Lies Lies Lies

Biff. Willy. Linda. Happy. All have one thing in common. They are stuck not only in the past, but are surrounded by self-made illusions. Throughout the play, all seek to deal with the repercussions of such illusions on their selves and the rest of their family. In the play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the entire Loman family is prevented from moving forward in their lives and from gaining true success by their inability to escape the lies that keep them jailed in their past.

Each family member lives a different lie, but all for the same season: to comfort Willy’s state of near-insanity or to satisfy the expectances of Willy’s dream for them. Even Willy cannot gain success because of his overpowering dedication to the “American Dream” and his incapacity to accept Biff’s personal failures and his associated guilt in such failures. Willy travels between present and past, fighting against reality in favor of a Biff’s past football stardom and the hope associated with his success. He is unable to move on and therefore unable to attain success or happiness in his life. His miserable state transcends upon the rest of his family and leaves them unable to achieve happiness in their life, no matter the method they choose to pursue it. Happy and Linda everything in their power to satisfy Willy and at least provide some comforts to their internally-ailing father and husband.

Biff, however, heads west to escape the grasp of his father and start his own life on his own terms. The overbearing shadow of his father follows him and though he loves his work on the farm, he is never satisfied due to conflicting definition of success. The Loman family does not link success with happiness; success is rather a measure of wealth and prominence within society, neither of which Biff gains. Because he cannot satisfy his father’s expectations, he continually evades happiness and returns to the family home of similar discontent. He cannot escape his father’s web of lies and continues on the same path of stealing, discontent and a life revolved around satisfying another instead of his own needs. Only when he realizes and accepts the eternal life of lies he had lived in since adolescence can Biff move on to a life of success based on happiness and satisfaction with his job rather than the “traditional” wealth and fame. Happy, on the other, is unable to see the lies and instead devotes his life after his father’s death to “show everybody that Willy Loman did not die in vain,” and to prove “he had a good dream…the only dream you can have to come out number-one man.” His narrow-mindedness and constant need to live for his ungrateful father leave him without any chance to gain happiness; he will forever be stuck in his unhappy life of superficiality.

All of the Loman family’s failings teach us the age old lesson: “the truth will set you free.” Only after Biff accepts the true commonality of his existence is he free to start anew and live his own life. Happy, however, is forever barred from such a life by the web of lies he refuses to give up. (535)