Often individuals are prevented from achieving satisfaction due to a fundamental flaw in their character. In the case of Willy Loman, this flaw is his excessive pride and ambition. For the majority of his life, Willy has been primarily influenced by his brother Ben’s success. This has caused him to develop a sense of ambition that is both unrestrained and idealistic. Over the course of his lifetime, both Willy and his sons fall short of the impossible standards of this dream. Willy conducts his whole life based on the belief that any man who is good-looking, charismatic, and “well-liked” deserves success and will naturally achieve it (1.30). He attempts to make his mark by working as a salesman because, according to him, “selling [is] the greatest …show more content…
Even when his neighbour Charley offers him a job with a salary, Willy declines because he is too proud to work for Charley. He rather blames his failure on the superficiality of the business world and fixates himself on the idea that personality, not hard work, is the key to accomplishment. Perhaps, this is because Willy is living in a world where the pursuit of the American Dream is a predominant part of people’s lives, and the materialistic pressures of the superficial were beginning to permeate its actual values. Under this particular pressure, Willy has been fighting his entire life to achieve "the dream," but unfortunately, no one ever explains to him what its true values are or how to really make it. Therefore, Willy manages his life based on his overwhelming sense of pride and ambition, and in this way, Miller seems to criticize the idea of compromising happiness for success-- even though Willy truly believes that happiness is achieved through success. It is Willy’s blind faith in his ill-advised version of the American Dream that leads to his rapid decline, as he becomes unable to accept the disparity between his dreams and his own
Though Troy Maxon in August Wilson’s “Fences” and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “ Death of a Salesman” are set in different eras and societies, they both have ambitions for fame and success. However, their approaches to achieving their objectives and interacting with their families vary. Willy Loman’s belief in the American dream drives him to succeed. He thinks anyone can succeed with the necessary effort and commitment. Willy has spent his entire life as a traveling salesman, but despite his best efforts, he has yet to find the success he seeks.
This “false” American Dream made him have issues in his life and didn’t have strong enough support to sustain in his life. He depended on his family to support him but they didn’t. As they always say, it comes down to family support when one struggling, but in this case, he didn’t get any support hence Willy’s
Ultimately, these aspirations lead to negative repercussions. First of all, the pursuit of perfection can be observed by the actions of a particular individual in Death of a Salesman. The main character of the play, Willy Loman, was a man with misguided life goals. A rather insecure person, Willy placed strong emphasis on his reputation and self-image. He wanted more than anything else to be a popular salesman well-liked by everyone around him – it was the perfect portrayal of himself.
In "Death of a Salesman," Willy Loman is consumed with pursuing the American Dream and attaining wealth and success, believing it will bring him happiness. His obsession,
Willy Loman is a resilient character for “his idea” of what the American dream looks like. Resilience is defined by the
“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his children producing even more failures. ¬¬¬¬Both Charley and Willy work as salesmen, however Charley represents what Willy desired to become – successful.
Through Biff Loman, Miller illustrates the failure of the American dream through the paradoxical relationship between him and his father, Willy Loman, presenting the notion that the secret to true happiness and success lies outside of the confines of the typical American dream of wealth and materialism. Molded by his father’s unrealistic ambitions, it became near impossible for Biff to assimilate as a functioning member of the
All Willy Loman ever desired was to be successful. He defined success by having money, prosperous children, and becoming well-liked; however, his interpretation of success led him to his own destruction.
Willy always found his dreams in someone else which is why his happiness never came. At first it was his father then it was his brother Ben, and then it was famous sales man Dave Singleman. He looked for others inside of himself which led to him not being satisfied. Dreams can not be rented or borrowed. Willy never realized this and in turn it caused his mental health to deteriorate even more than it already had.
Linda defends Willy and insists that Willy, as a traveling salesman, merely exhausts himself rather than become crazy. Even if Willy’s financial reality reveals the fact that he can never come true his American dream, Linda still refuses to break his fantasies and see through his lies. Instead, she supports Willy’s American dream and believes in Willy’s idea that success is possible for anyone. Even though Willy is often rude to her and ignores her opinions, she protects him at all costs. She loves Willy, so she can accept all of his shortcomings.
He has a Job, two kids, and a wife. Willy is a salesman who dreams to be like his role model, Dave Singleman. Singleman - in Willy perspective- had the ultimate successful life, as expressed in this quote: "Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?" [Act 2] Willy believed that success, was equivalent to how well liked he was. Willy's 'flaw' was his foolish pride, his persistence of achieving "his rightful status".
Willy’s American Dream The tragic play of Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller tells a story about an old man of 84 years old named Willy. Willy was captured by the American dream. He believed that hard work and ambitions could take him to a life of fame and popularity like the american dream was supposed to be. In Death of a salesman, the american dream reveals disappointment, failure and loss of hope. Thus showing that the american dream is not a great dream after all.
Willy finds out his dream of being an popular, well respected salesman is impossible and takes his own life. Linda supports Willy despite the abuse and confusion he puts her through with his various attempts to take his own life, with his delirious ramblings and hallucinations, and with his constant deception. Happy still sees his father as a hero and Biff finally begins to grasp the truth of the “American Dream”. When Willy kills himself, all of the Loman family, including Willy, break free from the web of false dreams he spun and begin to understand Willy’s failings. They also realize their own flaws.
Miller depicts Willy as a tragic character in his willingness to preserve his dignity. Additionally, Willy’s dignity is tainted in the story because of his flawed philosophy of the American Dream. This along with unjust comparisons leads to Willy’s death. Based on how Willy Loman evaluates himself unjustly, he is a tragic hero because he must do anything to preserve his dignity, and his false impression of the American Dream, which leads to his downfall.
Arthur Miller introduces a social problem which is the realisation of the American Dream and the difficulties the protagonist, Willy Loman, gains from trying to achieve the American Dream. No matter how much Willy tries to succeed in life, he still fails to achieve the American Dream. Not only that but Willy does not seem to realise what he has done wrong and questions himself why his brother Ben, or even his neighbour, Charley, are able to reach his dream and not he himself. His brother Ben always flaunts in front of him saying that he has already succeeded in life and also achieving the American Dream at the age of 21 in “when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out.