Dreams in Death of a Salesman Essay

Dreams are part of any mans nature. To dream is to live a life that you hope for yourself in the future. These dreams may or may not be achievable besides will always drive people toward them. People may take these dreams sternly like Willy Loman but to most people to achieve their dreams would be to achieve the impossible. Dreams can be very dangerous if they are the solo tearaway(a) forces stool a persons life and lead them, not to hope but to want for things beyond their reach. This is the case in Death of a Salesman.The driving force behind Willy Loman throughout the Death of a Salesman, is the idea that he can achieve the American Dream. He wants to have the material things in life and to have the best of everything he wants lots of property, a big house, and a loving family and, To come out the number-one man. He sees Ben as the abridgment of success, he longs to be as successful as Ben or in time as successful as Bernard, always asking Whats the secret? preferably of being discouraged from this by Linda she is tolerant of him, constantly backing down, right to the end. Even in his plans of suicide, she is scared to contradict him, instead replacing the rubber hose down every evening when he comes home.Happy idolises his father and buys into the American Dream. Right until the end, he cerebrates he actually is somebody. When scoke points out, Youre one of the dickens assistants to the assistant he still tries to convince himself of his importance. He is very like his father in his need for success, when he looks where there is no success he has to make it up. Both of them believe they have to lie to people to make themselves likeable. When Willy dies, instead of understanding how futile his dream is, Happy vows to fight on for Willy chronic his battle. biff, however is less stubborn and prefers simple pleasures. He doesnt want to be told how to live his life and doesnt want to follow certain rules.He wants to be able to whistle in the elevat or. He loves The work and the food and the time to sit down and smoke. He doesnt want to exploit and crawl and make money he would only spend to beg and crawl less. However Willy doesnt understand this and believes that pigeon berry is simply, A lazy prat. He is sure that Biff could succeed in the city if he only tried. Both Willy and Happy feel they have to cover up Biffs lack of success Willy boasts to Bernard that Biff has being doing, very big things in the West and Happy in much the same way tells Stanley how Biff is a big cattle man. They wholly subscribe to the American DreamA major part of the play is the time that Willy spends living in the past daydreaming and reminiscing. He is constantly revisiting the parts of his life that have shaped him to the person that he is. In this way the audition unravels the story of Biffs childhood, Bens success and Willys affair with The Woman. This seems to be the part of his life he most regrets, as it is the time he revisits the mo st. At several moments throughout the play, The Womans laughter is heard from offstage, usually at times that Willy sees what has become of his life, for example when he sees Linda mending her stockings.These flashbacks are vie out to the audience like scenes in real life and often simultaneously they are only indicated by the actions of the actors. During dream sequences, the actors pass through the boundaries of the walls as though acting on a completely different stage, but during sequences in the present the actors obey the imaginary lines of the walls, entering and leaving through the doors. This helps the audience to distinguish between times. Often during flashbacks a certain melody is heard on the flute this is his fathers flute. Ben tells Willy about their father and how they used to sit around a fire and listen to their father play.Ben is idolised by Willy for his success and wealth but at the same time distrusted by Linda. She seems to be reserved in her affection for him as opposed to Willy who treats him as a hero the moment he walks through the door and she is disinterested when Willy reminisces about Ben days later. We dont meet Ben in person at any time throughout the play, only through Willys dreams, so we are only aware of him through Willys estimation of him. Willy remembers him as a go-getter and a leader of men. He is shown to be motivated only by money as seen in his final conversation with Willy. He is not concerned with Willys wellbeing, only by the large sum of money he would get on from the insurance payoff, twenty thousand that is something one can feel with the handLinda is the only member of the Loman family that has no dreams, all she wants is for Willy to be safe and well and the boys to prise him. Happys farfetched idea of setting up business on their own carries even Biff away. Linda merely encourages. She is contented to live with Willy even if they have no garden or the car breaks down or the fridge fails. Arthur Mille r seems to see her, not Ben, as the real hero of the play. This is reflected in the gentle respect he gives to her in his writing.This play is a strong message against the principle of the American Dream. Willy Loman is constantly striving to achieve the dream, but drives himself crazy. Biff seems to be the only character in the Loman family that is able to set himself aside from this dream, wanting only to be happy his own man. Although I believe dreams to be an important, if not essential part of life, I also believe that contentment is far more important. If you cannot be happy with what you have, you cannot possibly hope to be happy with what you wish for. Willy Loman dreams of becoming a great man, dreams of the great man he was and dreams of the great man Biff can be, he just fails to understand that they are great men.