Death of a Salesman

Willy's True Killer in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"

The Death of a Salesman is a play full of meaning and emotion about family, dreams, and reality. It follows life, more specifically Willy Loman's life, through its all time low. Willy's main goal in life is to achieve "The American Dream" which to him means being successful at his job, raising a successful family, and being well liked. Many critical aspects of Willy's life are either being faced, or are just now being brought to light throughout this play. Although some points in the play require interpretation to get its full meaning one thing is clear, throughout the play Willy's life is falling apart in every direction because of his strong will to live "The American Dream".

Overall, Willy's job heavily contributes to the failure of his American dream. As a business man, Willy's job was earning him very little and he wasn’t as successful as he dreamed to be. Within the first few pages of the play Willy is caught saying "A hundred and twenty dollars! My God, if business don’t pick up I don’t know what I’m gonna do!" (Miller 23). A huge part of Willy's "American Dream" was to be successful as a business man, and it is important to remember that finances are needed to fulfill other parts of his dream.

Willy's son Biff is another reason why his life fell apart. Throughout the play it becomes obvious that Biff did not stand up to Willy's expectations. Biff did not go to college, get a job, or start a family, and Willy cannot accept that. As perfectly stated by Jessica Tracy and Richard Robins, "[Willy] has raised one son to follow in his footsteps by cheating and lying his way toward and illusory dream". Willy's unwillingness to accept this reality gets so out of hand at one point it drives Biff to yell "Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?" (Miller). Realizing that Biff was not the man that Willy tried raising him to be was...