Death Of A Salesman
29/11/2010 Julia Peeters & Janou Hoek | V6C |
IB book report | Death of a Salesman |
Author: | Arthur Miller | Date of birth-death: | 17/10/1915 – 10/02/2005 | Title: | Death of a Salesman | Published by: | Penguin Classics | Year of first publication: | 1949 | Publication date of your edition: | 2000 | Relevant data on author and period: | 1932: Arthur Miller graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. | | 1940: Arthur Miller married his college sweetheart, Mary Slattery, the Catholic daughter of an insurance salesman. | | 1948: Miller wrote part one of Death of a Salesman in a day, six weeks later, he finished the play. | | 1949: Death …show more content…
of a Salesman premiered on Broadway | | 1956: Miller married Marilyn Monroe. | | 1961: Miller and Monroe divorced. | | 1962: Miller married Inge Morath. They had two children, Rebecca and Daniel. | Narrative point of view
In the play “Death of a Salesman”, the story is told from different points of view. Most parts are about the main character, Willy Loman. Willy is living a very hectic life and he has a lot of strange thoughts about certain things. He has a lot of flashbacks and those are described too.
Most of the time the conversations are between Willy and his family. When Willy is having a flashback, the characters he’s talking to are death in real life.
In the book, when a character is talking it’s formulated like this:’
Biff: Let’s go to sleep.
Happy: I guess we didn’t settle anything, heh?
Sometimes there are some pieces of texts between the conversations. This is to make a certain situation more clear or to explain something.
When a character says something with an emotion it’s formulated like this:
Biff [with enthusiasm]: Listen, why don’t you come out West with me?
Happy: You and I, heh?
In this way it’s easier to imagine the situation because it brings up certain images.
Relations | Relations with Willy Loman | | Primary characters | Secondary characters (flashbacks) | Tertiary characters | Linda Loman (wife) | Ben (brother) | Charley (neighbor) | Biff Loman (son) | The woman (mistress) | Bernard (son neighbor) | Happy Loman (son) | | Howard Wagner (boss) | | | Stanley (waiter) | | | Miss Forsythe and Letta (women Biff and Happy met) | | | Jenny (secretary Howard) |
Time
The basic story takes place in the late 1940s. The storyline takes place within one day, in the present time. Everything is told very elaborate. One chapter is equal to one conversation. In this way, we get to know the characters very well.
Willy’s flashbacks are from about 15 years earlier. You can tell this because his sons were very young at that time. Most of the time it’s confusing whether the play is about the past or the present time. Because Willy is so hectic and confused all the time, you often don’t know in which time he’s living. An example where Willy is confused and goes from present time to a flashback is:
Charley: Don’t call me disgusting, Willy. (present time) [UNCLE BEN, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a moustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as Willy speaks.]
Willy: I’m getting awfully tired, Ben. (flashback) [BEN’S music is heard. BEN looks around at everything.]
Charley: Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better.
Did you call me Ben? [BEN looks at his watch]
Willy: That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.
Ben: I only have a few minutes.
Place
The story takes place in New York, America. Willy Loman and his family live in a small house with a small yard. Their house is surrounded by apartments. Because of the huge number of population at that moment in New York (American Dream), Willy gets a bit paranoid. He’s surrounded by all kinds of apartments and there are people everywhere. This is why he’s so confused all the time, his life seems very hectic. At the end of the book he walks outside and starts to scream about how crowded his neighborhood is.
Willy [suddenly conscious of BIFF, turns and looks up at him, then begins picking up the package of seeds in confusion]: Where the hell is that seed? [Indignantly] You can’t see nothing out here! They boxed in the whole goddam neighbourhood!
The place of the play is similar to the feelings in the play. Willy is hectic all the time, so is their neighborhood because it’s so small.
Most of the time the play takes place in their home or garden. But at a certain time, they go to a restaurant. Willy is also at his office.
Social …show more content…
setting
The author does not give his meaning about certain things.
He also doesn’t chooses a side. This is because it’s a play. The book only gives us the texts and feelings of the characters. The author isn’t important at all.
The characters live in a poor environment. Willy doesn’t earn much and he has to work very hard and a lot to pay the bills. Meanwhile, he borrows money from his neighbor. His wife, Linda, doesn’t know about this. He wants to hide it from his family because he’s embarrassed.
