Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, depicts the life of a lower-middle class family during the postwar boom in the 1950s. The play, a modern day tragedy, illustrates the consequences the Loman family faces when confronted with reality. Specifically, the play centers on the retired salesman Willy Loman, the Loman family patriarch, who is disillusioned by his own faith. Willy has spent his life chasing what he believes to be the American Dream, living in denial of his slow demise. Moreover, Willy imparts these values and beliefs onto his two sons and wife who then begin to distort their own realities out of love and self-preservation. When faced with a mentally ill father and financial instability, ultimately when faced with no hope, the family helps perpetuate Willy’s dreams preferring to stay in a modicum of denial. His desire to conform his family to the American Dream is a major source of conflict throughout the play. Ultimately, Willy’s obsession with attaining this idealized version of the American Dream leaves him and his family in conflict as they either perpetuate his delusions or shatter his beliefs, eventually ending in his psychological demise and the family’s doomfall.
One of the predominant themes throughout the novel is this ever-present American Dream. Willy is enamored with the idea that being popular, well-liked, and attractive will guarantee him the comforts of the modern America (aka wealth/prosperity. He fell into this idea that America is the land of opportunity if he can only be held to high-esteem by his cohorts. He goes into an occupation he is not very talented in, with the sole purpose of achieving this fantasy. Moreover, his goal is only a dream, a figment of his imagination aggrandized in his head. This misconception he has triggers his actions creating conflicts which then further delude his thoughts since he cannon ever achieve such a fantasy. Even though he means well, Willy believes he is a much better salesman than he is in reality. Faced with the fact that people call him out on his inaptitude he takes it the wrong. He misinterprets his incapacity as sales as physical unattractiveness. He then talks about himself “not dressing to advantage” rather than face the fact he is an incapable and unsuccessful salesman: “I’m fat. I’m very—foolish to look at, Linda. I didn’t tell you, but Christmas time I happened to be calling on F.H. Stewarts, and a salesman I know, as I was going in to see the buyer I hear him say something about—walrus. And I—I cracked him right across the face. I won’t take that. I simply will not take that. But they do laugh at me. I know that. […] I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it. I’m not dressing to advantage, maybe.” As demonstrated in quote above, Linda is then put in a position where she must placate Willy creating conflict in the house. By placating him, she drives him further into his own lies and in some aspect becomes enmeshed in lies herself. The result of Willy’s misconceptions was that he was unable to be prosperous, happy, or content. He chased after a fantasy instead of having an occupation in which he could prosper, such as manual labor (in which he demonstrated talent). He also rejects numerous jobs offered to him by Charley. His aggrandized way of thinking affected both his children who were not able to hold steady jobs, or see reality. Biff is unable to finish high school, while Happy stays disillusioned in regards to his own abilities.
One of the predominant sources of conflict throughout the play is in between Willy and Biff. As a result of Willy’s disillusionment, Biff picks up from his father his aggrandized way of thinking. Due to Willy, he grew up with an inflated ego. Moreover, he operated under the same misconception that being well-liked was of the utmost importance, more so than academics for example. Ultimately, Biff is unable to complete school and ends up failing in almost every job he has had (unlike Walter whom he had previously mocked), due to these misconceptions. However, unlike his father, he realizes and comes to terms with the fact that he was a lot less successful than he perceived. Thus, at the beginning of the novel the state on tension in the household is palpable: “When you write you’re coming, he’s all smiles, and talks about the future, and–he’s just wonderful. And then the closer you seem to come, the more shaky he gets, and then, by the time you get here, he’s arguing, and he seems angry at you.” Biff is a danger to Willy’s indoctrinated belief in the American Dream. he is able to confront reality, acknowledge his failures, and change his future. He decides to shift paths and move out West in order to eek a life of freedom and adventure he can thrive in. This creates an impasse in their relationship, what is perceived to be hate. Ultimately, conflict arises between them when Willy attempts to salvage his beliefs when faced with reality, in a means to cope.
On the other hand both Happy and Linda perpetuate Biff’s delusions. When faced with conflict they react similarly to Willy, in blind faith and denial. Faced with extreme financial crises and conflict in the household, Happy likes to enjoy the illusion of success even though he is deluding himself in the process. He believes he was a big-shot, when he really was only an assistant’s assistant. He becomes infatuated with his physical appearance (like his father who prioritizes personality) and believes he will achieve success if he is well liked. In Happy’s case, he achieves this by seducing woman, specifically his bosses’ fiancees. He ends up living an unsuccessful life without a monogamous relationship. He perpetuates these and his father’s misconceptions when he promises in the Requiem to become a success in the business world in order to honor his father’s death (even though WIlly was only lying to himself). He now begins his father’s chase to accomplish unachievable dreams. SImilarly, Linda misconceives the severity of her husband’s mental illness. She plays into his misconceptions/ delusions by saying that Willy only has an overactive imagination. At the funeral, she said that the family was now in the clear, which means that she still was unable to accept the fact that her husband was completely delusional. This manifests in the play through the motif of stockings: Stockings in the play, encompass Willy’s success, his career, his self-worth, and his legacy. In this quote, Linda is mending the stockings, which she tries to do metaphorically by mending Willy’s brain. She is the glue holding the family together. By demanding Linda to throw away the stockings, Willy is projecting his desire to live a life free of worry and abundant with success. She tries throughout the play to mend the conflicts that arise as a result of WIlly’s fantasies.
Ultimately, Willy’s delusions leads to conflict both in and out of the family household as they either play into or shatter his reality. Willy who thus far has failed at almost everything. His sons have disappointment him, his infallible American dream has failed him, and he cannot provide financial security for his family. As a result, in order to cope, Linda perpetuates his delusions, until the end where Happy begins to adopt the same ones. She is still unable to face reality. Billy is able to move on, at peace with his failure. Conflict arises when a family is disillusioned. This ties back to the overarching theme of the American Dream- it is only a dream.