The idea that "personality wins the day" is a flaw in Willy's logic because hard work and dedication are what determines success. Charley and Bernard, who have success but not personality, prove Willy's theory to be wrong. .
Bif's failure to succeed confuses and aggravates Willy. He cannot accept the fact that he is partially responsible for his failures. He does not acknowledge that Bif was never taught the ethics of hard work and the correlation of that to success. Even as a kid, he encouraged him to cheat to get ahead by letting Bernard take his tests for him, and also allow him to get away with stealing. What began as balls as a young boy, then escalated to a fountain pen as an adult. This symbolizes Willy's strategy for success, he doesn't believe in working one's way up the ladder, but to do anything you can to get ahead. This is typically how the business world, or "rat race" operates and the reader can feel Miller's contempt for this. .
Willy believes in the American dream of fame and fortune. He feels to achieve this, the individual must be "well liked" and self confident and he is obsessed with this idea. He has bought into his own sales pitch to the point that he has lost a sense of reality and believes his clients are also his friends. Their indifference to his sales pitch affects him even more because he takes it personally. He regards being "well liked" as a measure of success, and realizes that he is not it both a personal and professional failure.
Even after this realization. Willy still believes this is the "greatest country in the world" and in effect he still believes in the dream. Therefore, Willy regards the failure to succeed as the result of personal flaws, rather than a flaw in the American Dream itself. .
Even though this play is most definitely at tragedy, there is a window of opportunity for optimism and I don't believe that Arthur Miller has given up on the American Dream either.
