Essay on Death of a Salesman Analysis

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Death of a Salesman – Analysis

As I read this play I vaguely remembered reading it in high school at some point, but I do not remember appreciating it like I did this time around. There were so many things that stood out to me throughout this and there were also things that I identified with as well. The first thing I realized is that Arthur Miller’s characters are all flawed in their own individual ways. What is interesting about each character’s flaws is that they seem to have one major flaw that is extremely acted out throughout each of their scenes. Besides Willy, each character The question I found myself asking the most, because of the obvious character flaws of the minor characters, was who is Willy Loman? Willy mentioned a countless number of times throughout the play that he was a successful salesman. He seemed to have spent most of his life trying to convince his family and everyone around him that he was a wonderful salesman. Willy wanted the perfect life, which included the perfect career. It also included his family being a perfect success as well, specifically his sons Biff and Happy. All Willy wants to do his share his success with Biff and Happy and show them that people all over America love him. Based on Willy’s ramblings and the main things he talks about, it is clear that he seeks the approval of others so it much it declares him successful or unsuccessful. The family relationship that stood out the most to me was the relationship between Willy and the flashbacks of Uncle Ben. It is the most interesting to me because I felt that I knew the least amount of detail about their relationship. What I gathered is that Willy admires Ben to a fault, so much so that now in his later years he is regretting not taking risks like Ben did with his travels. The family relationship that stuck with haunted me the most was the relationship between Willy and Biff. I was secretly rooting for them to make amends throughout the entire play. It was clear that they both had different ideas of what Biff’s life should turn out like, but what it came down to was that Willy believed in Biff to a fault. He believed in him so much that it ultimately made Biff lazy because he believed he was naturally capable of doing anything and everything. Once Biff discovered Willy was having an affair, their relationship was never the same. Biff’s once outstanding potential, turned into laziness and somewhat of a resentment towards his father. He never lived up to what his father viewed as the perfect son potential, but they did make amends in the end. Happy was a character who I wanted to know more about. I understood that he
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