Willy's Unfulfilled Dreams and Frustrated Hopes Death of a Salesman is about the struggles and failure of Willy Loman. A middle aged, quietly dressed, exhausted traveling salesman. In Death of a Salesman Miller begin the play with Willy Loman, who after an unsuccessful attempt to start a selling trip, has just returned home early. Willy's family had notice him talking to himself about things from the past. Linda his wife, seeing his exhaustion knows Willy is close to his psychological breaking point. She pleads with him to seek a non traveling position at the home office, because driving futile miles had become strenuous for him. Willy is portrayed in the play as a man holding to the past, too afraid to let go, because if he does he would see himself as a failure. Willy focused most of his energy on two events, his son Biff's big football game and the regret of not accompanying his brother to Africa.
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Willy wag tailWhen his dreams could no longer satisfy him he allowed the image of his brother, Ben, who represented success to guide him. The main tragedy of the play occurred when Willy committed suicide. To understand Willy's tragedies we must view his psyche, his Unfulfilled dreams, frustrated hope and draw parallels to our present world.
Miller shows Willy as "a protagonist who no longer distinguishes between memory, imagination, reality and desire"(121 Martin). The tragedy begins to unfold when Willy's memory of the past occurs virtually simultaneously with his present action. Although Willy's memory was only illusions apparently they appeared real to him. "You can not always believe the evidence of your own eyes, since appearances can be deceiving, it is not our eyes that deceive us; rather, it is our beliefs and expectancies"(125 Bugelski). "When Willy moves from the kitchen...