Carreras 1
Amanda Carreras
ENC 1102
Farrar
4 May 2012
A Broken Dream and a Failure to Succeed
Each day, people wake up, build their dreams, and make decisions in their lives on how
they will better themselves for the future. Some people live a wealthy and accomplished life and
are successful in their goals while others live a mediocre life with no real accomplishments at all.
These are the ones that regret every moment and obsess about the way they wish their life could
have been. The Loman family in Death of a Salesman was just that, a family full of dysfunction
and false ideas of what being successful really involves; this distorted view leads to a limited
ability to attain the American Dream.
When analyzing a work such as a play, one should analyze the characters to get a better
idea on the point of each character, and their place in the play. Part of this process is
understanding whether the character is static or dynamic throughout the play. To better
understand if a character is one or the other, one should find out whether the character makes a
change in their outlook and position emotionally throughout the play. If the character stays the
same and makes no changes, sticking to the same beliefs and having no realization, then the
character is considered static. If they make a change for the better or for the worse, either way
this character in the play would be considered dynamic. A static character would be considered
a one- dimensional character, while a dynamic one would be considered three-dimensional.
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The main character in this particular play is Willy Loman, who is a static character
throughout the performance. The play starts off with Willy coming home to his extremely
supportive wife; even though Willy acts somewhat senile Linda keeps making excuses for him.
His senility has led him to attempt suicide a few times, and every time Biff, his son comes home,
he gets worse. He continues to have flashbacks of when his sons are young and does not
understand the reason why at thirty-four years old Biff is still not successful. These flashbacks
focus on how “great” he is of a salesman he believes himself to be, but he does not understand
why he has been placed at the end of his life with not even a penny to his name as well as the
fact that his sons mirror him and not success at all. He has denied job offers from Charlie
because he is perfectly content and feels that making money is based on being well-liked and this
is the true meaning of success. In Act one, Charley states, “You want a job?” Willy responds, “I
got a job, I told you that. What the hell are you offering a job for?” (Miller, Death of a Salesman)
After a few minutes Willy keeps insulting Charley insisting that he insulted him first until
Charley just decides to leave. As a mediocre salesman, Willy is trapped in a false mindset that
eventually becomes his reality. He lives his life betraying his wife by sleeping with a mistress
whose laugh he hears continuously and this is eventually found out by Biff, which leaves a mark
on him causing his and his father’s relationship to become bitter. Willy Loman never achieves
success, and dies a very lonely man. As one analyzes the character of Willy Loman, one can
hope for a better ending but due to his static nature, one can see where the ending is headed. He
stays the same through the end of the play, this suggest Willy as static.
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The second character that is continuously static is Linda, the wife of Willy Loman. She
supports him all the way to his death. She continuously makes excuses for the way he acts and
sees no fault and complains to Biff that he is the reason that Willy is acting crazy and seems to
get worse every time Biff comes home. In Act one, Linda is arguing with her sons after Happy
states, “But I gave you money last…” Linda responds in anger, “Christmas time, fifty dollars! To
fix the hot water it cost ninety seven fifty! For five weeks he has been on straight commission,
like a beginner, and unknown!” This is when Biff refers to Willy’s bosses as ungrateful bastards.
Linda then states, “Are they any worse than his sons?” (Miller, Death of a Salesman)She would
end the argument by telling Biff that he was a bum and ask Happy why he did not spend time
with his father anymore suggesting that they both have forgotten the father that spent his whole
life supporting two “ungrateful” sons. Mrs. Loman says that Biff should start caring more
about his father and that Happy should too. Linda is an enabler to her husband’s disease because
she never places fault on him. To her, it is always someone else’s fault and never Willy’s. It is
ok to support the person that one loves except when it enables someone’s bad tendencies. Linda
does not ever comprehend this concept and to the end she supports him. Finally, when Willy
takes his life and she is left wondering why as she cries and questions grave still making excuses
to the end and wondering where all the people he knew were.
Looking at this couple and analyzing them until the end of the play, one can find that this
couple had the problems they did because of Willy’s wrong view of what success really was. He
lived in a fantasy world and one day when he realized that he did not achieve what he searched
for, he began to believe his lies to try and make sense of the sad life he regretted. His sons were a
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mirror of himself and he being unhappy with the way his life turned out, he would voice how he
was disappointed with them. Linda was blind to Willy’s faults and never let him take
responsibility for the position he was in. When she attended the funeral to which no one came
she still did not understand and see the lies Willy had told through the years of their marriage. He
treated her bad and was not a good father but Linda never really knows the “true’ Willy because
she is blinded by love. This alone proves that Linda Loman was indeed static and one
dimensional, just like her husband that she had undying love for, but as one can see love does
not conquer all and it takes more than being liked to achieve the American Dream of family,
success, and most important, happiness.
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Works Cited
Jacobson, Irving. ""Family Dreams in Death of a Salesman"." American Literature 47.2 (1975):
247-258. Print. 04 05 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925484>.
Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." Meyer, Michael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to
Literature . Arlington: Bedford, St Martins, 2009. 1372-1436. Print. 04 05 2012.
Miller, Arthur, et al. ""Death of a Salesman": A Symposium." The Tulane Drama Review 2.3
(1958): 63-69. Print. 04 05 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124953 .>.