Willy Flaws

Willy is awfully delirious throughout the entire play. Throughout the play Willy encounters these flashbacks, a blast to the past. These flashbacks are used to show the mental state of Willy, and they are an escape for him. Willy isn’t aware that he was a tragedy from the beginning due to his mental state. In his delirious world, he was a successful salesman. But in reality Willy isn’t well liked, or a successful businessman. Instead he is a fake, he has betrayed Linda, his wife by cheating on her. By having this affair is also a sort of escape. This woman who has cheated on Linda with has given him everything he’s needed. Instead of Willy giving himself a reality check, he never realizes the full truth of himself. Willy doesn’t want to admit he is a failure, instead he wants to go through his life blindly. Willy never wanted to accept himself for who he was, nor did he want to accept the people around him for who they were. Willy faced flaws as any other human being but his flaw was his obsession over this idealistic dream. Willy and his family not being financially stable is a consequence of Willy’s actions, however, in this world that he has created in his delirious state of mind it was a complete different set of circumstances. In the end Willy has a downfall and commits

He goes to such extremes that he fools himself into a deep state of depression (Clurman, 133). The Dream that Willy strives so badly to achieve is one filled with flaw upon flaw. First of all, he's dreaming of all the wrong things. Biff says "He had all the wrong dreams. All, all wrong, he never knew who he was" (Miller, 177). Willy is a man of confusion and distress (Clurman, 134). He should be longing for things such as love and companionship rather than money (Garrison). Willy led a meaningless life where his wife was a part of the problem rather than the solution. Her supposed undying loyalty and love only fueled the fire rather than solve the problem (Garrison). "In her admiration of his dreams, it is lethal." (Garrison). In the essence of support, Linda is Willy's number one fan, but to no prevail, she only feeds his lies. Another problem of Willy's dream is that he gives himself too much credit. He continually goes on in the play about how he is well know in all of New England as a great salesman (Miller, 121). But in actuality, he is a mediocre, aging has-been. He puts on a mask for the most detrimental person: himself. It is the lying to himself that kills Willy's soul. His constant striving of a goal that a man of his nature just could never achieve is extremely harmful to his sanity. Biff says, "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" Willy replies, "I am not a dime a dozen!

I believe that Willy’s tragic flaw is his inability to gain satisfaction from his life. Willy chases fantasy’s instead of accepting what his life is. He is so delighted in his fantasy that he would do anything to keep it. He is blinded to reality and cause his sons to be too. I see Willy’s tragic flaw on Act II. Biff realizes Willy’s rejection to reality and says, “I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.” (Miller 1510). Willy has not only himself living in his fantasy world, but his family too. The Catastrophe that befalls Willy is his decision to take his own life. Before he commits suicide, he has an obsession with his seeds. “I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't

Willys strong belief in the American dream is ultimately what ruined him. In an effort to make himself feel better, Willy denies his reality and lives in a world of illusion. “ Miller is trying to get across the fact that anyone even the most simple and most common of people can be considered tragic heros. Miller uses Willy as an example of the all too common problem regarding the struggle and fight of ordinary people flawed with denial and failure. Willy represents the millions of people who start off with immense hopes and enthusiasm, but end up like willy; defeated, worn out, and lost. Like many others in life Willy continues to struggle with debt and the question of what went

However, not only does Willy represent "everyman", through his faults we can begin to see a bigger problem-the problem of capitalism. This is because the same rationale that creates his drive and superficiality also creates his weaknesses which are his superficiality, jealousy, his lost of integrity and his role as a manipulator. Willy's superficiality is represented by his adherence to the importance of looks and physical appearance and his emphasis on being like rather than being a good person :"the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates a personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want." (Act 1, Part 3, pg. 2). This is also seen in his relationship to his two sons, while he praise his son attractive son Biff, who as a high-schooler was popular and well liked, he pays less attention to youngest Happy, who turns out to be more successful. This superficiality also seen in his relationship to his neighbor,

As a salesman, Willy associates popularity with success. He believes any person could bring success into life through fame. Willy sees the American Dream, which is to gain wealth and a better life with hard work, as a simple and easy goal. He thinks of success as an easy task for people who are “well-liked”, due his misinterpretation of the success of the idols he has decided to follow. Instead of working hard and educating himself in methods of success, Willy focuses completely on his level of popularity, which results in Willy’s unsuccessful career as he continues to age. Not admitting his struggles causes much turmoil in his family, but he knows his ability to achieve the American Dream becomes more feeble as time goes by. Through his increasingly

