ipl-logo

How Does Willy Loman Achieve The American Dream

1049 Words5 Pages

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is about a man, Willy Loman, who is trying to accomplish his American Dream. No matter how much effort he puts he can not seem to accomplish it. Noticing his failure he starts pressuring his sons, Biff and Happy, to accomplish it for themselves so he can have the satisfaction of showing them off and appreciate what he was not able to accomplish. Willy Loman, a common man with unrealistic dreams and false hopes Willy Loman has tried to make his American Dream happen, but it did not work out like he planned. In order to achieve the American Dream, Willy believes that if you are a “ well-liked” and “personally attractive” businessman you can have certain luxuries that other people might not have. Willy has …show more content…

Realizing this, his insecurities get the best of him and everything starts spiraling downwards. He realizes that he no longer has the traits that he believes he needs to achieve the materialistic life he has always wanted. With this in mind, he believes that his sons have the needed traits and are capable enough to complete it for him. After Willy’s realization, his sons start feeling the pressure. Trying to make their father proud they start the path towards his ideal American Dream. Always vying for his father's attention, Happy, the youngest of the Loman brothers realizes that he can easily make his father proud if he just follows the expectations already laid out for him. After following his father’s expectations, he notices that he is not as satisfied as he should be. He does not understand why he feels like this. He has done everything, but he has yet to settle down which would explain his loneliness.(QUOTE) Happy believes that this is the missing piece in his life and when he settles down all his problems will be solved, but just like his father he is following an unrealistic dream. Unlike Willy and

Show More
Related
410 Words | 2 Pages

Willie Loman is an ordinary man who embodies traditional American values of success. He has reached the age where he can no longer compete successfully in his chosen career of a traveling salesman. Willie’s desire for the american dream, despite his lack of ability to be a successful salesman, sacrifices his chance at happiness. After facing the reality of his job termination he begins to assess the value of his past. Willie’s son, Biff, returns to visit his parents and Willie is reminded of his desire for his son to achieve traditional success.

Read More
2509 Words | 11 Pages

These issue in turn alter Willy’s perception of life and he constantly makes false situations in his head which alter the ways he thinks. Willy constantly talks about how his brother Ben got rich by finding diamonds in Africa and constantly regrets not going to him. These imaginations and potential fictional stories of how Willy remembered Ben alter how Willy constantly is trying to work harder to make more money. Willy is focused on making money because it is all he thinks about, and he constantly puts his imagination of the utopia he wants to live in above his family. As Willy talks to Happy about Ben, he talks about him as a great man, “What’s the mystery?

Read More
1192 Words | 5 Pages

Although Willy deceives himself into believing that he has a perfect life and family when, his past comes back to haunt him Willy’s relationship with his family is broken and he ultimately faces the reality of his past actions that cause others to abandon him. Being

Read More
627 Words | 3 Pages

Happy is continually taking after the feelings of other individuals. Whether it 's his dad Willy, or his mom Linda, he quite often ensures that his opinion happens in the meantime as others '. In spite of the fact that he is generally successful in his occupation, he has his father 's absolutely impractical self-confidence and

Read More
198 Words | 1 Pages

Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is thematically centered on Willy Loman’s inability to accept his failure in various aspects of his life. The first example of the character’s inability to accept his failure is as a husband through his infidelity and his actions after the fact. Next, the audience will see Willy’s inability to accept his failure as a father when he learns what his lessons really taught his sons. Finally, Willy Loman’s inability to accept his failure as a salesman is shown by his wife, Linda, to the audience demonstrating that pride is a factor. Miller’s centralization of this theme reveals to the audience that because of this, Willy refuses help from those who are willing to lend him a hand.

Read More
1611 Words | 7 Pages

Willy sacrifices happiness in the belief that he is a successful businessman when he is anything but that. Willy goal to chase success is nothing but a dream built on a foundation of lies and non-moral characteristics. His two sons have amounted to nothing having the expectation that they were going to carry the family name to prestige brought Willy disappointment. During times of Willy’s distraught or his, confusion Ben appears numerous times throughout the film. Ben is the success that Willy longs for badly.

