Willy's Misconception

Willy’s Misconception
The play Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller, is centered around Willy Loman’s great misconception about life and success. Willy Loman believed strongly that all that was required in life to attain success was to be well-liked. For a time, these methods did seem to yield results. Willy did not always feel inadequate and unsuccessful. He in fact used to be put right through to the buyers by a lady who liked him and had the ability to influence his success. So, for a time his tactics did yield results. Most would argue that the play is a literary embodiment of the American dream because it shows that even through abject hardship and strife, that one must never lose sight of hope and keep working for success. However, this

This is clearly identified in his relationship with his son Biff because like any other father would, Wil-ly tries to teach his sons what it takes to be successful, and as mentioned previously this knowledge served his son Biff well throughout his high school career, but never further. This is because his knowledge was misconstrued and completely void of any of the elements of the American dream. He mocks Bernard for not being well-liked: “Bernard is not well liked is he?” (Miller 20) then proceeds to tell his sons “be liked and you will never want” (Miller 21). This moment in the play, demonstrate that hard work comes last in Willy’s model success.
As for how Willy’s relationships were affected, the play shows several occasions in which he has been unkind, judgemental or undeserving of respect. An example of this would be his relationship with Charley whom he considered to be his only friend: “Charley, you’re the on-ly friend I’ve got” (Miller 76). Yet, Willy treats him with so much contempt and constantly re-fuses job offers just because Charley is not well liked enough. He would rather resort to borrow-ing money from Charley and lying to his wife Linda, about his job, which is another example of how his misconception has affected his