Willy

Blog – What does Willy Loman think about the idea of ‘individual opportunity’? What does playwright Arthur Miller think? What evidence exposes each opinion?

Willy Loman thinks individual opportunity exists - but he does not personally know it very well. Willy has seen individual opportunity with his brother Ben and his next door neighbors, and even in his son Happy. Perhaps Willy thinks individual opportunity exists for everybody but him - he certainly doesn't take any initiative into making sure he is present when opportunity exists - it is all he can do to muster up the courage to tell his boss that he doesn't want to travel anymore - and he ends up getting fired instead. For Willy there is a combination of bad-timing, bad-luck, and unwillingness to take the initiative that prevents him from finding his individual opportunity. So he tries to kill himself. But once his suicide attempt fails he realizes through his manic depression that maybe he hasn't ever found his individual opportunity, but his sons can if they were given a message. So he kills himself the second time around, so his sons can receive the life insurance money and so that they can finally be free enough to chase their dreams.
Arthur Miller thinks that individual opportunity exists for some people. But Miller seems to be saying that not everybody finds it - which is not an overwhelming observation. It appears that Miller thinks some people find individual opportunity, and the ones who don't provide it. Perhaps the people who don't find opportunity fulfill their lack of success by being successful in helping others find it. Willy is just one example, and a rather extreme example too, but I think that Arthur Miller is saying we all become successful by finding opportunity or by providing it for other people.