The characterisation of Willy is but one of Miller’s strengths in the play, for he cleverly uses time to show how Willy’s mind has been manipulated by the stress of his failings. Willy experiences flashbacks which his mind perhaps uses in order to protect him from the harsh truth of his present life. Willy’s two sons, Biff and Happy are fully grown, with Biff having turned sour towards his father and rejected the vision his father had for him. Still, Willy in his vulnerable state transports himself back to the time when Biff was a young, promising high school athlete who idolised his father and his ideals. Instead of encouraging academic achievement, Willy ensures his sons that if they are ‘liked’ they will ‘never want’. Sadly for both Willy and Biff, this was a delusion which saw Biff become the very…
During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…
During the span of the book, Willy attempts to take his life. Whatever motive was behind his actions, one presumes it is almost definitely related to Willy’s. But why? The audience must wonder what horrible thing pushes a man over the edge like that? For willy, his idea of success is unlike many others. He himself believed that he was an above average salesman. Yet, he never exactly “made it big”, much like an amateur actor in Hollywood. Willy never got his hollywood premier no matter how far he traveled or how hard he seemed to work for it.…
One of the main slogans we here Willy say repeatedly throughout the play is that he is “The New England man” or that he is “Vital in New England”. Willy often uses this slogan to illustrate himself to his wife Linda and to convince her that he is the big successful salesman he acts to be. Willy is well aware that his career is coming to an end but doesn’t want to come to terms with this reality. Instead of coming to terms with reality he keeps saying and believing that he is “Vital in New England”. If he faced the fact that his career was coming to an…
Willy had a few problems of his own. First he let himself get caught with his mistress by his son, which devastated him. He also acted like his sons were perfect, which they weren't. He should have made sure his son passed math so he could have graduated, but he put that into the hands of their next-door…
Willy and Nora: Tragic Heroes or Home-wreckers? No one has a perfect life. Despite what Aaron Spelling and his friends in the media might project to society today, no one's life is perfect. Everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these conflicts can be just as varied as the people themselves. Some procrastinate and ignore their problems as long as they can, while others attack problems to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The Lowman and Helmer families have a number of problems that they deal with in different ways, which proves their similarities and differences. Both Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Nora Helmer, protagonist of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House experience an epiphany where they realize that they were not the person the thought they were: while Willy's catharsis brings about his death, Nora's brings her to a new life; hers. Both character's flaws bring about their departure from their respective families as well. They are both overly concerned with the appearances they and their families present to society: as a result they both project false images to others. From their appearance, both seem to be involved in stable marriages and appear to be going places. Willy's job as a traveling salesman seems stable (although we never know what it is he sells) when he tells his family that he "knocked 'em cold in Providence, slaughtered 'em in Boston" (Miller 1228). It is not until Willy's wife, Linda tells us that he "drives 700 miles and when he gets there, no one knows him any more, no one welcomes him" (Miller 1241). If that's not enough to convince readers of his failure on the job, the fact that he gets fired after working for the same company for 36 years cements his incompetency in the business world to readers. While Nora does not work in the business world, (few woman, if any did over 120 years ago) her failure to take care of her responsibilities…
With failure comes consequences, unfortunately Willy fails to acknowledge severity of his. Near the end of the play Willy’s advice seems unreliable in Biff’s eyes due to Willy’s failure to acknowledge his defeat in life and many of his past mistakes that only Biff knew about. Willy chased his American Dream for far too long leading to the destruction of him and his…
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, established the ideas that led to the development of modern science, the Industrial Revolution, and the creation of the United States. He laid the foundation for reason by creating the basic principles of scientific epistemology, which is the role of senses and abstraction, the laws of logic and of reasoning. Furthermore, Aristotle kept the Greek theatre alive through his analysis of poetry in his book Poetics. Poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and the first philosophical book that focuses on literary theory. Through this, he created the tragic hero and states, “a man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his downfall.” According to Aristotle, the hero must endure a reversal of fortune (peripeteia) due to his tragic flaw (hamartia). They must then discover their mistake (anagnorisis) and receive their harsh fate. Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, mostly portrays Willy Loman, the main character, as a tragic hero. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream, influenced by his successful and wealthy father and brother. However, Willy is unsuccessful in achieving his goals due to the major industrialization around him, his excessive pride, and distorted…
