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The death of salesman character analysis essay
Character of Willy loman
The death of salesman character analysis essay
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Therefore, Willy turns to deception and delusion, frequently inflating his sales figures to please his family and boss. To increase his confidence, he also imagines having conversations with his
“The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (33). In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses foil characters to elucidate Willy’s flaws that ultimately prevent him and his family from succeeding. The contrast between Charley and Willy and Bernard and Biff serves to highlight how Willy’s obsession with achieving his version of the American Dream impacts both his life and his children’s. His poor values are passed on to his children producing even more failures. ¬¬¬¬Both Charley and Willy work as salesmen, however Charley represents what Willy desired to become – successful.
He wanted to be successful so badly, that when he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. When Willy was younger, he had great connections in the areas he would sell. The people respected him and he took great pride in the fact that his name held value with those people. However, as he aged, so did the people he used to sell to. When he isn’t able to make the amount of sales he used to, he doesn’t know
Elliot Miller was not a wealthy man, he came from a hard-working yet very poor family as neither of his parents had completed college. His mother was a freelance hairstylist and his father was unemployed but would sometimes do construction work with some of his old friends. From a very young age, Elliot looked down on his parents for what they had done with their lives and swore that he would be better than them. Even as he got older this never changed, he would constantly remind them that someday he was going to be rich with a happy family while they were going to be stuck in poverty. But when Elliot reached his junior year in high school he fell in with the wrong crowd and started smoking weed.
While Linda enabled him, Willy could not help himself too keep ruining the good opportunities he had and turning them into some factious reality. At Willy`s funeral Biff comes to the realization that his father had all the wrong dreams and visions of success. Willy`s only dream was the fake “American Dream” that people believe will happen overnight. Willy`s failed attempts and happiness bonded into one and played a part into him creating this false reality and persona that he was the best salesman and that he was well loved by everyone around him.
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
His uncle is very vague about the details of his success which makes the audience wonder whether or not this dream is actually attainable. When Willy was just a kid, his Uncle Ben told him, “Why, when I was seventeen I walked
All Willy Loman ever desired was to be successful. He defined success by having money, prosperous children, and becoming well-liked; however, his interpretation of success led him to his own destruction.
Introduction When reading a play, it is fundamental to pay attention to details within the play for a script envisioned in more than one way. Moreover, discovering those critical items found in the play is important in helping one criticize the play correctly since; a critic is able to see the quality and mistakes found in the play. Likewise, the critic is also able to see valuable and critical things missed by the reader since as critics they looked at different functions within the play. With that said, this paper is going to explore two critical approaches seen in “Death of a Salesman” a play written by Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005). Those critical approaches are Reader-Response Criticism and Psychological (psychoanalytic) criticism.
However, pursuing this goal came with a price. Since he was highly motivated to becoming a successful salesman, he rarely stayed at home. Instead, he spent most of his time travelling around the country to conduct sales. He became a workaholic, forcing himself to make sacrifices in his family life in order to seek his own ambitions. Therefore, Willy’s perfectionistic ideals led to his demise.
Willy conducts his whole life based on the belief that any man who is good-looking, charismatic, and “well-liked” deserves success and will naturally achieve it (1.30). He attempts to make his mark by working as a salesman because, according to him, “selling [is] the greatest
In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller utilizes the theme of betrayal as a way to draw a parallel to the downfall of how the Loman family perceives “The American Dream". Arthur Miller provides us with a clear analysis of how Betrayal has a domino effect throughout "Death of a Salesman". We are shown this theme by Willy Loman's betrayal to his wife. Just as Willy has betrayed his wife the American dream has betrayed Willy. With Biff learning of his father's betrayal, this leads him to think of his father differently.
A tragic hero is a literary character that makes a judgment error that leads to his or her downfall. Traditionally, a tragic hero is reserved only for the elite, or noble members of society. However, Miller believes that the common man is equally subject to tragedy as the highest kings are. In The Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays the protagonist, Willy Loman as a tragic hero. Willy Loman is a financially struggling man in his sixties looking for success for him and his family.
Tragedy can spread. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the protagonist, however he not the only person in the play who’s story ends tragically. His view on life spreads to those close to him. Primarily, Willy teaches it to his children who look up to him while his wife simply attaches herself to him, rooting for him in blind support while really she should be waking him up to the cold and dark reality that is their life. Throughout the play, the Loman family evolves differently.
A big sign of failure was written in willy 's life after losing his job because without a job he wouldn’t have any money to pay his insurance and neither the last payment of his house. Another example for willy 's failure is when he is starting to realize that people don 't actually take willy serious. After he got fired he noticed that he was losing popularity and the idea of success was betraying him. Willy needed money so he went to ask an old friend for money to pay his insurance. He got the money but also had a job offer but because he didn’t want to admit his failure he decided to say no.
