Preview

An Analysis Of Willy Loman's Death Of A Salesman

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1520 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis Of Willy Loman's Death Of A Salesman
Willy’s buying into the American Dream of material success does result in its share of arguments between the Loman family. After all, you can only push your family so much before they begin to crack under the pressure. Willy constantly pushes his sons in the business field, mistreats his wife, Linda, who has been nothing but supportive, and even arguing with Charley who is more than compassionate and loans Willy money every month. Biff, Happy, and Linda never argue with Willy directly because they are afraid that it will completely deteriorate any sanity he has left. They resort to arguing behind his back, but Linda is the only one that sticks up for Willy. Biff shouts at her, “Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor …show more content…
P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, BFGoodrich are famous businessmen of the 20th Century mentioned in Death of a Salesman. During a conversation between Willy and Charley, Charley tries to compare Willy to J. P. Morgan saying, “Why must everybody like you? Who liked J. P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath he’d look like a butcher. But with his pockets on he was very well liked” (Miller 97). J. P. Morgan was known as an American financier, banker, and industrial organizer. He was in influential figure in the world of corporate finance as well as industrial consolidation. He had so much power in this area of business and contributed in the reorganization of highly profitable corporations such as United States Steel and General Electric. Charley is insists to Willy that if J. P. had no riches, he would not be well liked. J. P. is referred to as a “butcher” due to the fact that businessmen like himself are often emotionless and do not feel much for others but themselves. Businessmen like Morgan could not afford to make any mistakes because one mistake could have broken his entire company. Arthur Miller mentions J. P. to convey to the readers the indisputable similarities between J. P. and Willy. Although Willy was not nearly as successful as J. P., they were both deluded in gathering that money is everything. Nevertheless, living a cutthroat and power hungry life is certainly not living at …show more content…
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. I’ll put my money on Biff” (Miller 18). Thomas Edison was a lucrative businessman and inventor. In fact, some people consider Thomas Edison to be one of the greatest investors of America. He was born on February 11, 1847, but did not become the successful inventor of the light bulb until October 21, 1879. Furthermore, BFGoodrich had his fair share of success of in the business world and was known for being an industrialist in the rubber industry. He success reached beyond boundaries and he went on to discover his own company, the B.F. Goodrich Company, an aerospace manufacturing company. This company is still around today, but most people recognize it as the Goodrich Corporation. Biff is around the same age as these men were when they attained their success. Willy becomes so infatuated at an early point in the play with his delusional version of the American Dream that he compares his son with arguably the two of the greatest businessmen the country has ever seen. From this point in the play, Willy’s relationship with Biff gets more strained until it reaches the breaking point and results in more arguments between the family. Willy’s corruption is to blame for these arguments as well as Biff’s initial

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman uses Biff’s trophy to symbolize Willy’s paternal downfall. The trophy’s placement and history and Biff’s passionate remarks respectively prove the claim.…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a young boy, Biff, Willy’s oldest son showed athletic promise and charming personality that made him proud. Willy instilled in Biff and Happy; that in order to be successful in life all you needed was personality and great looks. He put little emphasis on hard work and repeatedly throughout the play applauds his boys for their popularity. For example, when a neighbor boy, Bernard attempts to get a young Biff to study for his Math regents, Willy…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Deaths of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a salesmen who is trying to achieve the American Dream just like everyone else in the world. In his head he believes to be this well liked and huge successful salesmen. In reality he is more of a self-conscious man who tries to live his fantasy he has in his head while being deceitful to not only himself but his own family as well. Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy has several slogans that he attempts to live his life by.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Death of a Salesman the character named Willy Loman is an insecure self diluted traveling salesman who wants to achieve one thing in life, what he calls the American dream. Willy has deluded himself all his life about being a big success in the business world. Willy has a loving loyal wife, Linda, and two sons, Biff and Happy. Biff is his oldest son who is thirty four years old, and the one who Willy puts the most pressure on to do well in life. Willy is constantly pressuring Biff to become something important, to go to university and get a well respected job, just so he will be accepted and “be somebody” in society. While Biff just wants to do what he loves, and could care less about being accepted in the materialistic world. . “I saw the things that I love in this world. The work, and the food, and the time to sit and smoke, and I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy would go on business trips very often in Boston, but he would actually be cheating on his wife. While he was staying at a hotel at two in the morning,he was with the character The Women, there was a knocking on the door. After telling The Woman to go in the bathroom and hide. He answered the door to see his son Biff standing there. He was upset about failing his math test by four points and his teacher being unwilling to change his test score because Biff had made fun of him, before, in front of his class. Willy was not going to just let Biff fail and he did not want him in the room longer than he needed to be, due to the fact that he had a woman other than his mother in the room with him. He explained to…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman’s obsession with the American Dream and its ideals has strongly affected the people Biff and Happy have become. Due to Willy’s teachings and influences, both his sons lead a different life from what they expected. Willy believed that his sons’ attributes would lead them to a successful lifestyle with no conflicts. Yet, being well-liked and attractive lead both sons to live a lie, nowhere near success. Biff becomes an underachiever who can’t hold a job, and feels dissatisfied with the fact that his life has been based on a lie. Happy lives in his brother’s shadow, becoming his father’s younger self, lying and manipulating reality to his favor.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman Dishonest

