Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, is about Willy Loman who is experiencing a crisis where he is overwhelmed by the problems of his lifetime. He wants to be viewed as a good, decent human being, and he desperately wants to believe that he is a well-liked person that doesn't make mistakes. However, the sad truth is that Willy has made lots of mistakes throughout his life, many of which are coming back to haunt him. The biggest problem Willy experiences that is prevalent through the play, is his struggle with his own self-concept. Willy Loman believes he is not a normal person because he knows he has made mistakes in his life, and he believes that making mistakes is not a normal human characteristic. He is portrayed as a man with a false sense of self, and he has passed this false sense of self onto his sons, making them believe they are something they"re not.
Willy severely regrets his failures, which include raising Biff and Happy poorly, not doing well in business, and being unfaithful to his wife Linda. He feels that these mistakes he made have caused his life to become the ultimate failure. Willy is what has come to be known as a tragic hero. He wants to do things right, but the fact is that many incidences have occurred in his life that are coming back to haunt him. Consistently throughout the drama Willy drifts in and out of dream sequences, and he is constantly haunted by memories of things that happened in the past. Willy has an "underlying fear of being displaced" and this is the major problem apparent. His age has slowly caught up to him and he realizes that he isn't as sharp as he used to be.
Willy has a slight inferiority complex, and this is shown through the continuous flashbacks he has of his dead brother Ben who struck it rich in the jungle. Ben causes Willy to feel like more of a failure because he is struggling to make ends meet and provide for his family.