”Never fight fair with a stranger.”
Willy’s weakness is his failure to understand how the business world works and learning to adapt to new changes in time. It isn’t about having contacts and ‘being liked’, it is about being diligent and ruthless; ‘Business is business.’
Willy’s failure to adapt is proven in Howard’s office:
“In those days, there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for friendship to bear – or personality.”
Willy Loman is a victim of the American dream and capitalism. The American dream sucks people in and doesn’t let them leave. The American dream becomes the American cult. This cult will entice people in by promising them riches and success and then won’t let them leave simply because it states that if you quit a job you become a quitter and, according to the American dream, quitters are failures.
Willy Loman is a victim of his own determination. Willy fails to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional, and spiritual understanding of himself as a literal “loman” or “low man.” Willy is too driven by his own “willy” –ness or stubborn “wilfulness” to recognize the slanted reality that is his desperate mind has forged. Willy’s failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to his downfall.
American society puts pressure on individuals to buy goods even when they cannot afford them. Willy Loman believes sincerely that wealth is happiness and your wealth is shown by the number of brand goods you have. As Willy isn’t the successful businessman that he says he is, he doesn’t earn much money. Therefore he has little brand goods. Yet Willy, despite his income, feels greatly pressured in to keeping up with technology, however much the outcome. This is shown when Willy is in Howard’s office in New York. Howard, shows Willy a new piece of expensive technology (wire recorder), yet despite the difference in income between the two people, Willy still feels that he needs the equipment to keep up with technology:
“I think I’ll get one myself.”
“Sure they’re only a hundred and a half”
This proves the effect that consumerism has had on Willy. He has come to New York to beg for ‘forty dollars a week’, but despite this, Willy feels he needs to buy a brand good that is more than three times his income per week.
The importance of commodities is revealed in Willy’s mentioning of his car, both in the past and present, the refrigerator, and the house itself. Willy maintains this belief until the very end, when he says “Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?” When it comes right down to it, it’s all about the money and the brand goods you can buy with it. A man who cannot provide the latest goods for his family is deemed a failure.
Willy Loman can also be seen as the Villain of this play. Willy often lies to his sons about his lifestyle. Throughout this novel there is evidence that Willy is using his children as a method of bolstering his ego. He tells the boys a "secret" insisting they must not "breathe it to a soul". He continues to describe the pure fantasy of him having his "own business". Willy's need for his dream to remain a "secret" suggests he does not wish to appear foolish and that in order to fuel his constant need for praise he turns to his children for admiration and to bolster his ego. Willy has relayed his stories of drinking coffee with "the Mayor of Providence" implying a high status He describes the success of his sales in "Boston" and "Waterbury" enthralling his sons. Happy's comment that his father would have his own business "like Uncle Charley" results in Willy making the implication that, unlike Charley who is "liked, but he's not well liked", he himself is liked by those in the business world. Willy later makes the admission to his wife that those he works with "laugh" at him, suggesting that the boasts he makes to his children are merely fabrications.
Willy's deliberate deception of his children is seen again when the boys express their wish to travel with their father, something they have never done before. Willy sights a vague time in the "summer" and ignores Happy's plea for a "promise". His behaviour on this occasion enforces the image of him as a fake and a villain.
Willy imparts the wrong values on his sons while they are young. This is shown when Biff shows Willy his "new football" that he has "borrowed" from the "locker room". When admitting the theft to his father, Biff "laughs confidently" implying he views the theft in a humorous light. Although "laughing with him at the theft" Willy expresses his wish for the football to be returned. Willy's amusement by the theft is followed by praising Biff's "initiative" and undermines any authority he tries to impose. As a parent, Willy is giving mixed signals to his son and as we see later, results in Biff’s casual attitude towards theft, which lands him in jail.
Willy commits many faults that categorize him as a villain. The most important fault was the affair. He might have not wanted to do this on purpose but this does not make him any better. Maybe the affair first started out as a business relationship, but it did not end that way. Willy cheated on Linda and never said anything about the affair to her. He sometimes felt guilty about it and that is why Willy made her feel inferior. Willy treats the two women differently. He has an affair with a woman and buys her stockings, while Linda, his wife, has to sew her old ones. This affair damaged the life of Biff who caught his father with the woman. All his life, Biff had looked up to his dad, but when he realised Willy for the “fake” and “phoney” that he is, his determination to be successful in life diminished. Biff became disappointed and angry towards Willy, and he never went to summer school or attended college. Willy’s excuse for the affair is pathetic and feeble, and persuades the audience even more, to see him as the villain of the play:
“When you grow up you’ll understand about these things.”
“She’s nothing to me Biff, I was lonely.”
Willy Loman can even be seen as the hero of this play. In the climax of the play, when Willy realizes that his sons love him, a slight awakening occurs in Willy's mind. He begins to understand that his true dream, of living in the country, is identical to that of his beloved son, Biff. Biff has never been able to follow his dream because of his father ‘blowing him so full of hot air’ that he ‘could never take orders from anybody.’ Willy comprehends that he has been denying his son of the dream that he wishes to achieve, and out of pure love kills himself, giving his life insurance to his family, and completes the dream of being wealthy, hoping that by completing the false dream will free his sons of the burden to finish it for him, allowing them to create their own dreams, and then follow them with the money that Willy leaves behind. According to Miller, it is this readiness to lay down his life to secure his dream that makes Willy a tragic yet heroic figure and one to whom, in Linda's words, ‘attention must be finally paid’.
In conclusion, I believe that due to the lack of reasons, Willy Loman cannot be seen as the hero of this play. Willy can be easily seen as the villain of this play, as he imparts the wrong values on his sons, and his affair with ‘the woman.’ Willy can even be seen as the victim in this play, as he is an average American, who has been victimised by the American dream, and capitalism. In my opinion, Willy Loman is the victim of this play. Arthur Miller wrote this play, so that people would appreciate those who have failed to achieve their dream in life. Willy Loman is indeed a “low man”, but nevertheless, ‘he is a human being and he deserves respect.’