Death Of A Salesman Willy's Tragic Flaw

At one point in the play, Willy says, “Biff is a lazy bum”(16). Moments later in the same conversation with Linda, Willy adds, “There’s one thing about Biff, he’s not lazy”(16). Even when confronted by his boys, Willy is unable to deal with the truth, that his sons won’t amount to very much at all. He ignores reality very well, and instead of pointing out that Biff hasn’t established himself yet, Willy tells Biff, “You’re well liked, Biff….And I’m telling you, Biff, and babe you want…”(26). The boys are clearly aware of their status and the status of their father, and Happy is found putting Willy’s personality in a nutshell, “Well, let’s face it: he’s [Willy] no hot-shot selling man. Except that sometimes, you have to admit he’s a sweet personality”(66). Obviously, Willie’s failure to bring up his children effectively, and his delusional thinking including denial of reality helps fortify his depleting condition and confusion.

The relationship between Willy and Biff is complicated. Actually, Biff is everything for Willy. He doesn’t do well as a salesman anymore, so this situation makes him depressed but at least there is Biff. So Willy believes that Biff will reach the success and his dreams will become true. That makes him want Biff to take some responsibility, in other words this is a big pressure on Biff. “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!” says Willy and then Linda says “He is finding himself Willy.” Then Willy answers again “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” This shows how Willy mad at him because he thinks they couldn’t reach their dreams because of Biff. Willy says “Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. I’ll put my money

He would give his mistress brand new stockings, as a gift, while Linda would mend her old ones at home. When Willy would see this, an overwhelming state of realizing all he had done wrong would come over him, he was furious with himself and the amount of guilt brought upon him, which then turned to anger that was to be taken out on Linda. “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!” (Miller 26) The guilt from his infidelity caused him to further abuse Linda. Not only was Willy’s cheating affecting his relationship with his wife, but it was also hurting his children. When Willy’s son Biff, came to him for help, regarding a math credit, he saw Miss Francis in Willy’s room and realized that his father was having an affair. The perfect image of the Loman family was then shattered in Biff’s eyes. Biff insulted Willy, yelling, “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!” (Miller 95) The perfect marriage that Biff believed his parents had, held enormous dishonesty. With his family falling apart, Willy’s disappointment grew. Willy was a family man who had so much pride in his children. He believed that his sons were outstanding scholars and athletes and would one day make excellent salesman. Like any parent he wanted them to achieve success so badly that even much after their high school careers he still found it necessary to defend and support their high school success (Miller 105) In reality Willy was building his kids up to be something

Willy’s biggest issue with his son is that he let him down by not being any more successful than him. He feels like Biff is failing on purpose just to make him look bad. Although, he has no decent job and is single; Biff has become disoriented about life. Earlier in the play Biff tells Happy, “I tell ya Hap, I don't know what the future is. I don't know - what I'm supposed to want” (Miller266). Biff once looked up to his father as a role model, but lost all faith in him once finding out that he was having an affair. Ever since he has rejected Willy’s commitment of being a husband and also a father. To add to his ruins are Willy’s ideas of how Biff should get ahead in life. Willy taught Biff that popularity was the right way to get to the top, rather than hard-work and dedication. Trying to live by his dad’s standards caused Biff to fail high school and become unable to put forth the effort to become

Willy could be seen as a villain because he never faced his issues, and never got helped. He was so caught up trying to live the American Dream; he never noticed how much he affected Linda, Biff and Happy. She hides what she feels for his sake, in the novel she says that “ With great difficulty: Oh, boys, it’s so hard to say a thing like this! He’s just a big stupid man to you, but I tell you there’s more good in him than in many other people. She chokes, wipes her eyes. I was looking for a fuse. The lights blew out, and I went down the cellar. And behind the fuse box- it happened to fall out- was a length of rubber pipe- just short.” (Arthur Miller, 59). Linda tries to help Willy with his mental illness and he just brushes her off, she tries to keep herself and him together, and bottles up her emotions. Willy ensures success in both the boy’s life, but is partial blame for ruining Biff’s life. Biff was influenced by Willy attitude, this attitude was that that Biff's athletic ability and good

