Death Of A Salesman Honesty Analysis

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman silently questions his ability to fulfill his father’s wishes. His father, Willie Loman, holds high expectations for Biff’s future and constantly brags to others about how successful Biff will be. Out of respect for his father, Biff conforms to the path that Willie has planned for him. In the beginning, Willie lives vicariously through his son, Biff, who has no choice but to conform in order to preserve father-son respect. However, when the mutual respect that his father holds so dear dissolves, Biff’s concealed questions expand their influence from his thoughts to his actions as Biff becomes his own man.

Willy Loman, the main character in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, wants to live the American dream. He is consumed with his own misguided beliefs regarding success, which causes his life to be similar what Wyoming Senator Craig L. Thomas said about the American Dream: “You stuff Someone into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.” Willy’s obsession with the American Dream, believing that being well liked equates with success, keeps both he and his sons in a state of emotional immaturity. These beliefs causes the American Dream to be a prison. The Loman family’s American Dream becomes their prison, constructed of deception and false pride. They cannot escape their immature behavior of

Biff Loman is portrayed as the root of Willy’s mental illness and instability. He is also the only member of his family who acknowledges his own failures in life. On the whole, Biff Loman stands out as the most intriguing and strong character in “Death of a Salesman. He is not a successful man and never will be, he is however able to admit this, even in a harsh society as the one of the 1960s America. Biff knows he is a “nothing” and tries to make his father see that he is “no good. I am a dime a dozen, Pop, and so are you.” He begs for Willy to communicate with him and accept him for who he is. Although Willy is forced by Biff to see some of his own failures, he never

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, in the Act I, the author emphasizes the relationship between Willy and Linda in different ways by showing the love of Linda towards Willy and how she admires him. And also, she always shows her patient when Willy gets angry easily. The relationship between Willy and Biff is different from the past. Willy’s relationship with Biff is complicated. Biff is everything for Willy and Biff believed that Willy is the greatest father in the world, but in the present Biff doesn’t think like that anymore.

Success was a key idea throughout the play as the main character Willy raised his sons Biff and happy with the false idea that if you “start big, you’ll end big” (page 51). Biff learnt the hard way that this was not the case at all because when he was younger, he was once a star high school athlete with a scholarship to UVA. Reality set in shortly after when Biff discovered the affair between Willy and the woman, from this moment onward, Biff has been a continual failure, he refused to attend summer school to make up for a flunked math class, stealing at every job and even spending time in jail. The truth about the affair has caused Biff to despise Willy’s ambitions and high hopes for his future, he abandons Willy’s dream for him and moves out the country to do what he knew he was meant to do, work with his hands. Biffs actions make it clear that the ‘American dream’ is not every man’s dream. Instead of looking for money and success, he wants a more simplistic life, one that he’s seen and loved for he truly is without his father’s burdens shadowing over him. On the other hand we have Bernard who is now an important and successful lawyer, although he was super nerdy throughout his school years he was always looking out for Biff, helping him with his study and homework. Willy believes that “personality always wins the day” (page 51) which is the reason why Willy believed that Bernard would never be a true success in the business world, due his lack of spirit and presence. Bernard proves himself to be far more successful than Willy had ever imagined, and through his success he also shows that Willy’s principles were irrelevant in reality. Through the contrasting characterisation of Bernard and Biff the readers come to understand that success is a result of hard work and not

Idealism describes the belief or pursuit of a perfect vision often based upon unrealistic principles. This pursuit is often contrasted and opposed by truth. The truth and reality in an individual’s life is what enables this person to remain grounded and down to earth. An individual must set themselves high expectations in order to be their best, but they must also acknowledge the fact that everything they desire is not achievable. The imbalance of idealism and truth in an individual’s life can have calamitous effects. It is significant in an individual’s life because it can lead to the deterioration of an individual’s sanity, destruction of family relationships and ultimately death. This is exemplified in Death of a Salesman by Arthur

The father-son arguments that occurred between Biff and Willy were detrimental to both men; but happenings like these are very common in similar forms. Willy’s inability to be thankful for what he had led to his dramatic downfall that isn’t too out of the ordinary for one to observe. The realistic horror getting stuck in the past prevented him from being able to make substantial progress in bettering his life more than it already was. In general Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a work of fiction, but still managed to address realistic issues such as, father-son arguments, being satisfied with the life and the inability to move past the

Family relationships, in many literary works, are often essential to the entire plot; not only is there hardship and agony, but confrontation and conflict that arise in the family. The pressures brought upon growing up a particular way, in addition to succeeding are all a reflection based off the parents themselves, and there standards. In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” the relationship between Willy and his sons, Biff and Happy Loman can be considered -- not “typical.” It is a relationship based on success and the persistence to lead a life, that in reality, cannot be lived. Willy and his relationship with his

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making the same one a second time,” (George Bernard Shaw). The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is about the Lowman family struggling to be perfect. Willy driven to be the most successful salesman known, leads the desire for his sons to be even more successful than he is. The way Willy does not admit his mistakes lead Biff to a life neither one wants for him. When Biff is in high school, Willy trains Biff to be the perfect son.

