Harrison Breault

Alexander Menocal
THE 3110
March 8, 2014
The Death of Being Well Liked

Up until the final days of high school, being well liked is the goal for most people.
It presents them with certain advantages and a reason for pride. However, being the
center of attention as a teenager can only get you so far. In Death of a Salesman (by
Arthur Miller), I will examine how each character in the Loman family strives to be liked
whether it is by coworkers, customers, family, or peers. This idea is significant in the play
as it is the driving force of almost everything the Loman family does, and it is also the
reason they end up where they are. I will analyze how their desire to be liked becomes
their fall from grace.
Happy Loman was a slut. His sex drive came from a lack of attention from his
father; an attention that he strove to get back through sex with as many women as
possible. This attention would sate happy, but only for a short time until he had to go
crawling back for more. When Happy speaks with his brother about it, its almost as is
hes bragging. I get that whenever I want, Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted, (1.25). His
disgust is somehow quelled by being immoral. His disgust was born in that pattern he
made for himself of sleeping with women he shouldnt. He even goes on to say, That
girl Charlotte I was with tonight is engaged to be married in five weeks, (1.25). By
demonstrating that he can have sex with beautiful girls whenever he wants, he shows
immense longing for attention. He had the hopes that Biff might see the women and
immediately become jealous but also proud of his younger brother. Happy hoped that Biff

may one day admire him the same way he admired Biff when they were in high school
and Biff was the quarterback for the great football team. No, Im carrying your helmet,
(1.87). Happy knows that Biffs helmet is important in this game as Biff says, And
remember pal, when take off my helmet, that touchdown is for you, (1.88) to his father.
Happy wanted to secure his role as the helmet carrier as he knows he will gain popularity
from it because Willy consistently made his eldest son the center of attention, putting a
strain on Happy. He is also reluctant to give up the shoulder pads to Bernard. Happys
desire to be as popular and admired as Biff just became one of his shortcomings, just as
Biffs popularity became his.
Biff Loman succinctly represents the high school jock that becomes a failure later
in life. Willy instilled so much importance on being well liked by people, that Biff took
it upon himself to become the most popular kind of person you can become. That being,
of course, the football captain. Willy says, Youre comin home this afternoon captain of
the All-Scholastic Championship Team of the City of New York, (1.88). Willy had so
much pride in something he had nothing to do with. This ever-present pride was so
palpable that Biff had to work hard or what his father wanted as opposed to what he
wanted for himself. By saying, And remember pal, when take off my helmet, that
touchdown is for you, (1.88), he is exemplifying his loyalty to his father and the fact that
he is doing this mostly for his approval. Later, when we find out that Biff failed math, it
is revealed that Willy had something to do with Biff not going to summer school. If he
had done so, he would have played football in college. But Willy seemingly had too
much pride to believe that school mattered a great deal, and this transferred over to Biff,
resulting in a failed math class and no scholarship.

In the Loman family, there is a massive lust for attention and being liked. The
culprit and cause for this is Willy Loman. As a salesman (and I have been one before),
having a cheerful demeanor is your job. It is your way of life and the solution to making
sales. You learn about your product and how to talk to people. Being liked is the first
goal, securing the sale is the second. Therefore, Willy knows nothing else. He begins his
career strong and makes many sales. He is paid an annual salary and commission for
every number of products he persuades people to buy. Because his career began strong,
he didnt find a need to occupy his time with more important endeavors. His reputation
became his pride, and his pride became his downfall. His career fizzled and died, and
from being taken off of a salary, he couldnt afford his appliances that he was coerced
into purchasing. His early success bred contempt for education and a belief that it was
unnecessary to make your way through life. His first chance out of that life was Bens
offer to take him to Alaska Now look here, William. Ive bought timberland in Alaska
and I need a man to look after things for me, (2.85). Ben was attempting to bring Willy
into a secure career path, one that wouldnt change until long after he was dead and gone.
Willys refusal was due to his evidence of past colleagues, Without a penny to his name,
three great universities are begging for him, and from there the skys the limit, because
its not what you do, Ben. Its who you know and the smile on your face! Its contacts,
Ben, contacts! The whole wealth of Alaska passes over the lunch table at the Commodore
Hotel, and thats a wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds
here on the basis of being liked! He turns to Biff. And thats why when you get out on that
field today its important. Because thousands of people will be rooting for you and loving
you, (2.86). This quote is so immensely important. Willy states clearly how much more

important being well liked and having connections is than doing well in school or
getting into a secure market is. Earlier, Willy told a Howard a story about a salesman
named Dave Singleman. He recounted how Dave could go into twenty or thirty different
cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many
different people and that when he died, hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his
funeral, (2.81). This was his biggest goal in life, to be like Dave. He wanted to so badly
to have the life where he could go anywhere and sell anything just by calling someone.
To have an immense amount of friends so that he could have a good time anywhere he
went for business. He was blinded by this goal, saying, When I look at that man I say,
what is there to worry about? (2.86). Willy was even so proud and ignorant as to not
accept a job from his friend Charley. Charley was already giving him money for free, and
having a job would have earned him more but being well liked was far too important
for him.
The Loman boys were vain and could not understand the concept of working hard
to earn your keep. Because of their father, they were unable to support him in the later
years when he needed it most. These values were their reason to do such things as turning
down job offers, refusing to accompany Ben on a promising venture, and led to his
inevitable suicide that didnt even earn his family any money. And it was all for naught,
as next to no one showed up at Willys funeral, making this play incredibly dramatic and
allegorical.

Works Cited
Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman. Penguin Plays 1976