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…
One major flaw of Willy is his reliance on false hope. This can stem from his son, Biff. As seen in imaginings, adolescent Biff looks up to Willy as a great man, causing him to seek for his approval. In high school, Biff has many athletic achievements and is well liked. His awards cause for Willy to have high hopes in what he can conquer later in life. This developed vastly and became an influence in Willy’s mood. When he has a sense of hope to hold onto, he is liberated of his daily pressures. When Biff and Happy are at the restaurant with…
In Death of a Sale man, by Authur Miller Willy Loman is 60-year-old man who seems to have a hot temper and is now starting to become very forgetful. At the beginning he starts to forget that he is actually driving and what is going on around him. He tells his wife Linda that “I’m goin’ sixty mile an hour and I don’t remember that last five minutes. I’m- I cant keep my mind to it”(13). Willy seems to becoming very distracted and forgetting what is exactly is going on around him. This forgetfulness also occurs once he demands Linda open up the windows in the house when they are already open. Willy also complains through out about his sons shortcomings and failures. He believes at 34 he hasn’t amounted to anything but a farm hand but maybe later…
Heros come in variously different shapes and sizes. Some are tall and muscular, others are brave knights and fearless princes, and some are even tragic. Tragic heroes are the protagonists of plays the fall under the genre of a tragedy. What defines a tragic hero is their error in judgement or character flaw that leads them to their own downfall. In previous times, a tragic hero had to be of noble blood yet in Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller shows the role of a tragic hero is also attainable by an everyday, average Joe. The play is about a Willy Loman, a mentally unstable sixty three year old salesman who is having trouble fulfilling the expectations of the set out for himself. Arthur Miller, the playwright of Death of a Salesman redefines the criteria of a tragic hero, successfully allowing a common man to play the role. Throughout the play, it is evident that Willy’s major character flaw is a lack of self-satisfaction. Willy never seems to be pleased with himself, always seeking approval of others causing his desperation to be “well liked” causing the major short comings that lead to his death. His lack of self-satisfaction causing his hopeless desire to be admired by those around him is to blame as the reason why Willy chose the life of a salesman. Judging Dave Singleman as popular individual who was liked by others based on the numerous attendees of his funeral led Willy to believe that being a salesman was the only way to achieve that level of admiration, even though he is not able to keep up with the field during his old age. The same character flaw can be viewed as one of the reasons he cheated on his wife, Linda by having an affair with a secretary of a buyer, putting a large strain on his…
Willy 's various roles cause him to lose touch of reality because they call for divergent moral ideologies. As a father, a husband, and a businessman, Willy becomes engulfed in the worlds of each role. Willy cares greatly for his struggling and dysfunctional family. For example, when tensions run high after Biff and Willy argue, the entire mood changes from uptight to optimistic when Happy suggests a family-run business in the future.…
Willy’s outward indifference toward Biff’s discovery of his affair initiates Biff’s discontent with his father. When Biff is failing in school, the first person he relies on for help is his father. He has the utmost respect for Willy and thinks high enough of his power that he seeks him out on a business trip instead of just asking Linda or Charley for help. His attitude toward Willy quickly changes once he sees that he is with another woman. After Willy kicks her out of the room, he just replies, “Well, we better get going” (1617). He is so oblivious to Biff’s reaction that he does not even take the time to feel shameful for his actions. While his concern for Biff’s grades shows that Willy cares for him, it is contradictory of the actions he has just partaken in. By sleeping with the woman, he betrays not only Linda but also the rest of his family. In a twist of reality, he regains his focus on his family by making his priority handling Biff’s situation by immediately driving back home to ask Biff’s teacher for leniency. However, his detachment from the current situation is the breaking point for Biff as he “is horrified to see the face behind the mask that Willy wears” (Centola). All of his life, Biff looks up to Willy and does not notice a single flaw with his character. When he discovers his father’s true identity, his foundation of everything that is real in life disintegrates into a pile of meaninglessness. Finally confronting the situation at hand, Willy only responds that “she’s nothing to [him]” and that he is just “terribly lonely”(1618). Willy’s excuses are…
Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman, is the typical hard-working American chasing a dream. He was a man who was "way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine" (1947) Yet he was a man who 'didn't know who he was'(1947). His lack of self-knowledge and inability to accept who he is results in his insanity and ultimate demise.…