Death of a Salesman

Setting – 1940s Brooklyn

Author – American playwright Arthur Miller, wrote ACT I in a day and has said that nothing is wrong with Willy’s mental health

Characters –

Willy…is a 60 year-old salesman, husband, and father. His out-of-whack grasp on time sends him back and forth between memories and the present. He struggles with accepting responsibility for his sons’ failures and false ideas of what life’s priorities should be, believing not in hard work, but in connection, personality, and being well-liked, though he was never good at any of them himself.

Biff…was praised for his sportsmanship in his young years and was brought up on the ideals of his father, whom he idolized. After high school, he is left lost and confused and angry.

Linda…is wholly devoted to Willy and no one else. In her eyes, he does no wrong. She lives to please and protect him even though he is often rude to her.

Happy…never won recognition. As a teen, he strived for the attentions of Biff and Willy. As an adult, he’s a creep and a liar, placating Willy with dishonesty and presenting himself as someone with more of a stake in the company for which he works than is true. He bought into Willy’s ideals, but now is embarrassed by him in social settings.

Plot Summary –          

ACT I:

Sixty year-old Willy Loman returns home in the middle of the night after having had difficulty driving. His wife, Linda, suggests that he ask his boss for a job in their city instead of Willy’s job on the road.

While they talk in the kitchen (with Willy constantly contradicting himself), their grown sons, Biff and Happy, overhear them. Biff is visiting from “out West.” The two talk about the past–about scoring girls–and Happy stresses to Biff the faltering mental capacity of their father. They both complain about their work: Happy about having to obey his bosses (while having affairs with their significant others) and Biff about being seen as a failure and being pulled back to his parents’ home repeatedly.

They hear Willy talking to himself downstairs. Willy is in a memory. In this memory, Willy has just returned from the road, Biff has stolen a football, his schoolmate Bernard warns that Biff is in danger of not graduating, and Willy’s lack of financial success and affairs (which he has with secretaries to gain access to buyers) are revealed.

While lost in this memory, Willy starts shouting, and Happy comes downstairs to quiet him. Happy is unsuccessful, but their neighbor, Charley, comes in and plays cards with Willy. Willy hallucinates that his recently deceased brother Ben is standing by them. Ben talks to Willy about the opportunity in Alaska. Willy yells at Charley, slamming the door in his face, and loses himself in the memory of when Ben came to visit.

            Linda returns to Willy, who leaves to take a walk. Biff and Happy join Linda in the kitchen, and they discuss Willy. Linda tells the boys that Willy has been trying to kill himself but that she loves him too much to ruin his pride. Biff promises to “make good,” and attempt to enter the business world. Willy returns and they tell him of their plan. The next morning, Willy is to ask his boss to stay in the city, and Biff is supposed to ask an old employer for a start-up loan.

ACT II:

            In the morning, Linda serves Willy breakfast. They talk about their final mortgage and refrigerator payments, about growing something in the yard, about Biff’s quest for the day, and about meeting the boys for dinner at a restaurant.

            Willy meets with his boss, Howard, who is gushing over a recording machine. Howard denies Willy his request, and when Willy becomes upset, leaves him to compose himself. When Howard returns, he fires Willy. Willy remembers when Ben offered him a “proposition” in Alaska, but Linda had opposed moving. He also remembers the moments before Biff’s big game until he is back in the present at Charley’s place of work. He talks with Bernard, who is successful and visiting his father before he is to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. Charley offers Willy a job so that Willy doesn’t have to keep returning to borrow $50 each week, but Willy rejects the offer angrily and leaves.

            At the restaurant, Happy picks up two girls for him and Biff, but when Biff gets there, he tries to explain to Happy his unsuccessful day and how he stole a pen. Happy orders him to hide everything from Willy. Willy arrives, and they all argue as Willy goes in and out of the present. Extremely frustrated and unable to comprehend what their father is saying, Biff and Happy leave. Willy slips into the memory of when Biff discovered his affair after failing out of math class. The discovery of the affair sucks up all of Biff’s motivation to go to summer school and graduate.

            That night, Biff and Happy return home to a very angry Linda. Willy is out planting the garden, muttering to himself/to Ben. Willy is contemplating attempting suicide, again, in order to give his family insurance money. When the four of them come together, they have their final argument. Biff confronts Willy about his suicide attempts and tries to tell Willy that they are both failures and that he will leave and never come back or trouble Willy again. It appears to be resolved, and Biff, Happy, and Linda go upstairs to bed. But Willy goes outside, and crashed his car.

            At the funeral, at which only the immediate family and Charley are present, it is implied that Willy’s plan worked, and Linda made the final house payment. 

Theme ­– The burgeoning "American Dream" is superficial, unforgiving, lonely and rewardless in essence, setting those not meant for it on a futile or destructive path.

Narrative Voice/Author’s Style – mainly told from Willy’s POV.

Miller is very specific and frequent with his stage directions. There are leaves or leafy imagery when the past is being shown. The music is also brighter/lighter in tone for the memory scenes.

Geography is important. While Willy is stuck in Brooklyn, Biff travels out West. Willy’s father found success in Alaska, and his brother found it in Africa.

Willy is always trying to plant seeds in the ground. Though he puts so much emphasis on having connections and being well liked, he strives for something tangible.

Stockings symbolize Willy’s guilt. He buys them for the secretaries with whom he has affairs, but cannot afford to also buy his wife new ones. They are a reminder of his infidelity as well as of his lack of ability to provide for as family as much as he’d like to.

Biff and Happy both steal. Biff steals material things because he, too, strives for tangible things, while Happy “steals” women, trying to prove himself. 
Willy often exclaims, "The woods are burning!" symbolizing his deteriorating life and state of mind. 

Quotes –

Willy (repeated by Biff): He’s liked, but he’s not well liked.

Willy: That’s just the way I’m bringing them up, Ben – rugged, well liked, all around.

Willy: Personality always wins the day!

Willy: That’s the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds on the basis of being liked!

            All of these quotes demonstrate Willy’s belief in the superficial American Dream gaining steam in the mid twentieth century.

Willy: Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground.

Willy, who’s lived off his personality his whole life, has nothing to show for it, and nothing to look forward to.

Willy: A man is not a piece of fruit!

Shows how corporations can take all that a man is worth without necessarily giving anything back. Employees are tools and not people.

Biff, in his final argument with Willy: Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be?

Biff finally fully realizes what is truly right for his life, outright questioning why one adheres to the American Dream.