Death of a Salesman Essay

When Charley exclaims, “Fine, I’ll leave”, Willy declares, “You’re such a moron” (Miller 47), calling Charley a name because he didn’t like how Charley was playing cards. Then Linda says, “Oliver always thought the highest of him-”, Willy asserts, “Will you let me speak” (Miller 65), yelling at his wife Linda for no reason she just wants to help but Willy can’t see that at all.   After Biff claims, “I was hoping not to go out this way”, Willy assert, “May you rot in hell if you leave this house” (Miller 129),  unable comprehend that Biff wants him to own up to his mistakes and to tell Linda about the affair.

The other characters have no real interaction with Willy that would allow for development. During Willy's first flashback, Bernard appears only to remind Biff of the Regents exam. Willy refers to Bernard as a "pest" and an "anemic," and Biff mimics his father by saying that Bernard is "liked, but not well liked."

This pattern of weak moral character is evident throughout the rest of the play in both Willy and his sons. Biff doesn’t tell anyone what he saw but essentially runs away from his family. Happy isn’t unscathed in by Willy’s behavior either, although it is manifested differently. He is more a reflection of Willy in that Happy also believes he is better than everyone else as well as being a womanizer. Happy has an easier time forgiving and excusing Willy’s behavior because of the similarities in their moral character. In contrast, every time Biff returns home Willy and he end up fighting leading to Biff leaving again because Biff wants to face the truth and have better moral

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).

One could belive that every time somethig bad would happen to him he blamed everyone else but himself. Willy felt so much pressure to pay off the house dept. Making the house dept play a huge role in this play. He put so much pressure on himself and with him not doing so well at work he became so frustrated and angry. He broke his wedding vows with the woman he promised to spend the rest of his life

Willy Loman is a troubled and misguided man - a salesman and a dreamer with an extreme preoccupation with his own definition of success. Willy feels that physical impact is greater than the elements of his self-defined success. However, it is apparent that Willy Loman is no successful man, even by the audience's standards. He is still a travelling salesman in his sixties with no stable location or occupation, but clings on to his dreams and ideals. He compares his sons with Bernard, using him as a gauge of success. Nonetheless, he stays in the belief that his sons are better than Bernard. Willy recollects the neighbourhood years ago, and reminisces working for Frank Wagner, although he was also in the same condition then as now. He feels that the older Wagner appreciated him more, yet it was himself who voted Howard in. Arthur Miller presents Willy as a man with great bravado but little energy left to support it. He is always tired and has dementia, contradicting himself in his conversations and showing some memory loss, living in his world of illusions and delusions. He argues with Biff, both men without knowing why. The two sons of Willy display the physical appearance of adulthood, but their talk and attitude displays immaturity. Billy finds that he is a failure because of his lack of `success', while Happy thinks he is unfulfilled because he lacks failure.

In my opinion, Willy isn't a tragic hero for the following reasons; Willy doesn't respect his son Biff, Willy does not treat Linda well, and he cheats on his wife. WILLY: "Biff is a lazy bum!" (page 5) This proves that Willy is tired of Biff not making anything of himself and no longer respecting him. LINDA: "I just thought you'd like a change-" WILLY: "I don't want a change! I want Swiss cheese." (page 6) Linda tries to make Willy happy but ends up getting yelled at. THE WOMAN: "you just kill me [he suddenly grabs her and kisses her roughly] you kill me."(page 25) This shows Willy's love for someone else other than

Willy is an unsuccessful character whom has the false illusion that he is successful. Willy wishes to be successful and have a lifetime of happiness for himself and his family. He used to work for his friend who had passed away. However, his old boss’s son took over the company and hired Willy to travel for work with no pay.

To begin, the first theme that comes up is pride. Willy is constantly lets pride get in his way. So much so that when Willy desperately needed something, his pride would not allow him to accept it. This becomes clear when Linda asked Willy to get a New York job, and Willy replied, “ They don’t need me in New York, I’m a New England man. They need me in New England”(Act I). Willy is falsely insisting that he still an important member even though his sales have not been very good for a long time. Another instance in which his pride gets in the way is when Charley offered him a job and willy replied, “ I’ve got a job”(Act II). Willy refused a job even though he had just gotten fired from his other job. All in all this goes to show that having too much pride is not necessarily a good thing.

Willy essentially believed that he and his sons could do anything and achieve the American Dream. His beliefs were strong and he placed enormous expectations on Biff to have a successful future. Willy’s pride got in the way of his acceptance of the truth. In reality Willy was actually unsuccessful and was not as well-liked as he thought he was. He also refused to accept Biff’s failures in getting a good job.

Willy drops his bombshell on Biff and Happy in an attempt to delay hearing Biff’s description of his disappointing meeting with Oliver. As Biff tries to give Willy

This marks the moral low point for Willy in the play because up to that point, Biff saw Willy as a caring, honest and loving father. However, his integrity is compromised and his ability to be honest with himself and with others is severely damaged. This is when Biff begins to look at is life in a new light, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be” (Miller 446). Biff has tried to live up to a false version of himself that his father created for him. He finally comes to terms with the fact that his father’s views of success for him were just

I agree that most of the characters in the play are shadows of Willy’s psyche and character. There’s Ben who is his older brother that made it rich at 21 years old; and he looks up upon as a financial measure of status. Then there’s his son Biff who he puts on a pedestal at times and is trying to have him live up to all his dreams he had for himself.

Willy feels like having pride is the epitome of having success but the amount of pride tha Willy displays sets him back tremendously. In the play Willy is very prideful, he believes that he is an extraordinary salesman which is not bad, but in this case having to much pride is Willy's greatest downfall. Willys job is suffering because he lets his pride gets in the way of his work which leads him to losing sales and ultimately going broke.

The flashbacks of Willy’ life are significant to his downfall. Memories of failure and regrets can rule their life with negativity and that is what happened to Willy. Because of this, he loses his identity and goals in life. Willy is unable to accept change and is hurts him through out the story.