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Death of a Salesman Willie Lowman is a character that most anyone can
identify with. He has two sides to his life; On one side he creates an image of
being successful, well liked, and bold. On the other side he feels old,
unsuccessful, defeated and disliked. He maintains the successful image to
comfort his wife and friends. This veil of success becomes thinner and thinner
until he lingers between fantasy and reality of the cruel world, often changing
back and forth in the course of a conversation. The core of Willie^s slow
painful demise into nothingness is based upon his beliefs. Willie thinks that
success is not what you know, but who he knows and how well he is liked. These
beliefs he instills in his sons, who find themselves adrift and meaningless just
like their father. In addition Willie sees the world changing, and his own
inability to change with it, will seal his fate.
He misses the open land and the
smell of flowers in the summer, the pollution and high rise apartments add to Wil! lies dismal existence. An example of Willies shift from fantasy to reality
is during his conversation with his wife about the Chevy. He thinks the car is
fantastic, the best ever built. Later he and his wife discuss some bills that
were paid, and when told about the bill to get the Chevy^s carburetor fixed, he
says that they ought to prohibit the manufacture of the car. Willie Lowman is
finding himself less and less capable. He dreams of making it big and has
visions of Uncle Ben who gives him advice on how to get rich, but never the kind
of advice Willie wants to hear. Willie is concerned about his image. He is a
great showman who can brag and flaunt like the best of them, and as witness to
the hard truth of his failure he continues to weave fairy tales and live in
fantasy.
Willie wants his sons to be better off and more successful than him,
but he has already corrupted them, and they too claim achievements well beyond
reality. Biff comes to the reality of his position in life in the opening of the
play. He knows he is not cut out for the business world. Biff prefers to move
back to Texas and work on a farm. Although he realizes working on the farm won^t
make him successful, he knows that it^s his calling in life. Happy who is fairly
stable and comfortable in his work, prefers to continue with the charade, and
the deception so as long as it! makes life easier for him. Although his sons
will not be successful, I think Willie Lowman did the best he could. Willie is
not to blame for his sons disappointments, although he has delayed their success
by giving them false ideas about success. The family situation is that of the
standard dysfunctional family.
The mother is upset by her sons because they have
no respect for Willie and show no concern for his decline. Willie loves his
wife, but often mistreats her, cuts he off in mid conversation and belittles
her. Biff begins to hate his father because of the constant pressure to succeed,
along with his fathers adultery and abuse of his mother. However Biff still
cares very deeply for his father deep down inside. Willie^s favorite son is
Biff; however Biff is also a continual source of disappointment for his father
because of his inability to assert himself in the business world. Happy is most
like his father in the way that he much prefers fantasy over reality. Happy is
willing to continue with pretending everything is all right so as long as it
makes life easier.
The conflict is Willie versus nature. Nature being the
environment and Willies inability to change and conform to it^s dynamic and
changing nature. The characters in this play are easily understood because of
their similarity to most people who find themselves washed up in this game
called life. People watching the play can easily identify with these characters
who represent the average working class family. Nobody wins in the end because
it^s real life. The father kills himself, hoping that the insurance money will
send his family on their way to success; and in actuality the insurance money
from his death will heal no wounds, or right any wrongs.
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