Willy's Dream in Death Of a Salesman Essay

Willys dreams

Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.[i] In Millers play, Death of a Salesman, Willy has a lot of dreams about both: his life and his sons. The play suggests how fragile our dreams can be. Willy has the wrong dreams, which include financial success, for his sons to succeed, and for recognition.

There is no doubt that Willys ultimate goal was to reach financial success. Willy was a very brave man but had a lot of financial problems. Throughout the play, Willy would always ask his neighbor Charley to lend him money to either help him pay his mortgage, his insurance and whatever that needed fixing. Charley, look I got my insurance to pay. If you can manage it I need a hundred and ten dollars.(p.96, ACT TWO) Willy was always in debt. He owned money to everyone and took so long to pay them back. He was a desperate man at this point. During this time, Willy thought about the American Dream which is hard work = success = wealth = happiness but at the end that dream died and became money = success + happiness. He lived and died by American values while pursuing them. He knew that if he was alive, he could never make 20 000$ for his life insurance. Furthermore, Willy would tell his family that he was making a lot of money while he would leave for work but he would not actually make much. I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston.(p.35, ACT ONE) He actually only made two hundred gross the whole trip.

From my point of view, Willy had a lot of dreams for his sons but they didnt turn out the way he had expected. Willy had hoped that his sons would have succeeded in life and do something that they liked. Biff was offered a scholarship for football at the University of Virginia. His dad was very proud of him for doing so well but he didnt know that Biff had failed math. When Biff told his father, he was upset and devastated. Dad I flunked math(p.116, ACT TWO) Willy had told Biff that he had to go to summer school to change his marks and pass math but Biff didnt want to. Heh? If I cant get him to change that mark youll make it up in summer school. Youve got all summer to.(p.120, ACT TWO) In the end, Biff did not go to summer school nor get his scholarship for football season. Do to having failed math and not getting his scholarship, this really affected his entire life. Biff could not keep a job at any workplace. He would get fired for not doing what he was supposed to.

To Willy, it was very important to be well-liked. Throughout the play, Willy believes that success comes from not only being liked, but well-liked. Willy does not face reality he lives in his own world of disillusionment. I can park my car in any streets in New England and the cops protect it like their own.(p.31, ACT ONE) Willy thinks that everyone around him will protect him no matter what but he is wrong. His dream is phony. He really isnt well-liked even if he thinks that. Willy is having his own vision of being well-liked. He is the type of man that thinks being well-liked is the most important thing but it truly isnt. Willy died of suicidal. During his funeral, Linda, Biff, Happy, Bernard and Charley were the only ones that attended. This proves that he was never well-liked.

Without a doubt, dreams come from within our deepest selves. Dreams are fragile. Throughout the play, Willy has a lot of dreams but they are all phony. He wanted his sons to succeed, he wanted financial success and he wanted recognition. His dreams turned out to be failures.

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[i] http://thinkexist.com/quotations/dreams/