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Willy Loman

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The pursuit of happiness is a reckless journey in which the best of men lose the things that they cherish most, in particular, their sanity. Arthur Miller presents a compelling position in the play Death of a Salesman by portraying Willy Loman as a person with the biggest of ambitions, but remains unsuccessful. He suggests that the quest to be “truly successful” can ultimately destroy a person and their happiness. Arthur Miller uses Willy’s beliefs on profession, personal appearances, and self-worth to demonstrate the central theme of self-destruction through the pursuit of happiness. The tasks associated with a profession are very mundane. A worker is expected to do their work, and to believe in the work that they are doing. With that, they …show more content…

An air of confidence must be evident before true success can be obtained. Willy Loman possesses no confidence, and seeks to find a sense of love from places other than his family. When he commits adultery, he does it not because he does not love Linda, he does it to find a sense of self-worthiness. That is why he is so shocked when his mistress tells him that “she picked him.” He takes this as a compliment, and loves the feeling that he is needed and loved, and worthy enough to be with such a beautiful woman, when in reality she is with him for his gifts, not for Willy himself. To be worthy to others, Willy believes that success is required. Willy does not confront Linda or his family about his money problems, his mistress or any of his other blunders because what he truly wants, is to be successful in the eyes of his family. At the lowest point in his life, he believes that he can no longer be successful, but what he can do is make sure that Biff and the rest of his family is successful by taking advantage of the life insurance money. Willy now resorts to believing that the only way to be worthy to his family is to sacrifice his own life for some money in order to ensure that Biff becomes “truly successful.” What he does not realize is that his family believes him to be the worthiest of all. Happiness does not come in the form of money, success or worthiness; it comes in the form of love, and that is something that Willy Loman never truly

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