Death Of A Salesman
 
by Arthur Miller
 
In the beginning of the play, the main character, Willy
Loman, has just returned home after finding himself unable
to concentrate on driving. His wife, Linda, suggests that
he ask for a job in New York so that he won't have to drive
so much. Willy insists, however, that it is vital to his
company that he work in New England. Willy asks Linda about
his son, Biff, who has just come home after being away for
several years. He can't understand why Biff is unable to
get a good job. Soon Willy begins thinking about when Biff
was a senior in high school. He remembers how Biff was the
star of the football team and how he was offered
scholarships from several colleges. After Willy's daydream
ends, Charley comes in to play cards with him. While they
are playing cards Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy
refuses. As they are talking, Willy's brother, Ben, appears
to him in an illusion. Willy tries to talk to both of them
at once and Charley can't understand. Willy and Charley get
into an argument and Charley leaves. Willy then turns his
attention to Ben and asks him how he became so successful.
Ben tells Willy that he went into the jungle when he was
seventeen and when he came out at twenty-one he was rich.
 
After Biff overhears Willy talking to himself, he asks
Linda what's wrong with him. Linda explains that Willy is
exhausted and has even tried to kill himself. When Willy
enters the scene, Happy tries to cheer him up by announcing
that he and Biff are going to start their own sporting
goods company. He tells Willy that Biff is going to see
Bill Oliver in the morning and ask for a loan. Willy is
optimistic and reminds Biff that the most important things
in life are to be well-liked and to have personal
attractiveness. 

The next day Willy decides to ask his boss, Howard, if he
can have a job in New York. Howard explains that there is
no room for him in New York, and then tells Willy that he
no longer wants him to represent the company. Now that
Willy has no job, he must ask Charley for the money to pay
his insurance premium. When Charley finds out that Willy
has been fired, he offers him a good job in New York, but
Willy refuses. Charley gives Willy the money and then Willy
leaves to meet Biff and Happy at a restaurant.
 
When Willy arrives at the restaurant, Biff tries to explain
to him that he has been living an illusion and will never
amount to anything extraordinary. Willy refuses to listen
to him and pretends that Biff has another appointment for
the next day. When Biff tries to make Willy face the truth,
Willy becomes furious and goes off to the bathroom. Biff
and Happy then leave the restaurant. 

While Willy is in the bathroom, he goes into another
illusion. He finds himself in a hotel room with a woman.
She is telling him how much she loves his sense of humor.
Then knocking is heard at the door, and at first Willy
refuses to answer it. As the knocking continues, Willy
tells the woman to wait in the bathroom. He opens the door
and finds Biff there. Biff tells Willy that he has flunked
math and asks that Willy talk to his math teacher about it.
Biff explains that his teacher doesn't like him because he
once caught Biff imitating him in class. Biff shows Willy
the imitation and they both start laughing. The woman hears
them laughing and comes out of the bathroom. Willy hurries
her out of the room, but not before the woman demands the
stockings that Willy promised her. Willy tries to explain
the situation, but Biff won't listen. He accuses Willy of
giving away Linda's stockings and calls him a liar and a
fake. Willy is then brought out of his illusion by the
waiter at the restaurant. Willy asks if there is a seed
store in the neighborhood and then leaves.
 
Later that night Biff and Happy come home and find Willy
planting seeds in the back yard. Biff tells Willy that it
would be best if they didn't see each other again. He tries
to explain that he is only a common man and will never live
up to Willy's expectations, but Willy refuses to listen.
Willy decided that he will commit suicide because he
believes that with the 20,000 dollars of life insurance
money Biff will finally be able to make something of
himself. At his funeral, we see that Willy died a forgotten
man because no one except his family came.
 
The main conflict in Death of a Salesman deals with the
confusion and frustration of Willy Loman. These feelings
are caused by his inability to face the realities of modern
society. Willy's most prominent delusion is that success is
dependant upon being well-liked and having personal
attractiveness. Willy builds his entire life around this
idea and teaches it to his children. When Willy was young,
he had met a man named Dave Singleman who was so well-liked
that he was able to make a living simply by staying in his
hotel room and telephoning buyers. When Dave Singleman
died, buyers and salesmen from all over the country came to
his funeral. This is what Willy has been trying to emulate
his entire life. 

Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often
makes up lies about his popularity and success. At times,
Willy even believes these lies himself. At one point in the
play, Willy tells his family of how well-liked he is in all
of his towns and how vital he is to New England. Later,
however, he tells Linda that no one remembers him and that
the people laugh at him behind his back. As this
demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes
him to become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for
example, is trying to explain why he cannot become
successful, Willy believes that Biff is just trying to
spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that his
values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the
play, "he had the wrong dreams."
 
In many ways Biff is similar to his father. In the
beginning of the play we see that Biff shares many of the
same ideas as Willy. He values being well-liked above
everything else and sees little value in being smart or
honest. One of Biff's main flaws is his tendency to steal.
Early in the play we learn that he has stolen a football
from the school locker. When Willy finds out about this,
instead of disciplining Biff, he says that the coach will
probably congratulate him on his initiative. We also learn
that Biff once stole a box of basketballs from Bill Oliver.
This foreshadows the scene in which Biff steals Bill
Oliver's fountain pen after trying to get a loan for his
sporting goods business. 

