Death of a Salesman - Essay

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Linda shows leniency and still believes “[They are] both good boys, [they should] just act like it” (134). Linda could have easily seen her sons’ behaviors as a reflection of her failed upbringing and given into her frustrations, however she accepts their mistakes and keeps trying to mend her family and patch them back together. Although Linda’s success differs a little from that of the male characters, her ability to surface above each wave of failure, rendering no change in her strive and ardor, makes her no less successful than others.

From a standard perception, success is viewed as someone doing well for themselves in terms of money as well as value. However, if one adheres to the more technical notion of success, it is the hustle to stay on your path despite the defeats and challenges they face. A fine portrayal of a balance of both of these ideologies is presented through the character Happy. Happy Loman has a fair paying job in an established institution, and works at a respectable designation. Although this makes him a successful man in terms of society’s expectations, what fundamentally makes Happy successful is his endeavor to come past his obstacles and be further than he stands today. The failures Happy faces are different than that of his brother; his failures are more personal. Happy is known to have a promiscuous personality and fails to find contentment with what he has. He expresses the acknowledgment of his failure by mentioning that despite “[His] own apartment, a car, and plenty of women … [he is still] lonely” (23). Happy realizes that what he is currently achieving is not satisfying him and he is failing his own expectations. Another failure Happy recognizes is when Willy Loman passes away and Happy realizes how he failed his father’s dream as a son. Instead of resigning to the guilt of not fulfilling his father’s dreams, Happy decides “.[He] is staying right in this city and [he is] gonna beat this racket” (requiem). Happy refuses to give into the mistakes he has made that caused him to fail his father’s ambitions and therefore even after his father’s death, he strives to carry on his father’s dream. Happy Loman emerged successful in the story due to his core habit of staying enthusiastic despite the failures that came to his path.

Through the attitudes of these various characters, a general speculation of success can be derived from this play. Success is determined not by material or wealth but by how one chooses to carry themselves through life. Those who give into their failures and do not resiliate from them, fail to achieve success despite their physical achievements. Yet those who do not achieve much in material yet keep countering their failures, are the ones who are truly deemed successful. As Winston Churchill says, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”