Willy Flashbacks

Now there is no doubt that Willy is clearly mentally ill from the beginning of this play but one as to wonder; is Biff right by saying that Willy "never knew who he was" (Miller 991), or did Willy create a false sense of reality as a means to escape? While hallucinations are a strong sign of schizophrenia there is also something known as psychosis. Psychosis is an impaired state of reality that can be brought on by a multitude of things- from lack of sleep to actual brain diseases. Thus the curiosity of Willy's mental state. Perhaps he was just so unhappy with what his life had become that altering his reality was simply a means to cope. As David Ball states in Backwards & Forwards "Every available kind of information is useful" (81). Miller did a great job of using this method, in his writing of Death of A Salesman, by having constant flashbacks of a point in Willy's life where he was happy. However, while there were many flashbacks, there were also numerous times where Willy was having conversation with people who were not there. Interestingly enough the flashbacks always seemed to conveniently occur at a point of conflict in Willy's life. For example, on pages
In the flashbacks Willy is portrayed as a stable successful man. Believing this to be true allows for the theory of his self caused psychosis. Many suffers of psychosis don't even know that it is happening. Perhaps this is why Linda was always unable to help Willy- he didn't know he needed the help. Whilst seeing people that are not there is very clearly a sign of mental illness, flashbacks are not. However, having both the hallucinations and the flashbacks of this "perfect life" that Willy lead allows for the belief that him impairing his reality could very well have been a coping mechanism for his unhappy and unsuccessful life. The death of this salesman was brought on on his own