Willy Loman was a man who gradually destroyed himself with false hopes and beliefs. Throughout his entire life Willy believed that he would die a rich and successful man. It was inevitable for him to come crumbling down after years of disillusions. We can look at Willys life by examining some of his character traits that brought him down.
Charley once said to Willy, When the hell are you going to grow up? Willy spent his entire life will this false illusions and comcepts, he thought that he would die a rich and famous man. When he looked at himself, he saw a great man that was successful. One may think that having a positive outlook is good for ones self-esteem, but in Willys case it was detrimental. Just as Charley asked this question to Willy, it was left like most things in his life, unanswered.
Another poor character trait in Willy was the way he had such high hopes and dreams. Willy was taken captive by the American Dream. He was so consumed with the idea of it; he never took a moment to realize that he couldnt capture that fantasy. He was so consumed that it caused him to suffer from crippling self-delusion. In the beginning of the play, Willy was in a delirium; he couldnt even extinguish reality from his fantasy world. Biff is a lazy bumBiff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such-personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. Theres one thing about Biff–hes not lazy. From Willys actions it was obvious that depending on the intensity of the moment he would change his mind set from better to worse, for he could cope better for the situation.
Due to the fantasy world that Willy lived in, mostly caused by the American Dream, he pursued his career in sales. Based on the success of Dave Singleman, his mentor. His bad career choice caused most of his dissatisfaction with life. His sales career simply conflicted with his natural abilities and talents. I believe that he knew he should have been working in a different field, but his obsession with the American Dream would not allow him to realize that. When Willy dreamt of working with his hands he was the happiest. Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement. He was so wonderful with his hands. He had all the wrong dreams All, all, wrong. According to the idea of the America Dream, manual labor did not comply. Sadly enough, Willy measured his self worth by the standards of the American Dream.
Willy was a stubborn man that was possessed by extreme pride. Charley offered him a job when he came into his office nearly begging. Charley tried explaining some points of the business world, explaining that being liked is not an issue. Willy really had no idea how the business world worked. He thought if one was liked, no problems would arise. Why must everyone like you? Who liked J.P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath hed look like a butcher. But with his pockets on he was very well liked. Now listen, Willy, I know you dont like me, and nobody can say Im in love with you, but Ill give a job becausejust for the hell of it, put it that way. Now what do you say?
Willy refused the job because he was jealous of Charleys success. Mostly, he refused the job from Charley because he was not well liked. According to Willy, this is not an ideal relationship in the business world/American Dream. Therefore, he choose to refuse a well-paying job with security, rather than face the truth of the truth of the matter.
Willy held true to his self-importance. Throughout his entire life he believed that he was a remarkable salesman. He believed that he was known everywhere all throughout New England as being the greatest salesman. Sadly enough this was proved, proved to be wrong. It wasnt until his funeral that is was proved, but Willy wasnt even alive to realize it. It became apparent to his family and Charley that he was just another old man that was swallowed up by the American Dream. nobody even cared about him, and he wasnt good at his job, he just wasnt meant for that career.
After examining Willys character traits it seems extremely obvious to one who is observing that he was going to fail at anything he did. Unfortunately he just wasnt meant for the business world. One good trait of Willy Loman was that he never did let go of his dreams and hopes. Unfortunately, Willy stayed in his fantasy world and could not come to terms with reality; the myth of the American Dream destroyed him. The American Dream wasnt equipped to handle such realities as Willy. Willy bought the sales pitch and the price that he paid for it was death.