Willy: I can’t work for you, that’s all, don’t ask me why.
Charley [angered, takes out more bills]: You been jealous of me all your life, you damned fool? Here, pay your insurance. [He puts the money in WILLY’S hand.]
Style
Death of a Salesman is written in dialogue. The book contains out of short sentences. Those sentences are the lines the characters say. The feelings of the characters are between “[ ]” signs. This way, you get to know what the characters are like and how they think about things. The parts which aren’t from the characters, are parts to make a certain situation more clear. It tells us how something look likes, or explains things. Most of the time they are about what is happening on stage.
Biff [to Happy]: I can’t talk to
him! [A single trumpet note jars the ear. The light of a green leaves stains the house, which holds the air of night and a dream. YOUNG BERNARD enters and knocks on the door of the house.]
Structure
The book contains out of two parts. This is probably because it’s a play. There aren’t any other chapters in the book. When you’re looking at a play, both parts, act one and act two, aren’t divided in small pieces either. It’s just one act with a small break in between.
The most important thing which comes back every time, are the thoughts of Willy. He’s constantly confused. He often doesn’t know the difference between the present time, and the past. In the middle of a conversation, he gets the weirdest flashbacks.
Willy has a lot of fights with his oldest son Biff. Biff found out Willy had an affair, when he was younger. His relationship with his father gets worse because he can imagine how hard it must be for his mother. However, his mother will always love Willy. She’s always very lovable towards Willy, even when Willy is so confused that he’s yelling at her.
Biff: Dad…
Willy: She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.
Biff: You-you gave her Mama’s stockings! [His tears break through and he rises to go.]
The book is divided in two time periods. The basic storyline which is happening on a normal day, and the flashbacks of Willy.
Symbolic meanings
The most important symbol in “Death of a Salesman” are the seeds. Willy sees the seeds as something very important, representing his family. They represent the opportunity for Willy to prove the worth of his labor as salesman and father. He works very hard but has a feeling it doesn’t pay off. He still can’t pay the bills and has to borrow money from his neighbor. When he dies, he can’t leave anything for his sons. He will be the same person as his own father. The seeds also represent his failure with his son Biff. Once, Biff was a popular American football player. Now he’s just some lazy person who can’t become a salesman (and live the American Dream) because he failed his exam. Willy feels if it is his fault.
Another symbol which actually is representing the opposite of the seeds, are diamonds. Seeds represent Willy’s poor life. Diamonds represent Willy’s rich dreams. He really wants to mean something to his family. Because he doesn’t earn much and has to borrow money, he wants to live like his brother once lived. He feels like a failed salesman.
Ben [with greater force]: One must go in to fetch a diamond out.
Willy [to LINDA, as he moves slowly along the edge of the kitchen, toward the door]: I just want to get settled down, Linda. Let me sit alone for a little.
Stockings are an important symbol too. They are important to Willy’s pride being financially successful. They’re also important for Willy because he betrayed Linda a few years earlier. He was seeing another woman, his mistress. He gave her Linda’s stockings. Linda didn’t know anything but his oldest son Biff found out. He was already feeling terrible because his father was seeing another woman, but it got worse when he discovered his father was giving his mother’s stockings to another woman.
An ironic symbol is the rubber pipe. He wanted to commit suicide by inhaling gas. Gas stands for health and comfort. The reason why he wanted to commit suicide, is because he could not give his family health and comfort. This is why it’s so ironic: he wants to kill himself with something that is the reason for his suicide.
Relations
Willy Loman is a salesman who wants to live the American Dream. He is very insecure because he’s not living the American Dream at all. His income is not much and that’s why he’s not doing well. He’s constantly confused and is not living the realistic world anymore. Biff (his oldest son) doesn’t really support him and this makes it even worse. Also, Biff failed in Willy’s view. He did not become a salesman and that’s why Biff and Willy are arguing most of the time.
Willy Loman has a wife and two sons.
His wife is called Linda Loman. She’s a very loving person and always supports Willy, even if he’s going through a very tough time. However, she suffers too through Willy’s grandiose dreams and self-delusion. Sometimes she’s taken in by Willy’s dreams and weird thoughts. But at other times she’s far more realistic than her husband.
