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Death Of A Salesman Character Analysis Essay

838 Words4 Pages

Ahmir Minnis
Mrs. Noel
English III
3 March 2018
Death of a Salesman Analysis
Insecurity in Death of a Salesman [Hook] In the play, Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, insecurity portrays an important role throughout the play towards the character Willy and his demeanor towards his own family members, neighbors, and acquaintance. Because of Willy’s depressive, frantic-like state he shows different levels of insecurity and how much pride he has in order to sustain or cover for his insecurity by being dishonest, well liked, his teachings, delusional, and leads to his suicide at the end of the play. Willy’s pride is among the many ways he uses to overcome his in secureness. Willy’s security is demonstrated in his prideful behavior, …show more content…

He wants to be just as good as his father was a previous salesman and inventor. He also wants to be successful like Ben, however Ben took a risk and worked hard, rather than Willy who believes his charm will be able to let him take flight in the world. He is very insecure about how people view and treat him. When comparing himself to Charley, Willy claims that Charley “he’s liked, but not well liked,” then contradicts himself saying that “ they respect him because he’s a man of few words”(24) Charley then confronts Willy about his philosophy that being well liked leads to success(75).
Willy’s dishonesty plays a key factor into why he is insecure in the first place so that he can avoid his problems with a simple lie or fib to throw people off and not making any assertions about him. Willy lies to Linda about his pay and where he is actually getting it from because he doesn’t want to diminish his pride about not being able to financially support his family, thus failing them(22,41). He lies to Howard about how much money he made in the year 1928 (62). He cheats on Linda to boost his own ego, and lies to Biff saying that the mistress is just a friend and a

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