Willy Loman In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

  Charley says something in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman that sums up Willy’s whole life. He asks him, "When the hell are you going to grow up” (Miller 97)?  Willy spends his entire life in an illusion, seeing himself as a great man who is popular and successful.  Willy exhibits many childlike qualities and his two sons Biff and Happy pattern their behavior after their father.  Many of these qualities, such as idealism, stubbornness, and a false sense of self-importance in the world have a negative impact on Willy’s family,

From the time Arthur Miller began writing plays, till his recent death in 2005, he had never had such a well know play as Death of a Salesman. This play was first performed in the late 1940’s. It reveals the struggle of an old, worn out, salesman who is upset with the life that he has created. With the strain of his past mistakes lurking in the back of his mind, Willy cannot handle the stress and begins to have hallucinations of the past about the things he could have changed.

The struggle for financial security and success has always been part society. I found this play is a little confusing sometimes. It gets confusing between Willy's imagination and his reality. Money and success seem like the most important things to Willy. Biff is conflicted with himself whether he should allow himself to love his father or hating him for cheating on his mother. Biff is further positioned in a confliction with his future and his goals in life, whether he should live life to please himself or his father. Willy is out chasing the American dream (Miller 72-75). Despite the fact that Willy was an adulterer, Linda stayed by his side as he lost his mind, Willy being delusional is part of his guilt, for being the cause of his son

Death of a Salesman was first written in 1949. It tells the story of Willy Loman’s life in a 24-hour period. Willy grew up without a father. His “role model” was his older brother Ben who went to Africa when he was young and became very well off. Willy was married to Linda Loman and

Analyze the role of the pf the protagonist of a salesman. Is Willy Loman a tragic hero?

The play Death of a Salesman, by playwright Arthur Miller, portrays the arrival of a salesman by the name of Willy Loman (Miller, 1949). Willy Loman is getting older, and after another unsuccessful sale, he is starting to show his age (Miller, 1949). Willy begins to encounter the inability to remember events and setting apart past memories from present ones. Willy throughout the play talks out loud to himself, reliving some scenes from his past; memories of his two sons growing up and conversations with his wife about his job (Miller, 1949). Willy Loman is in constant constant conflict with his sons as they each have a different take on what it means to have lived a successful life. After getting fired, Willy now is at a loss and he begins to plummet into past memories. By the end of the play, Willy Loman commits suicide in hopes his life insurance can provide some relief for his family.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller features Willy Loman as a tragic figure. His role in the story is plagued by shattered hopes and hardship, leading to his eventual demise. Willy Loman brings hardship on those around him through his financial and social decisions made.

Death of a Salesman In the play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, the main character, Willy Loman, is depicted as a tragic hero. Willy reached his peak in the beginning of the story and then slowly reached his dramatic downfall. Though he was not a great man, Willy Loman’s tragic flaw led to the downfall of both himself and his sons due to his high expectations. Willy Loman was considered to be the perfect husband and father by his family.

Death of a Salesman is a play that was written to take place in New York City in the late 1940’s. Willy Loman is the main character of the play who is the father of his family. The play focuses on Willy, his wife Linda, and two sons. The family lives in an apartment that is now surrounded with many buildings, which starts to make Willy feel closed in. The play focuses on Willy and the struggles he has with his family, work, and life. Willy has come to the point that he is so unhappy, he seems to lie about everything in his life. He feels the need to make his family believe that he is very successful, well-liked, and makes a lot of money. When in reality, he isn’t successful at all. His lies start to overcome his life and especially the guilt he feels from his past mistakes.

This is what Willy has been trying to emulate his entire life. Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often makes up lies about his popularity and success. At times, Willy even believes these lies himself. At one point in the play, Willy tells his family of how well-liked he is in all of his towns and how vital he is to New England. Later, however, he tells Linda that no one remembers him and that the people laugh at him behind his back. As this demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes him to become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for example, is trying to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he had the wrong dreams."

Reality conflicts with Willy’s hopes. Throughout his life, Willy has held himself to such high standards that he refuses to accept denial and or failure. By the time the play opens, Willy is suffering from crippling self-pity. He is so focused on succeeding that he can’t maintain a constant fantasy. At one point Willy calls Biff (Willy’s son) a lazy bum and just days later proceeds to tell him that he’s anything but lazy. In another instance, he calls the family car a piece of trash one day and “It’s the finest car every Built.” Denying Biff’s laziness allows Willy to hold on to the notion that someday Biff will eventually exceed his fathers expectations. Willy is constantly changing his interpretation of reality based on his psychological needs at the moment. When Willy was much younger

Arthur Miller begins his play with an excellent description of the setting of the play. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves actually watching the play and causes the reader to be able to better relate to the play. Because Death of a Salesman can be considered an emotional play, it qualifies as being a timeless work of literature, especially because it has the ability to touch the human heart. Willy Loman is a salesman, who lives in New York City with his wife Linda. From the beginning of the play, Miller makes it obvious that Willy struggles with many obstacles, such as anger and even confusion since there are many times throughout the play where Willy becomes severely confused. Many characters throughout the play,

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)

Ben Loman is Willy Loman's wealthy older brother, in the play, Death of a Salesman. The few times Ben appears in the story is in Willy’s imagination due to the fact that he is dead. Ben is a role model to Willy for many reasons. Ben appears exclusively as a false image and is not real like the remaining of the characters. Since Willy is "haunted" to some degree by Ben, it suggests a relation to his failed ambitions. In addition to being haunted by his older brother, Willy also thinks of himself as a “failure” because he does not believe he has reached his highest potential success. The significance of Ben in the Play is that he is a fantasy for Willy, and can be seen as Willy's wishes of success for him and his sons, Biff and Happy.

Death of a Salesman is a Tragedy written by Arthur Miller and takes place in New York and Boston. The story begins in the Loman household, with Willy Loman returning home from a business/road trip. Willy is having a hard time remembering his past, and distinguishing the present from his memories from the past. His wife, Linda, is trying to suggest that he request for a job in New York, rather than traveling all the time. Linda and Willy continually argue about their oldest son Biff.