The Theme Of Reality In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Superior Essays
In Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, the main character is a man named Willy Loman. He has two worthless sons and an enabler wife. In the playbook Willy is facing some tough times at his age; losing his mind, job, and control with reality. However his obsession with material wealth and popularity prevent him from achieving true happiness in his life.
In Death of a Salesman, the setting is based on a family household, surrounded by apartment buildings. Willy Loman is a salesman who has lost his way throughout his life. He has always wanted to be rich and successful but he finds out it’s not so easy to achieve. Biff and Happy are his sons. Ages 32 and 34, they don’t have much going on for them in their lives and this irritates Willy.
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Willy thought Linda would care how much money he made. She asked him twice about it but instead he lied the first time and the second time he made up an excuse why he didn’t make more money. He thinks lying is a good way to get through life, because faking a good reality is better than having a terrible reality. As he enters reality, he notices his wife Linda sewing her stockings then he says “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!” (Miller page 39). This gets Willy so mad because he thinks about his affair and he wants to believe he can afford all that he wants. He clearly can’t afford these new stockings for his wife but he doesn’t want to believe it. This shows a clear indication of his obsession with material wealth; he wants more than he can …show more content…
Acting in a particular way to seem popular and impress others can really get inside your head and ruin you. Achieving true happiness must be made by true success and effort. In Death of a Salesman, Willy does the opposite. Willy believes popularity brings more to the table than work and effort. Willy’s obsession with wealth, success, and popularity really prevent him from being truly happy. Being stuck in a fake reality did nothing but eventually break Willy to the point of suicide. Happiness is self-made; not motivated by anything but you

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