Preview

Death Of A Salesman Willy Loman

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
645 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death Of A Salesman Willy Loman
In Arthur Miller's “Death of a salesman “ we learn all about tragedy and happiness. Willy Loman, the main character is a very charismatic person, he has bursts of happiness and bursts of anger and sadness. His two sons Biff and Happy contribute to his mood in many different aspects, we start to see how relationships mold and how they fall. Through Willy's actions the reader can see Willy is a chronic liar throughout the story.

Willy loman starts off this book with a great attitude and sense of direction. Page 21 Willy comes back from a business trip smiling and laughing. His two boys, Biff and Happy were ecstatic to see him, smiling and saying “Pop”! “Pop”!. “ Did you knock them dead pop?” Willy replies with a piercing grin, “ knocked em dead in province slaughtered them in Boston!” Willy believes he is this fantastic business man, and that everyone knows the name “Willy Loman”. He keeps trying to get his son Biff to become a businessman like himself and bath in riches, even though Willy is not such a success as he thinks he thinks he is. On Page 23 Willy is
…show more content…
Throughout Death of a Salesman we constantly see willy lying and believing that he is a great businessman to everyone's face. Page 59 Willy gets sick and tired of lying, “ I tell yah Howard, speaking frankly between the two of us, y’know - I’m just a little tired. Willy is getting tired of all the lies he's told. He is wearing a backpack full of lies, but they are just too darn heavy. Every week Willy has to go to Charlie and asks for fifty dollars, this of course puts even more weight on willy making him more and more stressed. Page #43 Willy says “I am keeping an account of everything, remember. I’ll pay every penny back.” Willy has no job, he owes money, and he is arguing constantly with his son Biff. He's stuck in a cavern trying to climb out, but it's just that, it's a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Deaths of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a salesmen who is trying to achieve the American Dream just like everyone else in the world. In his head he believes to be this well liked and huge successful salesmen. In reality he is more of a self-conscious man who tries to live his fantasy he has in his head while being deceitful to not only himself but his own family as well. Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy has several slogans that he attempts to live his life by.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Willy Loman is the main character in Miller’s, Death of Salesman. Throughout the play, he struggles with his work ethic and well-being. In the story, Willy Loman is a sales man that is unable to accept him and society. In his older years gets fired from his job. His son is unable to receive a loan from the bank to start his own business. Willy affected by guilt kills himself, that way his son Biff is then able to collect his insurance money and become an entrepreneur. Willy does have flaws in his character that make him partially responsible for his own misfortune. Willy’s ultimate down fall is a result of social pressure, family and friend influences, and his psychological and emotional state of mind.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this particular story, the protagonist - Willy Loman - is on the surface elevated no higher than a psychotic liar who often manipulates even those he loves the most. However, when looked upon through a harsher lens, the only thing that truly becomes obvious is that Willy himself is the archetype of a tragic hero. Lying to his family in friends, while in part cowardly, also questions the way in which a family could be defined as successful. Willy’s affair with another woman, while gross and unforgivable, allow others in the story to demonstrate the perseverance of love. In fact, it is throughout the entirety of Death of a Salesman that Arthur Miller uses his characters to question society, and then demonstrate their unwillingness to fall to adversity. Willy Loman, while indeed a pathetic man, falls through no weakness of his own…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In most of his flashbacks, Willy describes them both as “liked, but not well liked”, inferring to his sons that they will not make it far due to the lack of popularity. Present day, Willy relies on Charley for his money every week. This samples Willy’s pride. During a game of cards, Willy is offered a job working for Charley. He is immediately offended, with a sense of jealousy for his success. Changing the subject, Willy gloats about putting up his own ceiling, which he claims every man should know how to do, even though he knows Charley does not. He tries to gain his lost pride back by finding a weakness of his friend. Like his father, Bernard’s success makes Willy’s dignity falter. When Bernard is asked for advice and the reasoning to why Biff never attended summer school, it shows how desperate he is for guidance. However, when he asks Bernard if it was him who caused this dismay, Willy is irritated at Bernard putting blame on him. He sees it as though his pride is deteriorating by the…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy started out as a lower middle-class workingman, and in the end, he ended up that same way. He believed wholeheartedly in the American dream of success and wealth, but he never achieved it. Neither one of his sons fulfilled his hope and dream that they would succeed where he had failed miserably. When his illusions of himself began to fail under the pressing reality of his actual conditions, Willy's mental health began to fall apart. The mental struggle with himself proved to be too much and…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, has a powerful father role in the lives of his two sons, Biff and Happy.Willy, a man in his mid sixties, has not only strived to become a successful salesman, but also acts the successful father role, something that was lacked in his own childhood. Willy’s own actions and mistakes in his everyday lifestyle, influence Biff to believe that he has become a failure at the age of thirty-four. Happy, the younger of the two siblings has found that he has a growing obsession with women, similar to his father’s own affair. The diminishing level of confidence the boys have towards their father has created a terrible fate for the two sons. Willy Loman being unable to realize his mistakes and correct them as well as not changing his morals has set up his sons’ for failure.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman Dishonest