In The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, it is argued weather that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. There are cases for both classifications of Willy. By definition, a tragic hero is a person born into nobility, is responsible for their own fate, endowed with a tragic flaw, and doomed to make a serious error in judgment. The tragic hero eventually falls from great esteem. They realize they have made an irreversible mistake, faces death with honor, and dies tragically. The audience also has to be affected by pity or fear for the tragic hero. In order for Willy Loman to be a tragic hero, he has to fulfill all of these descriptions. Willy Loman fits into some of

Willy’s unreasonable expectations of Biff creates a hostile relationship between Biff and Willy. Ever since Biff was in highschool, Willy always expected Biff to be very successful without instilling the tools

Willy has low moral standards and control over his own actions but refuses to make changes. Biff so badly wants to be nothing like his father. Willy pushes hard to put his dreams onto Biff because he feels that it is the only way to be successful. As Biff fails to live up to Willy’s expectations, and is seen as a failure in Willy’s eyes, Willy’s ego is destroyed, thus creating his own world or reality that he begins to live in. He becomes tired and angry, and he has a false sense of success from living in his fantasy world.

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

First, Willy Loman is deceitful when it comes to his family. BIFF: “Don't touch me, you-liar!” WILLY: “Apologize for that!” BIFF: “You fake! You phony little fake!

He believes that the only keys to success are contacts and popularity. Unfortunately, in the business of sales, Willy has outlived his contacts and his popularity (if he ever had them) and is now unable to make any money. The best example of this is when Biff failed Maths and was going to fail school Willy said he would "talk to his teacher and she'd understand".

  Willy Loman, the title character of the play, Death of Salesman, exhibits all the characteristics of a modern tragic hero. This essay will support this thesis by drawing on examples from Medea by Euripedes, Poetics by Aristotle, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, while comments by Moss, Gordon, and Nourse reinforce the thesis.

Willy was a very proud man, who required affection and wealth to feel that he had seceded and gone somewhere with his life. These attributes in Willy caused him to become the type of man who cheats, lies, treating people trying to help him poorly, and then pushing these same attributes onto his sons. This is well shown in the poor way he talks to Charley: “Funny y’know? After all highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive” (Miller 98). The quote “I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped... And in the middle of that office building and I saw- the sky. I saw all the things I love in this world... And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am i grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become something I don’t want to be?” (Miller 132), this is considered to be an important truth by Biff that his father had pushed him into somewhere he does not want to be. Willy Loman is not a tragic

Willy’s relationship with Biff and Happy also becomes strained throughout their lives. Since Biff was the older son and football star he made his father proud, and Happy was left without the praise that he needed and deserved, as he was always second best. Biff also was the one who caught his father having an affair with a woman in Boston, causing friction between himself and Willy. More importantly, Biff is extremely disturbed by his father's later behavior, including participating in imaginary conversations and reacting to his memories as though they were happening in the present. Willy's job also falls apart from the beginning of the play towards the end. Willy had been making enough money to support his family, but his unwillingness to learn new sales techniques or utilize modern technology resulted in lackluster sales and the loss of his job. Willy’s house had a mortgage until his death, implying that the family was not even secure in their own home. Finally, the family car, a symbol of pride within the Loman household, was destroyed when Willy committed suicide. This was the last example of Willy's destruction of all that was once important to him. Willy Loman, in this regard, follows Aristotle's suggestion that the tragic hero has "...a change of fortune... from prosperity to misfortune...." (Aristotle,1303)

Linda Loman is Willy’s loyal, loving wife. Linda suffers through Willy’s grandiose dreams and self-delusions. Happy Loman is Willy’s thirty-two-year-old younger son, has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he reimburses by nurturing his ruthless sex drive and professional ambition. Happy represents Willy’s sense of self-importance, ambition, and blind servitude to societal expectations. Charley is Willy’s next-door neighbor. Charley owns a successful business and his son, Bernard, is a wealthy, important lawyer. Willy is jealous of Charley’s success. Charley gives Willy money to pay his bills, and Willy reveals at one point, choking back tears, that Charley is his only friend.