The Confusion Between Illusion and Reality in Death of a Salesman

While the play primarily focuses on Willy’s dream, Death of a Salesman also observes Biff and his American Dream, which may be construed as the “right” one. Compared to his father’s, Biff’s dream is a simple one: own a ranch and labor in the countryside close to nature, happy and content. And yet as his father increasingly pressures him to pursue a dream more aligned to his own, Biff experiences an identity crisis of sorts, desperately seeking to please Willy by taking a job in business but always failing in his efforts. Eventually, he realizes that he cannot be his father, and, at Willy’s funeral, contrasts his earlier statement regarding Willy’s state of mind with one regarding his own person: “I know who I am, kid” (Miller 111). Though at the start of the play it was Willy who thought Biff lost, it is now the reverse. Willy, with his aspirations for renown and major success, found himself perpetually adrift in the world, struggling to make ends meet and maintain his family ties. And yet while Willy suffered at the hands of his American Dream, Biff prospered (although not monetarily) in his “proper” American Dream, experiencing true contentment in his craft. While Willy faced constant confusion and an almost bipolar personality disorder owing to his erroneous endeavors, Biff’s main insecurities and difficulties were those brought on by his father’s notion of success. In other words, Willy’s American Dream caused nothing but suffering for him and those he loved, while Biff’s American Dream would have allowed him peace of mind had it not been for his

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is the well-developed protagonist of the story. Willy struggles throughout the story with daydreams and delusions that he confuses with reality. These delusions have a huge effect on the story and greatly impact Willy’s life. Willy has a difficult time keeping his bills paid with his job as a traveling salesman. He works long hours and drives long distances for very little success. His delusions cause him to believe that his work is successful when it is far from it. “Willy is self-deluded, believing wholeheartedly in the American Dream of success and wealth. When he fails to achieve this, he commits suicide—yet until the end he never stopped believing in this American Dream” (Sickels).

In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller establishes Charley, a humble and successful salesman as the foil to Willy Loman, a prideful and arrogant man. Charley is the perfect character to help depict Willy’s flaws. Although the two contrast with each other, their characteristics help maintain a balance between them. Willy Loman lives in his own world, where he believes that in order to be successful, one must be well liked with a great appearance. “The man who makes an appearance…is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 1568). These are obvious words from Willy which proves that he does not believe in hard work. He instills within both of his children that looks and personality are all that matters. The characteristics of Willy allow us to grasp the idea that he lives within a false reality. He is a man living within a child’s fantasy based off of the life of Dave Singleman. The very words he spoke against his neighbor Charley and his son, Bernard, are the very words that prove him wrong.

In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the eldest son, Biff, loses faith in his father because he caught his father having an affair with a woman at the hotel. Before the ordeal, Biff had looked up to his dad and trusted what he said, he believed his father had integrity and after discovering the truth he doesn’t trust that his father is an honest man. This is important in terms of the theme of delusion/avoidance of painful reality because Willy chooses not to be honest to his profession and dreams so he is stuck in a vicious cycle of pain and shame of his life. Willy never face the reality that he isn’t the best business man and that it is just not his dream, he then faces delusions that he is great at his job because he is living the American

        Willy is like an impetuous youngster with high ideals and high hopes.  Children always have high hopes for their

In Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman, the fear of change controls Willy’s decisions, creating distance between he and Biff, leading to Willy’s suicide. Willy avoids change in order to maintain his false reality. Willy is unable to create a true life while being trapped in his past. His static expectations clash with Biff’s need for the truth. Willy’s fear is projected unto other characters, distancing him from them.