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Willy Loman’s moral compass often does not point true North in his life and the series of dishonest statements over many years eventually lead to his demise and detriment of his family. When his boys were young, Willy makes many promises of great riches and achievements for them, something he lives for, but never really has. While Willy continually puts Biff on a pedestal, setting him up for failure, he barely pays attention to his younger son, Happy, who simply desires respect and affirmation from his father. Further, Willy is frequently dishonest, in particular to his wife, Linda, about his income, his actual stature, and his faithfulness. It finally culminates when he is caught cheating on his wife by Biff, and goes so far to get his son to keep quiet about his indiscretion.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy's relationship with his wife is clearly a cause of his collapse. Willy neglected to demonstrate honesty in his relationship with his wife. The reader is told of Willy's past and how on business trips he would deceivingly find himself a woman to spend the night with. When Willy is no longer able to make a living he borrows money from his friend, Charley, and claims that it's money that he had made. As Willy's condition slowly deteriorates, he sets up tubing, which he plans to hook up in a fashion with intent of suicide. He neglects to tell Linda how he feels. Due to Willy's lack of honesty with Linda, she too isn't honest with him. She is aware that Willy is borrowing money from a friend, but doesn't say anything about it. After Willy is unable to complete a drive to New England, due to his obviously deteriorating condition, Linda avoids reality and makes excuses for Willy. As Miller wrote, "Maybe it's your glasses. You never went for your new glasses"(13). As Linda became knowledgeable that Willy was planning to kill himself, she didn't confront him and acted as if nothing was wrong. Clearly, if Willy was more honest with his wife, she would have returned the openness, and perhaps talked out the obstacles Willy was facing.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman has the confidence of a billionaire. He acts like he is a hero, almost as if he ran the town. Willy’s confident attitude rubbed off onto his kids (Biff and Happy) making them believe that their father was a very successful man and that they were living the high class life. When in reality it was so far from that. Only Willy saw himself as the best. His friends, his bosses all knew he was full of talk, but never mentioned anything to him. “Well, that's the training, the training. I'm telling you, i was selling’ thousands and thousands, but I had to come home.”(34) The reality of Willy Loman's life is quite sad and pathetic, thinking that one is making so much money and is going to be so successful when really none of that is going…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman suffers through his daily life, feeling that he is a failure, for having not met society’s unrealistic portrayal of a success. At one point in the play Willy’s friend Charley says to him “When the hell are you going to grow up?” He states this because Willy allows himself to lie to everyone in his life so much that he himself believes that they are the truth. He never wanted to admit to his failures in life. He did not want his family to know the truth that he is not really as popular or successful as he claimed he was. Continuously Willy highlighted his supposed importance, to his sons and instilled in them the idea that they should grow up to be just like him. Sadly part is Willy was never what he claimed he was. He continued to teach those values and ideals of life that he never actually had himself. Willy wanted Biff and Happy to grow up and become a more successful…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Howard is somewhat a villain but he is also sympathetic. He is completely oblivious to Willy’s problem. Willy’s confusion of the personal and business world puts Howard in an awkward position. Howard feels no personal connection to Willy, but Willy had a connection to Howard’s father and a personal loyalty to Howard. Howard pretended ignorance of Willy’s situation, which becomes clear, is a way of distancing himself from Willy. Willy has a good claim on the company and has been there for years so Howards claim to the situation is unethical. Howard does not want to be trapped by Willy’s expectations but he also does not want to have to pay attention to the fact that Willy has devoted his whole life to the company which owes him more .…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An excellent father will make every effort to constantly do what is best for his family. He will put his needs last, ensuring that his family is well cared for and not lacking for any necessities. And, most significantly, a first-class father will make his family his main concern, coming before his job, his friends, or even himself. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a prime example of a horrific father in every way mentioned previously. Not only is Willy Loman not a good father and spouse, but he furthers his failure by being a typical anti-hero and by failing to accomplish the American Dream. There for I believe the play is not necessarily what Miller and Kazan perceive it to be. Here I will be discussing Willy Lomans discraceful actions towards his family and finally expose the actual theme of the play.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When most people think of a hero they think of superheroes, a famous celebrity, a great sports player, or their parents. Would someone call a forgetful and stubborn person a hero? Chances are they would not. In Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman is not a tragic hero because he does not fit Aristotle’s assertions that a tragic hero must arouse pity in the reader, feature a hero that is good, and feature a hero whose downfall is “brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error in judgment.”…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “The ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American” (Dictionary.com). The American Dream is “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S” (Dictionary.com). The image of America is presented negatively in the novel The Great Gatsby and the play Death of A Salesman because it is depicted as a materialistic lonely place.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Willy was raised as a salesman’s son and saw how his father acted and what he did. By seeing how his father knew all these different people, Willy believed that to be successful you need to be liked by everyone and know everyone. He also believed that you needed to act like a “real man” and always one up everyone to look superior. This is shown when Ben doubts Willy’s hardness for living in the city and Willy tries to oversell how wild city life is. “…It’s Brooklyn but we hunt too. Oh, sure, there’s snakes and rabbits and-that’s why I moved out here” (Miller, 50). It was the unintentional pressure from his family which psychologically ruined Willy from the start. He would’ve needed help right when he was taught to think that way so by the time he was married and had kids there was almost no way to reverse the damage that had been done.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays