Death Of A Salesman Willy's Madness

     The single most weighted factor that edges Willie to his demise is his inability to make a living and achieve his “American Dream”. After being a salesman for many years, Willy just can’t cope with the fact that he hasn’t been successful at all. He believes that he is a terrific salesman. His imaginative thinking won’t let him accept the fact that he has become a failure instead of a wealthy businessman. Willy believes that to be well liked is the means to being

Toward the end of the story, Willy realizes that his life is falling apart: Biff does not have a stable job or family, is making only commissions for his job, his refrigerator and car are in despair, and he talks to himself. Willy just cannot figure out what has gone wrong, especially with Biff who to him seemed so promising because of his good looks and his charm with others. When Biff comes home again, Willy gets real nervous and starts talking to himself (Act I. Scene I). He is stressed out that Biff has done nothing with his life so he starts seeing visions of the past. When Willy talks out loud while seeing visions, he is trying to discover where he went wrong as a person and father. To find where he went wrong he begins to ask anyone in visions or in person. One character that he frequently asks for advice throughout the drama is his older brother Biff (Gross, 319-321).

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, bashes at the problems created by Willy Loman. He struggles to live a satisfying life and portrays a dysfunctional state of mind that negatively affects his family as a result of his bipolar disorder. This failed salesman dreaming the American dream can barely think for himself, let alone dream a dream. As supportive as Willy’s family can be, they prove to have hardships when Willy is unstable and constantly going through mood swings. To make matters worse, Willy also experiences delusional thoughts that act as a disturbance to his daily life. In Death of a Salesman, Willy portrays the symptoms of bipolar disorder, establishing

Willy Loman was a failure as a family man who never achieved the American Dream. His life is an example of a true downfall, which affects all of those close to him. By living in an illusion, Willy guaranteed that he would be unable to achieve all that he thought he should. As a result, his death is the final confirmation of his failed life. Truly, success could never be achieved in his life, even if he had made plenty of sales. By giving up his dreams and true desires, Willy Loman died long before he crashed his car, and that led him to become every bit the failure that he will

It is a pleasure to see some of you guys at Willy's funeral. Willy would have been happy to see some you here at his funeral. Willy always said that in order to be successful, and happy, one has to be liked by others. Willy was married to me for 40 years and it was a good 40 years I have spent with my loving husband. It is sad to know that, I will no longer be able to see my caring husband anymore. We have two bright kids Happy, and Biff. Willy had a passion as a salesman and worked very hard and well, giving his customers 100 percent of what he had in himself. He was always helping them. Willy was working as a salesman for 34 years with his boss Howard. He worked so hard to have our sons educated and also help them with their future and success.

Willy thinks, as most children do, that he is more important than he actually is.  At various times throughout the story, he brags about himself, calling himself a great salesman.  He says that he is known everywhere. In daydreaming of

To begin, Willy could be described as having a case of misguided life goals paired with self-deception. Willy was unable to admit to his faults. His pride was so boisterous that he would lie to his own family, borrowing money every week from his neighbor, Charley, and claiming that it was his salary. Due to extreme insecurities, Willy compulsively lied to himself and his family in effort of making himself feel better about who he really is, disguising his self doubt and inner anxiety with profound arrogance. Willy raised his sons to believe that in order to be successful, one must be well liked. “Be liked and you will never want.” (1.3) He often lied to them and exaggerated his success, which led them to believe that everything was as good as he claimed them to be. Willy even encouraged deceit in his oldest son by urging him to steal things and cheat on tests. In Willy’s own delusional world, he is a largely successful and well liked salesman with sons destined for greatness, taking every opportunity to brag about these false perceptions. He lied about almost everything, even the quality of

In Death of a Salesman, Willy often ruminated on his past and attempted to relive certain situations and experiences. This later developed into delusion, as Willy often talked to himself and experienced hallucinations. Willy also enjoyed bragging, and frequently edited parts of reality when recounting the past. This was in favor of portraying a certain image of himself. In doing so, Willy created a facade of the perfect and well-liked man. Willy’s stories become so convincing that his family, as well as himself, believe that this representation is, in fact a true depiction. The ideology that charisma is the driving force to success is derived from Willy; he teaches this to his sons Biff and Happy. Miller writes in Willy’s conversation to his sons, “Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.” (Death of a Salesman 21). This ideology demonstrates that Willy fits

In Death of a Salesman, Willy mental issues make him not properly run his family the right way. He focuses way too much on business and wealth and won’t worry about his health and family. He is convinced that being rich would make him and his family have a good life instead of just being happy with what he had. His obsession with wealth would cause him to attempt suicide when he becomes a failure and unemployed. Willy just needs to realize that he is an ordinary man and isn’t meant to be rich.

      Arthur Miller succeeds in demonstrating incredibly well in Death of a Salesman that not only is tragic heroism still possible in the modern world, but that it is also an affliction to which both king and commoner are equally susceptible.  However, Wily Loman is not a tragic hero because he is pathetic, not heroic, in his personal "tragedy" that comes from his inability to admit his mistakes and learn from them.  Instead, he fits Miller's description of pathos and the pathetic character, one who "by virtue of his witlessness, his insensitivity, or the very air he gives off, [is] incapable of grappling with a much superior force," (Miller  1728).

Willy continued to think that he was this big salesman that everyone knew and loved even though many people tried to show him that he was not the great salesman that he believed he was. Willy proved this that he when he said, “My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up” (16). This proves the point that Willy lies to make him feel like his son is this important person making him the great person he wants to be. Then later in the play Willy continued to make things up to allow himself to accept not who he was but who he wanted himself to be. This was proven when he says, “It’s true, Ben. All he has to do is go into any city, pick up the phone, and he’s making a living and you know why” (86)? Willy continues to lie to himself by talking to himself and Ben even though ben is not there because he is dead. Willy constantly lied to himself to make himself the person who he wanted so he could accept who he was as a person. Willy never was able to accept who he was as a person which eventually led to him taking his own life because he was unhappy with who he was.

Willy's Tragic Flaw and the Effect it Has Upon his Sons in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

He becomes so caught up in his life on the exterior, he fails to accomplish something numerous people in the world fail as well: self-knowledge. At the same time, Willy never attempts to do anything to assist in the situation, he buries himself in the past, causing a mental illness that includes delusions of happier times. He refuses to accept reality. Similarly to Hamlet, Arthur Miller's viewpoint of a hero relates to Willy as well. Willy represents a common misfortune that several human beings face in the world, and before he has the ability to fix it, he turns the other cheek and commits suicide; for the final time, an easy way out.

One thing that continues to come up in "A Death of a Salesman" is the fact that Willy has this huge desire to be "well liked." This is more important to him than being accomplished or having a good job. He constantly tells Linda and his kids that it is more important to be "well liked" than to be successful at work or in school. He lies to his kids about the fact that he is "well liked" which eventually leads to his two kids growing up as failures. Seeing how his lies have hurt, not only himself, but his children too, Willy decides to do what in his mind, is the only thing he can do to save help his family. He decides to kill himself and then maybe he will have a lot of people show up to his funeral which would mean that he is well liked. Of course no one shows up to the funeral but Willy 's

Willy had faith in his sons that they might will have success and wealth but they never succeeded. Willy was becoming mentally unstable when he couldn’t find success in life and saw that neither he nor his sons were able to fulfill the American dream.