Individuals explore their responses to internal and external conflict conditions through literature. Delving deeper into a character allows the reader to better understand that character's internal and external conflicts. Arthur Miller uses this technique in many of his plays, including Death of a Salesman. Miller portrays the character of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman through his internal and external conflicts. The internal conflict begins with Willy's expectations of his children and the woman. Willy struggles throughout the play with extremely high expectations for his sons, Happy and Biff. Happy and Willy get along because they are the most similar of the two children. Happy has the same materialistic mentality as Willy. Miller shows this when Happy and Biff discuss having the apartment to themselves. Happy tells Biff: I bet he'd support you. Because he thought highly of you, I mean, everyone does. You are much appreciated, Biff. That's why I say come back here and we'll both get the apartment. And I tell you, Biff, any girl you want… (Miller 29) Willy and Happy are very similar people. However Biff disagrees with the way Willy and Happy handle situations, which results in several conflicts between Biff and Willy throughout much of the show. Willy describes Biff as lost by saying, “Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such personal attractiveness is lost” (Miller 16). Even though Willy believes that Biff is the lost one, in reality Willy is lost for much of the play (Eisinger 2). Willy doesn't really know himself. Willy is always putting on a show for others and is not himself, which portrays the feeling of being lost within himself. Even Miller... middle of paper..., following his external conflict. Like countless characters in a play, Willy struggles to discover who he is. Willy's expectations for his children and The Woman become too high to handle. Under the pressure to succeed in business, the appearance of things is always more important than reality, including Willy's death. Internal and external conflicts help develop the character Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Works Cited Eisinger, Chester E. "Critical Readings: Focus on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: The Wrong Dreams." Critical Insights: Death of a Salesman (2010): 93-105. Kellman, Steven. Magill's Survey of American Literature: Volume 4. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc., 2007. Miller, Arthur. The death of a salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1975. Trudeau, Lawrence. Dramatic Criticism Volume 1. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1991.