Willy Loman a traveling salesman who has worked for the .
and has been cruelly taken off salary and put on straight .
commission. An insecure, self-deluded man, Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. When Willy's illusions begin to fail under the pressing realities of his life, his mental health begins to unravel. The overwhelming tensions caused by this disparity, as well as those caused by the societal imperatives that drive Willy, form the essential conflict of Death of a Salesman.
Willy Loman is the protagonist of the story. He is a traveling salesman, the .
low man of popular United States culture, who believes in the false promises of the American Dream. Therefore the antagonist of the story is the false promise of the American Dream, which makes people believe that anyone in the United States can become rich through only hard work, perseverance, or personality. The dream also seems to say that the individual need not master any form of skill or profession to make it big. Unfortunately, Willy is overcome by his dreams and illusions during the course of the .
play, and becomes mentally ill. .
Willy's mental health diminishes rapidly as he revisits the past and talks to what his son Biff, used to be. .
