What Is Willy Loman Mental Illness

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William Loman is five feet and 9 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds. He is a salesman, who does not seem to get a lot of sleep. According to my findings, Willy Loman suffers from Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. It has a variety of symptoms. One of these symptoms is hallucinations. Hallucinations are a common symptom of Schizophrenia. It makes you feel, see or hear things that may not actually be there. In the play, Willy often has conversations with himself and on various occasions, with his dead older brother, Ben. “Ben! I’ve been waiting for you so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it?” (Miller 32) Willy has been hallucinating numerous amount of times about …show more content…

From the beginning, Willy found it hard to succeed in the business world. Money was a struggle to obtain, therefore his career kept going downhill. This led Willy to doubt himself and made him go into a deep depression. He was supposed to be a role model for his family and especially for Bif and Happy, but in reality, he is not. His depression reaches the point where he tries to kill himself with a rubber tube: WILLY: I don’t know the reason for it, but they just pass me by. I’m not noticed. LINDA: But you’re doing wonderful, dear. You’re making seventy to a hundred dollars a week. WILLY: But I gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men — I don’t know — they do it easier. I don’t know why — I can’t stop myself — I talk too much. A man oughta come in with a few words. One thing about Charley. He’s a man of few words, and they respect him. (Miller 24). Willy realizes that no one is paying him any mind and that people always looked down on him. He has to work ten times harder than the average man, just to put food on the table. People do not respect Willy and do not acknowledge him. It explains how his dreams will not ever come true and how he was never going to be successful as he hoped to