In the Death of a Salesman, all of the main characters lie for all distinctive kinds of reasons. With this in mind, Willy Loman appears to be the first character that lies at the beginning of the scene and persists to lie throughout the play. In reality, Willy frequently lies in exaggeration to cause himself to appear and sound more likable and successful than he legitimately is. For an example, Willy continually mentions that most people adore and needs him. In order to truly believe why Willy was lying, realize that he sincerely believes, and makes up stories, that consists of people needing to be dependent on him and treats him as a celebrity. In reality, this does not occur to Willy for the purpose that no one genuinely knows about him

Biff Loman is the son of Linda and Willy Loman. He is both attractive and well liked, but has never been successful at any job he gets because he’s a compulisive theif. He’s never been able to meet his fathers high expections with any job he’s ever done.Biff has adabted most of his fathers traits but none of his own. “I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been” (Miller Act II: 104) Later in the play Biff begins to realize his own reality, that he is nobody just like his father, and that he was not meant to fufill the American Dream. No matter how hard Biff tires to get his father to see that he is ”nothing”, Willy refuses to believe it. Willy held out so much hope for him that he even kills himself so Biff could collect his life

In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Linda Loman’s character is viewed differently by many people. Some critics have seen Linda as a “controlling mother figure” who is actually the one to blame for this failure of both her sons and her husband. In this report I will defend this view citing specific examples from the play. Linda was undoubtedly the only one in control throughout the play. I believe that Linda tried to be a good mother and wife but she did not really know what she was doing. At the very beginning of the book we see that Willy, on his way to Boston, has come home because he was unable to concentrate on the road. And just as he was beginning to figure out why, she took his mind off the subject by suggesting that

Many works of literature have the theme of a failed American Dream, which is the basic idea that no matter what social class an individual may be, they still have an equal ability to achieve prosperity and a good life for their family; however, there has been much debate over whether or not the American dream is still obtainable in modern society. One piece of American literature that substantiates the fact that the American Dream can not be gotten is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman which describes the tragedy of the average person in America. A number of other writers also draw the inability to capture the American Dream. John Steinbeck demonstrates in his highly acclaimed novel The Grapes of Wrath how hard economic times can

Willy’s perseverance to direct Biff into success has resulted to Biff’s desperate acts to earn praise from his father. However, Biff’s dishonest acts of stealing are often justified by Willy through disregard and excuse, even expressing that the “Coach will probably congratulate [Biff] for [his] initiative”. Instead of correcting his mistakes, Willy continuously expresses his belief of Biff’s predetermined success as a result of being attractive and well-liked. These acts effectively exemplifies Biff’s adherence to self-deception as he imagines himself as an important figure in other people’s lives. It can be seen that his belief of being destined for success prevents him from allowing himself recognize the destruction it brings. As a result, Biff has allowed how Willy views him become how he perceives himself. This self-deception has not only affected the actions in his childhood but as well as his decisions when finding his role in the workplace. As stated above, Willy’s consistent beliefs of his son’s predestined success results to Biff’s immense confidence in himself. However, this confidence have provided him a false perception of himself as he struggle to keep a stable job and even faces imprisonment. It can be seen that Biff’s lack of self-perception and compliance to ideals of Willy has only allowed him to restrain and prevent him from recognizing the difference between illusion and reality resulting in the lack of his

The Importance of Biff's Role in "Death of a Salesman" The play "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller, follows the life of Willy Loman, a self-deluded salesman who lives in utter denial, always seeking the "American Dream," and constantly falling grossly short of his mark. The member's of his immediate family, Linda, his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy, support his role. Of these supportive figures, Biff's character holds the most importance, as Biff lies at the center of Willy's internal conflicts and dreams , and Biff is the only one in the play who seems to achieve any growth. Biff's role is essential to the play because he generates the focus of Willy's conflict for the larger part, his own