Death Of A Salesman

Death of a Salesman

In the play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, a family struggles with success and failure. Willy Loman is the name of the father and he is an unsuccessful salesman who has this idea that everyone knows him and that he has great success. His whole family life is much distorted. His two sons, one in particular, Biff have distorted views of life and what they want. Happy has picked up his father's lying scheme and he thinks that success is waiting for the next person "on top" to die. Biff on the other hand, doesn't want to accept his father's wishes to become a salesman and he wants to go out west to work in the outdoors. Towards the end of Willy's life, he seems to be coming down with Alzheimer's and he can't face the fact that he is not well known or well liked. Success to him meant being able to go to any city and he could sell to anyone because they knew him. Willy didn't care that they were almost done paying off their house. Money also wasn't a big deal to Willy; it didn't define success for him. Throughout the play his wife, Linda tries to convince him that they are successful because they are about to own their own home, and there are a few things in the home that they are almost done paying off, but Willy didn't care and in the end he killed himself so that his family could have his $20,000 life insurance policy. The American dream seems to play a role in this play because of the references that Willy makes as to what he wants in life and also to his brother, Ben. Willy wanted nothing more than to reach the American dream, but in reality, he fails. He is no longer a good salesman, he doesn't earn enough money and he can't communicate with his sons. One can tell that Willy didn't reach his American dream because of what his wishes were, and what he actually accomplished. It wasn't possible for Willy to achieve his goals (American dream) because of external circumstances, as well as internal circumstances.

In this play, some of the external circumstances that caused Willy to fall short of his American dream were a changing labor market and the fact that his sons had free will and that he couldn't control them. Some of the internal circumstances that caused Willy to fall short of his American dream were a decreasing capability capacity to master his social situations and he also consciously made a choice to commit adultery.

The American dream is shown as a false ideal in the play; its contrast with reality is shown throughout the play. "Willy had false aspirations to stop traveling and continue work. Reality resulted in him being jobless." ("Re: Death of a Salesman"). An aspiration of having an office job is a part of the American dream. No one wants to travel across different states to sell merchandise, especially if you are over sixty years old. Willie's boss Howard wouldn't let Willy work in the office. Howard's father promised Willy that he could work in the office, and Willy kept trying to convince Howard that his father gave him his word and Howard should honor that. At one part in the play, The Death of a Salesman, Willy is discussing this with Howard;

"I'm talking about your father! There were promises made across this desk! You mustn't tell me you've got people to see-I put thirty-four years into this firm, and now I can't pay my insurance!" (Miller 1287). Willie's boss letting him go was an external circumstance that caused him to loose his job. It was the result of a changing labor market. In reality, his boss could have let him keep working for the company, but he had to look out for the success of the business. His boss didn't want an old man holding his company back, even if Willy was an old friend of the family.

Another external circumstance that caused Willy to fall short of his American dream for himself and his son's, is the fact that his sons have free will. Willy wanted his sons Biff and Happy to be successful, rich salesmen like he thought he was. It is also a part of the American dream to be well-liked and popular and Willy hung onto that idea that being well-liked would bring him success. Willy told his sons that all they needed in life was to be handsome and well-liked, and they would be successful. After Willy told his sons this, they began to believe that success will just sort of fall into their laps. Willie's son Happy assimilated his father's hopeful aspirations and throughout the play he is also living a lie. Happy is always telling lies or saying his is going to make it big one day, or that he is going to get married. He said these things so that his parents would think he was a success, and his father actually believed him. Willie's other son, Biff tried hard to believe that he could be a successful business man in the beginning, but Biff came to a realization that his father made mistakes and he filled he and his brother Happy up with empty hopefuls. Biff realized that his father was never really successful and that he knew he could never be a successful salesman ("Death of a Salesman" 2). Biff wanted to exercise his free will to go out west and become a rancher. Biff also wanted his brother Happy to come along with him, "...maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles..." (Miller 1251). That was Biff's American dream. He saw himself going outdoors and working hard to earn his money. I think that Biff's dream was a little out of touch like his father's. He later went on to mention that he and his brother would be known all over the counties, just like his father mentioned that he was known. It seems like Willy started to realize that he wasn't successful so that is why he pushed his sons to be so.

Along with the external circumstances that caused Willy to fall short of his American dream, there were also internal circumstances that caused him to fail. The first of the internal circumstances is Willy's decreasing capacity to master the social situations between his friends, family and boss. For the most part, Willy could not help this later in his life because it seemed like he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. All throughout the play, Willy's friend Charley is always there to help but Willy doesn't want his help, or realize that Charley is there to help. When Charley offered Willy a job when Willy got fired from the sales firm, Willy turned it down. He couldn't