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Death Of A Salesman Literary Analysis

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In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman has trouble distinguishing his memories from the present. This problem causes him to contradict himself often, especially when he is talking about his son Biff. One minute he is bragging about how good of a football player Biff is, and the next he is calling him lazy. Willy also has a problem with differentiating his dreams from reality. This is obvious because he thinks that he is a very successful business man and everyone knows who he is, when in reality, he is barely hanging on to his job. Willy does not want to face the fact that he is not a good salesman, and that he was unfaithful to his wife, so he uses his memories to block out reality. Willy has trouble distinguishing his
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Notably here, Willy tries to make the model T his family owned seem to be the greatest car in the world. This occurs constantly throughout the play with Willy misrepresenting anything, which causes the people around Willy to dislike him, further alienating Willy and leading him to fall further into depression. Similarly Willy’s decision to lie is also responsible for his death.

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1404 Words | 6 Pages

Instead, Tack chases the path that makes him more accepted and this prevents him from uncovering his hidden potential. Similarly, in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman desires this same approval and acceptance. Willy, having grown up without a father figure, is extremely doubtful of his parenting and admits that, “[he is] afraid [he is] not teaching [Biff and Happy] the right [values]” (Miller 52). Due to his own insecurity in his parenting ability, Willy turns to Ben for approval and asks him “how [he] should teach [Biff and Happy]” (Miller 52). By continually looking for Ben’s approval, Willy limits his abilities and fails to be an adequate parent for Happy and Biff.

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179 Words | 1 Pages

In Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," the characters of Willy Loman and Linda Loman both contribute to the message of denial through the psychological lens. Willy Loman This is exemplified in the quote "I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England" (Act 1, Scene 1) where Willy refuses to accept the reality of his situation and instead chooses to believe in his own version of success. Similarly, Linda Loman's denial of their financial struggles and her sacrifice for their family is portrayed through her devotion to Willy and her willingness to deny the truth about their situation to keep Willy's illusions alive. She doesn’t crush him by telling him the real truth.

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877 Words | 4 Pages

Willy believes that he wishes to purchase his wife a new refrigerator even though she is satisfied with what they have. As he strives to live the American dream he honors those who have been victorious at doing so, like his successful brother. Additionally he penalizes those who did not make any efforts towards that ideal or achieve it, like his son Biff, and for the most part prominently himself. The unattainable dream that he has lived all his life was struggling to achieve has brought him to complete disappointment and a loss of wisdom in his judgments. Willy formed a reality for himself where eventual result of his disenchantment.

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1371 Words | 6 Pages

Secondly, Willy’s refusal to accept reality that he is with his hands is doing cases him to do injustice to himself. In Willy’s conversation with Charley he boasts about his work around the house when asks “Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room?” (Miller 44) Willy is unwavering in his belief that he can only be successful by being a salesman and that a salesman is what he is meant to be. One can speculate that although he secretly enjoys working with his hands, he feels a labour-intensive job is beneath him and demeaning, which aligns with his lack of humility. This stubbornness allows him to maintain the fantasy in which his true talents do not exist as he continues to convince himself that he is satisfied being a salesman.

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455 Words | 2 Pages

In The Deaths of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a salesmen who is trying to achieve the American Dream just like everyone else in the world. In his head, he believes to be this well liked and huge successful salesmen. In reality he is more of a self-conscious man who tries to live his fantasy he has in his head while being deceitful to not only himself but his own family as well. Throughout the play Death of a Salesman, Willy has several slogans that he attempts to live his life by.

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1015 Words | 5 Pages

We also learn that Willy is not that successful at being a salesman due to what he

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

Willy tries to make himself feel better by lying to himself. Although Willy’s death is unfortunate, if one closely examines his pride, bad temper, and his lies, one can see that these flaws will eventually bring him to his demise. Throughout the play, Willy demonstrates his sense of pride while talking to his family and friends. In this quote one can

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1702 Words | 7 Pages

This article takes into account Friedrich Nietzsche 's philosophy, in particular the notions of Slave Morality and Master Morality, in order to analyze the major characters of Death of a Salesman (1998) especially its tragic protagonist Willy Loman. Therefore, firstly Nietzsche’s related concepts will be explained and then the play will be studied based on those concepts. In this study understanding master morality, slave morality and their differences as well as the idea of ‘will to power’ is essential to analyze the characters based on Nietzsche’s philosophy. This paper considers Willy Loman as an actual low man who does not know himself and cannot bear changes while his son, Biff, seeks to create and set his own values.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

Willy Loman could be described as an insecure, traveling salesman. Willy is a man who desired great things in life but never was actually able to accomplish any of his goals. Willy worked hard in life to support his wife and kids, even though he was never truly satisfied at his job or with his home life. Willy, however, did try to make himself feel better by lying to himself about his job and family. He convinced himself that he was a great sales man and even started having an affair to live an alternate life.

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300 Words | 2 Pages

A piece of literary merit that challenged the way I thought about my surroundings was Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. This play, based in mid-20th century America, went in depth in analyzing the dynamic between American corporate culture and the worker. Miller was able to display the dynamic between a middle class American getting pulled into following societal roles and perception rather than blazing his own trail and becoming what he wants to become. This mental dilemma with the main character was unbeknownst to him; however the drama was present for the reader as his struggles in corporate America led to his suicide. Although dramatized, this play was able to effectively summarize to me the effects of not being a trailblazer and developing

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1061 Words | 5 Pages

Because Willy no longer has a job, he is unable to support his family the way that he is supposed to, which negatively affects his relationship with his wife Linda, and their two

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243 Words | 1 Pages

In “Death of a Salesman” & “The Tragedy of Macbeth” by Arthur Miller, the character Willy Loman on the modern america, in the 1940’s as cars and appliances ar be made willy is constantly to maintain the best in family as he slowly starts to lose his mind in the world it’s clear that willy only cares about one thing is that it’s keeping up with the people around him. In the book Death of a Salesman Willy hallucinates about his brother and about his family in the past when they were doing so good with money. Willy Loman has a hard time between reality and illusion, so does lady macbeth’s husband.

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413 Words | 2 Pages

What I learned personally about human behavior from the historical aspects of the play is that nothing has changed in today’s society. Willy Loman seemed to perceive himself as a bigshot, well-known salesman in town. But in reality he was a struggling, little-known salesman in town. “The way we perceive ourselves in relation to the rest of the world influences our behaviors and our beliefs. The dynamics of psychology — cognition, perception, learning, emotion, attitudes and relationships — all play a significant role in how humans see themselves and the many elements in their environment”, as stated in an excerpt from apa.org(2017).

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Ana Oceguera 12. 19. 16 AP English Death of a Salesman Character Compare and Contrast     In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the audience follows the dynamic between the members of the Loman family. The father of the family, Willy Loman is a self-deluded traveling salesman whose dreams of success do not match his reality. Prompted by his frustration due to the discrepancy between his unrealistically ambitious expectations and his reality, we watch as his mental health takes a turn for the worse,  and his story eventually ends in suicide.

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