Willy's Belief About Opportunity and Success

Willy believes being well-liked and personally attractive is the key to individual opportunity and success. He thinks one must not just be liked, but be well-liked or liked by many people, to be successful. Willy does not believe education gives one an opportunity, but “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want” (33). He formed this philosophy about life from watching Singleman, a salesman he used to know. Willy believed this salesman was successful because of his attractive personality, not because he was selling a good product. The only thing the salesman had to do was pick up a phone and his clients would eagerly buy his products since they liked him. Willy was impressed and believed Singleton must have been successful as so many people came to his funeral. Willy tries to model himself after Singleman, but because of his wrong perspective, he is not able to achieve his wish. He dies with this false dream and no one comes to his funeral.

In the end, Willy realizes how wrong his dream is. He is not well-liked as he has been fired. Willy admits his life is “ringing up a zero” (126). His sons, whom he has taught to think that being well-liked will make you succeed, are failures. Happy, who has been in Biff’s shadow all his life, has not amounted to much as he is the assistant to the assistant at his job. He ultimately rejects his father. Biff does not have a steady job and he hops from one job to the next. He tells his dad, “I stole myself out of every good job since high school!” (131) Biff realizes he, like Willy, are “a dime a dozen.” Now, Willy’s last hope in life is gone as he realizes that Biff, his favorite son, does not believe he, Biff, will be successful. Willy commits suicide so the insurance policy will give Biff twenty thousand dollars.