Is Willy A Success Or A Failure

Throughout life people set goals for themselves and if they achieve them or if they do not, this is how they determine themselves to be a success or a failure. In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy, the main character, in order to see himself as a success embellishes his accomplishments. These embellishments of the truth make Willy think he is better than he is in reality. Throughout Willy’s life he tries to be as successful as his idols; however, in his pursuit to do so he fails not only as a worker but also as a role model to his boys.

Throughout the play, Willy is in search of the ever-elusive dream of being successful. He wants to be “well liked” (33) by everyone and reach his true potential as a salesman just like one of his idols.

He encourages bad behavior, such as when Biff “borrowed [a football] from the locker room.”(29). He also encouraged the boys to cheat on their tests in order to pass their classes. Throughout the boys’ childhood Willy never instilled a good moral compass, rather he praised them for their misdoings, encouraging their bad behavior. Another major way he fails as a role model is when his son Biff came up to Boston. Biff walks in on Willy having an affair, and at that moment Biff completely loses Willy as a role model. Biff calls Willy “[a] fake! [a] phony little fake! [a] fake!”(121). He no longer cares about going to Virginia for school and football or about his failed math test. Willy sends Biff into a spiral never sure what he wants to do with his life. Throughout Willy’s life he never saw what he did in Boston to be the reason for Biff’s spiral into uncertainty. When Willy was talking to Bernard about Biff, Bernard said “I’ve often thought of how strange it was that I knew he’d given up his life. What happened in Boston, Willy?”(95). When asked this Willy was taken back and frustrated that Bernard would even blame him for Biff’s loss of hope. Willy’s constant failures not only let him down, but also fail his

Willy thinks in order to demonstrate to his family how successful he has become is decides to kill himself. He envisioned that if he died, his “funeral will be massive” (126) due to the fact he was “well liked” (33) by so many. However, his funeral came out to be much different, only family members and close friends showed up to his funeral. As part of his definition of success was being liked by thousands and being remembered and loved by so many, he was still a failure. He also failed in his belief that once his family received his life insurance check they would know he did something with his life. He wanted his family to know he “add[ed] up to something” (126). He wanted his life/death to have made an impact monetarily to his family. Once Willy died it caused more harm than good, it caused a strife between the boys in how they should be living their lives, either like their father or completely different. What Willy saw as the most successful thing he had ever done, ended up being one of his largest