is very important during the play. Willy’s spirit wanes when he has nothing to look forward to, and when his spirit is down, he goes into a flashback. It is as though he is dying and his life is replaying before his eyes. For example, the morning when he is going to see Howard and Biff is going to see Oliver, Willy is invigorated and in the realms of sanity for the first time in the play. Once he gets fired, however, he goes into a tailspin, reliving incidents from the past until he reaches Charlie. The next scene is the restaurant, where he is expecting big news from Biff, he is sane and relatively Happy, waiting for the news that will fulfill his dream. Once Biff starts trying to explain his point of view to Willy, and break it to him gently, Willy realises that something is going wrong and starts another flashback. This time to the woman; he feels a lot of guilt about his affair and relives this event at this moment because he believes that it is the reason that Biff is unsuccessful. Willy gradually realizes that his selling career is washed up, and foolishly believes it is below his dignity to work any other job. In what he believes is the best interest of the family, he decides to commit suicide, so that his family may get the life insurance. He does not consider that his family loves him, but prefers to look at what is the best business move. He believes that this final solution will give the family a chance financially as well as recover lost dignity (when Biff sees the masses that are supposed to go to his funeral.) Willy says to Charlie: “Funny you know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive. ” This statement is a sad reflection on the state of mind that Willy is in due the unfortunate combination of his ideals and the change which has occurred in his society. Willy is a multi-faceted character which Miller has p...
