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Arthur Miller s play Death of a Salesman is the tragic tale of the play s protagonist, Willy Loman. Loman is a pathetic shell of a man who displays himself to be more than he is by lying. This need to lie about many of the facts of his life is attributed to his lack of self confidence, and general disappointment with his life, and his unfulfilled dreams. Loman often contemplates suicide, dreaming about how people will actually care about him if he actually dies, because as long as he is alive, he is truly nobody. Willy is constantly pushing his oldest son Biff to be better, and specifically to be liked by people, which, Willy thinks at least, is the most important thing in life.
Willy s emphasis on the importance of being well liked is a result of experiencing not being well-liked himself. Willy s convoluted stories and lies about his life, as well as his criticism of his eldest son Biff, are meant primarily to impress people, but specifically his son Biff, and make his own dreams be fulfilled by Biff in his life, as well as to keep Biff from becoming a failure as Willy himself has. Willy is a hard working, yet very unsuccessful traveling salesman who has worked for the Wagner Sales firm for almost thirty-five years. At the age of sixty-one, Willy has just been demoted, and is now paid strictly on commission. Willy has two grown sons, both of whom live at home along with himself and his wife, Linda. Willy pays the most attention to the elder of the two sons, Biff, and he is also very critical of Biff.
Linda claims that Biff is trying to find himself, which Willy views as ridiculous, saying that it is simply too late in Biff s life to be finding himself. How can he find himself on a farm? In the begging when he was young, I thought well, a young man, its good for him to tramp around and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week (Miller 16)! Willy criticizes his son because he does not have a job, saying that this makes him lazy, which is an attempt to make him wake up and get a job and, eventually, to become a success. Willy tries to push Biff more so than he does his younger son probably because of the simple fact that he is his first child, but it could also be because of the promise he sees in Biff. The most promising attribute that Biff had was his ability to be well liked, which was very important to Willy.
Willy thought that being a likable person was one of the most important things in life. Willy thought that the success one has in life is in direct proportion with how likable they are, and how strong their people skills are. Perhaps the reason for this belief is that Willy himself has virtually no people skills, and is not very well-liked by most people. Basically, it seems like everything that Willy believes is required to be a successful business man is the same as everything that he himself is lacking. The ability to be well-liked was so important to Willy ever since he first started working at the sales firm and observed a salesman named Dave Single man who was able to stay in a hotel room, contact buyers strictly by phone, and sell more merchandise than anyone else, just because he was so well-liked and had such a good personality. Willy sees this kind of likability in his son Biff.
When Biff was voted captain of his high school football team, Willy places even more confidence in Biff, knowing all well that the kids admire and want to follow Biff. Willy believes seems to believe that since Biff has one of the main things he is lacking, a likable personality, he can do almost anything. When Biff was in danger of failing math and being unable to receive a scholarship, Willy assures his son that he will be able to sweet talk the teacher into issuing a passing grade. Willy also tells Biff that he will be much more successful than his friend Bernard, even though Bernard has much better grades than Biff, primarily because of his likable personality. Thats just what I mean. Bernard can get the best marks in school, y understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him.
Thats why I thank Almighty God youre both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. Willy Loman is here!
Thats all they have to know, and I go right through (Miller 33). Willy s concept of his failure in life is fairly accurate, especially considering what he bases success on, money. One could be very poor fiscally, but could still live a happy, successful life, but when someone bases all success on economic success, as Willy does in Death of a Salesman, they will not be happy if they are poor. Perhaps this is because the family [In Death of a Salesman], is being used as a microcosm of a success-oriented and materialistic society (Hayman 332). Which is evident in the relationship, or lack thereof between Willy and his younger son, Happy. Biff is constantly being praised by Willy more often than Happy, because he would have successes in his life, in sports or socially, while Happy would try to gain attention by announcing his successes which were not so materialistic, such as announcing he had lost weight or performing tricks to get Willy s attention.
These feats were ignored by Willy because they were not as concrete in what they proved as Biff s successes. Willy likes Biff more, although Happy seems more like Willy than Biff, for he is basically unsuccessful, and goes through life without much attention or praise. Willy and his wife are constantly struggling to make ends meet, and once he is demoted and is making less money, money is even tighter. As Willy begins to sell less and less he has to borrow money from a friend, and lies to his wife and his family saying that it is the commission for the week. When Willy lies about this, it is not so much as to impress his son, but to keep him from seeing the true failure that his father is, because Willy wants his son to be anything but a failure, so in lying he is attempting to keep his son from thinking that failing is acceptable, and thus, trying to make his son s life different from his own. Although Willy is tries and tries to push Biff to be greater than he has been in his life, it seems to be in vain.
