Internal And External Conflict In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Arthur Miller, a native of Harlem, was a well known and accomplished playwright in the twentieth century. He wrote many plays including ‘The Crucible,’ ‘A View From the Bridge,’ and the award-winning ‘The Death of a salesman’. The Death of a Salesman depicts the life of a struggling salesman, Willy Loman, who had high hopes and aspirations that fogged his own reality. In the drama, Arthur Miller devises an internal and external conflict through Willie to demonstrate how one must adapt to the changes of society in order to survive.
Arthur Miller establishes an internal conflict in Willy that obscure him of the harsh realities of his career. Willy had been a salesman since he was a young man. He accounts of what was once a successful career partaken by even his own father. Rhetorically, Willy asks “...what could be
Willy’s family is well aware that his career is over. But, in order to keep him happy and hopeful, Biff and Hap try to please him by generating their own dreams. Things were working for a short moment until Willy was laid off from his job. He claims that “Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear — or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me any more” (Act 2 Scene 2). Willy came to the realization that even his own family didn't know him. All his life was the life of a salesman who was one well-liked and praised. And losing that part of his life meant that he lost himself. According to Doctors Linn, Standifer and Stein of the National Institutes of Health, “Not having work could limit the person's chances for feelings of achievement, accomplishment, and satisfaction and could increase guilt about failure to provide for one's family” (Linn 3). Willy’s lack of work is a huge detriment to his moral. Ultimately, such a misfortune will lead to his family losing faith in