Holding on to the past can greatly affect the person you become in the present. In Death of a Salesman, Willy cant seem to overcome his past and check into reality. He goes through an identity crisis and falls into contradiction which has greatly affected his perception of life.
Willy undergoes an identity crisis because he cant cease to relive his past. He constantly jumps from the past to the present and cannot tell between the two as he continues to daydream. The more difficult his life seemed to get, the more Willy wanted to find some other way to take it off of his mind. Willy thinks reliving his past is the only way for him to put his life back into order again, but what he doesnt realize is how he cant alter the mistakes hes made. Willy has misplaced his identity because of the fact that hes only willing to accept what had already happened rather than facing the problems he has in the present. He lingers in his memories in order to deny his present, and because he believes his present is too difficult for him to accept, he chooses to dwell upon the times when life wasnt so bad.
Contradiction plays a big role for Willy because he pretends to have such a perfect life. Willy cant accept the fact that his career has plummeted, so he continues to believe that hes a success in his field by recapturing the events of his past and because of this, his past starts to tie into reality. I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston . Willy begins to excite Linda, but then later finds out that he was only pretending. Well, I I did
about a hundred and eighty gross in Providence (Miller 35). He talks about how well he is doing in the business when in reality, he isnt. Willy cant get over the fact that Biff loses all respect for him because of an affair Willy had with another woman. Instead of fixing his relationship with his son, Willy pretends that nothing ever happened and that Biff still admired him. Willy begins to have a flashback of the time when Biff dedicated his last play for him at a football game which was truly the last time Biff ever looked up to his father. Im takin one play for Pop. You watch me, Pop (Miller 32). He pretends to believe that Biff still has some pride in his father because he doesnt want to admit that it was his fault that Biff lost all admiration for him.
Willys relationship between his past and present shows how his saneness begins to fall apart. Hes stuck in his old memories and cant seem to accept new changes in life. Willys sense of failure caused him to become mentally unstable, which in return, it became necessary for him to live in the past. His loss of identity and contradictories reflect on his inability to face reality.
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