In the play Death of a Salesman the author Arthur Miller often uses repetition of words, phrases, structual features, and ideas. The reason he does is so is to promote the meaning and tone of the play to the reader. In the following essay I will use three such examples of repetition and discuss their pattern and the affect it has on the reader. All of these examples will be focused on Willy, because he is the main character and is devilerer of Miller's theme and meaning of the play.
             A recuring pattern in the play is Willy and his children's constant need to be to be "well-liked." When Biff plans to ask Oliver for a job, his brother Happy encoruages him telling him he is "well-liked." Willy, lost in his memories, flashes back to when Biff and Happy were younger, recalling his aspiration to form his own business. He tells his children that his business will bigger than their uncle's because Willy believes he is more "well-liked." Later Willy and his two boys hold a coversation about Bernard and come to the conclusion that Biff will do in better in life than him because Biff is "well-liked." Willy is unable to see that being well-liked does not mean that you will be successful. He is also unable to distinguish between love and being "well-liked." Linda loves him and if hewould look at himself through her eyes, the eyes that have seen him fail many times, then he would be able to acknownlegde his flaws. But instead he feels that he must convince his family th!
             at nothing is his fault, that the cards dealt to him are unplayable, and that because he is well-liked things are bound to turn around. This reality versus illusion problem brings about Willy's downfall.
             Willy is always discussing the idea of planting a garden, in Act I on page 17 he says, "The grass don't grow anymore, you can't raise a carrot in the backyard." Willy, like the Garden, cannot produce, and is contantly failing. By the end of the play, one of the last things he d...