Death_of_a_Salesman

Death of a Salesman The Ultimate Sale 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. death, salesman, willy, page, life, biff, text, play, himself, about, world, willy’s, ultimate, successful, sons, reality, one, never, making, linda, less, knows, image, fantasy, family, end, car, because, wife, washed, thinner, thinks, themselves, tells, success, sort, side