Death of a Salesman

In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the main character, Willy Loman, is a struggling salesman. Willy Loman is a complex father who confuses illusion with reality. In a way, Willy has two personalities in this play. The one we see in the present is a tired man in his sixties. The other Willy the young and confident salesman that was viewed through his flashbacks.

In one of Willy’s flashbacks, Willy speaks to his dead brother Ben. Ben keeps saying "Time, William, Time", reminding him that suicide is coming soon. Willy considered suicide so his family could receive his twenty thousand dollar life insurance policy. Willy also talks to Ben how great Biff would do with all of that insurance money.

I believe that Willy’s suicide was an escape from shame. He couldn’t keep living his life as a lie. Willy could not face reality and when people talked to him, he only heard what he wanted to hear. He was a very distracted and disturbed man. After losing his job, he felt he was too unsuccessful to go on living. His principles in life were based on being popular. He believed that if you were popular, you would be successful. Eventually, he faced reality and realized that he was not popular. A combination of his shame and his unpopularity is what killed Willy Loman. He felt like a failure.

From Willy’s point of view, the suicide was an act of love. He believed that by killing himself, Biff would be much more successful. Willy thinks that Biff is magnificent and wants to show it to him by giving him twenty thousand dollars in insurance money.

Each member of the Loman family had a different idea of why Willy killed himself. Linda was wondering why no one had come to the funeral since her husband was supposed to be this very popular and well liked salesman. This shows that Linda had always trusted her delusional husband Willy and she had believed all of the phony dreams that Willy had told her. Biff came to realize that Willy was completely out of touch with reality. Biff is still going to go out west to fulfill his own