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Literary analysis of death of a salesman
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Biff complains about Willy as a father, saying, “He’s got no character - Charley wouldn’t do this. Not in his own house - spewing out that vomit from his mind.” (Miller 56). Biff does not understand how his father has gotten to such a state of existence. Biff is also clearly frustrated, as even though he loves his father, he resents him for his emotional absence from Biff’s life, and compares him to other people that seem more stable on the outside, like Charley.
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.
Willy's logical inconsistencies brings confusion towards the audience itself toward the start of the play; in any case, they soon turn into a characteristic of himself. Willy's conflicting conduct is the after effect of his powerlessness to acknowledge reality and his propensity to control or re-make the past trying to get away from the present. For instance, Willy can't leave himself to the way that Biff never again regards him on account of Willy's affair with another woman. As opposed to concede that their relationship is irreparable, Willy retreats to a past time when Biff appreciated and regarded him. As the play goes on, Willy disassociates himself more from the present as his issues turn out to be excessively too much, making them impossible to manage.
Willy seemed to be getting senile in his old age. Biff’s brother, Happy seems to think Biff is the reason Willy is going crazy. Happy says it’s because he’s “not settled, that [he’s] still kind of up in the air” (21). Biff gets defensive saying there has to be other things depressing him, when
In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, several life altering decisions are revealed in the life of the main protagonist. Death of a Salesman is a drama following the life of Willy Loman, a struggling salesman. Throughout the play, Willy’s tragic past is revealed through a series of choices he made for the opportunity to change his life. The drama also reveals Willy’s struggle to connect with his son Biff. In the play, Death of a Salesman, the use of flashbacks exhibit Willy’s choices in life and how his relationship with Biff is damaged.
“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.
Therefore, he put all his effort and belief into Biff while he feels disappointment in his self. Willy feels like that Biff will be the one to store his hopes and dreams again. After Willy hears that Biff is flunking math, Willy tells Bernard, “You’ll give him the answers!” He is willing to have Biff make a false accomplishment for his chances on making his dreams come true. After the Boston incident, Biff feels like he can not live to his father’s expectations.
Biff failing math and not going to summer school may have been instigated by Willy encouraging him to blow off his studies and Biff discovering that Willy was having an affair. One cannot lay the blame totally on Willy because while he may have been the catalyst Biff made that decision not to study or go to summer school. Willy is kind of responsible for his family not being wealthy. He turned down an opportunity to go to Alaska with his brother a decision that would eventually cost him. Had he gone with Ben he could have been rich from finding a diamond mine in Africa.
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.
HAPPY: What the hell! WILLY: Tell me what happened! Biff [to Happy]: I can’t talk to him! Willy is only able to cope with the reality the Biff lays before him by escaping entirely into his delusions.
Biff wants to retake the class in the summer but when he catches his father having an affair his perception of his father, his biggest role model, is shattered causing him to give up on the things he used to want to do. Willy represses this memory entirely and tries to blame others for Biffs behavior instead of himself. Willy also fools himself into thinking he is well liked and successful. In small moments of clarity Willy admits that people have made fun of his physique and no one talks to him anymore when he goes
Afterward, Biff, Happy, and Willy were to meet at a restaurant in hopes to celebrate their success. Biff tried to explain to his father that he simply didn't get the preposition, but his father would not take the bad news. During this, Willy slips into flashback to the time Biff visited him in Boston to admit to him that he had failed math. Instead of getting the guidance Biff had expected from his father, he had stumbled upon his father having an affair.
Biff, a consequence of Willy, attempts to bring Willy out of his fantasies and his see the realities of his life, but in the end fails to. The two are different in their ideas, demeanors and personas, yet have some akin characteristics. Willy and Biff’s physical traits are different. At what point, Willy tells his wife Linda, “I’m fat. I’m very foolish to look at, Linda.”
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.
During a monologue, a long speech by a character that is directed towards another character. Biff confesses to Happy that he is conflicted and confused about what he wants. He cannot hold a job until he finds some happiness working as farm laborer. This arises tension and conflict between Biff and Willy. So much that Linda convinces Biff to please Willy once again.
