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Sacrifice In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

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An individual’s capacity to self-sacrifice can be revealed because of the compelling circumstances around him or her. It is these special circumstances around an individual that can influence his or her willingness to sacrifice their values and beliefs. These circumstances can be situations, beliefs, or ambitions that will convince an individual to act in a certain way. This idea is portrayed by Willy Loman, in the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller; at the beginning, he is seen as valuing being well-liked and following the American Dream. Then Willy is asked to venture to Alaska, where he has the opportunity to do what he truly enjoys, which is working with his hands. He turns this offer down, as he is unable to sacrifice his dream, …show more content…

Willy, who has raised his sons to blindly follow his dream, struggles to differentiate between reality and illusion. Over time, Willy believes that is “necessary to delude everyone [and] lying becomes the habitual mode of discourse” (Eisinger 100). By raising his sons to be “rugged, well liked” and indoctrinating the American Dream in his sons, Willy places an impossible pressure on them (Miller 49). This causes Biff and Happy to lie not only to their family, but also to themselves. Additionally, this caused Biff and Happy to look up and follow a glorified version of Willy that did not really exist. Biff is the only one in the family who eventually breaks out of the illusion that fools the rest of the family. At the end of the narrative, Biff realizes “what a ridiculous lie [his] whole life has been” (Miller 104). His self-deception ends when he realizes he has “been talking in a dream for fifteen years,” believing he was once something more than a shipping clerk (Miller 104). This shows that while Biff felt obligated to follow Willy in the business world, he had dreams of his own. Once Biff accepted himself for who he really was, he realized his true passions. On the contrary, Happy and Willy do not reach this state of self-fulfillment and do not realize the need to sacrifice their dreams in order to achieve happiness. Consequently, Happy deceives everyone into thinking he is the assistant buyer at work, when in reality he is “one of the two assistants to the assistant” (Miller 104). This demonstrates how Happy has become trapped in his father’s life. Unable to shake off his ideals of happiness, Happy becomes an empty person who lies to win his the approval of others. When looking back on the failure of the Loman men, Biff recognizes that Willy “had the wrong dreams” (Miller 138). This is a testament to the fact that Willy has failed, both as a father

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However, Willy kept on denying the truth, while Happy and Linda were just trying to calm Willy down, and get him away from Biff. Despite Happy and Linda’s efforts, Biff continued to reveal his life experiences to Willy. Eventually, Willy came to realize Biff for who he really was, and the argument settled down. Now you may be wondering how the argument could possibly show any love for each other. The love was found in Biff’s persistent desire to be honest with Willy.

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In order for Willy to be a successful father, he needs to feel that his kids are respected and accomplished. However this shows that Willy is such an outsider, because Biff is quite the opposite, as the Bill Oliver that is references has no idea who Biff is. Another example that shows how Willy’s goals and dreams turn him into a misfit is when he asks for a promotion “ Well, tell you the truth, Howard. I’ve come to the decision that I’d rather not travel anymore.” ( Miller 59).

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The uncontrollable lust of Willy in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller ultimately caused the ruin of his son, Biff’s, dream. It is true that irresponsible lusting can destroy people's life, even one’s own. When Biff caught Willy having The Woman in his room, he broke down and had a revelation about his father. (2, 120-121) He learned that he was a liar and this situation caused their relationship to fall apart.

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To Willy the “American Dream” is not hard work, dedication and innovation its being successful and well liked. If Willy wasn’t successful there was no going out and changing the way he approached things, its success or fail for him. Willy wants the success the easy way, where he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t try hard to dedicate himself to get better, he wants it handed to him. Willy’s sons Happy and Biff don’t have the same drive to be a salesman like Willy does. That’s one reason Willy’s life starts to go in a spiral, his sons do not want anything to do with being a salesman.

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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.

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Even when his neighbour Charley offers him a job with a salary, Willy declines because he is too proud to work for Charley. He rather blames his failure on the superficiality of the business world and fixates himself on the idea that personality, not hard work, is the key to accomplishment. Perhaps, this is because Willy is living in a world where the pursuit of the American Dream is a predominant part of people’s lives, and the materialistic pressures of the superficial were beginning to permeate its actual values. Under this particular pressure, Willy has been fighting his entire life to achieve "the dream," but unfortunately, no one ever explains to him what its true values are or how to really make it. Therefore, Willy manages his life based on his overwhelming sense of pride and ambition, and in this way, Miller seems to criticize the idea of compromising happiness for success-- even though Willy truly believes that happiness is achieved through success.

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Miller depicts Willy as a tragic character in his willingness to preserve his dignity. Additionally, Willy’s dignity is tainted in the story because of his flawed philosophy of the American Dream. This along with unjust comparisons leads to Willy’s death. Based on how Willy Loman evaluates himself unjustly, he is a tragic hero because he must do anything to preserve his dignity, and his false impression of the American Dream, which leads to his downfall.

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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.

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In his seminal work, Death of A Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays wretched conditions inflicting the lives of lower class people amid class-struggle in 1940s America. Miller sets the story during the great financial depression in the US , in between times after World War I and around World War II, though his characters hardly speak about the trauma of two World Wars. Miller earns an enormous success by putting an ordinary salesman as the protagonist in his play instead of putting a man of social nobility. In the play, Miller depicts his central character, Willy Loman as a destitute salesman struggling to rise up the social ladder in a capitalist society, who remains deluded by a 'dream of success ' and takes on a relentless pursuit of happiness that eventually brings his tragic demise. Though some critics speak in favor of the popular account of the cause of his death being his excessive obsession with so called the American dream and the 'capitalist oppression ' ; however, many still refuse to ascribe the cause of his death to capitalist oppression, which I will use synonymously with American dream here.

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This cancelled his plans to be a collegiate football player. Ever since then, things have kept going on a downhill path for Biff. Willy and Linda both notice this and it devastates them. But, instead of helping his son, Willy becomes agitated for the rest of his life. He expected his son to be better but, Biff did not want to be better.

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