Death of a Salesman's Willy Loman

The protagonist of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman commits suicide because of self-loathing and the feeling that he is worth more dead than alive. These feelings stem from Willy's failed career as a salesman, one that was successful for a while but never allowed him or his family to achieve economic security and what Willy believes is their rightful piece of the American Dream. As such, Willy kills himself because the American Dream in which he believed is an illusion he fails to achieve in reality.

Willy Loman is at the end of a long career as a traveling salesman. His company has taken away his salary and he now works solely on commission. His commissions are few and far between, even though he travels 700 miles to try to earn them. He is forced to borrow money from his friend and tells his wife that it is his pay. His wife knows he has been trying to kill himself and his depression stems from feelings of despair and low self-wroth engendered from his belief that not being economically successful equates to failure as a human being. She knows the forces of his mind an

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