The standards of success and prosperity for the protagonists of Death of a Salesman and Wall Street are inflated by the media, celebrities, and their family lives. In the face of his brother’s triumph in Alaska, Willy struggles to achieve the same level of unrealistic, exaggerated success as a mere salesman in Death of a Salesman. Similarly, by working under the exaggeratedly cutthroat Gordon Gekko, Bud Fox seeks a hollow life of luxury, stolen through cheating. Both Willy and Bud try to succeed with exaggerated and unrealistic goals due to the pressure presented to them through external forces such as their mentors, society, their families, and the workplace. The pressure that Bud and Willy’s mentors place on them causes them to exaggerate their goals to unrealistic levels. As a result, Willy’s lucidity spirals into a deep depression that leaves him in a delusional mentality that refuses to let him face the reality of his present situation while Bud’s sanity becomes overcome by his hunger for power that is fed by his ego and arrogance.
Ben Loman is the foil to Willy Loman’s character. He is wealthy, bold, and a ruthless business man. He is the epitome of a success story and living the American Dream. Ben is one of the fortunate few who found incredible success without much work, something which Willy recognizes and wants. Willy Loman believes that like his brother, he too can rise from humble beginnings to importance. His specific angle on this outlook is that a man succeeds by selling his charm; that to be well liked is the most important aspect a man can have. After working as a salesman for thirty long years, Willy finds he can no longer make the sale and his dream is left unfulfilled. He discovers that charisma is no longer a business hook, proven through his interactions with his younger boss Howard. Business has become something mechanic, impersonal, and cold, something Willy is unfamiliar with. Willy is familiar however with failure, and refuses to accept that he’s finished in the workplace.
Willy’s delusional framework of mind is extended to his sons as well. With Willy’s influence, the appropriately named Happy continues to believe in Willy’s philosophy and is determined that the Loman name will succeed, regardless of witnessing his father’s downfall. Biff, on the other hand, realizes that these values his father placed on success were not applicable and admits he is not too concerned if he doesn’t come out on top. He just wants to be able to “say he knows who [he] is” (Miller, 143). This shows that external forces can have a lot of power over one’s outlook on life and for all of these men, that power influenced their perception of success and either lead them to a path of delusional hope or enlightenment. Another example of Willy’s delusions is the way in which Willy led Biff to believe that he has a salesman for Oliver, which in the end left Biff bitterly disappointed. The cause for this extrapolation of the truth may be part of Willy’s fearful psyche that he has not raised his children right. Happy says of Willy: “He’s never so happy as when he’s looking forward to something” (Miller, 76). Willy’s spirit wanes when he has nothing to look forward to, and when his spirit is down, he goes into a flashback. It is as though he is dying and his life is replaying before his eyes. For example, the morning when he is going to see Howard and Biff is going to see Oliver, Willy is refreshed and in the realms of sanity for the first time in the play. Once he gets fired, however, he goes into a tailspin, reliving incidents from the past. The next scene is the restaurant, where he is expecting big news from Biff, he is sane and relatively happy, waiting for the news that will fulfill his dreams. Once Biff starts trying to explain his point of view to Willy, and break it to him gently, Willy realizes that something is going wrong and starts another flashback. This time to the woman; he feels a lot of guilt about his affair and relives this event at this moment because he believes that it is the reason that Biff is unsuccessful. In a final act of insanity, Willy firmly denies the truth and ends up committing suicide. Gordon Gekko is a corporate raider; essentially he buys up underperforming companies, breaks them up, and sells their parts at a hefty profit. What drives him? It is greed, pure and simple. In one scene, Gekko appears at the annual shareholders’ meeting and delivers the famous quote: “Greed, for the lack of a better word, is good” (Wall Street, 1987). According to Gekko, the greed of the American capitalist system drives innovation and creates wealth. Bud Fox is young and very naive about the business world. He is a typical broker seeking new clients and offering second-hand advice regarding the buying and selling of stock. "Just once I'd like to be on that side," (Wall Street, 1987) he says, dreaming of the day when he will be a corporate big shot controlling the flow of millions of dollars, like his hero, Gordon Gekko. Once Gekko opens his arms to Bud, Bud then gives up his moral values in exchange for power and prosperity.
In the film, success is defined as attractive girls, fast cars, expensive art, and nice pools. This portrayal of American success has been promoted through the media and society, regardless of Bud’s honest upbringing by his father. This suggestion of power makes one question whether success can be defined and when one can call them successful. For Gekko he never seems to have enough money or enough power. As Gekko strives for more and more and more, Bud eventually realizes the lines he has crossed and that he is not truly successful, but a thief. Bud then decides to face reality and turn himself into the authorities, as well as bring the man he once admired down with him. Through the play Death of a Salesman and the film Wall Street, audiences are given a portrayal of the downfall of man and how one must face the reality that is given to them. By ignoring reality, it is shown through Willy and Bud that true happiness becomes impossible and that exaggerated goals can twist their own sanity. By trying to live up to his brother’s successes, Willy finds he cannot attain the same level of fortune and becomes determined to ignore that fact until both the truth and his delusions begin to blur together. Bud becomes enamored with a lifestyle of the rich and powerful and allows his egotism and arrogance to help him up the totem pole even though it is through corrupt means. Both Willy Loman and Bud Fox seek superiority and a lifestyle that is not theirs, but Ben’s and Gekko’s. By living under the delusion that they could achieve the same levels of power, both protagonists’ sanities are tested and eventually strained. External forces influence the way Willy and Bud perceived themselves and the world around them by painting a picture of the perfect life and made it seem possible. In the end, however, success didn’t afford Willy or Bud true happiness.