Willy Loman's Illusions and Delusions in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Willy's two sons, Happy and Biff, were raised to think that having good looks and being well liked meant to be successful. Instead of instilling in his sons that hard work pays off,

Willy is too fond/proud of himself to realize that he sets the bar too high for himself and has goals that are out of reach

Willy believes the amount of money someone makes is equivalent to someone’s success. This is exemplified when he parrots Ben’s success in Alaska to his children, “Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. He laughs. And by God I was rich” (48). Willy repeats this as his motto throughout the play. He idolizes Ben for his achievement in Alaska, the reader is unable to discern if his success was actually as large as Willy claims it is. Willy doesn’t truly know who Ben is, but puts him on a pedestal because he was able to find wealth in Alaska. He values Ben not because of their relationship as brothers, but for his material success. Willy and Ben are juxtaposed as two different sides of the American Dream. Ben characterizes the American Dream of hard work and individualism leading to success. However, Willy has perverted this and interpreted it differently. Willy represents the new ideal of the American people, having a large sum of money and not having to work for it. He sees Ben’s success as further proof that he too should succeed.

Willy has low moral standards and control over his own actions but refuses to make changes. Biff so badly wants to be nothing like his father. Willy pushes hard to put his dreams onto Biff because he feels that it is the only way to be successful. As Biff fails to live up to Willy’s expectations, and is seen as a failure in Willy’s eyes, Willy’s ego is destroyed, thus creating his own world or reality that he begins to live in. He becomes tired and angry, and he has a false sense of success from living in his fantasy world.

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!

As Biff crashes constantly in life Willy is built up of animosity and is in denial of the fact that their failure was all his doing. “Willy has used sports to instill in his sons the twisted dreams of his diseased psyche. He filled Biff “soo full of hot air” (131) because of his minor athletic achievement and poisoned his life until Biff recognizes the falseness of the dream and escaped to start over” (Ardolino). Willy has been selling recognition and being will get them success, but never instilling hard work and consistency and success will follow; principles of success. “That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises.

He had turned out to be progressively hopeless as he'd advanced from a devoted, cherishing father, however not without blemishes, into a self-destructive, capricious man. In his universe of hallucination, Willy was that enormous fruitful sales representative, notwithstanding he secured his significant uneasiness and self-question with outrageous self-importance. Occasionally unfit to keep up this picture of quality, Willy loses hope and begs effective individuals around him for direction and support. In spite of his endeavors, it turns out to be certain that Willy Loman isn't famous, very much loved, or even great at his activity. Truth be told, he never was. Probably, he never will be. Willy is a somewhat shaky person. He tries to improve himself

In Death of a Salesman, Willy’s obsessive relationship with reliving the past causes spiraling problems when he recounts how his life lost all potential. This play mainly takes place in Brooklyn, New York and revolves around Willy Loman, a traveling businessman. He lives with his wife Linda, but his two sons, Biff and Happy are visiting him when these certain memories are relived. As his physical health is deteriorating, Willy takes this time and mindset to reflect on his failures. All his life Willy has been a dreamer, yet he never follows through with his hopes. This leaves him in a very vulnerable state full of disappointment and loss, especially because his attempts to make his son Biff be better than his father do not succeed. Throughout

Biff can go without studying; Biff can even steal; Biff is well liked. Biff is thus set up for failure. Bernard ends up a successful lawyer; Biff ends up an ordinary man, "a dime a dozen" (132). As Biff points out, he "never got anywhere because [Willy] blew [him] so full of hot air. That's whose fault it is" (131). Willy is the only one to blame; Willy is where readers shift their feelings of bitterness.

This marks the moral low point for Willy in the play because up to that point, Biff saw Willy as a caring, honest and loving father. However, his integrity is compromised and his ability to be honest with himself and with others is severely damaged. This is when Biff begins to look at is life in a new light, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be” (Miller 446). Biff has tried to live up to a false version of himself that his father created for him. He finally comes to terms with the fact that his father’s views of success for him were just

Willy essentially believed that he and his sons could do anything and achieve the American Dream. His beliefs were strong and he placed enormous expectations on Biff to have a successful future. Willy’s pride got in the way of his acceptance of the truth. In reality Willy was actually unsuccessful and was not as well-liked as he thought he was. He also refused to accept Biff’s failures in getting a good job.

Biff realizes how conformity will make or break his relationship with Willy. Willy freaks out when he hears Biff’s news about how Bill Oliver, his old boss, wasn’t going to give him a job. While Willy goes into a trance from the past Biff makes up an excuse, saying “Pop, listen! Listen to me! I’m telling you something good. Oliver talked to his partner about the Florida idea. You listening? He — he talked to his partner, and he came to me... I’m going to be all right, you hear? Dad, listen to me, he said it was just a question of the amount!” Willy calms down and goes back to being very lofty and in a wondrous state of bliss. Biff, for a majority of the play, was convinced that there was something wrong with himself not being great, but comes to find in that moment he himself is actually as normal as it comes and everyone, including Willy, needs to wake up. Biff envisions himself happy only when he is out in the West and doesn’t have his dreams smacked down and interrogated as to whether they are right or

Willy believes education is not important for his son's future. Although Biff is failing his math course and Bernard is passing Willy still accepts the fact that his son will achieve success. Being handsome, popular, and excellent in sports adds to this belief. Willy does not realize that an individual must work hard to accomplish success. He also feels he is higher in status than Bernard's father Charley because "Charley is not-liked. He's liked, but he's not-well liked." (1257) Even though he feels this way he is also jealous of Charley's business success. Willy felt too proud to even accept a paying job from Charley after his boss, Howard Wagner, fired him. The audience can see Willy's definition of success defined in the conversation he holds with Charley in Act II:

Willy expects high standards from his sons and wants them to grow up to be a salesman someday, but does not teach his sons appropriately. When Biff steals some lumber, Willy encourages Biff by praising him to be able to steal such expensive lumber. Willy does not see the immorality of his son’s actions but how much the lumber is worth. Willy is so obsess with money and being as business man that he forgets his responsibility as a father. As a father, Willy fails to tell his son what is unethical and it leads to the instability of Biff’s future. In another scene, Bernard, Biff’s classmate, informs Willy that Biff is failing math. Willy tells Bernard with ease that Bernard should give Biff the answers to the test and do Biff’s homework. Linda, Biff’s mother, disapproves such actions, and says that Biff should study math for himself. In anger, Willy replies, “There’s nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He’s got spirit, personality…” (p.27) Willy has such big expectations and pride in Biff, that he does not know that in order for Biff to be in successful, he needs to do well in school. Willy is so distracted with the future, that he forgets about the present. Willy is so focused in his sales that he fails to be a good

Willy is too fond/proud of himself to realize that he sets the bar too high for himself and has goals that are out of reach