In Arthur Millers's play " The Death of a Salesman", The main character Willy Loman is a man who lives his whole life in a make believe world. He bases his life on an "American Dream", in which he will never attain. In my opinion, Willy Loman's flaws stick out like a sore thumb throughout the whole play which is displayed by the way he thinks and what he teaches his sons. With responding to the first essay question I do agree that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. .
Willy Loman is the main character/protagonist of the play. He has been a traveling sales man, which is the lowest of positions, for the Wagner Company for thirty-five years. Just to give my readers a little background, Willy was never really successful in sales; he has never earned adequate income and owns little or close to nothing. His refrigerator, his car, and his house are old and falling apart, much like Willy. Willy however, is unable to face the truth about himself. He kids himself into believing that he is well liked by his customers in the New England Territory and by the company, who is sure to give him a promotion or an opportunity to make more income. .
Willy lives by his false promise of the American Dream. His dream simply says that you don't need to be trained for a particular skill or profession to make it big. All that an individual needs to succeed is to be well liked and have good looks. Unfortunately his dreams and illusions during the play overcome Willy. The company that he believes will promote him fires him, his sons for whom he has worked and struggled reject him, and he is forced to see his life and ideologies are lies. .
Willy lives most of his life in a world of deception in which he romanticizes his past, and his family, especially his wife does nothing to stop him. Even thought his illusions/hallucinations have been with him all his life the problem now is he is having trouble telling the difference between past and present, which at first was hard for me to follow.