Summaries and Analyses of Literature - Death of a Salesman

 In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays a classic American home with a husband and wife with their two sons and their conflicts. Willy Loman, the protagonist, struggles with his professional life as a salesman and his family life with his wife Linda and his sons Biff and Happy, all stemming from his past. The play centers mainly around their home, a quaint little abode, where the family struggles to overcome their internal problems and work towards a better future. The root of the problem stems from Willy’s frequent excursions to his vivid past where he is constantly reminded of his inability to be popular and successful along with his older brother Ben who struck rich in the diamond industry. Unable to fulfill his dream, he feeds his desires into his son Biff who reveres his father yet is intent upon becoming a popular. When he fails in his academic endeavors, he visits Willy on one of his business trips and finds Willy with a prostitute. Utterly disturbed, he loses his respect for his father for his disloyalty to Linda, leading to Willy’s eventual downfall. The main content of the play focuses on Willy’s recollections of what could have been and his comparison to what is. After many attempts to secure his relationship with his family, he eventually realizes his inability to sustain them and kills himself to provide the insurance money to his family.

Theme: In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman realizes his inability to be “well-liked” and recognizes his eventual decline, coupled with the strained relationship with his family, in a society that progresses on competition and materialism and values traits such as ability and functionality more than popularity and personality.

The seeds that Willy sows near the end of play are symbolic of his inability to provide sufficiently for his family, coupled with the loss of his job, and his final attempt to grow food, representative of his helplessness in a difficult situation. Diamonds, on the other hand, are symbolic of progress and success in a competitive world on the basis of internal ability, ideals that are valued by society yet are contradicted by Willy’s perception of the world. Lastly, the rubber hose is yet another symbol for one of Willy’s many attempts to kill himself in a desperate attempt to provide for his family with the insurance money after his death. Moreover, the rubber hose shows how Willy is even having difficulty providing his family with the most essential element of comfort, heat. The narrative voice conveyed by the author is distinct for every character in the play. Willy’s voice is marked by a mixture of the past and the present and frequent transitions to accommodate for his tow different evaluations of time. Linda’s voice is conveyed as one of compassionate and caring, always attending to Willy in a consoling manner. Biff’s voice is one marked by a two-sided perception of debating between his impression of his father and recognizing the family’s problem to cure his father’ insanity. The main sources of imagery in the play rest in and around Willy’s home, especially the portrayal of the whole family reveling in optimism and promise for the future, with Willy and Linda arguing as a husband and wife. Also, the entry of Ben as a stellar character serves to shed light on the theme and the values of the American society. The work of the title serves to reinforce Willy’s dedication to his job and his death as a salesman rather than his death as Willy Loman.

      The play presents many quotes that shed light on the meaning of the work as a whole. For instance, Happy states that no one has had to “…cope with what he’s got to.”, showing his understanding of the complexity of Willy’s life and unknowingly referring to Willy’s past as a factor in his present life (40). In other quote, Willy’s friend Charley states, “Willy, when are you going to grow up?”, essentially indicating Willy’s tendency to get attached to a specific moment and lose all consideration for the reality of things, a tendency that shows up frequently in the play to result in his frequent trips to the past.