Indeath of Salesman? by Arthur Miller shows that Willy Loman is a character that most anyone can identify with. He has two sides to his life; on one side he creates an image of being successful, well liked, and bold. On the other side he feels old, unsuccessful, defeated and disliked. He maintains the successful image to comfort his wife and friends. This cover of success becomes thinner and thinner until he remains between fantasy and reality of the cruel world, often changing back and forth in the course of a conversation. The center of Willy's slow painful failure into nothingness is based upon his beliefs. Willy thinks that success is not what you know, but whom he knows and how well he is liked. These beliefs he instills in his sons, who find themselves floating and meaningless just like their father. In addition Willy sees the world changing, and his own inability to change with it, will seal his fate. Willy Loman is finding himself less and less capable. He dreams of making it big and has visions of Uncle Ben who gives him advice on how to get rich, but never the kind of advice Willy wants to hear. Willy is concerned about his image. He is a great showman who can talk big and display like the best of them, and as witness to the hard truth of his failure he continues to weave fairy tales and live in fantasy. Willy wants his sons to be better off and more successful than him, but he has already corrupted them, and they too claim achievements well beyond reality. Biff comes to the reality of his position in life in the opening of the play. He knows he is not cut out for the business world. Biff prefers to move back to Texas and work on a farm. Although he realizes working on the farm won't make him successful, he knows that it's his calling in life. Happy who is fairly stable and comfortable in his work, prefers to continue with the simulation, and the deception so as long as it makes life easier for him.
