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Throughout the play the Loans cannot distinguish between reality and illusion. Willy Loan is hopelessly lost in false illusions. He s working on straight commission, and not earning enough money to pay his bills. And as he gets older, he has trouble distinguishing between the past and present (illusion and reality) and is often lost in flashbacks. This illusion problem brings Willys downfall. For Willy is also unable to see change.
His sons, Biff and Hap, are also failures, but Willy does not let himself see this. He wants his kids, especially Biff, to succeed and lead better lives then he did. He believes that to be well liked is to be successful. Unfortunately the major conflict throughout the play has to do with the fact that Willy is in denial that his boys are failures. Willy cannot see who he and his sons really are. He sees himself and his sons as successful men that have everything that it takes to succeed in business.
Unfortunately in reality he and his sons will not succeed at all. Willy had an affair with a woman he met on sales trip and was caught by Biff. Therefore Willy lost all respect from Biff and they do not get along. The conflict between the two of them is what the story of the play revolves around. Biff was a star football player in high school, with scholarships to two major universities. He flunked math his senior year and did not graduate.
He was going to go to summer school but when he caught Willy cheating it changed Biffs view of his father and everything that Biff believed in. He then became a drifter for fifteen years and arrested for stealing a suit. But now, he has come home. Willy wants dearly for Biff to become a business success, but Biff is torn between wanting to please his father and his dreams to work on a cattle ranch.
Eventually, Biff finally sees the truth and illusions that Willy lived on. Even though Biff is destined to no greatness, he no longer had to struggle to understand what he wanted to do with his life. Unfortunately the second son stayed in his father s illusion and did not come to this realization. Hap lived in an apartment in New York. He was constantly with another woman, trying to find his place in life and trying to be noticed by his parents. He even tried to be on Willys good side and keep him happy, even if it means living the lies and illusions that Willy lived in.
Because of this in the end of the play, Hap cannot see reality. Like his father, he is destined to live an unsuccessful life trying for something that will not happen. He claims that his father had a good dream, the only dream a man can have to come out number one man. He fought it out here, and that he was going to win it for him. Willy eventually commits suicide so that Biff can have the insurance money to become successful with and Linda, Willys wife, knew that Willy was trying to commit suicide, but did not stop him because she does not want to embarrass him.
She lets it continue because she is not one to cause trouble. She was the peacemaker in the family. She is always trying stood between Willy and her sons. She was protective of Willy and understood that Willy was tired and is a man at the end of his rope She wanted him to be happy even when the reality of the situation is bad. In the play there were also a lot of symbols. One example was Uncle Ben s character and the jungle.
The jungle was a symbol of life, and diamonds of success. Another was the garden. Willy is always discussing the idea of planting a garden. The garden was a symbol of Willy s need to leave something behind for people to remember him by.
Something that people will think about and remember him as a great man. Willy never achieved success in life, and he also never planted his garden until the end, but it was assumed that it would never grow.
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Research essay sample on Illusions That Willy Lived Illusions That Willy Biff
