WILLY: Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don’t breathe it to a soul. Someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll never have to leave home any more.
HAPPY: Like Uncle Charley, heh?
WILLY: Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not – liked. He’s liked, but he’s not – well liked.
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. In a scene from the past, Willy proudly tells his sons how he is going to live out the American dream by being a successful business owner. But he is just deluding himself in this first flashback in the play, never amounting to anything more than a struggling salesman. He also reveals his belief that being well liked is the key to success, which his neighbor Charley is not, he claims. However, the irony is that Charley becomes the successful business and Willy does not.