Death Of A Salesman

Male Expectations

Expectations put upon men to succeed are ever present in our world; making men feel inferior if they are unable to succeed financially. Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman", explicitly shows just how harmful these expectations can be to both the individual and his family. The main character in the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, is greatly affected by these male expectations. The man is expected to not only support his family but must also be able to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Willy's inability to succeed as expected from society in turn affects his two sons, Biff and Happy, and his loving wife Linda.

A downfall of the Loman boys is their father's ideas of how to be successful in life. Willy fills his sons with hot air because he himself is the failure and cannot imagine his sons being the same way, yet he builds them up so much that they end up failing. Because of everything his father has instilled in him, Biff is so sure that being popular and well liked is the key to success. This belief leads to him flunking out of school and not making anything of his life. Willy has convinced his children that the most important thing in life is to be well liked. When Bernard tries to help Biff by encouraging him to study for math because he knows he may fail it Willy just wants Bernard to give Biff the answers. Even after all Bernard is trying to do for Biff Willy still thinks of Bernard as "a worm".

Biff is more affected by Willy's failure toward Linda than his financial failures. Biff's whole life is ruined when he finds out that his father is cheating on his mother after all she has done for him. Biff realizes that he has been idolizing a failure; he is devastated and his life begins to tumble downhill uncontrollably. Biff feels that the reason he and his father are always fighting is because, "he's a fake and he doesn't like anybody around who knows!"

Willy's younger son, Happy, is also greatly affected by Willy's antics, however differently than Biff because he never realizes that his father is a failure. Happy is always competing for his father's attention but is never able to steal the spotlight away from Biff. Throughout the play