Olaa

To what extent do you agree with Biff’s statement , “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.” (Requiem)



Death of a Salesman is a play by Arthur Miller, set in the 1940s, when the USA was in an economic boom. Willy Loman pursues the American Dream, believing anyone can achieve financial success even if he is from a low class status. Willy’s version of the American Dream is based on the ideathat if a man is “well liked”, has “personal attractiveness”, “contacts”, and is a hard worker, he will be economically successful. He thinks that these are the qualities required to become a successful salesman. The title is significant as it may refer to the death of Willy or to the death of his dreams. Biff believes that Willy’s dreams are mistaken as he should have dedicated his life tomanually skilled jobs in the same way that Willy’s father did by making and selling flutes.



Willy Loman constantly repeats throughout the play that the most important quality to become successful is to be well liked and to have many contacts. He states:

“Someday I’ll have my own business…bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not liked. He’s liked, but he’s not – well liked.” (Page 23)

Wecan clearly observe Willy’s belief in the American Dream, and how someone with a large group of friends and who is liked can achieve financial success. The use of ellipsis emphasises and shows us his belief that he will be even more successful than Charley. He believes that “it’s contacts…contacts!.. the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked.” Wecan see by the use of the exclamation that Willy is obsessed by the idea that knowing a lot of people makes someone successful.



Throughout the play, Willy Loman believes that personal attractiveness is another major quality for a salesman to achieve economic success. He states:

“... the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man whogets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. Willy Loman is here! (Page 25-26)”

The fact that Willy puts himself as an example of being well known and having an appearance contradicts with reality as Linda tells Biff that “when he [Willy] gets there no one knows him.” (page 45) Therefore, he deceives himself by making himselfbelieve that he is well-known. Moreover, with time, your beauty and personal attractiveness will fade away as the years pass by, therefore Willy shouldn’t have given it so much importance. Moreover, Willy fooled himself and lied to his family by saying that in “all the towns...they know”(page 24) him. Proof of Willy’s few friends, is that no one except his family and Charley attended his funeral.As he had never told his family the truth, Linda keeps waiting for Willy’s friends to arrive: “But where are all the people he knew?



Furthermore, it is obvious that Willy’s dreams were “all wrong”, as he saw the wrong person as a hero, a salesman called Dave Singleman. He states: “And when I saw that [referring to Dave Singleman], I realised that selling was the greatest career a man couldwant...What could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? … When he died, hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral.”

The name of Dave Singleman is ironic as Willy believes he had many friends but he was a “singleman” as he died withno family by his side, only acquaintances. Willy is so lucky that he has a family that loves him, but he is so blinded by his dream that he is unable to appreciate the importance of it. Moreover, this quote reiterates the importance that Willy gives to being “well liked” as he says that there is nothing that could be better than being liked by a lot of different people. He thinks that this man...