The Tragic Existence of Willy Loman

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Willy Loman, the main character in the play "Death of a Salesman" by playwright Arthur Miller. The paper demonstrates how "Death of a Salesman" -- and in particular its protagonist Willy Loman -- serves as a commentary on the tragedy of the lost American Dream. The focus of the paper is on how Willy suffers because of the internal and external conflicts in his life, and how he is ultimately faced with the dramatic questions that broach the nature of the disintegration of his family.

From the Paper:

"The main protagonist of Death of a Salesman is Willy Loman, a traveling salesman. He represents the common American man and is a symbol for every person who has put faith into the American Dream and been betrayed by it. Willy is a ritual head of his family, though his family may or may not actually respect and love him as the husband and father. Willy is the personification of the values that are held in the utmost importance by the civilized men of the twentieth century, being dedicated to his long-standing employer despite unfair treatment, holding materialistic values to prove success to himself, and wanting good things for his football-hero son. Willy is seeking meaning for the events of his life, trying to interpret a design and pattern to life when it seems the most illogical and the most chaotically paradoxical. Willy experiences his life as a whole, not in a linear and separated form, and the way in which events of his life interact as independent entities is both an expression of his removal from logic as well as a force which disrupts reality as he understands it. Willy's ideals are unattainable, for he wants to please everyone all of the time, he wants to be successful in a way that is not possible for him, and he wants to make an impression on the world in a way that a traveling salesman simply is not destined to do. When Willy realizes that he has failed at reaching the American Dream, and that he is not capable of attaining the material things he thinks are vital to proving his personal worth, he projects his own desires onto his son, and sees Biff as a way to redeem himself despite his failings. Unable to provide for his family in the way he sees fit during life, Willy martyrs himself so that his family can receive life insurance benefits, and his son, as a replacement for himself, can reach the American Dream with the money."

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