Death of a Salesman Quiz Makeup PDF

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Lauren K. Poehls Kevin Gates Theatre History 2 May 5, 2016 The Death of a Salesman Quiz Makeup Since the 1930’s, the American Dream has been one of the most sought after desire that people have strived for; a nice home surrounded by a white picket fence in a quiet suburban neighborhood with the perfect nuclear family has had people drooling for decades, especially as it became less attainable for the less fortunate. In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, the protagonist of the story, Willy Loman, generates multiple ideas on what a successful man and family should have and do. He strives for dreams that he could not achieve and in doing so he destroys his own life by never being happy with what is dealt his way. Willy Loman is a picture perfect example of the American Dream gone wrong and by analyzing his actions it can be seen that he has been on a downward spiral since his sons were teenagers. First and foremost, Willy’s suicide should be mentioned. After years of working himself to dust, Willy decides to end it all after multiple failed suicide attempts. This certainly doesn’t follow the idea of the American Dream that he so desired. Although he did believe that the insurance money from his death would help his children and wife, is it fair to say that his suicide was not completely selfish? Willy Loman was unable to achieve his dreams of owning his own business, of watching his sons be successful, and of basically showing everyone that what they thought of him was wrong; instead of facing the reality that he has shoved into, he kills himself when he realizes that nothing went his way. It’s hard to say that Willy is a coward, but that is what it boils down to. Looking into his affair with the woman from Boston and into how he reacted when Linda was mending her stockings, Willy has difficulty facing reality. He continuously runs away from what is in front of him and instead uses excuses. A good example of this would be when he is talking to Biff about Charley’s business. He states that Charley is “liked, but not

well-liked” and because of that Willy will have the more successful of the two businesses. That never happens though, Willy never follows through regardless of how good his personality is. He has a fear of never being respected when he can’t even respect himself which in return also slowly makes him go crazy with the hallucinations that happen throughout the play. It’s the domino effect of Willy’s actions that lead him to commit suicide, but even so, everything that happens to him is an adverse reaction from his desire to succeed in the business world. Another thing that should be mentioned is how Willy reacted to Biff when he was a teenager studying for his exams. Instead of encouraging Biff to study and to succeed, something that Willy himself was striving to do, he was trying to get Bernard to let Biff cheat. It’s almost as if Willy could tell that Biff wasn’t going to be something and instead relied on Bernard, also the son of Charley, to help him climb his way up the ladder. It seems as if Willy was very fond of the idea of doing anything to get to the top, regardless of the means to get there. The ever popular question: do the ends justify the means comes to mind when analyzing this play. It could be that Willy felt jaded from all of the hard work he did throughout his life and the results it got him, but the end of the Willy clearly didn’t justify the means (playing it safe, believing that personality will get you to top and etc.) he used to get where he was. Willy Loman had this great idea on what a happy family should do and be and instead of realizing that not everyone can have that or succeed in the way that he wanted, he killed himself. Willy Loman is a coward. Point blank. He has incredibly regret for not doing what he wanted and his fear of growing old and not being useful also attribute to his suicide. His desire for the American Dream left his family, pre suicide, without money and without a husband or father. In this case, Willy Loman’s actions to achieve the American Dream were not just and could’ve been avoided if he would have taken a moment to look back on his life and realize what he has or hasn’t done....