Willy started to become delusional. He started to merge the past and the present together. He couldn't distinguish reality from past life. He believed this was lowering his self-worth. Linda even told the boys “attention, attention must finally be made to such a person. You call him crazy- you don't have to very smart to know what the trouble is. This man is exhausted. I tell you there’s more good in him than other people.” His wife knew he was a good man but had a lot of pressures on top of everything that they were going through. Biff even told Miss Forsythe that his father was “a fine, troubled prince. A hard working unappreciated prince.” Willy had many redeeming qualities but his fatal flaw ended up killing him in the end and that is a true

Willy’s lose between the present and the past results from him trying to flee the reality that he lives in. Willy can see that Biff continues not doing anything with his life hence he calls him a “lazy bum” (Act I) then right after admitting it he realizes that this would mean his son’s failure and he immediately corrects himself saying : “And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff- he’s not lazy” (Act I).This contradiction results from Willy’s inability to admit that both he and his sons failed in life, that they decide hide in the same house together, unable to face the realities of life. And as years pass, these contradictions grow inside of Willy more as he fails to distinguish between the reality and the

Willy worked in Howard 's company for 34 years. Howard is Willy 's old boss 's son, who does not appreciate his previous work experience. He begs and pleads for his job and continues to offer lower wages, and in the end gets fired. After getting fired, Willy is forced to continue struggling as a result looks down on his son Biff even more because he has not mounted up to the man in Willy’s eyes. Willy is very self deluded throughout the play. He constantly has fragmented memories, recollections and re-creations of the past. That 's what leads him to become irrational and not being able to transition between his past and present. He constantly yells and apologies right after. He has a determined mindset which can be a little overwhelming. He never gives up on his goals to become like his brother. Willy is also suicidal. Biff finds a baby bottle nipple with holes in it, symbolizes Willy inhaling gas.

To further this idea, later on in the text Willy says to Biff, his eldest son, “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” showing how Willy expects greatness from the Individual, with no help or guidance from others. (Miller, Act 1) Willy feels that people should be able to work by themselves to achieve their success, which stems from the fact that his father left him at a very early age. Willy was left with only his older brother Ben, a man who played dirty and got lucky with his high success. This idea also illustrates why Willy doesn’t have much regard for Biff, his own son. Willy puts his and own ideas ahead of the emotional well being of his kin. Then the Woman comes into play, and Willy’s relationship with her only highlights his hyper-individualistic personality -- as well as how little he really cares

Each member of their family is living in denial about one thing or another. In act 1 of the play Willy states “Certain men just don’t get started 'til later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F Goodrich.” about his son Biff. Willy refuses to think his son isn’t successful. Instead he just believes it will take him longer to become a “successful businessman” despite the unlikelihood that will ever happen. He tries to live vicariously through Biff because he also refuses to accept that he himself is a mediocre salesman at best and refuses to take a different job that would help him and his family out substantially. There is nothing wrong with perseverance and never giving up but with Willy’s

It is a technique he uses all of his life. He still believes that his sons will “make it big”, when on the contrary, he did not even teach them the basics of honesty and fairness. Willy’s affair shows his unfaithfulness, which is also an inability to focus on accomplishing at least one thing effectively. He avoids reality and becomes the victim of his own weaknesses, as a result, committing suicide. His death marks the end of his lifelong failures, but does not result in the respect he anticipated from Biff, does not show that he had many friends, and does not help his family in their financial struggles.

Willy's downfall, in my opinion, started at some point earlier in his life. Willy at one point reflects on his affair with the "other woman". The peak of his fall is at the time his son Biff comes to meet him in Boston after failing math. While there has always been some strain on Willy for his cheating on his wife it came to a head when he was caught by Biff in the hotel room with the other woman. Biff was crushed evidenced by his emotion state, crying and sitting on the suitcase. Biff tells his father he's "just a liar" and directly disobeying his fathers request for help in packing.

However, begin with Willy’s letdown of the American Dream is a big part of the conflict in the play. The essential conflict is between how we envision ourselves and what the reality is : the conflict amongst self we envision and what is a reality. Willy imagines that being "well liked" by other is the key to success as a salesman. It's challenging from the script to know if Willy happened to be a good salesman; the suggestion is that he was just an average person.

Willy is apparently suffering from some sort of mental or emotional issues. These issues are causing him to conversations with his brother Ben, who has already passed away, and re-play past events in his mind. At times, Willy speaks aloud to his brother and even when re-living moments with Biff. Biff and Willy are obviously harboring ill feelings towards one another, but neither are willing to bring the reason into light. In Act II we discover Biff had discovered his father was having an extra-marital affair. Biff, already distraught over not graduating, was crushed. He idolized his father and could not believe he would do this to his mother. To spite his father, Biff did not finish school and Willy took this as spitting on him. Through the years the resentment grew to the point they had a non-existent relationship. Willy's