Willy’s oldest son is called Biff Loman. He’s thirty-four years old and led a good life in high-school. He was the popular football-guy and had good male-friends and a lot of female admires. He did well in high school until he failed his math exam. He didn’t graduate and got fired from every job he has held. Willy wants Biff to become a salesman, just like his father. However, Biff wants to go out of town and get a job where he can work with his hands.
Happy Loman is Willy’s youngest son with an age of thirty-two. Happy always lived in the shadow of his oldest brother. He works as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department store. However, he sees his career as very good.
Willy’s next-door neighbor is Charley. Charley owns a successful business. Willy is very jealous of him and borrows money from him because he can’t afford to pay the bills all by himself. At one point Willy tells Charley that he is his best friend.
Charley’s son is Bernard. Bernard is a successful lawyer and always loved Biff and Happy. He saw Biff as a hero in high school. Bernard’s success is difficult for Willy to accept because his own sons’ lives do not measure up.
Willy’s older brother Ben only appears in Willy’s daydreams. Ben already died a few years ago. Willy regards Ben as a symbol of the success that he so desperately craves for himself and his sons.
When Biff and Happy were in high school, Willy had a mistress. Biff found out and got very angry. He didn’t have any faith anymore in his father.
Howard Wagner is the boss of Willy. He inherited the company from his father, whom Willy regarded as “a masterful man”. At a certain moment, he fires Willy.
Stanley is an old friend of Happy. He’s a waiter at coffeehouse “Frank’s Chop House” and together with Happy, they ogle Miss Forsythe before Willy and Biff arrive at the restaurant.
Miss Forsythe and Letta are two young women who Happy and Biff meet at the coffeehouse. Happy thinks they are prostitutes.
Jenny is Charley’s secretary.
Theme
Death of a Salesman contains out of several themes. The most important theme is the American Dream. Someone who’s living the American Dream is “well liked”, “personally attractive” and living a business life. Willy’s fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.
Another important theme is abandonment. Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.
Willy’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with “insult” and “spite”). Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff’s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy’s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda’s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him, Biff feels that Willy, a “phony little fake,” has betrayed him with his unending stream of ego-stroking lies.
Title
The meaning of the title is pretty obvious. “Death of a Salesman” relates in all ways to Willy who is a salesman. All his life he’s been a salesman, not a good one tough. But at a certain moment he gets very confused and commits suicide. From the other hand, Willy always believed in the American Dream. He never lived the American Dream but wanted to very bad. Willy never achieved to become a successful salesman so the dream was kind of death at the end.
Plot
Willy Loman, a sixty-year-old traveling salesman, is having trouble lately because he can't seem to keep his mind on the present. He keeps drifting back and forth between reality and memory, looking for exactly where his life went wrong. Having been demoted to a strictly commissions salesman, as he was in the beginning of his career, Willy begins to wonder what missed opportunity or wrong turn led his life to this dismal existence. Willy always believed that being well liked was the key to success -- it's not what you know, it's who you know. But now, as he nears the end of his life, he realizes that the only things you can count on are the things you can touch. You can't touch appointments and half-hearted sentiments. This was something that his brother, Ben, a man independently wealthy by the age of twenty-one, tried to tell him years ago. Despite this, Willy insisted that his success would come from being well liked.
Throughout his life, Willy attempted to show his sons the keys to success and to prepare them, or at least Biff, his oldest son, for excellence in the business world. Willy pretended to be an important, respected, and successful salesman to win the love and respect of his family (and himself in some ways). He even started believing that he was as important as he convinced the boys he was; whenever he couldn't live up to that expectation, and reality contradicted the image he tried to put forth, his whole life began to crumble. He realizes that he is a failure and he has wasted his life. Not only that, but he has taught his sons the wrong things. Now Biff is a bum who can't hold a job anywhere but in the West as a farmhand, and Hap is a philandering assistant's assistant who is just as deluded about his importance as Willy. Willy taught his sons the wrong things, and now their lives are mediocre because of it.
