The Cost of Deception

by bettworld.com

In Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman,” we learn how dangerous deception is.  Every day each of us tell little lies to ourselves and to others. When we deceive ourselves, we begin to lose sight of reality. We can learn this lesson from Willy Loman, the main character in “Death of a Salesman.” Willy Loman’s deception is two-fold. He deceives himself into thinking he is something he is not. He becomes a failure and must deceive himself and others into believing he is a success. Willy hurts his family by this deception, and it finally causes his demise.

To understand the nature of Willy Loman’s deception, we must first understand him. Willy is split by two desires. The first springs from his true nature. He loves building things with his own hands. He often boasts about working on his house. “Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living- room?”(1.4) If Willy had not fallen into the trap of his second desire, he would be very happy living in the country working with his hands. 

The second is his desire to be “well liked”. Willy falls into what was spoken of in the Bible, "the fear of man will prove to be a snare" (Proverbs 29:25).  He is consumed with fear of what other people think of him. He spends all of his time trying to be well liked. He believes that as a salesman he will be well liked and that at his funeral there will be hundreds of people who loved him. He calls this well attended funeral “the death of a salesman.”

Willy hurt his sons by raising them to believe that success in life means being well liked. During their childhood he repeatedly ground it into them. “Be liked and you will never want.”(1.3) He often lied to them or exaggerated his success in sales, leading them to believe that things were as rosy as he painted them. Willy encourages deceitfulness in his oldest son Biff by telling him to cheat on tests and steal things.  He tells his boys that they do not need to be smart, only physically and socially impressive.

Biff reminds Willy of the affair that he caught his father in, which reminds Willy that he is a failure as a husband.  Finding out his father is unfaithful destroys Biff’s high view of Willy. Biff lost all respect for Willy and says, “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!.”(2.7) For the first time Biff sees reality. After that day, Biff drifts about the country taking odd jobs and stealing from the employers. Willy cannot accept that Biff found out about the affair, for it made the adultery real to him forcing him to see himself as the unfaithful man he is. He also cannot accept that he is responsible for causing Biff to become “unsuccessful.”

Linda, Willy’s wife, recognizes reality, but she has to maintain Willy’s fantasies of success. When Linda and Willy talk, she agrees with whatever he says, only sometimes correcting him when his illusions are too large. Willy contradicts himself since he must avoid reality at all cost. “I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston ... Well, no -- it came to -- roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip.” (1.3) When he notices that things are not as good as he’d like, he starts tearing himself up. Linda then has to build him up again. Since she loves him, Linda must protect him from reality. Linda did so by getting Biff to either settle down by becoming a business success, or by leaving town so that Willy can forget about him.  She finally convinces Biff to stay and try to get a job by confessing to him that Willy is planning on committing suicide.

Biff realizes that he wants to work with his hands after he tries and fails at getting a sales job. He decides he needs to tell his father what kind of men they both are. Willy and Biff have a final fight between the reality that Biff recognizes and the dream world that Willy refuses to leave. Linda, Willy’s wife, and Happy, Willy’s younger son, fight against Biff to try to let Willy remain in his dream world.  The scene is very powerful, it almost seems that Willy has finally awakened to the fact that he is “a dime a dozen.” He tells Willy that being liked doesn’t matter since they both want to work with his hands. They do not want to work in the business world, but to work out in the sun. Willy cannot let the dream of the “death of a salesman” go. While hugging Willy and crying Biff says to his father, "Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?"(2.8) Willy then goes back into his delusion and he says, “Loves me. Always loved me. Isn't that a remarkable thing?”(2.8)

Willy’s decides to kill himself for the insurance money in a final attempt at gaining the love of everyone. He thinks that his funeral would be packed with people who recognize him as a business genius. His only worry was that Biff would despise him for it, but now he thinks that he has secured Biff’s love and decides to go through with his plan. Willy thinks of how successful Biff will be with all the insurance money; Willy kills himself by driving his car into a wall.

In the requiem, only five people grieve for the lost man who “did not know himself” and had “the wrong dreams.” (2.9) Willy Loman’s deception cost him his life. It left a confused and lost widow behind. It left Happy on the way to be as deceived as Willy; and, Biff without a father just as Willy had been left without a father.

Willy Loman’s does not see himself in reality. He has an illusion of what he should be. He fails at doing a job for which he was not suited. His failure causes him to go to great lengths to deceive those around him. This deception leads him to believe that he must die in order to achieve his goal.