Death of A Salesman

Drama | Arthur Miller

Discuss the father-son relationship in Death of a Salesman.

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Discuss the father-son relationship in Death of a Salesman The father-son relationship in Arthur Miller's - play Death of a Salesman is one of the central themes of the play The relationships between Willy Loman the salesman and his two sons Biff and Happy reflect the complexities of familial expectations personal failure and the pursuit of the American Dream Love and Hate Biff and Happy are sons of Willy Loman They love their father when they are Children Biff is Willy Loman's favorite son However the event that is chiefly responsible for the decline of the relationship is Willy s illegal affair with a Boston girl When Biff goes to Boston to meet his father he catches his father red-handed with a Boston girl After discovering the illegal affair Biff heats his father Universal concern for the future Willy Loman is a salesman for the Wagner Company But he has

failed to fulfill the American Dream He wants his sons to complete their American dream Biff and Happy want to succeed in the business So they need a lot of money to start a business The name of the business is Sports Goods Biff and Happy go to collect to need their money At last they are failures For the Universal future of their sons Willy Loman decides that he will do suicide After his death his family will get dollars from the Insurance Company Suicidal of Willy Loman is the universal future for their sons The man who makes an appearance in the business world the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead Be liked and you will never want One-side Sacrifice Willy Loman is the drama's paradigm and symbol of one-sided sacrifice Willy Loman is now an old man For the fundamental demands of the family he has to do the job On the other hand he has two sons who have all grown up but they do not support his father in giving him money But Willy Loman is an old man who cannot give good service to the Wagner Company Howard Wagner the company's present boss abrogated Willy Loman's salary He only gets a commission on product selling On the other hand their sons cannot collect the money so they are failures Willy Loman sacrifices his life for the money It is the paradigm of one side of sacrifice Forgive me dear I can t cry I don t know it is I can t cry I don t understand it Why did you ever do that Imbalance Love The relationship between Willy and Happy is not much better because Willy favours Biff over Happy Happy has always taken second place in the father's affections Willy is constantly singing which has a detrimental effect on Happy s relationship with the whole family It'd be the family again There'd be the old honor and comradeship Absence of respect Happy and Biff are the sons of Willy Loman They do not respect their father Biff would much love his father He goes to Boston to meet his father After reaching Boston he discovers the illicit love affair with his father Then Biff thinks that his father has cheated on his mother At that moment Biff doesn t respect his father Of the imbalance of love Happy doesn t respect his father Biff Loman says We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house From the above discussion we can realize that the father and the son's relationship is not very good because of the cheating of their mother and the imbalance of love Death of a Salesman uses the tumultuous relationships between Willy Loman and his sons to explore themes of reality versus illusion the crushing pressures of societal expectations and the complex dynamics of family loyalty and personal identity Through these relationships Miller critiques the often destructive nature of the American Dream and questions the true meaning of success

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