Dream Vs Reality In Death Of A Salesman

Great fortune. Freedom. Happiness. Passion. No worries. A dream is what people look forward to every day. Dreams allow one to achieve a goal, such as to have a family, and being able to provide for them. Dreams are necessary for setting a goal for the reality of our future, making a better life. In Death of a Salesman, Willy, a father and husband is living in a dream that he is able to provide for his family, and has a successful life. He is living the exact opposite. Biff is the favorite son to Willy, lost and not sure how to become successful, struggling to find himself. In his play, Arthur Miller portrays to his audience, that sometimes dreaming can be a hindrance to one 's life, by asking the question: At what point does someone live a

Reality, suggesting that it is likely for someone to follow a dream so intensely, that it blinds their reality. This is shown especially when the audience sees that Willy gets fired because he was tired, and there was no more room for him, and starts talking to Charley: Charley: “Howard fired you?” Willy: “That snotnose. Imagine that? I named him Howard”(97). Instead of accepting the reason Howard fired him, Willy thought that because he named him, Howard supposedly owed him something. Willy has the dream that if you can do one good deed for another, they automatically owe you. Willy seems to be jealous of Charley because he doesn’t understand how he can be successful when, in his eyes, he isn’t living the right dream, but seems to still go to him when he needs money. He also is refusing to see his reality, hoping that he will still be keeping his job, by refusing the job Charley offered him: Charley: “Why don 't you want to work for me?” Willy: I’ve got a job”(96). Even though shortly after got done telling Charley how he lost his job, he was still refusing to take his offer. This is showing how a dream is a release for Willy, to forget about his stresses of getting fired. Rather than accepting these facts, he ignores them by refusing Charley’s offer. He continues living this false reality which only causes him more stress, because he’s unaware of what’s really going