The characters of Death of a Salesman are easy to identify with because they represent a pretty typical dysfunctional American family. Furthermore they are easily understood because of their similarity to most people who find themselves washed up in this game called life. Willy Loman, the protagonist of this play, is probably the most washed up and distraught of all the characters. Despite his failure at recognizing his true nature as a Loman or "Low Man," he spends the entire play searching through and evaluating his past in order to achieve some sort of self-realization or self-knowledge. This self exploration leads to Willy making the ultimate sacrifice by killing himself in a desperate attempt to provide the insurance money for his family.
Willy 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 veil of success becomes thinner and thinner until he lingers between fantasy and reality of the cruel world, often changing back and forth in the course of a conversation. An example of Willy's shift from fantasy to reality is during his conversation with his wife about the Chevy. He thinks the car is fantastic, the best ever built. Willy tells Linda that: "Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built" (text, page 1019.) Later, however, they are discussing some bills that were paid, and when told about the bill to get the Chevy's carburetor fixed, he says: "That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car" (text, page 1020.).
Willy's slow, painful demise into nothingness is a direct result of his beliefs. Willy thinks that success is not what he knows, but who he knows and how well he is liked. He instills these beliefs in his sons, Biff and Happy, who find themselves adrift and meaningless just like their father.
