blindness and self delusion

• it's so beautiful up there, linda. the trees are so thick and the sun is warm'


  willy(5) self-delusion, trying to escape the city, never truly made it out of the city
• i'm the new england man. i'm vital in new england'


  willy(5) deluding himself and trying to convince linda of his importance, trying to avoid moving to a closer branch
• in the greatest country in the world a young man with such- personal attractiveness gets lost. and such a hard worker'


  willy(7) about biff, deludes himself by believing they're the only characteristics necessary to succeed
• i'll get him a job selling. he could be big in no time'


  willy(8) about biff, thinks that he biff's attractiveness is only thing necessary to get him a good job, only desire is financial success
• you take me, for instance. i never have to wait in line to see a buyer. "willy loman is here!" that's all they have to know, and i go right through'


  willy(23) mobile concurrence, shows how much he relies on self-deception to bolster own self-esteem, convincing himself and his sons
• i'm tellin' you, i was sellin' thousands and thousands, but i had to come home' reduced to 'seventy dollars and some pennies'


  willy(24) living in a falsified world, slowly reducing himself to the truth as can't lie to linda
• oh, i'll knock 'em dead next week. i'll go to hartford. i'm very well liked in hartford. you know, the trouble is, linda, people don't seem to take to me'


  willy(26) self delusion vs the truth of how being well-liked isn't everything, can't seem to realise this
• why is he stealing? what did i tell him? i never in my life told him anything but decent things'


  willy(30) deludes himself into believing he has authority over biff and he was a good father who taught his children the correct morals
• ...was rich! that's just the spirit i want to imbue with them! to walk into the jungle! i was right! i was right! i was right!'


  willy(41), shows being like ben is his dream for his sons, imbued the same values in him as his father did w/ him and ben, believes that's what made ben successful
• call out the name willy loman and see what happens! big shot!'


  willy(50) still holds onto belief he's worth something, name imagery reveals his failure (no one really knows his name)
• god... remember that ebbets field game? the championship of the city?'


  willy(55) delusion, memories clouded by his desire to be well known, and for his sons to succeed, exaggerates biff's past success at ebbets field
• you were his friend, his boyhood friend. there's something i don't understand about it. his life ended after that ebbets field game'


  willy(76) talking to bernard about biff, doesn't realise own hand in biff's failed life, shows how much value willy puts in financial and job related success, doesn't realise biff is content working on farms
• why? why? bernard, that question has haunted me like a ghost for fifteen years. he flunked the subject, and laid down like a hammer hit him!'


  willy(77) doesn't see that he was the reason biff gave up, that his role model ended up being a pathetic old man who lied to his family just to get some recognition since he couldn't get it at work, thinks biff is a failure since he doesn't fit willy's model for him
• bernard, bernard, was it my fault? y'see? it keeps going round in my mind, maybe i did something to him. i got nothing to give him'


  willy(77) deluded himself, forgot what happened w/ biff and the woman, still yet to realise biff doesn't want material things, wants linda to be treated well and for willy to apologise(?)
• i always felt that if a man was impressive, and well-liked, that nothing-'


  willy(81) explains his flawed ideals, doesn't realise that his thinking has brought him so much pain in form of his own and biff's failure
• i am not a dime a dozen! I am willy loman, and you are biff loman!'


  willy(114) biff has just said they are but he refuses to believe it, puts all self worth into being better than others, can't accept he's average, ruin his life as everything he believes would be false, trying to find value in family name
• that boy, that boy is going to be magnificent!'


  willy(115) yet to come to realisation of biff's failure, reverts to past of when biff had a seemingly bright future