Though, for Willy to live by his standards requires building or telling numerous lies, and these delusions reinstate false reality in Willy's mind. Willy built his life around these thoughts. Deprived of this, he subscribes to the theory that if a person is admired and has a great deal of personal magnetism, then all doors of opportunity will repeatedly be opened for him. He owns nothing, and he makes nothing, so he basically lacks any real achievement. Willy lies at the lower rung of the capitalistic ladder. He continuously seeks esteem from his wife and sons as he desires to be seen as an achievement." Weales, 1977 His character is seen as offensive and annoyed, but this is just a result of his lack of empathy. He is always lost in his own illusionary world where he enjoys limitless achievements and control. The exact name of his condition is never mentioned in the play but critics believe he was suffering from " symptoms of egotistic personality chaos." (Bettina, 409).Īll through the play, Willy embellishes his own attainments, and the abilities of his son, Bill. Willy has started to run his car off the road and usually forgets his destination. Willy Loman appears to be in decent physical health, but the play demonstrates that he is suffering from mental instability. Followed by his thoughts of success and the realism of failure, at the end of the play, Willy commits suicide. In the meantime, Willy is obsessed by memoirs of his brother, Ben, who in young age left for Alaska and grew rich. On the other hand, Charlie, Willy's rival, is a thriving businessman and his son, Bernard, is a luminous lawyer. "My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women, and still, goddamit, I'm lonely." (Miller, 23)
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His other son, Happy, acts as if he is lucratively climbing the business ladder but is in fact lying to his father regarding the full measure of his achievement (Griffin, Alice.1996). Instead, all of Willy's objectives seem to have failed: he is laid off from his job, nobody among his old friends remember him, his son Biff has not turn out the man he expected he would be, and he is forced to rely on loans from his former competitor. Willy, who has constantly placed high value on being admired, dreamed of dying the " death of a salesman." In his illusionary world, he was living a life of comfort and finishing deals through contractors on the phone. The main character, Willy Loman is a salesman, who has lost his hold on reality. Miller lets us know that the trouble lies mainly with Willy himself." (Porter, pp. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman has to face the truth that he no longer has his sales employment and therefore no longer has his indispensable uniqueness. The play and its preliminary production set the tone for American drama for the rest of the century through its sociopolitical themes, its lyrical pragmatism, and its focus on the ordinary man. Since its first appearance in New York in 1949 to its numerous worldwide performances since, Death of a Salesman has spoken to the apprehensions of middle-class workers internationally and their great effort for continuation in capitalist society. The play deals with important aspects of American life, discovering and exploring the idea of the American dream. In all of twentieth-century American drama, it is Arthur Miller's 1949 masterwork Death of a Salesman that has been lauded as the best American play.