The climactic scene in Biff's life comes when he finds a
woman in Willy's hotel room. This causes Biff to realize
that Willy is a fake. Biff's tragedy is that he has
accepted Willy's values all his life, and now that he finds
out they are false, he has no values of his own to rely
upon. Thus, Biff becomes lost and must set out to find his
own values. 

Once Biff begins to develop his own beliefs, his opinions
about his father change. Instead of viewing his father as a
fake, Biff comes to realize that his father had some good
qualities, but was simply misguided by inadequate values.
 
Happy is the younger of the two Lowman brothers and thus is
often overshadowed by Biff. Because of this, Happy is
constantly trying to get attention from Willy. In one of
the flashbacks Happy continually says, "I'm losing weight,
you notice, Pop?" This is an attempt by Happy to get
recognition from Willy. When in the present, Happy tries to
get recognition by announcing that he is getting married.
In both instances, however, Happy's remarks are dismissed
as unimportant. Thus it is no surprise when Happy leaves
Willy alone in the restaurant. It is merely in retaliation
for his own rejection.
 
Another characteristic of Happy is his refusal to recognize
reality. When Biff, Happy, and Willy are in the restaurant,
Happy tries to prevent Willy from learning that Biff did
not get the loan. While Biff is trying to explain that he
never actually worked as a salesman for Oliver, Happy is
continually reassuring Willy that the interview went well.
Another example occurs at the end of the play when Happy
insists that Willy "did not die in vain. He had a good
dream."
 
The main theme in Death of a Salesman is illusion versus
reality. Willy has lived his entire life in a world of
illusions. These illusions include Willy's belief that
being well-liked is the key to success, as well as the
literal illusions that Willy has of his past. Originally,
Biff shared Willy's illusions of success and greatness, but
by the end of the play he has become completely
disillusioned. Once Biff comes to fully understand his
place in life, he says to Willy, "I'm a dime a dozen, and
so are you." Willy, however, has lived too long in his
dreams and cannot understand what Biff is trying to say. If
Willy had to face reality, he would then be forced to
examine the affair he had in Boston, his philosophy, and
all of his illusions. Instead, he prefers to live in the
past. And now Biff, who is trying to confront the truth
about himself, finds that he is completely unable to
communicate with his father.
 
Another theme of " Death of a Salesman" is the old order of
agrarian pride and nobility versus the new order of
industrialization. In the beginning of the play, Willy
foreshadows this theme by criticizing the changes brought
about by industrialization. "The street is lined with cars.
There's not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood." It
is this conflict between the old and new orders that brings
about Willy's downfall. Willy's father, a pioneer inventor,
represents the traditional values and way of life that
Willy was brought up on. So does Dave Singleman, the
eighty-four year old salesman that inspired Willy to go
into the sales industry. Howard, the young boss of Willy's
company, represents the impersonal and ruthless nature of
capitalistic enterprise. When Willy goes in to ask Howard
if he can be transferred to a job in New York, Howard
refuses to help him even though Willy has been working for
the company for several decades and was good friends with
his father. When Willy asks why he cannot be reassigned,
Howard replies, "It's a business, kid, and everybody's
gotta pull his own weight," thus demonstrating Howard's
cold indifference to Willy's situation.
 
In " Death of a Salesman", Arthur Miller uses a very
realistic style of speech. Because the story is carried
almost completely by the dialog, this is vital to the
play's success. Miller also uses repetition of significant
phrases throughout the play. Phrases such as "He is not
just liked, but well-liked" and "Isn't that a remarkable
thing" acquire greater meaning over the course of the play.
One example of this is how the phrase "Isn't that a
remarkable thing" comes to signify Willy's occasional
disillusionment. The first time we hear this phrase is when
Willy says that he can't roll down the windshield on his
car and Linda reminds him that he said he rolled it down on
his trip to Boston. The phrase doesn't really acquire
significance, however, until the scene in which Willy
borrows money from Charley. Willy has always thought of
Charley as representing the worst qualities in humanity. He
is neither well-liked nor personally attractive. For this
reason, Willy has never considered Charley to be his
friend. After Willy is fired, however, he discovers that
the only person he can borrow money from is Charley. Thus
he comes to realize that Charley is his only friend, and he
says "Isn't that remarkable." Willy also uses the phrase
near the end of the play after Biff has broken down and
cried while trying to explain his life. Willy has always
though that Biff was destroying his own life just to spite
him, but now he realizes that Biff actually loves him.
 
Another technique used by Miller is changing the tone of
the play when switching to different time periods. In the
present, the tone is generally serious and dark. When it
changes to the past, however, the tone becomes brighter and
more optimistic. This change in tone represents Willy's
desire to return to the time before he became enemies with
Biff.