short of his goals, he blames the superficiality of the business world, as evidenced in his thoughts about Bernard:
This play is based the mid 20th century when success was achieved through hardwork and industry and wit and charm would not earn you a living and this is the main reason Willy Loman failed in life. The play is one of the great tragedies and is a very depressing experience for the audience. No matter how much Willy deserved to fail because of his poor value and morality we cannot but feel sorry for this confused man.
Willy believes that he is much more successful than he is in reality. The first sign of Willy’s illusion about his life occurs rather early in the play. He has the illusion that “[he’s] the New England man. [He’s] vital in New England” (14). In reality any person could have taken Willy’s position at work. This illusion leads to his downfall because as his life begins to fall apart, he lives in the illusion that he has enough money to support his family, so he does not recognize that he has to put the pieces of his reality back together. More towards the end of the play, in an outburst of anger Willy refuses to be called “a dime a dozen” and states “I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman” (132), as if the Loman family is a special figure in society. His unclear view of his place in society leads to his destruction; with only one view of his life, Willy believes that he is living his life to the fullest.