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Willy Loman’s moral compass often does not point true North in his life and the series of dishonest statements over many years eventually lead to his demise and detriment of his family. When his boys were young, Willy makes many promises of great riches and achievements for them, something he lives for, but never really has. While Willy continually puts Biff on a pedestal, setting him up for failure, he barely pays attention to his younger son, Happy, who simply desires respect and affirmation from his father. Further, Willy is frequently dishonest, in particular to his wife, Linda, about his income, his actual stature, and his faithfulness. It finally culminates when he is caught cheating on his wife by Biff, and goes so far to get his son to keep quiet about his indiscretion.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Death of A Salesman" is really about how reality and illusion interplay in each and everyone's personality in the context of achieving success in life. All people dream and most consider a dream as a typical example of an illusion—merely a construct of the imagination that extends past and present experiences of one's life into a realm that is not bound by logic. Reality, on the other hand, is what one directly perceives through the basic senses of perception.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Death of a Salesman, Biff, a son of the main character, Willy, is struggling with the pressure to impress his father and satisfy him. Willy is constantly complaining about Biff, saying he is a bum and is not good. One day Biff decides he is going to try to go into business, just like his father, hoping to make Willy happy. He speaks to his mother about this, “It’s just-you see, Mom, I don’t fit in business. Not that I won’t try. I’ll try, and I’ll make good” (Miller 60). Biff knows that he will not be successful in the business world and that it is not for him, but he is going to try it anyways just so his Dad will be proud of him. The pressure to satisfy his father is so big that Biff is willing to do something he does not want to do just to make him happy.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the play, the central character, Willy Lowman, has just returned home after finding himself incapable to focus on driving. His wife, Linda, suggests that he ask for a job in New York so that he won't have to drive so much. Willy insists, however, that it is crucial to his company that he works in New England. Willy asks Linda about his son, Biff, who has just come home after being away for numerous years. He can't comprehend why Biff is unable to get a good Job. Soon Willy begins thinking about when Biff was a senior in high school. He remembers how Biff was the leading light of the football team and how he was presented scholarships from numerous colleges. After Willy's daydream ends, Charley comes in to play cards with him. While they are playing cards Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy refuses. As they are talking, Willy's brother, Ben, appears…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman has the confidence of a billionaire. He acts like he is a hero, almost as if he ran the town. Willy’s confident attitude rubbed off onto his kids (Biff and Happy) making them believe that their father was a very successful man and that they were living the high class life. When in reality it was so far from that. Only Willy saw himself as the best. His friends, his bosses all knew he was full of talk, but never mentioned anything to him. “Well, that's the training, the training. I'm telling you, i was selling’ thousands and thousands, but I had to come home.”(34) The reality of Willy Loman's life is quite sad and pathetic, thinking that one is making so much money and is going to be so successful when really none of that is going…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explore the ways in which Miller constructs the identity of Willy Loman and what is suggested by his interactions with his work and his wife in this extract.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When this play was first performed, the time was post-WW2. America was strengthened economically, having returned from the war, men and their families wished of achieving the American Dream; economic success and social comfort. mirroring society Willy had a similar dream, but, unfortunately, he failed to achieve it. As Willy grew up, his American Dream was to be able to “pick up his phone and call buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living” (Miller 81). Willy dreams go beyond being successful in the present time, he wishes to go as far as being able to provide for his family as he ages and goes beyond his grave. Willy never had a future working as a salesman, "There's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made” (Miller 138). Willy values social comfort in the American Dream, he believes that social comfort can only be achieved once you become a successful salesman in New York. Even Though Willy never had success in the salesman business he continued to do it for the rest of his life for the sake of being held at a high regard by society. Biff comes to realization that Willy never belonged in the salesman business, he assumes Willy became a salesman due to social comfort and popularity it provided an individual once they are…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays