He is obsessed with this ideal of greatness and an “American Dream” that is completely unattainable due to his imagination. He wants to leave a legacy of being known as the best salesman in town. He also wants his sons to follow in his exact footsteps while obtaining much wealth. His downfall arises directly from his continued misconception of himself as someone of more success that he has. His pathological visions of being successful and his ungrateful acceptance of his own American Dream push him to cause arguments within his family, envision suicidal thoughts and ultimately take his own life.
He is successful because he is the only one who can confront reality and see through the rose colored glasses. Everyone else had a false sense of reality and could not see or admit the truth. Biff, on the other hand, is comfortable with the fact that he is just an average man, something Willy, was never able to accept. Another reason Biff is successful is because he chases his dreams and what he enjoys doing in life. Biff knew that the life of a salesman was not his own dream but his father’s dream for him.
Both Walter and Willy lie to others in order to achieve their ideal American dream. On their quest to attain this dream, they realize that it is only just a dream, and that is an idea that can never be fully reached. Both Willy and Walter’s journeys’ to fulfill their dreams are alike due to similar plot, setting, conflict, and symbols. The main characters in both plays are in a constant struggle with themselves to survive and live off of the little that they have; this makes their plots similar and also relates their story lines to the theme of the American Dream. In Death of a Salesman, Willy is an older man in his 60’s and is “an American everyman, in an America where what is produced becomes ever less tangible, ever more removed from reality” (Cardullo 29).
There is a common theme shared by Death of a Salesman and Fences, which is fatherhood. Both main characters, Willy and Troy, are difficult to judge whether they are bad fathers. It is clear that both of them have some troubles with their sons, but that is not because of the fathers hate their sons. Willy loves his son Biff just like Troy loves his Cory; both men devote themselves into making their own sons into better men. Willy Loman has an American dream that he wants to be success.
Tragic heroes climb to the pinnacle of success and then experience a dramatic fall to their doom. “Death of a Salesman,” written by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman, a sympathetic salesman and despicable father who’s “life is a casting off” has some traits that match a tragic hero. Willy depicts a common American in search of the American Dream. His troubled personality, the financial woes, and his inability to support his families’ needs are the substantial flaws that lead to his tragic demise. Willy is an aging salesman who can’t sell anything.
DEATH OF A SALESMAN In the play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is, at first, set up as the character of the tragic hero. He has had goals and ambitions that he did not fulfill, and that his sons have not fulfilled, despite the pressure that he puts on them to accomplish his opinion of what success should be. However, as the story moves along, we see Willy’s tragic hero status decreasing substantially. As he desperately sifts through his past for some sort of actualization or realization, he only proves himself a to be failure, by the standards that he himself had set. There are a great many comparisons to be drawn from this play, and compared to the novel, The Great Gatsby.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald connects his characters to how American business works and makes his readers question what they find important. Jay Gatsby’s love for Daisy is a mask for his true love of money and social status, which ultimately leads to his lonely death. The extreme desire and belief that Gatsby has to better himself economically proves he not only looks to accomplish the American Dream but he is a symbol of the American Dream. Even from an early age, money was on Gatsby’s mind. The schedule he makes for himself, “General Resolves: No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable].
For Willy, it is apparent that reality and truth are too harsh for him and he would rather deal with lies instead. He conjures up ideas of what he wishes were real because to him being successful is the most important thing and what he needs people to believe. One of the main examples of this is when Willy says to his sons “they know me down in New England..” (page 19). Although he is clearly an unsuccessful salesman, he holds himself accountable to be extremely well-known and well-liked. Willy also encourages Biff to be unaccountable by telling him “coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative” when Biff steals the football.
Of course at first we can think that this text will be about love and passion with happy end, without any interesting facts, but in reality it isn’t so. The theme of this story is an eternal opposition between money and love. The round characters of this story are Old Anthony and his son Richard, the static characters are Aunt Ellen, Miss Lantry and Kelly. The main idea of this story is wealth (money – old Athony) and love (young Richard). As we know everything in our life depends on freak of chance, but old Anthony thinks that money can decide all problems of his life.
Be liked and you will never want,” (25). Time, however, proves Willy wrong when Bernard manages to land himself a successful career because of his good grades while charm and popularity gets Willy’s sons nowhere. Indirectly because of his fixation on popularity, he is alienated from Biff. Although Biff had been extremely close to him when he was young, his relationship with his son disintegrated after the latter found out about his affair. His obsession with