There
are many parallels between Author Miller and some of the characters in the play
“Death of the Salesman”, specifically Willy and happy. Miller did not live a
very glamorous life at first. His family lost everything in the great
depression and from that he acquired a hard working attitude. Miller was consistently
faced with failure, but his perseverance was what led him to success. He was
rejected from the same college twice and that led to many downfalls in his
life. After he finally graduated, he got a job as a playwright for a radio
station. He was later laid off and had to go on welfare to support himself. In
1944 it seemed that he was finally seeing his dreams comes true when one of his
plays was performed on Broadway. Unfortunately, it closed early and left Miller
devastated with yet another disappointment. He did not let this get him down. Three
years later a different play of his won a Tony. Even though Willy Loman did not
end up achieving the same amount of success as Miller, his determination was
evident. After years of continuing to face challenges in his life and career as
a salesman, Willy was not ready to give up. He fought for another chance to
prove himself.
Happy
Loman parallels a different side of Miller. He shows more of the womanizer and ladies’
man side. Happy is portrayed as arrogant and all about the ladies. He tells
Biff, “I get that any time I want Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted. The only
thing is, it gets like bowling or something. I just keep knocking them over and
it doesn’t mean anything” (32). Happy says while talking about women. Happy is
wondering about getting a steady girlfriend and getting married, be he can’t
seem to do this. He does not respect women enough to stop sleeping around to
reach his goal. Miller relates to this because he was kind of a player as well.
He went through three different divorces due to dissatisfaction and boredom
with his wives. He even married Marilyn Monroe, but that marriage only lasted
five years. A little over a year after their divorce, Miller had already moved
on to another relationship.
