Mercy Dunn

Mrs. Stein

March 5 2019

Literary Analysis

Willy Loman’s Failed Attempt to Gain Success

In the 1940’s, every man’s goal was to achieve the “American Dream”. A family of four,

a successful, working husband, and a stay-at-home wife to tend to the children and keep the

house clean. Willy Loman, from Death of a Salesman had a different idea of the “American

Dream”. He believed that being well liked, well dressed, and charming would grant him success

no matter what. Throughout the play, Willy attempts to achieve all these things because he

believes that he can get whatever he wants with those characteristics. As Willy Loman searches

for what will supposedly make him successful, he fails because of his obsession with becoming

rich and his desire to be well liked all while losing the true most important thing in life, his

family.

Early on in the play, Linda is explains to Willy how much money they owe for the

refrigerator, the washing machine and a few other finances. Willy complains about how slow

business has been and how he’s going to go to Hartford because he is well liked there and he’ll

be able to come home with more money. Linda: “Well, next week you’ll do better.” Willy: “Oh,

I’ll knock ‘em dead next week. I’ll go to Hartford. I’m very well liked in Hartford. You know,

the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me.” (Miller 23).

Willy says how the people in Hartford don’t seem to take him, even though he’s well liked. Willy

is not taken as seriously as he believes he should be because of how obsessed he is with making
people like him. If Willy wasn’t always trying to please people he would have a better chance of

becoming successful.

A little bit later on, Willy is talking to his son Happy about a man who became rich from

absolutely nothing. Willy: “What’s the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out

and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world

is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!” (Miller 28).

By explaining this man’s story to Happy, Willy is saying that it takes effort to go out and become

successful. Willy believes anyone can do this, but he does not go about it in the correct way. By

telling Happy that you can get whatever you want if you work for it, he basically means that you

can be prosperous by just looking the part. Willy doesn’t think that much real effort goes into

becoming wealthy, he just believes that if you are likable, you can get whatever you want.

A while later in the play, Willy is talking to Charley about his thoughts on becoming

successful. Charley finally enlightens him that life isn’t all about being well liked and

impressive. He explains how you don’t need those things to get what you want out of life, which

in Willy’s case, was money.

Willy: “I’ve always tried to think otherwise, I guess. I always felt that if a man was

impressive, and well liked, that nothing…” Charley: “Why must everybody like you?

Who liked J. P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath he’d look like a butcher.

But with his pockets on he was very well liked.” (Miller 70).

Charley tries to get through to Willy that being likable isn’t automatically going to gain you

success. He tries to show Willy that not everyone is well liked by explaining to Willy that J.P.

Morgan became rich without being impressive and likable.

 A couple of years ago, I could relate a lot to how Willy thought success was gained. Not

necessarily success with money, but success within my job. When I applied to my first real job, I

thought I had to act a certain way for people to like me. I would take on more than I could

handle, do as many tasks as I possibly could, and not really act like myself because I thought

they’d like who I was pretending to be, more than who I actually was. By being this hard-

working, quiet girl that never needed a break, I figured that no one could get mad at me or not

like me. After awhile, I realized that I needed to really just be myself if I wanted to have a good

time at work. I started letting myself breathe and not taking on so much I couldn’t handle, not

being lazy just not overworking myself. I would take a break to eat on my shifts instead of doing

task after task with no break. I even let the goofy side of me show more, and I would branch out

and talk to my coworkers I had never talked to before. I found that once I started doing this,

everyone was so much more friendly to me and I made so many more friends. Just like Willy, I

believed that in order to be successful, you had to act a certain way and be a completely different

person.

Achieving the “American Dream” was very important to a lot of people in the 1940’s,

including Willy Loman. However, Willy doesn’t try to achieve his goals with any real work

because he believes that if you are well liked, presentable, and charismatic, you will get whatever

you want out of life. If people concentrated more on working hard and putting in actual effort

instead of just looking good and being likable, they would be more successful. Willy fails at his

dream of becoming rich because of his obsession with being well liked.
 Works Cited

Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005. Death Of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. Print.