Success in Death of a Salesman

For my blog this week, I wanted to further elaborate on the idea of success as it relates to Willy and Biff, and also to add how the idea and goal of achieving the American Dream relates to these two characters. In my opinion, neither Biff nor Willy is successful in their lives. While Biff is still relatively young and has time to maybe to something notable with the rest of his life, so far he has achieved almost no success. He had the potential to go to college on a football scholarship and start on the path to success, but he failed at this due to his inability to pass summer math course and instead started on a path that led him to an unsuccessful career without true happiness. Biff, in his job as a farmer, makes little money, isn’t truly happy because he is disappointing himself and his father, and has a job that is not going to take him far in life. Ultimately, Biff is not very successful in his life, and was not able to achieve the dream of going on a football scholarship or being an important successful person.

Willy also does not achieve much success in his life. His entire career as a salesman is stained by loneliness and insecurity of himself, which leads him to constantly desire anything to make him seem important and to have self-worth. His affair with The Woman is a perfect example of his loneliness and his craving to be appreciated by someone. All of these things total up to Willy not being very happy in his life. Even for people who argue that happiness is the only true measure of success, this mindset supports the idea that Willy is not successful because he is not happy. If one looks at success in a broader and more general view, Willy is not highly successful in this way either. He lives a life where he makes a decent wage doing a job we have much evidence he is at best mediocre at, he raises two sons who grow up to not achieve to much and have average lives, and he doesn’t achieve fame or recognition from many people. While Willy cannot be considered a failure, all of these factors do not add up to a great degree of success. Willy does not really achieve the American Dream like he wanted to, because of his modest life and his children’s modest lives. Perhaps the most important measure of Willy’s success is his funeral, where not many people show up. Willy’s dream was to be like Dave Singleton, a salesman who worked until he died and had a large widely-attended funeral. This did not happen for Willy, and he did not achieve the success of his idol.

So, in conclusion, it is hard to make a case for either Willy or Biff as a successful person (484).