Willy Loman In Arthur Miller's A Death Of A Salesman

In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s character, Willy Loman, is desperately trying to achieve the unattainable American Dream. Throughout the play, Willy encounters many challenges that have derailed his course and his perseverance drives him and his family insane.

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.

Willy Loman works as a salesman– and not a very good one. He has been living in the shadow of many successful people around him and constantly pleads for their guidance. Seemingly losing his mind, career, and total belief system in the matter of days, Loman becomes frantic to guide his son Biff to success because he is no longer able to chase the American Dream on his own. Now living through his unwilling son, Willy’s

Because of Willy' incapability to accept Biff for who he is, Willy's failure increases. Willy wants Biff to be the best because he might be a failure as a salesman but he does not want to be a failure as a father. But in some ways he is a failure as a father because he never lets Biff be his own person. It is always about what Willy wants, a "his way or the highway" sort of deal. His not accepting Biff for who he is causes Biff not succeed and because of this Biff and Willy failure becomes one in the same .

Willy Loman, the central character in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a man whose fall from the top of the capitalistic totem pole results in a resounding crash, both literally and metaphorically. As a man immersed in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Willy Loman views himself as a victim of bad luck, bearing little blame for his interminable pitfalls. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to devastate his own life as well as the lives of those he loved; it was his distorted set of values.

Willy Loman’s family and few friends are affected by his mental breakdowns brought on by his career and disappointment with Biff. In high school Biff was the star of the football team until he failed his mathematics course which led to Willy’s anger, frustration and disappointment towards Biff. His wife is especially concerned with Willy’s relationship with Biff, saying “There is no time for false pride, Willy. You go to your sons and you tell them that you’re tired. You’ve got two great boys, haven’t you?” (Miller 83). Willy, however, has other things on his mind. He is upset about the current industrial atmosphere. This is seen when he comments:

Various numbers and symbols throughout Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, highlight an important equation worth noticing that prove Willy Loman’s frame on life. Success is equal to money; money is greater than life; success and money lead to fame and name brands, which lead to ultimate happiness. A man, more living than dead in his own dream fails to interpret the importance of life any other way. Because of his failed outlook, he believes his self worth is better off dead than alive. His lack of honesty and impersonation of a man contrary to himself are of his biggest failures in pursuing a superficial dream that consequence to his death.

Willy Loman, the protagonist in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is a character lacks self-confidence. Willy passionately believes in the American Dream as a way to achieve accomplishments and be wealthy, however he does not accomplish it and his sons too. His sons struggle to do their father's hopes, while Willy’s delusions starts to affect his real life under the challenging realities of life, his cerebral condition starts to deteriorate. The pressure strains appear because of this American Dream, and because of the general necessities Willy initiates the main conflict of Death of a Salesman.

Willy Loman, the lead character in Miller’s play, had dreams which consisted entirely of being important, well known, and most importantly, well-liked. He would spend his entire adult life trying to become exactly like the man that ignited his hopes and dreams of becoming a salesman; however, it becomes apparent that Willy is incapable of accepting

This lack of awareness on Willy’s part that he was focusing on the wrong dream--the desire to make money--caused Willy intense displeasure in his work later in life. This misguided path to personal happiness not only interfered with Willy’s life decisions, but it drastically affected Biff and Happy’s perception of success because Willy did not stand up for what he truly believed. This is most easily seen when Biff comes home with a football and Willy--though he is fully aware that Biff stole the sports equipment--fails to warn Biff about the dire consequences of such actions and brushes the issue off. Time and time again, Willy ignores Biff’s record of thievery until he is informed that the police are after Biff for theft. “Shut up! He’s not stealing anything!” (51) Willy denies not only any wrongdoing on Biff and Happy’s part but as well as on his part as a parent, just as he did when Biff stole the football. “Loaded with it. Loaded! What is he stealing? He’s giving it back, isn’t he? Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things.” (41) This animosity towards theft is countered by Willy’s earlier comment when he faced a scenario where Biff stole a ball from school and Willy somewhat willingly went along with the idea. “Willy, examining the new ball: Where’d you get a new ball? Biff: The coach told me to practice my passing. Willy: That so? And

   "In his early sixties he knows his business as well as he ever did. But the unsubstantial things have become decisive; the spring has gone from his step, the smile from his face and the heartiness from his personality. He is through. The phantom of his life has caught up with him. As literally as Mr. Miller can say it, dust turns to dust. Suddenly, there is nothing" (Internet 1). The New York Times has expressed the tragedy in the ‘Death of a Salesman’ with no inaccuracy. The phantom of his life has been the American Dream that he has longed for and has not successfully achieved. Willy has terminated his life as an act of cowardice because of the failure of his

Willy was aware of both his family and social responsibilities and never lost sight of what society expected of him-- even after living a tortured life. Willy Loman had two mentors in life, a fellow salesman and his brother Ben who motivated him to achieve his dreams in life. The success of his mentors led him to create a distorted value system that he later passed to his two sons (Hays &Kent, pp. 4). His two son’s Biff and Happy were constantly affected by Willy’s expectations in life. Although the play emphases on the psychological damage imposed on Biff, it also showed that Happy suffered due to his father’s beliefs and attitudes. Linda, Willy’s wife, although tries her best to be a perfect mother, goes to conflicting lengths to encourage her husband to succeed in his daily endeavors despite the challenges. She does this in times of crisis and their daily lives placing their son’s reputation to a position of less important value.

Willy thought he was a failure to his family due to the fact that he couldn’t own a successful business. When really he was a failure because he never gave his family what they really needed which is a loving dad and wife. That just goes to show that if you have too much greed internal conflict will take over and will ultimately end you with failure. He also believed that his family would be better off with him dead considering that they would get life insurance money and wouldn’t have to live with his busness mistakes that he made in his

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)