Analysis of Willy Loman’s Views on Success in Contrast to My Views

The image of success is a broad definition that can differ greatly from person to person. In a school environment, a teacher may define success as having good grades and doing well in classes, while a student may define success as being attractive and having many friends. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the protagonist Willy Loman has a skewed and narrow-minded image of success. He defines it as deriving solely from being well-liked, being wealthy, and being attractive, while completely ignoring all the other reasons as to how one could become successful.

First, like Willy, I believe that being well-liked can definitely lead to success, especially if your job or career requires that quality. This applies especially to Willy because as a salesman, he needs to be charismatic in order to do well at his job. Willy even mentions the importance he grants to being well-liked when talking to his brother Ben about how he was bringing up his sons, Biff and Happy, to be “rugged” and “well-liked” so they could both be certainly successful. However, I disagree with Willy on his notion that being well-liked is all one needs to be successful, as well as his idea that success has nothing to do with hard work or smarts because it is simply not true. While it can be helpful to be well-liked in order to gain important contacts, it isn’t the only thing that should matter to a person seeking success, especially since hard work can play a huge part as well. In contrast, Willy believes that the only way to get ahead in life is to be well-liked and create “personal interest”, telling Biff and Happy that even if Bernard is getting the “best marks in school”, he won’t be as successful as them in the business world because he is simply “liked”, and not “well-liked” in the same way Biff and Happy are. Willy links success solely to popularity, which is a flaw that displays the contrast between my views on success compared to Willy’s; I believe that success is defined by hard work in combination with being well-liked, while Willy defines success as deriving solely from being well-liked.

Furthermore, Willy believes wealth and riches are the sole contributors to one’s success, causing him to completely ignore how important one’s happiness is to their success as well. For instance, the only sentence Willy always remembers his brother Ben saying is how rich he had become after walking out of the jungle, which shows how much importance Willy places on wealth as it is the quality he automatically gravitates towards whenever thinking about why Ben was successful. In contrast, my personal philosophy on success has nothing to do with wealth and everything to do with happiness. If one is truly happy in doing their job/career, they will most likely succeed at it, regardless of how much money they make from it. Being passionate about what you do is what leads to success, which is shown especially in Biff’s job situation. While he isn’t making much money by working at the ranch, he is happy and succeeds at doing it, explaining why he isn’t always throwing temper tantrums like his father. On the contrary, if one hates their job, they will most likely do poorly at it and feel unsuccessful, which could lead to extreme guilt and anger. This is shown in Willy’s situation, as he didn’t choose his job because he was happy with doing it, but instead chose it under the impression that he would become rich and consequently become successful. This shows the contrast between Willy’s personal definition of success and my own, in which he believes success derives solely from making money, while I believe that happiness plays a huge role in one’s success as well.

Finally, Willy’s belief that attractiveness will lead to guaranteed success contrasts with my personal definition of success. Thinking that success derives solely from being attractive is a shallow and narrow-minded viewpoint, which shows a clear definition of Willy’s character as he displays the importance he grants to attractiveness throughout the play. This is shown especially whenever Willy talks about his sons, often going as far as thanking Almighty God that Biff and Happy are “built like Adonises” and like other attractive Gods because, in his mind, this means that his sons are guaranteed to be successful. This is a flawed way of looking at success because one shouldn’t rely solely on their looks to get by in the world; success must be derived from other qualities as well, such as skills or talents, in order to live a truly accomplished life. At one point in the play, Willy even becomes confused as to how someone as attractive as Biff could feel so lost and unfulfilled in his life, displaying how strongly he believes that success derives solely from attractiveness, his refusal to believe anything else, as well as showing the contrast between Willy’s personal definition of success and my own.

In conclusion, Willy Loman’s image of success is skewed and narrow-minded to me, as he completely ignores many other reasons as to how one could become successful. Despite agreeing with his opinion that being well-liked can lead to success, he also defines success as deriving solely from being wealthy and attractive, while in contrast, I believe that success is defined not only by hard work, but by happiness as well.