Happy Loman Quotes

I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him.

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. Happy is determined to follow in his late father’s footsteps of self-deception and make-believe. He declares himself to be the inheritor of Willy’s flawed American Dream, and is fully invested in it. He vows to achieve what their father set out to do but failed: make his fortune by being the number-one salesman. Happy is reacting angrily to brother Biff’s claim that Willy never knew who he was and had the wrong dreams. He strongly defends his father’s dream and his struggle for it to succeed. Speaking at Willy’s graveside, Happy sees Willy as a kind of hero.

I’m not licked that easily. I’m staying right in this city, and I’m gonna beat this racket! (He looks at Biff, his chin set.) The Loman Brothers!

– Arthur Miller

Death of a Salesman, Requiem. After Willy Loman’s suicide, Biff invites Happy to travel with him to the West to find a job. But Happy is a clone of his father and suffers from the same self-delusions. He vows to remain in New York, believing he can make his father’s unachievable American Dream a reality for him. He will "beat this racket" and make his fortune as a successful businessman. While the "Loman Brothers" sporting goods business dream died when Biff couldn’t get a loan from Bill Oliver, Happy still believes he can make it big in business. Like his father, he is simply deceiving himself, suffering from the same over-confidence and tendency to avoid reality.
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