Who Is Willy Loman A Tragic Hero

Willy treats his wife Linda like she is just there to support him and that’s it. Willy and Linda’s relationship is one sided because Linda tries to help Willy, but then Willy acts like she isn’t there most of the time. On page 1478, Linda says “Isn’t that Wonderful?”. Then Willy says “Don’t interrupt. What’s wonderful about it? There’s fifty men in the City of New York who’d stake him.” This Quote shows how Linda is trying to be supportive and how that she isn’t interrupting Willy. Just Willy doesn’t really caring about Linda, but his own gain. Willy in this is scene talking how he will get rich through Biff and Happy’s business and not trying himself. Willy and Linda’s is not a good relationship because he disrespects her and Willy has cheated

He would give his mistress brand new stockings, as a gift, while Linda would mend her old ones at home. When Willy would see this, an overwhelming state of realizing all he had done wrong would come over him, he was furious with himself and the amount of guilt brought upon him, which then turned to anger that was to be taken out on Linda. “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!” (Miller 26) The guilt from his infidelity caused him to further abuse Linda. Not only was Willy’s cheating affecting his relationship with his wife, but it was also hurting his children. When Willy’s son Biff, came to him for help, regarding a math credit, he saw Miss Francis in Willy’s room and realized that his father was having an affair. The perfect image of the Loman family was then shattered in Biff’s eyes. Biff insulted Willy, yelling, “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!” (Miller 95) The perfect marriage that Biff believed his parents had, held enormous dishonesty. With his family falling apart, Willy’s disappointment grew. Willy was a family man who had so much pride in his children. He believed that his sons were outstanding scholars and athletes and would one day make excellent salesman. Like any parent he wanted them to achieve success so badly that even much after their high school careers he still found it necessary to defend and support their high school success (Miller 105) In reality Willy was building his kids up to be something

After Willy passes away and abandons his already strained family, Biff and Happy clash once again: “Biff:.the man didn’t know who he was. Happy, infuriated: Don’t say that!.I’m staying right in this city, and I’m going to beat this racket!. Biff: I know who I am, kid. Happy: I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain,” (Miller 138-139). Like his father, Happy is abandoning his family, too.

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, we can see that Willy Loman was a complex character who constantly chased success and validation. He was a salesman who believed in the power of charm and being well-liked. But being haunted by his past lacked his success compared to his brother. His tragic death highlighted the consequences of chasing a non-reachable goal and the toll it can take on an individual's mind. Though Linda was a difficult character to categorize, supporting his delusions and unrealistic dreams played a significant part in his death making her partially responsible for his fate.

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.

When Willy heads to his supervisor’s office and asks him for a local job for his own safety, he is instead fired from his former position. Howard, his employer, states “I don’t want you to represent us. I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time now” (Miller 275). When Willy decides to confront his employer to get a local job, he expects to succeed and obtain this job; however, unexpectedly, Howard decides to let him go. This crushes his dream because he is not a salesman anymore and cannot achieve his dream of being successful. In the real world, this is a very common occurrence, where the employee gets fired without expecting it and suffers from not being able to achieve their dreams. Throughout the play, Willy tells his kids that he is a bigshot in the business world, “Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. “Willy Loman is here!” That’s all they have to know, and I go right through” (Miller 250). Although Willy claims to be a VIP in the business world, he is not in the condition to be trusted because he also contradicts himself when he says to Linda “You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me” (Miller 251). Fortunately the reader is provided with a voice of reality that makes the contradictions clear. This voice of reality is provided to us by Willy's wife, Linda when she argues with her children, “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He is not the finest character that ever lived” (Miller 261). This passage provides us with the reality of Willy’s status. He was never a successful salesmen, and he was never an admired and popular salesman; therefore he never achieved his dream. He is just an ordinary salesman that is struggling through the times of post-depression. Willy

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

She doesn’t grasp why Willy and Biff have had a falling out. Nevertheless, Biff Loman doesn’t credit Willy with as much admiration as Linda, based on what Miller hints in the play, Biff knows about the affair Willy has. Biff states, “Because I know he’s a fake and he doesn’t like anybody around who knows!”(42). Biff doesn’t see Willy, as a trusting man for cheating on his loving and kind mother.

Willy's most evident illusion is that success in life comes down to popularity and personal attractiveness. Willy lives his entire life around these ideals and he teaches them to his children.  When Willy was young, he had met a man named Dave Singleman who was so well-liked that he was able to make a living simply by staying in his hotel room and telephoning buyers. When Dave Singleman died, buyers and salesmen from all over the country came to his funeral. This is what Willy has been trying to emulate his entire life.

Through the play Willy is striving to live the American Dream; to have a better, richer and happier life. He is obsessed with materialism thinking that acquiring possessions will make him and his family happy. When Linda tries to mend her stockings, Willy tells her “I won’t

In The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, it is argued weather that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. There are cases for both classifications of Willy. By definition, a tragic hero is a person born into nobility, is responsible for their own fate, endowed with a tragic flaw, and doomed to make a serious error in judgment. The tragic hero eventually falls from great esteem. They realize they have made an irreversible mistake, faces death with honor, and dies tragically. The audience also has to be affected by pity or fear for the tragic hero. In order for Willy Loman to be a tragic hero, he has to fulfill all of these descriptions. Willy Loman fits into some of

Willy also obtains an idea that image is equal to success. This is known to be his hubris; excessive pride. He takes pride in material objects “Riding on a smile and a shoe shine… personality wins the day” shows how he puts his faith into his personal appearance, and how he appears to smile on the outside but fails to admit that he isn’t on the inside. He thinks personality can be judged on what he says, but forgets that it ‘shines’ through when he speaks. “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out”. The stockings can be seen as a representative of Loman’s unfaithfulness as a husband as the sight of them brings back memories of when Biff caught him cheating on Linda and found out the Willy had given ‘the woman’ the expensive stockings he was supposed to give his wife as a gift. Willy Loman’s reasoning behind doing this may be because he didn’t want to come across as ‘low’ to his mistress, so by giving her expensive stockings out of the blue it

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy is both sympathized with and looked down upon throughout the story. Willy is a very complex character with problems and faults that gain both sympathy and also turn the reader off to him. Willy Loman is both the protagonist and the antagonist, gaining sympathy from the reader only to lose it moments later.

The Presentation of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Willy Loman is presented as both a tragic hero and an unconscious victim in "Death of a Salesman". "Death of a Salesman" is very much based upon the American Dream, and whether we are slaves or conquerors of this dream. This is an idea that the playwright Arthur Miller has very passionately pursued both through Willy's own eyes, and through his interaction with the different characters in the play. Firstly, the definitions of a hero and a victim very much influence the way that Willy is viewed by the audience.