ipl-logo

Willy Loman's Suffering In Death Of A Salesman

890 Words4 Pages

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller portrays the last 24 hours of the life of a common man, Willy Loman, as he reflects on the failures of his life. Loman’s success as a salesman has passed now that his old loyal boss, Howard, has died, and he now works as an unsuccessful traveling salesman, scraping by on commision from Howard’s son. Loman goes to the neighbor, Charley, often borrowing money for household payments, but refuses to take a job-offer from him. Willy Loman’s spouse is Linda and they have two boys, Happy and his older brother Biff, who are now middle aged men who live back at home and are trying to find where they belong in life. Bernard is a childhood friend of the Loman boys, and is Charley’s son. Willy Loman’s deep suffering …show more content…

One example is the high level of expectations Biff’s father has for him. Willy gloats about Biff being a star, “Look at this boy[Biff]. . .three universities are begging for him”(86;2). Biff’s ego boosts through the roof, which only sets him up for suffering more when he fails. Another way in which Willy causes suffering for Biff is through the affair he has with a women on business trips. Biff finds out on his own by walking in on his dad and the women, who is wearing his mom’s stockings. This traumatizes Biff. He ends up not retaking a failed high school math class, “not graduating”(110;2), as Bernard warned, which wipes out his scholarships to college. Lastly, Willy Loman creates suffering for Biff by teaching him bad morals. Willy encourages Biff to steal, cheat, and lie. For example, Willy says to Biff and Happy, “Boys! Go right over to where they’re building the apartment house and get some sand. We’re going to rebuild the entire front stoop right now!”(50;1). Mr. Loman wants to build his front porch by stealing the material. Biff suffers from this later in life when he goes to jail for stealing a suit. Willy also encourages Bernard to help Biff cheat, “You’ll give him the answers!”(40;1). Willy teaches Biff bad morals that will consequently make Biff suffer.
All of Willy Loman’s family suffers because of him. This is an example of how one person affects the whole family. Willy Loman believes success in life is having nice things, having money, and being known by people. Unfortunately, Mr. Loman never realises that success is much more than having material things. Hopefully Biff and Happy learn from their dad’s mistakes, and reach the real American

Show More
Related

How Is Willy Loman Selfish

399 Words | 2 Pages

Death of a Salesman undertakes the loss of personality and a man's powerlessness to acknowledge change inside himself and society. Willy Loman is unable to tolerate the truth that he is an average salesman. Instep Willy strives to achieve much form of the American dream, achievement and a better reputation, regardless, he will be compelled to deny actuality in place of attaining it. In the play, Willy's most loved memory is of Biff's last football game since Biff promises to make a touchdown only for him. In the scene before, Willy can barely wait to recount the story to his buyers.

Read More

Willy Loman Monologue

857 Words | 4 Pages

Any son who loves his father will always tell the truth. I know this first hand from my excellent relationship with my son, Bernard. Despite his father’s willingness to deny the truth, Biff continues to explain that his life has not been what Willy thinks. Biff’s ability to be truthful to his father, no matter how long it took him to convince Willy, illustrated to me the undying love that exists within that

Read More

Biff In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

622 Words | 3 Pages

Since Willy has only seen success come to those who are well liked he has a firm belief that success can only be achieved through being well liked by others, Willy sees great potential for success in his sons, especially his oldest son Biff whom is his personal favorite. “One such deficit that has long been suggested in the traditional clinical literature as playing an etio-logical role is that abusive parents have unrealistic expectations of their child's behavior (i.e., they overestimate their child's capabilities; Steele & Pollock, 1968).” Biff is the golden child, the one whom he had dreams of greatness, and the first born. “The order in which a person is born into their family plays a substantial role in the individual’s development of personality, character, intelligence, and career choices.” (Stewart et al., 2001).

Read More

Death Of A Salesman Dementia Analysis

1015 Words | 5 Pages

Death of a Salesman Analysis In the play by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy Loman is a man in his 60’s. He is dressed in a drab coloured, ill-fitting suit. Willy shows early signs of dementia, as he spends much of the play having flashbacks or incorporating the past into present day situations. Through this the viewer learns much about Willy and his past.

