Charley, concerned about Willy, offers him a job, but Willy is insulted by the offer. Ben appears on the stage in a semi-daydream. He cuts a dignified, utterly confident figure. He alternates between conversing with Charley and his dead brother.
Willy gets angry when Charley wins a hand, so Charley takes his cards and leaves. He is disturbed that Willy is so disoriented that he talks to a dead brother as if he were present. Willy immerses himself in the memory of a visit from his brother. Ben left home to look for their father in Alaska but never found him.
Willy begs Ben to stay longer, but Ben hurries to catch his train. Just as the product that Willy sells is never specified, so too does The Woman, with whom Willy commits adultery, remain nameless. Willy recalls his Uncle Ben who became wealthy mining diamonds. Willy regrets not acting on the opportunity to go to Alaska when Ben offered it to him.
Charley comes over and plays cards with Willy. They talk about vitamins, car trouble, and a trip to California. Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy angrily refuses. He reveals his distress over Biff returning to Texas, along with his inability to assist Biff financially. Charley assures him that Biff will be fine. Willy ridicules Charley's inadequacy with tools.
Uncle Ben enters, but he is only visible and audible to Willy. He is not real; he is just another projection of Willy's memory. He is protagonist in a sense that this is his story and it revolves around different situations which coincidently become the reason for him being an antagonist. Forty dollars Howard. Miller is trying to show that t But Miller is putting emphasis on that The American Dream is nothing but an illusion.
It also is apparent that on reminiscing about a bad point Willy switches his thoughts to his happier and relaxed past, this is only however as he sees it and the audience get many impressions on whether it is the entire truth or not.
Miller is here presenting the relationship between Biff and Willy to be a complex relationship, which it appears, not even Willy himself understands.
How does Miller present Willy's two sons, Biff and Happy? What contradictions and questions are raised in the minds of the audience by this scene? Reality and Illusion in Death of a Salesman In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, the major theme as well as the main source of conflict is Willy's inability to distinguish between reality and illusion. Willy has created a fantasy world for himself and his family, a world in which he and his sons are great men who "have what it takes" to make it in the context of business and free enterprise.
In reality, none of them can achieve greatness until they confront and deal with this illusion. Willy's most prominent illusion is that success is dependant upon popularity and personal attractiveness. Willy builds his entire life around this idea and teaches it to his children. He is a man struggling to hold onto the little dignity he has left in a changing society.
While society may have caused some of his misfortune, Willy must be held responsible for his poor judgment, disloyalty and foolish pride. One of Willy's lifelong regrets is that he didn't go with his brother to Alaska. Unlike Willy, Ben was able to take a risk and stray from the world of fierce ambition and competition.
Willy interprets Ben's good fortune as undeniable proof that his dreams of making it big are realistic. Willy also associates Ben with knowledge and self-awareness, qualities that he himself is severely lacking. Willy always wants advice, and Ben gives it.
Of course, it's frequently not very good advice and is usually the product of Willy's own imagination. In his imagined conversations with his brother, Willy pries him for information about their father, about how he succeeded financially, and for advice about parenting Biff and Happy.
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