Read More
624 Words | 3 Pages

Julian Baggini iterates that while “happiness is important… it’s not everything; it’s worth having but hard to possess,” though he also admits that happiness’ role in life’s meaning is “so unclear,” (90). It is evident that Miller mirrors this sentiment--his main character, Willy Loman, devotes his entire life to achieving “happiness” through personal success. However, Miller depicts Willy’s goal, pursuing happiness as the main purpose of life, in a very tragic manner. Willy is greatly unable to achieve his goals. And, even in death, he did not obtain happiness or even guarantee his sons’ happiness, though he ends his life just because there is a possibility that his death may inadvertently bring success, and with it, happiness, to his family.

Read More
1586 Words | 7 Pages

In the play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the audience witnesses the tragic final days of Willy Loman, a struggling salesman who has failed to achieve the American Dream. The advice he has given and the example he has set for his two sons Happy and Biff has damaged their relationship with their father and hindered their ability to make something out of their life. The focus of this essay will be to argue the idea that Willy is responsible for the shortcomings of his sons due to his unrealistic expectations, poor parenting, his inability to acknowledge his sons’ flaws, and his absence of address for his adultery. Firstly, Willy’s expectations for his sons are unrealistic and contribute to their shortcomings.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, is one of the greatest american tragedies in the 20th century. The story begins when Willy Loman returns home one night from work. He works as salesman, however, due to his current mental state he realizes he shouldn't be driving anymore. His wife, Linda, suggests talking to his boss about staying local and working from an office in New York. Unfortunately, when he talked to his boss, Howard, he was fired.

Read More
1155 Words | 5 Pages

Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, is a tragedy about the life of Willy Loman. This play, written in nineteen forty-nine, remains relevant in modern times. This story delves into the American way, and figures out what is really inside Willy Loman. Exploring a mentally fragile businessman’s ethics and temperament throughout leads to a better understanding of the meaning of age and morals. Arthur Miller’s ideas on masculinity and relationships are timeless, which is one reason why this play works so well in contemporary times.

Read More
890 Words | 4 Pages

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller portrays the last 24 hours of the life of a common man, Willy Loman, as he reflects on the failures of his life. Loman’s success as a salesman has passed now that his old loyal boss, Howard, has died, and he now works as an unsuccessful traveling salesman, scraping by on commision from Howard’s son. Loman goes to the neighbor, Charley, often borrowing money for household payments, but refuses to take a job-offer from him. Willy Loman’s spouse is Linda and they have two boys, Happy and his older brother Biff, who are now middle aged men who live back at home and are trying to find where they belong in life. Bernard is a childhood friend of the Loman boys, and is Charley’s son.

Read More
606 Words | 3 Pages

The death of a salesman is a tragic story for the characters, especially for the main character Willy. It is a tragedy about the differences between the dreams of the family Loman and his real life. I think that the play is a critique of the American Dream, and the competitive and materialistic American society at the time. As I said the tragedy falls more in the star of the play, Willy Loman. An ordinary man who tries to hide his mediocrity and his failures with the help of hallucinations increasingly delirious, while striving to reach the success.

Read More
1537 Words | 7 Pages

In doing so, they show the audience how each and everyone of them was slightly to blame for Willy’s tragic fate. Of Willy’s two sons, Happy is still infatuated with Willy’s dream. As he says, it’s the dream of being number one. Willy was never number one, nor did he ever really get close to being number one. In fact, for someone in Willy’s position this goal was quite impossible.

Read More
850 Words | 4 Pages

Willy’s American Dream The tragic play of Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller tells a story about an old man of 84 years old named Willy. Willy was captured by the American dream. He believed that hard work and ambitions could take him to a life of fame and popularity like the american dream was supposed to be. In Death of a salesman, the american dream reveals disappointment, failure and loss of hope. Thus showing that the american dream is not a great dream after all.

Read More
1903 Words | 8 Pages

In the Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the Lomans are a very dysfunctional family.  All have distorted ideas of what happiness is and what is essential to accomplish success.  Characters portrayed in the play are the parents William “Willy” and Linda Loman, Biff the oldest son, Harold “Happy” the youngest son and the very wealthy Uncle Ben, Willy’s older brother. Other influential characters in the play include Willy’s only friend Charley, Charley’s nerd son Bernard, and the woman to which Willy refers to as Miss Harvey, his mistress.

Read More

More about How Does Willy Loman Achieve The American Dream

Open Document