Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman centers around the tragedy of the Loman family, after the return of their son, Biff, causing contention between him and his father, Willy. Biff’s return starts bring up issues from the family's past, being his failure to graduate high school. Biff worsens Willy’s depression, stemming from his age creating difficulties to keep up in his career as a salesman. Throughout the play, the other members of the Loman family and their friends get involved, in an attempt to unite the family by helping Biff get on better terms with Willy and following in his footsteps. Throughout the play, the members of the Loman family have to deal with the idea of entrapment, with Linda, Biff, and Willy all dealing with it, in the …show more content…
From the early stages of the play, Linda makes her loyalty to Willy evident, with her defense and acceptance of her husband’s actions starting from when he first crashes his car. In Willy’s presence, she appears as a loyal wife, she consistently agrees with his grievances over his job and Biff. When Willy is not present, Linda reveals her true opinions, telling Biff and Happy, “You’ve got to make up your mind, darling, there’s no leeway any more. Either he’s your father and you pay him that respect, or else you’re not to come here. I know he’s not easy to get along with--nobody knows that better than me--but…”(Miller 39). Linda presents Biff …show more content…
Willy traps himself into a fantasy, with images of his brother, Ben and his mistress, both of which support him with fantasies of his romance with a mistress, supporting delusions of his self-image, and images of Ben supporting his delusions on the American Dream and success.Willy’s flashbacks consist of a few important people, being his mistress, Ben, and Biff at a younger age. Willy’s flashbacks with the mistress focus on his self-image. Early in Act 1, Willy has his first memory of the woman while he starts doubting his appearance and his co-workers’ opinions on him. These feelings of doubt trigger an image for him, where he receives an array of compliments from the woman, “Sure thing. You do make me laugh. It’s good for me. [She squeezes his arm, kisses him.] And I think you’re a wonderful man (Miller 25). At first, Willy’s image of the woman appears to be a method to make him feel appreciated, however he happens to enter this flashback while Linda attempts to give him support. Willy’s dissatisfaction from his wife’s support unveils his inability to accept reality over his fantasy of the past. Willy’s first vision of the woman reveals his dissatisfaction with Linda, as well as his yearnings to return to the past. Willy’s visions of the woman represent his inescapable fantasy of his romanticized older days. While the woman becomes a
Willy undermines her authority with the boys. He denies any negative comments out of her mouth when their children are discussed. He interrupts her. He shouts at her. Linda reacts with veiled hostility to Willy?s disrespect. She laughs at the idea of planting a garden, pointing to Willy?s past failures at growing a garden. Every time Linda pokes at his failures, she is retaliating against Willy?s failures and the fact that she has been pulled into Willy?s dead end dream against her will.
Willy has convinced himself that he is truly in love with his wife and to some extent he still is. He doesn’t let Linda mend her own stockings or carry out a load of laundry because to him, her struggles are his failures. In Act one, part four, Willy’s affair with “The Woman” is shown directly after Linda tells him that she thinks he is “the handsomest man in the world”. Arthur Miller, the playwright, does this to appeal to readers sympathy. Naturally, readers will pity Linda during this scene and feel anger towards Willy. His constant verbal abuse, plus the affair would ordinarily be enough to label him as bad but
Weak — Linda fears nothing more than loosing her husband however this is the very cause of his death. This lets Willy stamp over her with ridicule but according to her Willy is “only a little boat looking for a harbor”.