As a salesman, Willy shows he perceives himself highly when talking to Linda about his job: “I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England” (14). One can also see Willy’s inflated sense of self-worth when he talks to his children about his job: “They know me, boys, they know me up and down New England... I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own” (31). However, even though he is extremely confident about his value as a salesman to his family, the reality of Willy’s reputation at his job is almost completely opposite: “I’m fat. I’m very—foolish to look at... they do laugh at me” (37). Although he essentially brags to his family about his expertise in business, Willy acknowledges the reality that his career is much less successful than he expects it to be. In fact, the inner turmoil inside of Willy from his unrealistic expectation of himself of being a fantastic salesman leads Willy to become mentally unhealthy, and eventually results in Willy committing suicide when he believes that he doesn’t have any self-worth anymore. Willy’s previous inflated self-worth is demonstrated yet again at his funeral, when no one shows up even though Willy thought he had a lot of friends from his job: “Why didn’t anybody come...

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

The success attained by Willy?s role models, his father, Dave Singleman, and Ben, is what he envisions to be the American Dream. He only visualizes the end product, being successful, and not the process they may have gone through to achieve that success. Willy?s father sold flutes and made that his living. In an encounter with his thoughts of the past, Willy listens to Ben, his brother, who refers to their father by saying, "Great Inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime" (49). Willy assumes that by being a salesman, like his father was, he is automatically guaranteed success, and that it wasn?t something that he would have to work for. Material success, such as money, luxury, and wealth, and popularity are his goals and his definition of success. On the other hand, self-fulfillment and happiness through hard work is not. By only focusing on the outer appearance of the American Dream, Willy ignores the

Even with the knowledge that he was destined to kill his father and wed his mother, his ignorance of his birth is his undoing. Willy’s ignorance is less tangible: he doesn’t understand what it takes to become successful, nor does seem to have a flexible definition of what success is. His narrow view precludes him from finding work he enjoys, robs him of time with his family, and leave him alienated from his adult children. This leaves him doubly bitter at the end, as he has emerged a failure, and he hasn’t even enjoyed life along the way. While neither man is truly blameless in his troubles, it is difficult to suppress empathy for those who are ruined by ignorance. Neither man could know that he did not know.

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.

Families always have their share of problems. Some may be minor such as having to cope with a disobedient teenager or an irritable child. Others may be more serious and sometimes beyond repair, like having to deal with lack of communication, secrets being kept from one another or possibly a temperamental father. An example of this dysfunctional family can be found in the tragic play Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller. The family presented in this play is the Loman family. They drown themselves in each others lies and dreams in hope of solving their problems, only to cause the destruction of their family. Until you are ready to face reality, living in an illusive world, will lead your life to be full of misery. Willy Loman, the

An individual’s ability to successfully recognize the reality from illusions is significantly influenced by their understanding of themselves. Many choose to use self-perception to prevent themselves from the realization of living through self-deception. However, in Arthur Miller’s modern play, Death of a Salesman, Miller explores the relationship between self-deception and reality through the character development of Biff Loman. Initially, Biff’s perception of himself is tremendously influenced by his father, Willy Loman, who unknowingly, lives a life full of illusions. As a result, these illusions prompt Willy to set unrealistic expectations for Biff. However, as the play progresses, Biff realizes the impracticality of these expectations

In the novel Death of a Salesman, the audience comes across a dysfunctional family where Willy is one of the main characters is a salesman and the father of two boys. Willy had been a salesman for many years looking to attain the American Dream. Linda Willy’s wife always supports and protects Willy from the judgement of his son Biff as long as those of other people. Biff and Happy are Willy and Linda Loman’s sons both are raised with the mentality that if a person wants to be successful they must be well liked and well known. Due to Willy’s childhood background and the misfortune of not having a father figure to guide him as he was growing up he confuses success with nurturing and love. This is what he shows his kids, he constantly tells them that success comes from being well known and well liked instead of telling them that success not only comes from being well liked and known but it also comes from hard work and motivation to prosper. Willy, Linda, Happy , and Biff are the center of attention in the novel they live in dreams and not reality. Charley and Howard are minor character that have an extremely important role in the play.

Willy’s obsession with success leads to the start of him living in his own fantasy world. He lives in the past, for there was hope for him then, but now he is completely subject to failure. Willy’s demise could have been avoided had he changed his dream, and had he not conformed to society. In the end his dream did not pay off, and he ultimately fell victim to the American Dream, and the deceitful ideals of freedom that factored into the