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
Biff said when realizing the type of house he grew up in. Everyone in the Loman household was unsatisfied, the family left unstable. The top of the causes for the problems in the Loman household lead to Willy. Growing up Willy never had a true support system. His father left him at a early age. And his brother went to Africa. With all this abandonment in life, Willy learns to live on the dependency of being well approved of by others, and following a dream he saw as the “American Dream”. This dream led Willy into more failure than it did success. Willy never knew when to look at reality or chase a dream. When it came to a point in life when he realized he could no longer achieve this American Dream, he tried to live it through his sons. He never held his kids accountable for their faults because they were “well liked” Willy sees how much people like you as an equivalence to a human's success in life. Linda once said, “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’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.” Willy filled all his actual doings in life, with dreams and visions of a successful him or of anything to make the pain of his actual life
Throughout the play, Willy Loman is consumed by the fact of being ‘well liked’ and maintaining a respectable status. He lies to friends and family about his successes to remain above the social
Willy Loman is a senile salesman who lives a dull life with a depleting career. He has an estranged relationship with his family and believes in the American Dream of effortless success and affluence, but in no way accomplishes it. Feeling like the aim of life is to be favored by others and gaining a materialistic fortune, Willy lives in a world of delusion where
The United States government has historically used propaganda to entice, encourage, and even shame a person into enlisting in to the uniformed services and/or supporting the war effort. The effective use of propaganda does not only affect the American public’s opinion of a war and its leaders, but also affects their commitment to the war effort. Ineffective use (or lack of) of propaganda can lead to resentment and undermine public trust in its leaders and their ability to lead the nation. This essay will show how the use of media has either supported or hindered the effective use of governmental propaganda in influencing the American public during times of war and why is it sometimes not important to know what is the “whole truth.” The areas that will be covered will be the propaganda used during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I-II, the Cold War/Vietnam, and also it’s affect on public opinion.
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”.
Macbeth is a courageous war general who receives a prophecy from the mysterious three witches that he will someday become the King of Scotland. Although skeptical at first, Macbeth knows better than to question the witches. He lets this prophecy over take him and with the encouragement from his wife, Lady Macbeth, they murder King Duncan and become engulfed with both regret and insanity. This insanity leads to Macbeth unnecessarily murdering other citizens in order to “secure” his throne. At the start of this play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are polar opposites, as Macbeth is self-aware of his actions while Lady Macbeth refuses to worry about her consequences. However by the end, their feelings of guilt completely switch. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the story of these murders to portray the effects that Macbeth’s diminishing guilt will have on his relationships. Macbeth’s lack of guilt will destroy his relationship with Lady Macbeth, alter Macduff’s feelings towards him, and overtake his own actions.
Willy Loman was a man who gradually destroyed himself with false hopes and beliefs. Throughout his entire life Willy believed that he would die a rich and successful man. It was inevitable for him to come crumbling down after years of disillusions. We can look at Willy’s life by examining some of his character traits that brought him down.
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.
In the play “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, the primary theme can be seen as a conflict between man and society. In which the ambition to achieve the “American Dream” controls the life of Willy Loman and the influences he has. When success is not reached, sends Willy’s mind on a mental ride.
Willy Loman's dream is to become a great man. He believes that a job in salesmanship is the way to accomplish this. He wishes to reinvent himself into a man who receives respect and is looked at with admiration. He believes that gaining riches will be a way to earn the respect and admiration he craves. His dream may consist of more than just being a great man, however. Due to his numerous flashbacks and loose grip on reality, it can be said that Willy might also dream of starting over,
Willy Loman has many traits of a young child. He never really lives outside of his own unrealistic world. When children are young, they think they are able to achieve whatever their imaginations believe. Willy has the same idea as this throughout his whole life. He never lets go of that dream even though he knows its not the smart decision. He knows he would be more successful as a tradesman working with his manly hands but he refuses to follow the wiser choice. Mainly because he is searching for that American Dream that society proclaims to be the best.
Willy Loman, the central character in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a man whose fall from the top of the capitalistic totem pole results in a resounding crash, both literally and metaphorically. As a man immersed in the memories of the past and controlled by his fears of the future, Willy Loman views himself as a victim of bad luck, bearing little blame for his interminable pitfalls. However, it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to devastate his own life as well as the lives of those he loved; it was his distorted set of values.
“The sacrifice of his life was the huge gift necessary to offer God on the Day of Atonement. That is what Paul meant when he said, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and has given to us the reckoning of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19)”
The concept of being well liked is one of the reasons for Willy’s death. He thinks that Biff would be able to use Willy’s life insurance money for starting him out on the right foot at last. "Thus Willy lived by his dreams
“Death of a Salesman “ by Arthur Miller is interpreted differently by many people. In the critical review titled “Family Values in Death of a Salesman” by Steve R. Centola, he characterizes Death of the Salesman as am a modern tragedy. He draws more focus on the family core values and self-exert. In his analysis, he states that as the humans try to be competitive, they have dehumanized the American dream and have turned it into an urban nightmare. He claims that the author simply tells a story of a dying man who wants to justify the purpose of his life before he meets his death. He states that the consequences of his choices are a challenge he has to overcome to attain what he needs. Centola points out that through the realization of what Willy Loman values, it is easy to discover the reason for the conflict between him and Biff. He refers to Death of a Salesman as a tragedy of a human struggle that is rooted in the metaphysical and also based on the social and psychological concerns. He also asserts that by discussing the values of Willy Loman, readers will be able to identify the reasons behind Willy’s agenda to perform suicide.