Read More

Happiness In Death Of A Salesman Essay

1053 Words | 5 Pages

In the play, “The Death of a Salesman” the concept of happiness is briefly looked into, in this essay, we will be analyzing the idea of happiness as it was presented in the play. In layman's terms the idea of happiness is the idea of having emotions that involve such things as joy, excitement, and having a interesting life. What happiness also relates to is the act of having a fulfilling life, achieving your goals, but at the end of the day happiness is being able to handle positive emotions in a very embraceful way and being able to handle negative experiences without overreacting to those negative experiences. Now, it is time to look at the concept of happiness so then we can look at Willy’s character in “The Death of a Salesman” in the story and analyze how they handled these situations in their lives and whether Willy was a happy character or a depressed character. First let us look at a journal entry from the National Library of Medicine in Maryland.

Read More

Essay On Foil Characters In Death Of A Salesman

1210 Words | 5 Pages

“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.

Read More

Willy Loman's Mental Health

1433 Words | 6 Pages

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the main character, Willy Loman is a salesman who has had a successful life as a salesman. He traveled from city to city while his wife and two sons stayed home. He had an older brother named Ben who became rich after finding diamonds in Africa, but is said to have died at the beginning of the play. As the years pass, Willy is much older and has started to struggle with his job. He gains a lot less and people don’t like him as much as before, yet he still wishes to achieve more in life.

Read More

Willy Lowman's Suicide

454 Words | 2 Pages

Happy and Biff also contribute to Willy’s sense of hopelessness. His sons are constantly arguing with him, and even though they are in their 30’s, have no success to show. As a father, Willy feels like his sons have failed to understand the absolute highest priority value he wanted to instill in them; hard

Read More

The Lust Of Willy Loman In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

144 Words | 1 Pages

The uncontrollable lust of Willy in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller ultimately caused the ruin of his son, Biff’s, dream. It is true that irresponsible lusting can destroy people's life, even one’s own. When Biff caught Willy having The Woman in his room, he broke down and had a revelation about his father. (2, 120-121) He learned that he was a liar and this situation caused their relationship to fall apart.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Willy And Biff

741 Words | 3 Pages

Ana Oceguera 12. 19. 16 AP English Death of a Salesman Character Compare and Contrast     In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the audience follows the dynamic between the members of the Loman family. The father of the family, Willy Loman is a self-deluded traveling salesman whose dreams of success do not match his reality. Prompted by his frustration due to the discrepancy between his unrealistically ambitious expectations and his reality, we watch as his mental health takes a turn for the worse,  and his story eventually ends in suicide.

Read More

The Housewife In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

500 Words | 2 Pages

This is extremely important because what drove Willy to his ultimate demise was the fact that he was living in a delusional world and had just realized how everything he thought was true, was not. This static attitude of theirs also rubbed off on their sons. Happy developed into a static character when he would not admit his faults and never told the truth, much like his father. On the other hand, Biff had enough willpower to break away from his static family and acknowledged his lies and faults, however he wasted more than 30 years of his life in a lie because of the lies Linda and WIlly told him. WIlly had the power to stop all of the lies and delusions early, however it did not help that he had Linda always boosting his ego and making excuses for him, which affected all of her

Read More

Who Is Willy In Death Of A Salesman

162 Words | 1 Pages

but he cheated with her before. Biff is their son, who knew all the things happened between his parents, who also got in jail however, his father Willy hopes for him to be a good football player. Another son of Loman is the youngest child name Happy, not a person that are happy in life but only appreciates having women. Willy Loman just valued people around him and focused on popularity than

Read More

Death Of A Salesman Character Analysis

1537 Words | 7 Pages

Tragedy can spread. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the protagonist, however he not the only person in the play who’s story ends tragically. His view on life spreads to those close to him. Primarily, Willy teaches it to his children who look up to him while his wife simply attaches herself to him, rooting for him in blind support while really she should be waking him up to the cold and dark reality that is their life. Throughout the play, the Loman family evolves differently.

Read More

Willy Loman A Tragic Hero Essay

978 Words | 4 Pages

From an outsider perspective, Willy Loman lives a normal life. He is a traveling salesman with two grown up sons, and a beautiful marriage. But is that really the life he has? No, it is not. One of the first disappointments Willy experiences is with his son.

Read More

Death Of A Salesman Essay

1683 Words | 7 Pages

Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller. The play takes place in the late 1940’s in New York, Boston, and the protagonist’s house. Willy Loman is the main character of the play, he is an aging salesman and father of two. Loman has lived with his wife, Linda, in the same house for twenty-five years. The house once set apart from other homes but is now surrounded by several apartment buildings, making Loman feel closed in.

Read More

More about Willy Loman's Suffering In Death Of A Salesman

Related Topics

Open Document