Willy Loman In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Death of a Salesman, a tragedy written by Arthur Miller, tells the tale of Willy Loman, an ordinary man that is haunted by his missteps. The play details the downward spiral that Willy falls into as a result of his own failure and the failure of his son. Even though Willy is the main character, he is defined by the people that surround him in his everyday life. Willy’s entire life is defined by the fact that he never has the opportunity to receive advice from a fatherly figure. Ben, Willy’s brother, is the closest thing that Willy has to a father, but he does not help him find the success that he constantly dreams of achieving. Instead, Ben represents everything that Willy wants, but cannot have because of his inability to understand hard …show more content…
Willy attempts to mold Biff into everything that he wanted to be, an affluent business man that has enough to live comfortably. However, Biff is none of these things because of the philosophy that Willy has drilled into his head since he was a young boy. Biff is constantly being told that he is the ideal son and Willy even tries to convince him that he was a salesperson when he was only a stockboy. The constant lies that flow out of Willy’s mouth show that he has crafted his own ideal society in his mind, which makes the Loman family the quintessential businessmen , since they are a group of well liked individuals. These constant lies even lead to Biff discovering an affair that Willy is having, since he visits him after he fails a math class that Willy assures him he would pass on the basis that he was a well liked individual. Willy, who wanted Biff to be everything that he could not be, ends up failing both himself and his son because of the lie filled philosophy that he teaches to his son. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, deals with the life of Willy Loman, an ordinary businessman that is haunted by his decisions. Miller documents the downward spiral that Willy ultimately falls into after the failure of his son, Biff. This tragedy reveals how the people around Willy defined the person he