The Death of Salesman Essay Example

Theme of Success Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy pursues concrete evidence of his worth and success.

He is entranced by the very physical, tangible results of Ben’s diamond mining efforts and strives to validate his own life by claiming concrete success. Willy projects his own obsession with material achievement onto his sons, who struggle with a conflict between their intangible needs and the pressure to succeed materially. Death of a Salesman Theme of Respect and Reputation Reputation is one of Willy’s primary concerns. He thinks that all you need to succeed is to be attractive and well liked. He celebrates his son’s popularity in high school, asserting that it is vastly more important to be fawned over than to be honest or talented.

Much of the time, Willy considers himself a well liked man. He aspires to be just like a salesman whose death was mourned far and wide. Despite his fixation on reputation, Willy and his family members are neither well known nor well liked, and Willy’s funeral is sparsely attended. Death of a Salesman Theme of Appearances The entire Loman family places heavy value on appearances and good looks. Many of Willy's fondest memories of Biff involve his son dwarfing others with his personal attractiveness. In addition, when Willy gives in to feelings of self-doubt, he worries that it's his appearance that's holding him back in business.

Death of a Salesman may be making a larger statement, by showing the Lomans' fixation on attractiveness over real substance. Could the play be trying to get across the idea that all of America falls prey to the very same mistake? What

do you think? Is America itself way too obsessed with image and appearance? Death of a Salesman Theme of Pride Pride in Death of a Salesman functions as a means of self-deception and as a coping mechanism. The Lomans, and particularly Willy, are extremely proud even though the basis for their pride is not at all founded in reality.

Willy celebrates his own "astounding success" in business and the accomplishments of his sons while the Lomans struggle financially. He is too proud to accept a job from Charley, a man who he considers to be his inferior, yet accepts loans that he's unable to repay. Throughout the play, we're shown that Willy and his family are incredibly proud people with nothing real to be proud of. Death of a Salesman Theme of Abandonment Abandoned by his father and brother when he was extremely young, Willy is left materially and emotionally ungrounded.

However much he fears abandonment himself, he made his son Biff feel emotionally abandoned when Biff discovered Willy's secret affair. Willy's powerful fear of abandonment drives him to form unrealistic expectations for and obsess over his sons. When Biff found out about Willy's affair, he did in fact abandon his father and pretty much disappeared for many years. Willy permanently abandons his son and family at the end of Death of a Salesman by committing suicide. Ironically, this final decision on Willy's part was a final attempt to connect and give something to his son. Death of a Salesman Theme of Freedom and Confinement

The theme of freedom and confinement is closely tied to economic security in Death of a Salesman.

Linda and Willy long to escape both the physical confinement of their home and the economic confinement of their limited income, home mortgage, and bills. They idolize faraway lands such as Alaska and Africa as places of literal and figurative escape. Similarly, Biff finds New York to utterly confine him and can only imagine happiness and freedom working with his hands in the wide open West. Ultimately, the play seems to paint America's incredibly competitive version of capitalism as a thing that traps its citizens.

This depiction is pretty ironic since America is supposed to be "the land of the free" – a place where if you work hard you're free to make your dreams come true. Death of a Salesman Theme of Betrayal Death of a Salesman is full of betrayal. Willy betrays Linda’s love and Biff’s trust with his affair. As the chief betrayer himself, Willy is preoccupied by the fear of betrayal. His frequent accusations that Biff is spiteful reflect his understanding that Biff’s failure in business is a rejection of Willy’s own dreams of success, and that Biff’s inability to keep a job is related to Willy’s love affair.

Even outside of his family, Willy feels that his boss is betraying him by firing him, but Howard says that there’s no room for feelings of betrayal in the business world. The American Dream Willy believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life.

Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and

likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.

Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream.

His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.