Death Of A Salseman - Book Report/Review Example

In Act II, Willy describes his most important dream to his boss, Howard. Throughout the play we understand that Willy feels that it is most important to be well-liked by everyone he comes into contact with. His role model is a man named Dave Singleman, who continued to sell well into his old age. Willy describes the perfect dream of his salesman's life, saying, "he'd go up to his room, y'understand, put on his green velvet slippers-I'll never forget-and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living" (Miller 81).

Although he has the small desire to forge his own way in the wild, as his father and brother did, Willy embraces Singleman's life as the ultimate dream. He makes all his decisions in the hopes that he, too, can become so beloved by other salesmen and buyers that he can do business over the phone and expect a crowd of hundreds at his funeral. Unfortunately, this is not the dream that would serve him best because Willy is not Singleman; he is not a natural salesman, he must work harder to sell, and he does not make people love him in the same way as Singleman.

In pursuit of this dream, Willy makes poor decisions. . s life when he is most successful, it seems his success is not due to his being generally well-liked, but rather due to his being well-liked by specific people. The Woman, with whom he has an affair, says, "From now on, whenever you come to the office, I'll see that you go right through to the buyers. No waiting at my desk any more" (Miller 116). Willy thinks she is fulfilling his dreams, proving that he is like Dave Singleman, who is so respected he always gets through to the buyers immediately.

Of course, it is through this relationship that he destroys his more important dream. Although the language of the play tells us that he wishes for a happy home where his wife is well-provided for and his sons respect him, it is his relationship with The Woman that directly destroys Biff's love for him (120), indirectly leads to Happy becoming a womanizer, while Willy himself must live with the knowledge that he has betrayed Linda, which dirties the atmosphere of his home and life with her.

(Make link to the thesis) Both Biff and Ben explain throughout the play that their family is most suited for adventure, for working with their hands, out of doors for themselves. These are the dreams that Willy has let slip by the wayside. One of his happiest moments for Willy in the play is when he's contemplating buying a hammock for the backyard. At another point, he mourns the loss of the trees that supported the hammock. Other times, he takes delight in his ability to use tools and build things, and throughout the play he idolizes his brother's pioneering spirit, but still, he insists that his measure as a man comes from his ability to make others respect him as a salesman.

Early on we see that he has failed. Not only are his earnings too small to meet his expenses, but he gets no