"Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller

     Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, first premiered in 1949. His career was slow in the beginning, one of his first shows closing after just four performances, and so it was a hard fought battle to the top. In Death of a Salesman, aspects of Miller's personal life can be seen, including a high school career as a football player and a father who owned his own business (and who, due to his success, became wealthy and respected).

CHARACTERS:

     Willy Loman: the main character in the play, Willy is married to Linda and has two sons, Biff and Happy. Willy is a travelling salesman, though believed to not be very successful. He often contradicts himself and tries to please everyone, or at least agree with them. He is not happy with his stance in life; he wishes to be more successful and often asks around for the "secret" to success. Willy is not very stable throughout the play; it is known that he has attempted suicide more than once and has delusions, usually of past events.

     Linda: Linda is Willy's wife and respects him to a fault. For most of the play, Linda is a bystander, not doing much other than blaming her sons for Willy's problems. She struggles to keep the family together throughout the play, but refuses to confront Willy, even when she knows of his attempted suicides.

     Biff: Willy's oldest son, Biff left the family after high school (though he never graduated) and went out West to find work. Ten years later he has not settled down into a steady job and doesn't feel content in what he is doing with his life. It is shown in the play that Biff has a bit of a stealing issue and the audience finds out that Biff caught his father in a relationship with someone other than his mother. Biff is one of the only characters to have a real chance at success at the end of the play.

     Happy: Willy's youngest son, Happy very much models his father. He tries to appease everyone and is also in the business industry. Happy supposedly has a job with a steady income but wants to have his own business and rise to the success that his father also dreamt of. He is also a womanizer and chronic liar.

     Charley: Father of Bernard, Willy's neighbor, and one of Willy's only "friends". Charley has a successful business and is the one Willy comes to when he needs money (which is on a regular basis).

     Bernard: Charley's son, Bernard is one of the few successful characters in this play. Despite being called a nerd when he went to school with Biff and Happy, Bernard has become a good lawyer and is arguing cases to the Supreme Court. He is also married and has children.

     Ben: Willy's brother who went to Alaska and ended up in Africa. In Africa, Ben was very successful, a fact that often bothers Willy, and Ben also died in Africa. It is debated whether Ben is real or just a figment of Willy's imagination.

     Howard: Willy's boss and the one who fires Willy from his salesman job.

     Stanley: A waiter at Frank's Chop House, seems to be an acquaintance of Happy's, helps Willy out when he was left alone in the restaurant.

SETTING:

     Loman House: Residency of the Lomans, it is a bit run down and there is not much of a yard. The appliances within the house are continuously breaking and needing repairs. This is where a majority of the play occurs.

     Howard's Office: Willy's boss' office, here is where Willy is introduced to a wire recorder. This is the place where the figurative death of the salesman occurs.

     Frank's Chop House: Restaurant where Biff and Happy meet Willy for dinner and later leave him there alone. This is where Willy has his biggest break down and where the audience finds out about the affair Willy had.

     Boston Hotel Room: This is where Biff caught Willy cheating on Linda and where Biff and Willy's relationship dies.

PLOT:

ACT 1:

     Willy comes home from a sales trip and almost immediately Linda begins hovering over him. We find out that Willy keeps "dreaming" while he is driving and almost got into an accident on his way home that day. Willy proceeds to complain about his job and what his son, Biff, is doing (or not doing) with his life. He especially emphasized the fact that Biff was working as a farmhand, a job Willy does not approve of. He continues to complain, this time about the cheese Linda has bought, the apartments surrounding their house, and what is happening to the country. We learn that Willy might have a few psychological problems when he says he had imagined he had been driving his old car while he was driving his current one.

     As Linda goes up to bed, the scene switches to Happy and Biff conversing and smoking in their room. While they reminisce about their pasts, we learn that Biff used to be very good with women and that Happy works in a business capacity. Though Happy seems content in business, Biff is not happy in it and proceeds to enlighten Happy about working and living in the West. As it turns out, Happy is not content in business and has a habit of sleeping around, especially with women who are in a relationship or engaged. Both brothers begin thinking about a brighter future and Biff thinks about visiting his old boss, Bill Oliver, to see about getting a loan. During the conversation, the boys hear Willy in the yard and here is where the audience discovers that Willy has delusions.

     (Flashback) Willy is sucked into a memory where he is giving Biff advice (and Happy a bit as well). He surprises the boys with a  punching bag autographed by Gene Tunney and learns that Biff "borrowed" a football from the school. After a minute of scolding, Willy finds no fault in the theft and encourages Biff. Willy then brags about meeting the mayor of Providence and his success in the business world. Bernard enters the play, relating the news that if Biff doesn't start studying math he will be flunked. The Loman men make fun of Bernard and after he leaves, Willy assures his boys that they will be much more successful than Bernard (as they are well-liked and attractive). Linda enters and Willie tells her what he has earned, which he continues to lower until he reveals what he really has earned (based off of Linda's lack of response to being lied to and the fact that she knew how to get the truth out of him, it can be assumed this is not the first time he has lied about his wages). Willy begins to highlight "flaws" that he has that are holding him back. During this he begins to have another flashback, hearing a woman's voice and is taken back to a mistress. Brought back from that flashback, Willy apologizes to Linda and then gets angry because she is mending her stockings.

     Back in the present, Willy becomes aware of Happy's presence. Willy talks about almost hitting a kid with his car and mentions that his brother went to Alaska. Charley enters and Happy leaves; Charley stays up and talks/shoots with Willy. While they play, Charley offers Willy a job, who immediately gets insulted. An apparition appears, Willy's brother Ben. This proves to be confusing for Willy as he talks with Charley about Ben's death and his brother about their mother and father. Due to the confusion, Charley leaves, but Willy continues to converse with Ben. Willy remembers Ben visiting and he tells of accidentally ending up in Africa rather than Alaska. Ben challenges Biff to a "fight", where he proceeds to knock Biff on his butt. Willy once again encourages Biff to steal.

     Biff and Happy confront Linda about Willy and his delusions. Linda proceeds to blame Biff for not coming home enough and questions why there is so much animosity between Biff and his father. As they argue, Biff continually insults his father and compares Willy to Charley. Defending her husband, Linda says that he works hard and after 36 years of work for the same company,  he has lost his wages. In her rage, Linda blames her sons, especially Biff, for how Willy is. Linda also reveals that Willy has attempted suicide by car crashes and putting a rubber pipe on the gas pipe (supposedly inhaling fumes), but she can't bring herself to remove it. Happy accuses Biff of being unprofessional. Willy reenters and accuses Biff of never growing up and after more arguing, Willy learns that Biff plans to visit Bill Oliver and try and go into business with Happy selling and marketing sports equipment. Excited, Willy begins giving Biff advice, like not saying the word "Gee" but when he and Biff disagree on an amount to ask for and Willy's treatment of Linda, Willy gets angry and leaves. To please their mother, Biff and Happy go up and make amends with Willy and everyone goes to bed.

ACT 2:

     Willy wakes up excited and as the boys have already left, talks with Linda. Hopeful for the future, Willy imagines moving to the country but is brought back by Linda reminding him the insurance premium is due and they don't have the money to pay for it. We find out they've almost paid off the mortgage on their house and right before Willy leaves, Linda tells him to meet the boys for diner at Frank's Chop House.

     Willy enters his boss Howard's office in hopes of getting a non-traveling job. Unfortunately, Howard is very distracted by his new wire recorder and plays the recordings of his daughter, son, and wife to Willy. When Willy is finally able to ask about the job change, Howard says he doesn't have a position available for Willy. Angered, Willy begins goes on a rampage and tells Howard of how he got into selling (the story of Old Man Wagner). Howard insists he needs to go, leaving Willy alone. Willy begins to hallucinate and accidentally turns on the wire recorder. Howard comes in and turns it off and also fires Willy. In the figurative death of the salesman, Howard asks Willy to turn in his samples.

     (Flashback) Willy begins to hallucinate, this one the worst yet. He imagines Ben coming and asking him to go to Alaska with him but Linda won't let him leave. Biff appears, ready to go to play in a big football game at Ebbits Field. Charley appears and goads Willy, who in turn brags about Biff and his future success.

     Back in the present, Willy has made his way to Charley's office. The secretary, Jenny, becomes annoyed with Willy and goes to get Bernard, asking him to talk to Willy. During Bernard and Willy's conversation, Bernard politely asks about Willy and his family. Willy in turn asks Bernard for the secret to success, wondering why Biff hasn't succeeded. Bernard proceeds to ask what happened between Biff and Willy in Boston, to which Willy once again gets defensive. Charley enters, and we learn that Bernard is going to argue a case to the Supreme Court. When Bernard leaves, Charley gives Willy the money he came there for. To try and pay his bills, Willy asks for more and tells Charley that he was fired. Charley once again offers him a job and is once again refused.

     The scene changes to Happy in a restaurant with Stanley. A pretty woman soon enters and Happy begins flirting. It is quickly apparent that Happy is a chronic liar. Biff arrives and tells Happy that after hours of waiting to see Bill Oliver, the man walked away. Biff proceeds to take Oliver's pen and realizes that he isn't as great as he has always believed. In the hopes of not upsetting Willy, Happy advises lying to him, and soon after Willy enters. Willy lets the boys know that he was fired and Biff tries to tell him the truth of what happened with Bill Oliver. Willy believes that Biff didn't really go see Oliver and gets very worked up about it. In the end Biff takes Happy's advice and lies to Willy to try and settle him down. The pretty girl Happy had been flirting with returns with a friend and Willy begins hearing a woman's voice again. Willy exits to the bathroom leaving his sons alone with the girls. Biff and Happy begin to argue and Biff accuses Happy of not caring for Willy. Angry, the brothers leave with the girls, also leaving Willy behind in the restaurant. In the bathroom Willy has his worst hallucination since the play began.

     (Flashback) Willy is in a hotel with a barely clothed woman who is not Linda, and they seem to be very familiar with each other. A knocking is heard at the door. Quickly, Willy ushers the woman into the bathroom and goes to the door to find Biff knocking. Biff comes in and tells Willy that he flunked math, but he wants Willy to talk  to his teacher, believing Will can change his teacher's mind. Willy agrees and while they talk the woman emerges from the bathroom. Willy tries to cover for himself, telling Biff the woman's room was being painted and kicks the woman out. When she finally exits, Willy looks and sees Biff crying and crying. Ashamed, Willy tries to explain himself and when Biff is unresponsive, Willy gets angry and starts yelling. Finally Biff reacts to Willy, calling him a phony, a liar, and then leaves Willy alone in the hotel room.

     Willy comes back to reality and finds himself alone at the restaurant. He is hurt to learn that his sons left him. After speaking briefly with Stanley, Willy heads out, claiming to be going to buy seeds from a nearby hardware store.

     The scene shifts to Happy and Biff returning home to find Linda there, waiting to confront them. Angry, Linda chews the boys out for leaving Willy alone at the restaurant. Happy tries to justify their actions while Biff admits to not having done anything to help his father. Biff finally admits to not being anything but scum and insists on talking to Willy. Against Linda's protests Biff goes into the yard to confront Willy. In the yard Willy is having a conversation with Ben about getting money, specifically $20,00. Biff tries to tell WIlly he is leaving and that things didn't work out with Bill Oliver. Willy believes that Biff lied about seeing Oliver and they move their argument to the kitchen.

     In the kitchen, Biff tries to leave on fair terms with his father, but Willy refuses to even shake his hand. As Biff begins to leave, Willy tells him he won't take the blame for "this" and that Biff is trying to hurt him. In a rage Biff puts everything out on the table. He throws the rubber pipe on the table, calling out Willy. He ousts Happy on not actually being the assistant buyer, but the assistant to the assistant buyer. He tells that he was in jail for three months and confesses his stealing problem. In his final strike, Biff says he isn't special and tells Willy that he isn't either. Crying, Biff begs Willy to throw his dream away and then goes to bed. Willy finally realizes what Biff was saying and as an image of Ben appears, begins to lose sense of reality. Happy goes to bed and after assurances from Willy, Linda goes to bed.

     Willy continues talking to Ben, saying that he has to go. Linda becomes worried when Willy isn't coming to bed. Once Willy has exited, there are sounds of a car crash and we hear Linda cry out "No!"

REQUIEM:

     It's Willy's funeral and the only people who show up are Linda, Biff, Happy, and Charley. Each takes a turn saying something about Willy. Linda claims that he was good with his hands and Biff claims Willy had the wrong dreams. Happy vows to become the salesman Willy wanted to be and Biff seems to be sticking with his plan to leave. Biff, Happy, and Charley all leave, giving Linda a moment alone with Willy's grave. In an emotional speech, Linda says goodbye to Willy and tells him she doesn't understand why he killed himself. She says that they finally paid off their mortgage on the house and they're "finally free."

ANALYSIS:

In Death of a Salesman, the point of view is like that of an outsider looking in on the Loman's and their lives. Most of the information the audience learns comes from Willy, and due to Willy's hallucinations, it is difficult to decipher what is fact and what is fiction.

In Death of a Salesman, the tone is very solemn and somber with in a few places the tone takes on a slightly humorous feel. Willy, Happy, Biff, and Linda are all unhappy/unsatisfied with the lives they are living. Willy struggles to provide for his family and make ends meet while he struggles with the expectations he has placed upon himself; Willy is very serious throughout the entire play. Happy is not content in his job, but provides a bit of a humorous tone when he is flirting and making promises that we all know he wont keep (like when he says he's going to get married). Linda struggles with how her family has fallen apart, especially with the rift between Willy and Biff; throughout the play Linda appears saddened and gloomy. Biff is very unsatisfied in what he has done with his life so far and with his relationship with Willy; Biff greatly adds to the solemn, somber tone of the play at the end when he tells how worthless he is and how Willy isn't special. Willy's funeral during the requiem magnifies the somber, solemn  tone throughout the play.

In Death of a Salesman, imagery is mainly found in the stage directions. Most of the imagery is in describing the set (i.e. the set for Willy's house has unconnected walls so that the characters [Willy] can easily move between the past and the present) and the music that goes along with the play, specifically each music that is associated with each character. Character descriptions are also a good source of imagery in DOS. Willy is described as "exhausted" and "dressed quietly" while Happy is described as "tall, powerfully made. Sexuality is like a visible color on him". Imagery is also seen when nature is brought up, many of the plants are specifically named in the play (i.e. elm trees, wisteria, lilac, peonies, and daffodils).

In Death of a Salesman, there are a few important symbols. Seeds are a very important symbolically in the play. Over the course of the play, Willy repeatedly says that he wishes he had a garden and at the end of the play he tries to plant various seeds in his tiny yard. The seeds symbolize a return to nature and Willy's dreams. The fact that Willy cannot grow his the seeds in his yard no matter how hard he tries is symbolic of the effort he puts into his dream of being a successful salesman, no matter how fruitless that dream is. The wire recorder is symbolic of Willy and his imperfect memory. When Willy is introduced to the wire recorder, he hears how it perfectly recites what has been recorded on it. This device forces Willy to acknowledge the fact that he does not have a perfect memory. It is also symbolic of the shift from manual work to industrialization, of the next best thing. In a way, the wire recorder is symbolic of Willy's fall in the company, he is being replaced by younger, fresher, and newer salesmen.

THESIS:

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman illustrates that society's superficial idea of success does not always match that of the individual and that diverging from one's dreams can lead to catastrophic consequences.

This theme statement is supported  throughout the play by the setting, plot, and symbolism.

