aveling salesman. If Willy cannot drive, traveling would have to stop.Willy values intangible characteristics, such as personality and appearance over actual achievements and talent. He believes that if a person is attractive and popular, the entire world opens up to them, guaranteeing success and answering the American Dream. Willy Loman is a man whose dreams exceed his limited ability. He is idealized by his sons, Biff and Happy, but has an affair with Miss Francis in Boston. This demonstrates that Willy is not worthy of such admiration. Through flashbacks, Miller contrasts that when Willy is on the road he acts like a womanizer, but when he is at home, Willy is dedicated to his wife, Linda, and his family. Willy did struggle against self-knowledge-trying to know what he was; but he had always a superb consciousness of his own individual strength as a who (Sister 409).Willy Loman represents the primary target of his dream. Like most middle-class workingmen, he struggles to provide financial security for his family and his dream about making himself a financial success. He dislikes that Linda mends her silk stockings because it shows that Willy cannot provide financially for his family. Willy has to borrow money from Charley, his neighbor and brother-in-law, but refuses to work for him. He would rather die than work for a man that he considers inferior.Willy feels that he has failed compared to Ben or Charley, and he deems himself inadequate. Willy attributes success to luck or immorality and cannot see merits of hard work and discipline, like Charley and his son, Bernard.Willy Loman seems to epitomize the victim of modern technology (Brucher 83). In the second act, Arthur Miller uses Howard Wagner, Willys boss, as a symbol of progress and modernization, and contrasts it with Willys outdated notions of business. Howards office emphasizes technological innovations, such as the recording machine. Willy, on the other hand, i...
