Death of Salesmen Essay
The title contains multiple meanings. The most evident is that it refers to Willy Loman’s actual physical death, which regrettably occurred by suicide. Arthur Miller when talking about the title has a deeper meaning. It also alludes to Willy’s ideal method of dying, in which everyone weeps and beats their chests, among other things. Willy bases his ideal funeral on the service for an elderly salesman named Dave Singleman. Willy was inspired to become a salesman in the first place after Singleman’s funeral.
Willy adds that it was enormous and well attended, proving to everyone that Singleman was successful and well-liked. Willy appears to judge a man’s worth by the size of his funeral in various aspects. Unfortunately for Willy, his funeral will not be anything like the one he describes for Singleman. Nobody shows up at all. Willy’s salesman dream—the desire of being financially successful and a dad to hotshot children also refers to the title. Willy is broke and jobless by the end of the play. It’s evident that his goal of becoming a big-time salesman has died. Willy, on the other hand, feels that by killing himself, he will be able to leave a legacy to his son Biff in the form of life insurance money. This would provide Biff with an opportunity to excel in his business. with Willy’s death potentially a new salesman is born
The burial scene makes it very evident that all of Willy’s dreams are deader than dead. Biff has little desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. Furthermore, it is painfully evident to everyone that Willy committed suicide, which means that no life insurance money will be paid to his family. Willy’s salesman dream is, in the end, dead, dead, dead. On a broader level, the title may be another jab at capitalism and the American Dream. Willy, as a salesman, exemplifies American commercialism in many ways. The fact that he is eaten up and spit out by the system may be a commentary on the system’s own soullessness. Instead of Death of a Salesman, you may call the play Death of Capitalism or Death of the American Dream.
Death of a Salesman’s major theme, or core idea, is the American Dream. Willy completely believes in the promise of the American Dream—that a “highly loved” and “personally attractive” businessman will indubitably and rightly attain the material luxuries of modern American life. Surprisingly, his obsession with the superficial attributes of attractiveness and likeability runs counter to a more gritty, more gratifying understanding of the American Dream, which emphasizes hard labor without complaint as the path to success. Willy’s view of likeability is superficial—he dislikes Bernard childishly because he perceives Bernard to be a nerd. Willy’s naive trust in his limited vision of the American Dream causes him to experience a quick psychological decline because he is unable to reconcile the discrepancy between the Dream and his actual existence. At the end of the play.
Nobody questions why Willy Loman is rushing away with his automobile at the end of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. He arranges a car accident and kills himself in order to leave his family 20,000 dollars in insurance money. Willy Loman ends up dead. Willy gets duped by the American dream and his desire to achieve it. His references to American legends, as well as his father and sibling, keep him from recognizing the truth. His wife and children, who are also oblivious to the truth, are complicit in his delusion.
Finally, he recognizes his inability to realize the ideal, and he chooses to die in order to give his kid the opportunity to forge a future on his own. Willy’s issue is that “he has so totally internalized his society’s beliefs that he judges himself by criteria established in social myths rather than real necessities.” The drama requires us to immerse ourselves in the creation of Willy Loman’s dreams.
The phrase “death of a salesman” is uttered by Willy once in the play, in addition to serving as the work’s title.
In the context of the play, what do you think the meaning(s) of this phrase might be, and how might it relate to the play’s theme? Did Willy Loman die the “death of a salesman”? Why/why not?
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|
