Miller, Death of a Salesman

Willy really was a sad man. All his life he tried to make it, and life just never worked out the way he wanted it to. The quote I pulled is at the very end. Willy is saying to Biff “I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!” (513). Throughout his entire life, Willy actually believed that he was born for greatness, and that may have been his downfall. He worked so hard his entire life just to prove that he was as great as he thought he should be, but even that never happened. He just ended up being some old man to the people around him. Everyone but Linda that is. I don’t think she helped stop the fire that was Willy’s mind. She didn’t even move the hose when she realized Willy was thinking about killing himself. With Biff, Willy was also convinced he was something greater, which is what Biff says ruined him for life. He became a bit spoiled, I suppose. And people like that tend to have a harder life if not already rich, which we all know Biff wasn’t. So what I’m basically saying is that Willy believed too much in their own inherent worth, and needed to realize that no one is special just because they exist.

via Miller, Death of a Salesman.