Willy’s hope is the kind that is worn around on sneakers getting dust all over it. Bernard can deal with a bit of intangibleness today because he knows he’s working hard for what he can get and touch tomorrow. That’s why Willy turns to adultery when his hope doesn’t get any closer: he needs tangibility. It’s just a possibility sitting in some indefinite future. Biff’s hope, like his fathers, was a distraction – Willy’s hope is the centerpiece: it leads to dreams and big talk and all kinds of exciting feelings. That’s why he didn’t flunk math and Biff did. It’s like his background motivator that accelerates him towards his goal. He hopes for a great future, but the way he uses his hope shoves it outside the spotlight.

He fully knows about the future and thinks about it: that’s why he’s so motivated to work in the now. Is Bernard truly without hope? I think not. Bernard’s apparent lack of hope allows him to work towards the ideal future. Hope: good or bad? Willy’s hope in a future distracts him. He talks about the future and revels in it, but Bernard seems to be too washed up in the cares of now to actually think about the future. Willy possesses more obvious hope than Bernard. Moreover, he knows when those around them are slipping and losing that precious grasp that can give them the hope of a future. He knows when to buckle down and focus on the task at hand so that he can build the future he wants. However, he is optimistic to the point that he forgets that there might be work and focus needed, even though he is more than willing to perform.īernard has a dream and he sees the importance of working towards it. His vision of a brighter future is what motivates him and compels him to action. He desires great things for himself and his family. Willy Lowman would do anything he could to get the future he wants. Specifically, in “Death of a Salesman,” we see almost all of the characters with some sort of idea of the future, a brighter future.

The one common ground I can draw from all these views of hope is a certain vision of the future. Hope can be a dream, it can be the promise of improvement, or even something akin to trust. It can be a sense of optimism, well grounded or blind. What is hope? It can be a longing, a desire. But no matter what the scale, hope is something peculiar that all people have in common. We all hope in something, don’t we? Or at least we all have some sort of hope FOR something, even if it’s as basic as our next meal.

The death of a salesman characters