Crumbling Dreams in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

Crumbling Dreams in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman is a play best summed up in its title, it is just that, the final stage of a salesman. This death is not necessarily the physical end to a human life, and the crumbling end to the dreams of Willie Loman, the plays main character. The three main parts to Willies world are his job, his family, and his attribute as bewitchn by the rest of the world. Although these parts are interwoven and interrelated, they are best divided and given separate analysis. The first part of Willies world is his job. Willie is a salesman for a large company in New York. Willies self-image and much of his self-worth are based in his job. In his own mind he is still as he used to be, well known and well respected among the clientele in the New England area. Things have changed though and the people Willie once knew in the business organisation are no longer there and he no longer has the connections he once had. His inability to cope with and adapt to this changing business has nonplusd, among some other things, a loss in pay. Willie has lose his competitive edge, and with it his feeling of self worth and identity. The second part of Willies world is his family, more specifically his son, Biff. Biff is the eldest and favorite son of Willie. Willie has high expectations of, and transfers his dreams, as so many fathers do, onto Biff. Biff can not live up to the expectations of his father and has dreams of his own which cause Willie to see him as a loafer, a shiftless bum with no desire to succeed. Although Willies dreams are not realized in Biff, his sons respect is still important. This respect is lost when Biff catches his father in an affair with a young lady. Even though this is not talked about (Biff never told anyone, not even his mother) it still creates strain and causes Biff to lose the respect he once held for Willie. Willies main philosophy in life is Be liked and you will never w ant and this is the cause of the problems in the third part of Willies life, his image. Image is everything to Willie. In his past he was a well liked, well known, respected man who turned his image into his success, but his image has changed.