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Use Of Motifs In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

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Hardships often prepare an ordinary person for an extraordinary future. If comes from within to hold on and make a change. After all at the end of the day yesterday was history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift from god, which is why we call it the present. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller has confused character that don't understand how to respond to the hardships occurring throughout their life. Willy the main character has two son’s Biff and Happy. Willy is married to Linda. Willy is lost in the problems from the past while his son Biff is lost in what he is going to accomplish in the future. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses motif and characterization to unfold the keys to living a happy life.
Arthur Miller uses the motif of lost to present the first key. Willy is a hard working man, unlike his son, Biff. Biff is 34 years old and has yet to make more than $35 a week, which is about the equivalent of $350 dollars today. Willy thinks his son is a lazy bum, while his mother Linda thinks “ he’s finding himself” (Miller 5). Biff not knowing what he is trying to achieve in life is an appearance of the motif. Finding oneself is part of discovering what one’s purpose in life is. One should take time to …show more content…

Willy was a hardworking man. His job would demand him to drive for hours, leaving him exhausted. He would find himself driving off road, falling asleep. Failing to remember to “rest his mind” ( Miller 3). Willy’s character was in some desperate use of rest. His thoughts would be intertwined, lost in the past and the present. Failing to recognize what was required of him to carry out the present. His character would “experience sense of loss and desperation” (Harder 3). Willy’s confused mind would result in a mistaken decisions, ranging from an extramarital affair to having suicidal thoughts. Consequently having a tried, negative mind would never give Willy a positive

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Notably here, Willy tries to make the model T his family owned seem to be the greatest car in the world. This occurs constantly throughout the play with Willy misrepresenting anything, which causes the people around Willy to dislike him, further alienating Willy and leading him to fall further into depression. Similarly Willy’s decision to lie is also responsible for his death.

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This fear, along with a false pride of his son’s accomplishments, forced Willy into a mirage in which he lived his life. Willy’s aspirations to be successful were directly influenced by the success of his brother. After declining his offer to go to Antarctica, Willy was never able to accept his mistake, driving him to reshape his lifestyle in an attempt to recreate his brother’s success. His drive would be fed by the belief that his son Biff is becoming more successful than he is. However, this was the effect of the “mirage” that Willy thought his life was.

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Willy Loman was a troubled man who didn't have respect for his wife and degraded his children every chance he got when it came to their failures, especially with his son Biff. He only cared about achieving the American dream which he did not succeed because of all his problems that stood in his way. His constant obsession with achieving the American dream only made his family distance themselves from him more only due to the fact that he believed that achieving this would lead him to happiness and success. This also leads to the other major theme which is resilience. Willy came from a poor socioeconomic background and he is making all the efforts to pull himself out of his current situation through whatever he can do in hopes for something better that will make him feel like he's achieved his

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In addition to being contradictory, Willy is also very insecure. In fact, when Willy confesses to Linda that business is not doing well, he expresses his insecurities by saying, “I’m fat. I’m very-foolish to look at, Linda.” Lastly, another trait that Willy possesses is suicidal.

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In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the character Willy is used as a metaphor for how the ignorance of one leads to the downfall of another. Willy is a prideful person and his pride influences the way he remembers the past which is perfect. Although having an idealist viewpoint of the world can lead to ideal outcomes, Willy’s ideal outlook leads to his demise because of his delusion and projection of his ideals onto his sons. First, Willy’s optimism comes from his delusion that his life is perfect.

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In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, only one character truly comes to the realization of who he is. Throughout his younger years, Biff Loman is constantly buffed up by his father Willy, whom he adores. Biff admires his father until he catches him cheating on his wife, Linda. This changes Biff’s relationship with his father, ultimately changing his actions, attitude, and values. Biff Loman and his father used to have a beautiful relationship.

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Willy announces the problem in his character, but he does not attempt to amend the flaws in his habitual way of behaving. This leads to his tragic

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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?

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Thirty five years later after devoting his life into the career, he hasn’t accomplished the same success that dave have achieved, but “he possessed too much snobbery to admit that his own destiny was in a simple career as a carpenter” (Death of a Salesman). Willy obviously wanted more in life, and since he saw himself not achieving anything, he taught his kids into his way of seeing life, hoping they would have gone the same path and get the dream he had for himself. When Biff came home he realized that Willy was disappointed in Biff, he “resolves to reform his life for the sake of his father, and act 1 closes with the familiar denial of old wounds and Biff’s promise to make a business deal in New York” (Death of a Salesman). Willy’s confusion about the real “American Dream” makes him teach his sons wrong, and his failure because he never understood what was “really needed to succeed insisting to the end that ‘personality wins the day’”

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Thirty five years later, after devoting his life into the career, he hasn’t accomplished the same success that Dave have achieved, but “he possessed too much snobbery to admit that his own destiny was in a simple career as a carpenter” (Death of a Salesman). Willy obviously wanted more in life, and since he saw himself not achieving anything, he taught his kids in his way of seeing life, hoping they would have gone the same path and get the dream he had for himself. When Biff came home, he realized that Willy was disappointed in Biff, he “resolves to reform his life for the sake of his father, and act 1 closes with the familiar denial of old wounds and Biff’s promise to make a business deal in New York” (Death of a Salesman). Willy’s confusion about the real “American Dream” makes him teach his sons wrong, and his failure because he never understood what was “really needed to succeed insisting to the end that ‘personality wins the day’”

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Willy always found his dreams in someone else which is why his happiness never came. At first it was his father then it was his brother Ben, and then it was famous sales man Dave Singleman. He looked for others inside of himself which led to him not being satisfied. Dreams can not be rented or borrowed. Willy never realized this and in turn it caused his mental health to deteriorate even more than it already had.

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

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

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997 Words | 4 Pages

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, characters’ inability to let go of the past causes them immense tragedy. Biff, in particular, is terribly transformed after he catches his father having an affair. Biff’s fall from a promising child to a meandering bum is underpinned by his inability to let go. As he fixates on this single memory, his negative beliefs continually reinforce themselves and he thus stops believing he is worthy of success. Key to Biff’s transformation is the moment he meets Willy’s mistress.

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Willy's hubris is evident in his refusal to accept his limitations and his longing for success and importance. However, it becomes evident that this dream is a delusion of Willy’s. His pursuit of material success blinds him to the true values of life, such as love, family, and personal morals. Additionally, fate plays a significant role in the downfall of the tragic hero. Willy says, "I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life."

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He maybe a sixty year old man, but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect just because hes older and wiser. From time to time, Willy would forget things due to his old age except these were a little extreme; because when he wakes up from his slumber and starts talking to Linda “ No, it’s me, it’s me- I’m going sixty miles an hour-I don’t remember the last five minutes. I’m-I can’t keep my mind on it” (13). He sounds lost, “it’s me” is mentioned more than once and the fact hes driving a car and doesn’t remember is a hazard.

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