Throughout the play, Biff is connected with stealing. Early in the play, Biff and his brother Happy discuss a time in high school when Biff was accused by Bill Oliver, a sporting goods manufacturer, of stealing basketballs. In another situation, the family needs lumber so Biff is sent by his father to go steal lumber from a construction site. This incessant association with stealing eventually lands Biff in jail later in his life an he confesses this to his parents in the end of the play: You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a suit in Kansas City and I was in jail (Miller 131). This late confession is one example which shows that Willy s constant attention and pressure on Biff to succeed where he has failed has made Biff hate himself for not fulfilling these aspirations the same way in which Willy hates himself for not being as successful in life as he would ve wanted.
Willy s is constantly switching from living in the real world and living in a dream world. He eventually has trouble distinguishing between the real world and his world of dreams. The structural principle of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman is the antithesis between dream and reality in the play dream is also self-delusion because they are based on false conceptions of ones talents and capacities (Eisinger 331). Willy crashes his car several times in a period of only a few months, because he believes he is driving his car from 1928. Willy constantly thinks he is talking to his brother Ben, when Ben left very long ago, and has not seen him in recent years. Biff is led to believe, by his father that he was once a salesman for Bill Oliver, when he really only held the position of a shipping clerk, which is an example of how Willy was trying to impress his son with lies.
This dream world that Willy is constantly in shows how Willy is unhappy in his life and tries to find happiness in other ways, sometimes through this dream world, and others through his son s life. Willy is so eager to impress people, and maybe to be noticed by someone that he constantly is contemplating suicide and the attention he would receive at his tragic funeral. It [committing suicide] is the only way he can keep his dream intact. To save his life, he has to kill himself (Heyen 336). Willy feels if he dies everyone will still continue believing he is a successful salesman, where if he lives on, it may be revealed that he is a failure. Willy fantasizes about his funeral and about how his son would see how many people would be at his funeral.
Willy is constantly lying to impress his son Biff, but really just wants to impress everyone because he has so many insecurities. Once, Linda asked if he could request a position where he wouldnt have to travel as often, and he responded by telling her and a friend that he had opened up new territory in New England. Its contacts, Charley, I got important contacts (Miller 51)! Soon it is revealed that this is not true at all, and he is a bother for the company. It is for this reason he is placed on commission only and, then later asked to take a leave of absence from the firm. Throughout the play, Willy puts pressure on his son to do well in life.
Doing well or succeeding, to Willy, was based on one s economic prosperity. Willy tries to put pressure on Biff by telling him of all of his successes, even though many are not true. Willy s main motivation to lie and create stories to portray himself as a more successful man than he really is is primarily to impress people. Impressing people is very important to Willy because of his many insecurities. These insecurities are based on his lack of success financially speaking in his lifetime.
Willy hopes that through his lies and stories that he will help make his son anything but what he himself is, a failure. Overall, this play, Miller s Masterpiece, is a sad, pathetic tale of an insecure man who lies to cover it up, and tries to convince everyone except for himself that he is a success, because no matter what, he knows that he is truly a failure. Bibliography of Works Cited 1) Eisinger, Chester E. Focus on Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman': The Wrong Dreams, in American Dreams, American Nightmares, edited by David Madden, 1970 by Southern Illinois University Press. Taken from Contemporary Literary Criticism, 1976, Gale Research Company, Detroit. pp. 327 - 337. 2) Hayman, Ronald.
Arthur Miller: Between Sartre &# 038; Society, in Encounter. 1971 by Encounter Ltd, pp. 73 - 9. ibid. 3) Heyen, William, Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman and the American Dream, in Amerikanisches Drama Und Theater im 20. Jahrhundert: American Drama and Theater in the 20 th Century, edited by Alfred Weber and Siegfried Neuweiler, Vandenhoeck &# 038; Ruprecht, 1975, pp. 190 - 201. ibid. 4) Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman.
New York: The Viking Press, 1949.
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Research essay sample on Death Of A Salesman Willy Loman
