Death of a Salesman

Tragic Dreams

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the main objective of the protagonist is to achieve the “American Dream” by the means of being “personally attractive” and “well-liked” throughout his lifetime. Willy Loman never really had any support from family growing up. Neither his father nor mother were involved in his life, and his older brother left him to go on a business adventure at a young age. Willy only has the inspiration of a story he heard of a great salesman who dies a noble death with hundreds at his funeral. This shapes his views on life and he eventually infects the minds of his two sons, Biff and Happy with his philosophy of well-being. Willy's beliefs corrupt Biff and Happy to the tragic point of deception, lies, denial, and ultimately death.

Willy Loman is a common man living in the era of the Great Depression in 1930's America. He works as a salesman who travels out of town on business trips regularly during the week in order to make enough money to provide for his wife and two sons. He has concocted his own outlook upon the business world, which has leaked into his personal life throughout the years. He believes that in order to climb that ladder of success, one must first become “well-liked”. His reasoning for this is explained in the rhetorical question of “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 people?” (1547). He soon tries to push his two sons into becoming salesman. Throughout the boys' high school career, they have showed their true character when they act out in school and Willy ignores their ignorant behavior. Biff starts to steal and cheat his way to the top; Willy says nothing about this. Willy's defective outlook has greatly impacted his two sons, and the outcome is unpleasant. In the end, Willy realizes that everything he has taught his children has been an exaggeration of the truth; he is nothing but a fake who has struggled to keep his failures secret. He assumes that he is better dead than alive, and ultimately commits suicide by crashing his car into a “jungle...full of diamonds” (1566).

Biff Loman's career of scheming begins to develop predominately during his high school years. He begins by asking his next door neighbor to help him cheat. He ends up failing math his senior year and does not attend summer school to graduate. In addition to his cheating, Biff starts to steal; he “borrows” a football from his coach. This progresses later in life when he tries to get a job; the employer turns him down, so Biff decides to steal his fountain pen. Biff later tells his dad that he “didn't exactly steal it” (1554). At then end of his senior year, Biff decides to take a trip up to Boston to see his father while he was away on business. When Biff arrives at Willy's hotel room, there is a young, beautiful woman there and Biff automatically realizes Willy is having an affair. Willy denies that is the reasoning for her being there, and says that “[s]he's a buyer...she lives down the hall” (1558). Biff refuses to believe him and claims he is nothing but a “phony little fake” (1559). Biff immediately loses all trust he had once placed in father and looks at this