"Death of a Salesman"

Analytical Essay # 113670

Drama and Theater > American

A discussion of the tragedy surrounding the character Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman".

1,037 words () | 0 sources | 2009 | Canada

Published on: Apr 24, 2009

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman". The paper focuses on the dreams of the antogonist of the story, Willy Loman and the way in which Willy surpressed his dreams for the dreams of other people. The paper discusses how he chose the wrong dreams and how this ultimately led to tragedy and to his downfall.

Table of Contents:
How is this the wrong dream?

From the Paper:

"Death of a Salesman is tragic because it is clear that Willy's pain is self-inflicted. Had he followed his brother into the wild, or even chosen to work in a more appropriate profession, he could have focused on the dreams that would have truly made him happy such as providing for his family on his own land. Instead, he wastes his life chasing someone else's dream, desiring the respect of strangers so much that he loses the respect of loved ones and becomes someone unworthy of the respect of his wife, the one person left who will defend him. Willy's common and realistic dreams for a happy home are washed away by his unrealistic dreams of remarkable success in business. Biff says his father had all the wrong dreams because Willy only communicated the wrong dreams to Biff and Happy. Willy also had other dreams, but he decided they were not important. However, he made his decisions so that his sons never realized he ever thought any differently, and in that way, Biff's statement is true. Chasing different dreams would have led to different outcomes. The dreams that Willy did pursue were the wrong dreams for him. His death is a direct result of his choice to pursue those dreams."