Willy depends on influence, personality, and people liking him. The trouble is, old age has robbed him of these -- if he ever had them -- so he's living in a dream world. He idealizes the death of an 84-year-old salesman who died alone in a hotel room. He ignores the loneliness of such a death and exaggerates the importance of the man's funeral. He likes to think his own funeral will be a big one and lots of important people will come to it. The old man's death underlines the question, "What's it all for?" Why are we so concerned with material success and so unconcerned with the spiritual -- that is, happiness, meaning, and fulfillment?
Willy wants desperately for his son Biff to be a star. Success to Willy is the overnight kind, not the kind you build day-to-day, and he believes Biff can be a professional football player. He wants it so much and is so enamored with the possibility of a son who is a star that he ignores Biff's character flaws as he's growing up. He doesn't correct Biff when he steals a football, for example, and doesn't urge him to study so he can graduate from high school. Instead, he encourages Biff to rely on Charlie's son (Bernard) who studies hard and can give Biff the answers most of the time. At the same time he tells Biff not to be like Bernard because people who study hard are not well liked by others.
When Biff fails math and doesn't graduate, Willy blames the teacher. Charlie, by contrast, is not so wrapped up in what career his son will pursue. He lets Bernard find himself and what he wants to do with his life, and the result is that Bernard becomes a lawyer.
When Willy says to him, "And you never told him what to do, did you? You never took any interest in him," Charlie answers, "My salvation is that I never took any interest in anything." Here, Willy understates his obsession with Biff's success. He took more than an interest. He wanted to live his life through his son. Biff's stardom would bolster the self-image Willy longs for -- of...
Willy also wants to be a successful father so that his sons will be successful as well. Willy especially wants his son, Biff, to succeed. Biff has inherited some of his father's dreamy nature and has never followed through on anything since he graduated from high school. Biff cannot keep one job for very long and he appears to be bored with no direction. Willy wants him to succeed but
Fate and Responsibility: Death of a Salesman At the end of Death of a Salesman, a number of Willy Loman's closest friends and relatives, including his wife Linda and friend Charley, pay homage to Willy Loman. They praise him as one of the small, powerless people who have little sway over their existences. "And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to
Death of a Salesman Willy Loman is the main character in Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. However, there are other important characters in the story. One of them is Willy's wife, Linda. In fact, Linda is one of the central characters in Death of a Salesman for several reasons. First, Linda is the real head of the household. Willy is too mentally disturbed to handle his life and she
Death of a Salesman: The Relationship Between Linda and Willy The marriage between Linda and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is typical of the early 20th century in many respects. The wife does not work and the husband acts as the provider for the family, despite the fact that the Loman family is struggling. Linda tries to economize by darning her stockings but she is forced to
Exchange at the End of Act Two: THE WOMAN: I just hope there's nobody in the hall. That's all I hope. To Biff: Are you football or baseball? BIFF: Football THE WOMAN: (angry, humiliated) That's me too. G'night. Both Biff and Happy are shown throughout the course of Death of a Salesman to have a very careless attitude in regards to how they treat women. They treat women like conquests, not as human
He continued to repeat the same behavior without at least trying to do something different. His dream probably kept him alive a little longer than he might have lived otherwise. As pathetic as his dream was, he owned it and believed he could reach it on some level. Willy's tragic flaw begins with a delusion. He chooses to foster that delusion instead of moving in another direction. He takes
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