Willy Chapter 18

Willy foolishly pursues the wrong dream and constantly lives in an unreal world blinded from reality. Despite his dream Willy constantly attempts to live in an artificial world and claims “If old Wagner was alive I’d be in charge of New York by now” (Miller 14). As a result, Willy often ignores his troubles and denies any financial trouble when he says “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me of course” (Miller 51). Another false segment of Willy’s dream includes the success of his two sons Happy and Biff. Biff was a high school football star who never cared about academics and now that he needs a job says “screw the business world” (Miller 61). Ironically, Willy suggests that Biff go west an “be a carpenter, or a cowboy, enjoy yourself!”, an idea that perhaps Willy should have pursued. Constantly advising his boys of the importance of being well liked, Willy fails to stress academics as an important part of life (Miller 40). Furthermore, Willy dies an unexpected death that reveals important causes of the failure to achieve the American dream. At the funeral Linda cries “I made the last payment on the house today... and there’ll be nobody home” to say that she misses Willy but in essence his death freed the Lomans from debt and the hopes and expectations Willy placed on his family (Miller 139). Very few people attend

Willy continued to think that he was this big salesman that everyone knew and loved even though many people tried to show him that he was not the great salesman that he believed he was. Willy proved this that he when he said, “My God! Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up” (16). This proves the point that Willy lies to make him feel like his son is this important person making him the great person he wants to be. Then later in the play Willy continued to make things up to allow himself to accept not who he was but who he wanted himself to be. This was proven when he says, “It’s true, Ben. All he has to do is go into any city, pick up the phone, and he’s making a living and you know why” (86)? Willy continues to lie to himself by talking to himself and Ben even though ben is not there because he is dead. Willy constantly lied to himself to make himself the person who he wanted so he could accept who he was as a person. Willy never was able to accept who he was as a person which eventually led to him taking his own life because he was unhappy with who he was.

Throughout the play, Willy’s ideas of happiness prevent him from realizing that his acts are cowardly. To him, financial success embodies happiness. His comparisons of himself to others show his idealizations. Mainly, he idolizes Ben, who walked into Africa at age seventeen and walked out four years later as a wealthy man. Willy also compares himself to Dave Singleman, a salesman he met on the road early in his career. Dave prospered as a salesman even at age eighty-four. Willy asks his boss, Howard, "What could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?" (Miller 1251). Due to his belief that money creates happiness, Willy feels that money will mend the broken

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

Throughout the story Willy makes important discoveries, which is important to be Anagnorisis; This is another example of why he is a tragic hero. A way Willy shows this trait is when he is talking to Bernard about how successful Bernard is, “I’m going to Washington… Oh, just a case I’ve got there, Willy” (91). Bernard is a lawyer and has a case to work up in Washington. Willy made an important discovery because earlier in the play when Bernard was younger, Willy thought he was not well liked by anyone due to the fact he studied too much; and would not be the successful man like he is today. Willy made a bigger discovery when he finally realized in himself, “I’m very –foolish to look at…. But they do laugh at me. I know that” (37). Willy knew he lost his touch in the game of selling. He discovered this about himself when he goes out to see clients and they don’t buy anything and make fun of

Willy did not want to see the reality in his life; all he did was regretting not going to Alaska to be successful like his brother. Thus he is blinded, living in his own illusion and imagination that he is a great man without realizing his failure in life. When Willy and his wife are having a conversation with their sons, he said: "Some day I'll have my own business, and I'll never have to leave home anymore and, they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England"(Miller, Act 2) Willy is an old salesman, he reached a point where he thinks that he can still open a business, be successful and rich. He is lost between two worlds: the flashbacks; that he keeps seeing with his brother Ben and also regretting not going on the adventures with him, and moreover the life he is struggling to live.

(132). Even while being surrounded by business, Biff looked elsewhere, the sky, with hopes of achieving his own dream. He questions his decision to steal the pen and trying to become what he doesn't want to be. All he wants is out there, waiting for him to say "I know who I am." He desperately wants to say this, although Willy prevents him from doing so.

In the play, after meeting a successful salesman, Dave Singleman, Willy said, “and when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to… be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?” (1466). Willy idolizes and envies Dave’s fame and successful career. This is when Willy form his personal definition of the American dream. By becoming a salesman like him he attempts to imitate his success by being well-liked and important like Dave.

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

Well, perhaps it could be the fact that Willy has begun to realize that his American Dream is not all that it is cracked up to be, and he is not willing to accept that fact. While this may not seem like a life or death realization, for many people it indeed is. This can be explained by Lois Tyson’s criticism of the play titled “The Psychological Politics of the American Dream: Death of a Salesman and the Case for an Existential Dialectics”, in which the American Dream is defined

Willy a sixty three year old man with a wife and two kids and he works as a traveling salesman. Willy has an image of America that is very controversial because he believes that America is the land of the free and the land of the opportunity but throughout the play you start to realize that it seems a different way. Willy’s life starts to fall apart and you start to see less and less opportunity for Willy. Willy definitely tries to live up to his land of the opportunity belief by the way that he approaches situations like talking to his boss and asking for a job change into a different department or the way dreams of his future by being known by everyone and having everybody like him and attend his funeral when he dies. Willy does not wanna be the only one living his american Willy tries to

In Willy’s meeting with Howard, Willy tries to convince Howard to give him a job by bringing up his father, the former manager of Howard’s company. Willy says, “Your father- in 1928 I had a big year. I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions.” (p.62) Willy looks at the past hoping that it can help him in the present because Willy can not face reality. Willy is desperate to get his job back and even tries reminding Howard about his father, but the reality is that Willy lost his job. After Willy loses his job, he finds his old friend Charley. Charley offers Willy a job but Willy refuses to take it due to pride and jealousy during the past. Even though Charley’s offer could help Willy pay off his debts, Willy does not accept the job. Willy’s sees the American Dream as working up the ladder himself and when Willy confuses his past with the present, his strong emotions causes him to be unable to grasp the hardships of

When scene one begins, Willy is seen as having come home from work. The kind of work that Willy does limits the time he spends at home, which explains why Linda is concerned; she wants him to ask his employers to allow him work in New York alone, which is home. In this Act, Willy can be said to be representative of the typical American who, in the modern society, strives to achieve the American Dream. Although it is not entirely clear what that dream entails, one cannot disregard that it is a belief long held in

Sadly, his overzealous attempts serve only to reinforce his son's inadequacy and lack of identity. Willy realizes toward the end of the play that he doesn't need to sell himself to his family, who loves him despite his failings. His suicide, an act of defiance of the system, which until now has defeated him, is also a tragic attempt to salvage something of his dream. Willys readiness to lay down his life to secure his dream that makes Willy a tragic yet heroic figure and one to whom in Linda's words, "attention must be paid finally." According to Miller, "the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready t put his life aside, if necessary, to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (Para 3, Miller). He is saying in this quotation that even the common man can even be tragic because occasionally the one thing that he prizes the most, his sense of self dignity can be so jaded that he would rather die than except his failure. "I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life" (Para 4, Miller). Perhaps Miller is correct, the reader sympathisizes with Willy because he is so passionate about his self preservation and pride. Willy was ready to throw his life away to be a well -liked man and successful being. He did not want to accept the fact that he failed in his occupation, so he refused to ever acknowledge his dying career. In the end his fate was that

The main theme of the plot seemed to be Willy reaching for the "American Dream". Financial success, business success, outwardly perfect family, revered by your peers, and in general respected by all. Early on in the play two things are evident to the reader; Willy 's questionable mental status, and his tumultuous relationship with his sons.