Willy Loman Analysis - 1015 Words

The American Dream is what many people strive for. What makes The Dream impossible for some is a hamartia, or a fatal flaw. Willy Loman, from Death of a Salesman, is a common man trying to achieve The American Dream. This aspiration compounded with a fatal flaw is what makes him an apt subject for tragedy in the highest sense. This fatal flaw is his incapacity to make proper life decisions. The poor decisions Willy makes spiral his life into a rut that ultimately claims his life, leaving his family with nothing. Similarly, the unnamed main character (who, for simplification, will be referred to as Gary) from Weird Al Yankovic’s â€Å"Trapped in the Drive-Thru,† as the name suggests, also finds himself in a rut that ultimately leaves him worse†¦show more content†¦Willy decides to kill himself so that his family may collect his life insurance money. Ben is right when he expresses his worry to Willy that, â€Å"You don’t want to make a fool of yourself. [ the insurance company] might not honor the policy† (Miller 93). They do not honor the policy; Willy’s family is left not only without their patriarch, but also without a source of income. Willy compounds his lifetime mistakes by teaching his sons the same principles on which he makes his life decisions, that as we know, are invalid. Biff does not go to college to follow his passion for football while Happy never even finds his passion. These troubles could have been avoided had Willy realized his poor decisions and taught his sons more accurate life lessons, so they do not make his mistakes, to which they are now tethered. Willy was not the only one to fail due to his poor decisions, but Gary too. The theme of poor decisions deeply connects to Gary’s situation and result characteristically of Willy’s life. Gary is just a guy sitting at home, watching TV, when his wife asks what he wants to do for dinner. They have a brief argument about where to go to dinner when Gary’s wife asks, â€Å"‘Baby, cant we just go out to dinner, please?’ I [Gary] says ‘No’† (Yancovic). Even though Gary’s wife wants to go to a nice restaurant, Gary makes the executive decision to go to the drive thru at a fast food joint.Show MoreRelatedCharacter Analysis Of Willy Loman830 Words   |  4 PagesWilly Loman was portrayed as an impatient and insecure man, father and husband who only wanted to be successful for his family. Even though he was a salesman, he had lots of economic issues with house disposals. Biff Loman and Happy loman were both his sons, whom he expecte d a lot from and Linda Loman was his wife who loved him more than he loved himself. Whenever things went wrong for Willy, he would throw a big fuss and always wanted things his way. â€Å"Howard: †¦ there just is no spot here for youRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Willy Loman1110 Words   |  5 PagesWilly Loman Willy Loman is the centerpiece of all problems that arise in the Loman family from the â€Å"hell† Linda lives to Biff inability to find a place in the world. Willy is the victim of various flashbacks throughout the play, â€Å"Young Biff and Young Happy appear†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Miller Act I: 1565). Due to the circumstances of Willy, the past is constantly regurgitated to his sons, specifically concerning how to where seemingly set up for fame. As such the boys specifically, Biff, are uncertain if they are contentRead MoreWilly Loman Attitude Analysis708 Words   |  3 Pages A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t get very far until you change it. In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller discusses the topic of the American Dream. He believes that everyone wants to achieve it. Willy Loman searches for his American Dream throughout the play. However, his poor attitude and failure to see life from a different perspective keeps him from achieving it. Imagine having a job you love, that pays a lot of money. Because of that job, you own a big house to shelterRead MoreWilly Loman And Modernism Analysis725 Words   |  3 Pagestheir lives destroying themselves from the inside. The play shows the struggle between the past (Willy Loman) and the reality (Biff Loman). Willy Loman is not able to perceive the reality and lives in his illusionary world, while Biff is the person who understands the decline of the outdated values and realizes a strong necessity to reconsider these values to find his real place in life. Willy Loman is no longer able to resists the new requirements of the time and dies in a road accident, symbolizingRead MoreWilly Loman Tragic Hero Analysis956 Words   |  4 Pagesown destruction†. These two concepts apply to the play in the sense that Willy Loman is a man of good intentions, but there is often an undesirable outcome of them. Also, Willy is a victim of himself and his own beliefs. Arthur Miller states i n his New York Times article that he believes â€Å"the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were†. Based on this quote, it can be concluded that Willy Loman is indeed a tragic hero because of his error in judgement, a reversal ofRead MoreWilly Loman Tragic Hero Analysis971 Words   |  4 PagesDeath of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a play of multiple tragedies. The word tragedy is defined as â€Å"a dreadful, or fatal event or affair; disaster†. The main character, Willy Loman, shows how one dream can become a disaster through his impractical dreams and failing at achieving these goals. Not only does he fail at his dreams, he participates in an affair that is against morals. The idea of a tragic hero is defined as â€Å"a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfallRead MoreWilly Loman And The American Dream Analysis1075 Words   |  5 Pagesplay, Death of a Salesman, Willy Lomans pursuit of the American Dream is characterized by his selfishness, demonstrating how the American Dream can subtly turn into the American Nightmare. However, Willy’s role is quite important because he often led to failure through the creation of the American Dream and the real world. To fully understand the storyline of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, one must evaluate each member of the Loman family. The death of Willy Loman implies that the American DreamRead MoreAnalysis Of Willy Loman And The American Dream1553 Words   |  7 PagesIn one of Arthur Miller’s play, â€Å"Death of a Salesman† written in 1949; it uncovers the betrayal of the American Dream. Willy Loman, one of the characters in â€Å"Death of a Salesman† who believes that finding success is very easy, but in reality’s he only finds his success in own imagination. In Act one of the play, Willy Loman stated â€Å"Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Uncle Charley is not †¦ Liked. Heâ€⠄¢s Liked, but not well Liked (p21).† This quote expresses that being liked is not the key to successRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Willy Loman In Death Of A Salesman838 Words   |  4 PagesWilly Loman from â€Å"Death of a Salesman† by Arthur Miller is a tragic hero. A tragic hero is someone who has a judgement error and inevitably ends up destroying himself. Miller believes that the common man makes the best tragic hero as we want to be seen as a image and or not be thrown away. That fear, which he believes is very strong today, is what makes us the best tragic hero. I would take the stance that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. Willy starts to show signs of flaw of judgement, reversal ofRead MoreAnalysis Of The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz, And Willy Loman Essay2680 Words   |  11 Pagesincontestable social influence. Duddy Kravitz in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller thoroughly exempli fy this drive for excess wealth and power. When analyzing the characters of Duddy Kravitz and Willy Loman, it is made distinctly evident that Duddy Kravitz is successful to a greater degree, when compared to Willy Loman, in achieving the generic and superficial capitalistic views of success. This discrepancy between the two