Death of a Salesman Illusion vs Reality

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

“We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house.” This quote is said by Biff Loman himself. Willy Loman is the father of Biff and Happy Loman, and the husband of Linda. The Loman’s are an average working class American family. In the play, The Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, the Loman’s go through very difficult circumstances throughout the play. These circumstances are not exactly obvious but they are shown throughout the play. The Loman’s are a very dysfunctional family, they are not able to be honest with one another, and also it is very difficult for them to get along. Lastly, Biff and Happy’s father Willy Loman has his mind set on the American dream also

    In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, a major theme and source of conflict is the Loman family's lack of morality.  This is particularly evident in the father, Willy Loman.  Willy has created a world of questionable morality for himself and his family.  In this world, he and his sons are men of greatness that "have what it takes" to make it in the competitive world of business.  In reality, Willy’s son Biff is a drifter and a thief, his son Hap is continually seducing women with lies, while Willy does not treat his wife with respect and lies to everyone.

The line between reality and illusion is often blurred in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. Whether it is incorporated in the content or the actual structure, this struggle between recognizing reality from illusion turns into a strong theme; it eventually leads to the downfall of Willy and his family. Willy is incapable of recognizing who he is, and cannot realize that he, as well as his sons, is not capable of being successful in the business world. Happy and Biff both go through some battle between reality and illusion that cause a collapse in some part of their lives. The line between Willy’s flashbacks and current time also send him into turmoil when he cannot distinguish between the two.

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

"Death of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, is a play that tells the story of a traveling salesman, Willy Loman, who encounters frustration and failure as he reflects on and experiences his own life. Willy's quest for the American Dream leads to his failure because throughout his life, he pursues the illusion of the American Dream and not the reality of it. His mindset on perfection, his obsession with success, and his constant reminiscence of the past and foretelling of the future, all contribute to his defeat in the end.

It would be exceedingly heart-breaking and sorrowful for the individual to sees his own father with another woman. With no one to share the secret with, Biff keeps the burden on himself, which ultimately breaks him apart. Biff however, learns to move on, by taking many unusual jobs. Biff nonetheless is greatly depressed by his father’s extra-marital relationship, resulting in him never completely finding his true passion in any of them. He attempts to reconcile himself by forgetting the past, but is never actually able to do so, because it is quite evident how badly WIlly affected Biff. This is not only due to the fact that his father had an affair, but also because the man Biff idolized and followed, turned out to do such a sickening deed. Willy had always motivated Biff and gave encouraging reasons when he did something wrong. When Biff comes to Boston, he argues that his math teacher did not give him enough marks. His father, instead of scolding him for not trying hard enough, assures him that he will talk to her. He does this because he wants Biff to succeed in life. Biff recognizes this and knows his father is the mentor he needs to become prosperous in life. Biff is devastated, when the one person he truly had faith in, betrays him to such an extent. Biff genuinely believed in his father, and wanted to become a man like him. Willy’s affair with The Woman came to Biff as a shock, one so great that the whole world slipped from beneath his legs. This caused Biff to never forget his father’s deeds, because it was that event that obstructed him from pursuing his

Doubt. An affair. Secrets. When one does things one regrets it ends up coming back to that person in the future hurting the people that care the most. In the play, Death Of A Salesman, Arthur Miller addresses the topic of Abandonment and Betrayal. He implies that the Loman family is suffering from Willy Loman’s fantasies. Biff Loman, Willy’s son, suffers the most from Willy’s phantasm. The false fraudulence that he gave Biff, led to the discouragement that Biff had for him.

The lives of the Loman’s from beginning to end seems troubling, the play is centered on trying to be successful or trying to be happy, and the sacrifice which must be made of one to achieve the other. The environment that these characters live in encourages them to pursue the American dream, which can be said to devalue happiness through the pursuit of material success. Death of A Salesman written by Arthur Miller has several themes that run through the play, one of the most obvious is the constant striving for success. Willy Loman put his family through endless torture because of his search for a successful life. Willy, Biff, and Happy are chasing the American dream instead of examining themselves

A major theme and source of conflict throughout Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is the Loman family's inability to distinguish between reality and illusion.  This is particularly evident in the father, Willy Loman.  Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family.  In this world, he and his sons are men of greatness that "have what it takes" to make it in the business environment.  In reality, none of them can achieve greatness until they confront and deal with this illusion.

Biff is very tired and agitated after his experience with Bill Oliver. After taking the pen, he ran down eleven flights of stairs and then had to make it to the restaurant. WIlly was just as upset after being fired by Howard. Biff and WIlly get into it, and things boil over. Biff runs out of the restaurant and Happy follows in pursuit with his and Biff's dates. This makes Willy upset. He goes home and starts to plant a garden.

The story "Death of the Salesman," by Arthur Miller, was shared about a conflict of Willy that inability to distinguish between the reality and illusion in his life to be success. It is a great story, it gives me and the reader a sense of novelty about a American man with a dream to make a lot of money in his life. Also, the main character Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family in life with all these dream, the betrayal, and abandonment in society. Many people believed that they want to be successful in life. However, the road makes everyone wants to be successful is not the same for each of them in the world. They will overcome with the obstacles on the road of success with all the barriers as same as Willy did in his

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is the story of a man much like Miller's father, a salesman, "whose misguided notions of success result in disillusionment" (Draper 2360). The suppression of the main character, Willy Loman's, true nature is a result of his pursuit of a completely misguided dream. The fraudulent and miserable existence this generates is accentuated by the father-son relationship he shares with his son Biff.

Biff and Happy once deeply respected and looked to their father for advice and encouragement, as in the past Linda says “few men are idolized by their children the way you are”⁶, but as they realise his advice was false and he had been living a lie throughout life. As soon as Biff finds out about his father’s affair he no longer respects him and Willy remains unable to win back his trust. “You fake! You phony little fake”⁷. Willy feels that by his suicide, it will prove to Biff that he was truly committed to providing for his family. He still believes that Biff will become successful by having the money from his life insurance showing how he never learnt from his mistakes. “Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket? ...When the mail comes he’ll be ahead of Bernard once more”⁵. It is more tragic that Biff is the one who realises that “he had the wrong dreams”⁴ at his funeral. Rather than feeling proud, Biff he pities his father. Ironically it is