     The setting of Death of a Salesman, specifically the Loman's house, is something that Willy is never satisfied with throughout the play. In the 1940s and 50s, one important thing that every "successful" person had to have was a house, a house that was not run down and constantly breaking. Even thought there isn't really anything wrong with his house, Willy is unsatisfied with it and doesn't believe it is good enough. He says that he wants to move to the country, where he would have a nice house and build two guest houses for the boys, and part of his reason for wanting a place to live like this is the grandeur of it. A bigger house means you're more successful, right? This country house would also give Willy more room, something that one can see he wants as he is often complaining about the apartments blocking in his house. Willy's dissatisfaction with his house because it doesn't fit what he believes a "successful" man should have shows how invested he is in the superficial idea of success enforced by society.
     The plot of Death of a Salesman illustrates the theme statement in a few ways. First, it tells the story of a man who followed his dreams (Willy) and a man who set his dreams aside as his father did not approve of them (Biff). Biff wants to work outside, in a manual labor-type job, but Willy wants him to work in sales or business. To try and appease Willy (and help out now that Willy doesn't have any steady wages), Biff tries to comply to his father's wishes and goes to talk to his old boss Bill Oliver about possibly getting a loan so he and Happy can start their own sporting goods business. The problem with this plan is that Biff will never be happy in the business world, that is Willy's world, not his. Biff strays from his dreams and in the end finds himself miserable and lost: no matter what he does, follow his father's dreams for him or his own, he is unsuccessful. Willy on the other hand is following his dream of being a salesman but has a different problem. He has an idea of what it means to be successful, an idea he got because of the society around him. Willy is under the impression that to be considered successful and to be happy (and respected) he must have certain things like a lot of money and all the name brand appliances. Because this idea of what "success" is so ingrained in Willy's mind he fails to see that this superficial definition doesn't work for him. Willy could have been considered special back when he was making a steady, if low, income and his family loved and adored him. Society's superficial idea of success has blinded Willy and his own ideas of success have pulled Biff from the path he wants to take, leaving both of them miserable. 
     The symbolism in Death of a Salesman illustrates both diverging from one's dreams and society's superficiality. Seeds in the play represent a return to nature, something that Biff (and in the end Willy) is trying to do. By going out and working in the West, Biff is putting himself in nature and separating

QUOTES:

"I can outbox, outrun, and outlift anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from those common, petty sons-of-bitches" (Happy speaking to Biff)
    I feel this quote is significant because throughout the play we see Willy put Biff on the pedestal; he's always talking about how great Biff is, he never talks about how great Happy is. It's interesting because the attitude that Willy injected into Biff by always telling him he's better than others has also been inserted into Happy, though Willy never said such things to him; the most Happy ever got was that he and Biff were both Adonises (which could also contribute to Happy saying how he superior but only mentioning physical attributes).

"And you tell me he has no character? The man who never worked a day but for your benefit? When does he get the medal for that?" (Linda speaking to Biff and Happy)
     I think this is significant because here Linda, though not saying Willy is a great person, is lifting up her husband. She defends what he has done, not his character, and how he has done everything for his children. This shows that Willy was a good dad at some point, probably even a great dad, but his children have obviously forgotten this. All Biff and Happy can see is a senile old man who no longer has a job, not the man who did everything for them. They see the superficial side of their father, not the parental part of their father.

"Help me Willy, I can't cry. It seems to me you're just on another trip. I keep expecting you. Willy, dear, I can't cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I search, and I can't understand it, Willy." (Linda speaking to Willy's grave)
     I feel this line is very important. The fact that Linda can't cry over her husband's death, to me, shows that Linda and Willy have been apart from each other for a while (at least in the emotional sense) and now that he is gone in the physical sense, Linda is starting to realize this. This quote, I feel, also shows the impact of what Willy did, both in his job and in his death, on Linda. He was always traveling so she is used to him being gone, that she understands clearly, but the fact that he is not coming back is what is hard for her to grasp. His job, being the glorious salesman, ripped him away from Linda. She doesn't understand that his death was his final sacrifice for his family, that just like every trip he took he is trying to get money to provide for his family. I also feel this shows Linda's naivety. She says she can't understand why he did it, but the reasons are right in front of her. He was dying, he had been stripped of his pride, and the only thing he had left to give was his life, and for some reason Linda just can't see that.