The Narcissistic Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

The Narcissistic Willy Loman in Arthur Millers destruction of a Salesman Many dilemmas throughout the recent decades ar repercussions of an individuals foibles. Arthur Miller represents this problem in society within the actions of Willy Loman in his modern play closing of a Salesman. In this controversial play, Willy is a despicable hero who imposes his senseless value system upon his family and himself because of his own rueful nature, which is akin to an everyman. This personality was set forth by Arthur Miller himself who Believes that the common man is as apt a subject for a tragedy in its highest sense as kings were (Tragedy 1). An supererogatory segment of his common human nature is Willys self-centeredness. Although one might declare that the American Dream is imposed upon him by the society, Willy himself creates his dream. Willy supports this claim when he praises Dave Singlemans vocation to Howard And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the gr eatest charge a man could want (Miller 81). His nostalgia for a non-existing future is also proved by the fact that no one else in his environment has a similar, impossible dream If he were not wearing the rose sullen glasses of the myth of the American Dream, he would see that Charley and his son are achieverful because of lifelong hard work and not because of the illusions of social popularity and fleshly appearances (Spark 11). Surely the false ego and pride predicted to come from his assured success are the bridges that prevents Willy from seeing through his fake dream, pushing him to twine the rest of his family to worship it along with him. Biff sadly bites the apple when he realizes his fate Willy I ran down eleven flights with a playpen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, do you hear me? And in the in-between of that building and I saw--the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I l ooked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I dont want to be?