Willy vs. Miller

Willy Loman believes that individual opportunity is there for the taking, as long as you are willing to go after what you want. A salesman gets by on simply being liked, on knowing people. Without practical skills, he can make a living just on his appearance and personality. That Willy pursues this shows how much he believes in the dream of individual opportunity, that he can support his family just on his appeal. His conversations with Ben also represent how easy he believes it is to succeed. Ben goes into the jungle and comes out rich four years later. Willy believes he passed up this opportunity willingly for his boys, but knows that he could have been rich and believes his boys will become rich in time. Arthur Miller, on the other hand, believes individual opportunity is not ubiquitous. If one works hard and stays educated, success may come, but very few can survive as salesmen. This is shown by Bernard's success, because an intelligent, hardworking boy succeeds where Biff, a lazy Adonis, fails. Miller kills the salesman myth when his character Willy Loman commits suicide after failing to get by just on his appeal.