Biff finds out and confronts his father. Linda was shocked yet she still defended Willy because he is her husband and she is “supposed” to support him. For example, at the dinner table, Biff confronts Willy of committing adultery. Willy and Biff get into an argument and even though Linda’s suspicions were confirmed, she
In the first act, Miller introduces Willy Loman (salesman), and Linda Loman (Willy’s wife) first. In this scene, Willy comes home early from the road and claims he wasn’t feeling. Linda fixes him something to eat but when he sits to eat he ends up talking to his flashbacks. In the flashbacks, He is in a hotelroom with another women. The women is revealed to be his mistress when they kiss and he hands her a pair of stockings. Willy uses this mistress to become “well-liked”with the buyers connected to the mistress. Then Willy comes back to reality and finds his wife mending old stockings back together. This makes him mad and begs Linda to stop mending them in front of him. After he cleans up his meal, he daydreams about his sons, Biff and Happy, who had just finished washing their father’s car after Willy has just returned from a sales trip. When Biff tells Willy that he “borrowed” a football from the locker room to practice, Willy laughs at him and whispers that “he will soon open a bigger business than his successful neighbor Uncle Charley because Charley is not as “well liked” as he is.” Willy is very happy in the flashback because he believes that his son is “well-liked” and will do well in the
Regardless of Linda’s generous treatment of Willy, he still screams and berates her with no remorse. Third, during Willy’s affair with the woman, he gives her an entire box of his wife’s stockings. Linda is seen mending stockings several times so she clearly does not have enough and it is because of Willy. He has such little care for his wife that he gave away her stuff to his mistress. When this happens, Biff says “You — you gave her Mama’s stockings!”
Willy has dreams of success and becoming a victorious business man like that of his brother Ben. As seen by Ben telling Willy “The jungle is dark and full of diamonds, Willy.” (134). the reader can see the subconscious desire that Willy has, to pertain like that of his fellow kin.
In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, in the Act I, the author emphasizes the relationship between Willy and Linda in different ways by showing the love of Linda towards Willy and how she admires him. And also, she always shows her patient when Willy gets angry easily. The relationship between Willy and Biff is different from the past. Willy’s relationship with Biff is complicated. Biff is everything for Willy and Biff believed that Willy is the greatest father in the world, but in the present Biff doesn’t think like that anymore.
A major theme and source of conflict throughout Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is the Loman family's inability to distinguish between reality and illusion. This is particularly evident in the father, Willy Loman. Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family. In this world, he and his sons are men of greatness that "have what it takes" to make it in the business environment. In reality, none of them can achieve greatness until they confront and deal with this illusion.
Linda speaks these lines to Biff and, not only do they prove that she loves this man an enormous amount, but also that she would sacrifice not seeing her son again just to keep Willy happy. She is wiling to sacrifice her family for the man that she loves, who appears to not treat her as well as a husband could. Linda's last comment shows that she is not treated with a great deal of respect from Willy. Nevertheless, she puts his needs before her own because of the profound love she has for him. Her love for him drives her do whatever is necessary to keep him happy, and binds her to him no matter what the consequence.
Arthur Miller begins his play with an excellent description of the setting of the play. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves actually watching the play and causes the reader to be able to better relate to the play. Because Death of a Salesman can be considered an emotional play, it qualifies as being a timeless work of literature, especially because it has the ability to touch the human heart. Willy Loman is a salesman, who lives in New York City with his wife Linda. From the beginning of the play, Miller makes it obvious that Willy struggles with many obstacles, such as anger and even confusion since there are many times throughout the play where Willy becomes severely confused. Many characters throughout the play,
Linda, you’re a pal, you know that?” (814). He goes from this to a screaming fight just a column over saying (referring to Biff) “I’ll whip him! Why is he taking everything?” (814).
Biff “knows [Willy’s] a fake” and almost exposes him as such several times, even Willy himself demanded Linda stop repairing stockings because they reminded him of the illicit
Linda does not want Biff talking to Willy in fear that her indisposed attemp to keep Willy in his troubled state of mind will be unraveled. But in reality, Willy needs to hear the truth rather than the promotion of a dead-end dream. Linda,
On the contrary, we are not immediately introduced to this delusional, flaky character. At the beginning of scene one, we see the more assertive side of Willy as he discusses business possibilities with his wife Willy. Miller balances out the audience's perception of Willy towards the end of the act where the more vulnerable side of Willy is illustrated, with the use of his behaviour and the response of others to his attitude. An example of this would be Linda diligently agreeing with Willy's strange statements. One of Willy's traits which qualify him as a hero is his eternal sacrifice, and the way that he throws everything into the balance in order to secure his rightful place in society, and to live the American Dream.