Willy and Biff, although close when Biff was younger, are always at odds because Biff hasn't lived up to Willy's great expectations for him. Biff was never given the proper direction to fulfill these expectations. Willy encouraged him only to be well liked and popular; Biff learned he never had to work for anything or take orders from anyone, and as a result, he couldn't keep a job in the business world. Willy even encouraged his boys to steal: another reason Biff couldn't hold a job , because he kept getting in trouble for stealing. Integrity was never an emphasized characteristic in the Loman house. Now Biff has come home and he realizes that he's just an ordinary guy who was meant for a life outside the business world. He is happy only when he is honest with himself. This realization prompts an entire overhaul of the values taught to him by his father, and Biff wants to expose the lies Willy has been telling for years. Willy won't have it. After a series of long arguments, Biff decides it's best if he leaves for good; he will never fulfill his father's dreams, nor will he convince Willy to confront reality.
Willy, now unemployed and completely broken down, decides that he must do something magnificent to prove to Biff his life wasn't useless and completely wasted. Feeling he will be of greater value dead, he kills himself so that Biff can use the insurance money to start his own business. His son will consider his father a hero, and appreciate the sacrifice that he made for his son. He also wants to prove that his importance and success as a salesman was not fake, expecting a grand funeral attended by many buyers in New England (similar to the funeral of Dave Singleman). It doesn't work out that way. The insurance doesn't cover suicide and only Willy's family and their two neighbors attend the funeral. In the end, Willy's legacy is one of a broken man, whose life had become a sad failure.
Evaluation
I didn’t understand the book when I read it in class. It was all a little vague. When I saw the movie when we almost finished the book, things got more clear. I understood the flashbacks which I didn’t when I was reading the book. Some symbols and themes got more clear. Especially the plot of the book. I understood the book was about a confused salesman, but I did not get the whole idea behind it, such as the American Dream. Altogether I thought the book is much more fun when you read it the second time. Things get more clear the second time.
Passage
I choose the following page, somewhere at the end of the book.
The reason why I thought this page is so important is because Biff finds out about “the woman”, Willy’s mistress. This happens in the past and Biff is still mad at his dad in present time. He’ll never forgive his father for doing this to his mother. This is exactly why Biff and Willy fight a lot.
IB book report | Death of a Salesman |
Author: | Arthur Miller | Date of birth-death: | 17/10/1915 – 10/02/2005 | Title: | Death of a Salesman | Published by: | Penguin Classics | Year of first publication: | 1949 | Publication date of your edition: | 2000 | Relevant data on author and period: | 1932: Arthur Miller graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. | | 1940: Arthur Miller married his college sweetheart, Mary Slattery, the Catholic daughter of an insurance salesman. | | 1948: Miller wrote part one of Death of a Salesman in a day, six weeks later, he finished the play. | | 1949: Death …show more content…
of a Salesman premiered on Broadway | | 1956: Miller married Marilyn Monroe. | | 1961: Miller and Monroe divorced. | | 1962: Miller married Inge Morath. They had two children, Rebecca and Daniel. | Narrative point of view
In the play “Death of a Salesman”, the story is told from different points of view. Most parts are about the main character, Willy Loman. Willy is living a very hectic life and he has a lot of strange thoughts about certain things. He has a lot of flashbacks and those are described too.
Most of the time the conversations are between Willy and his family. When Willy is having a flashback, the characters he’s talking to are death in real life.
In the book, when a character is talking it’s formulated like this:’
Biff: Let’s go to sleep.
Happy: I guess we didn’t settle anything, heh?
Sometimes there are some pieces of texts between the conversations. This is to make a certain situation more clear or to explain something.
When a character says something with an emotion it’s formulated like this:
Biff [with enthusiasm]: Listen, why don’t you come out West with me?
Happy: You and I, heh?
In this way it’s easier to imagine the situation because it brings up certain images.
Relations | Relations with Willy Loman | | Primary characters | Secondary characters (flashbacks) | Tertiary characters | Linda Loman (wife) | Ben (brother) | Charley (neighbor) | Biff Loman (son) | The woman (mistress) | Bernard (son neighbor) | Happy Loman (son) | | Howard Wagner (boss) | | | Stanley (waiter) | | | Miss Forsythe and Letta (women Biff and Happy met) | | | Jenny (secretary Howard) |
Time
The basic story takes place in the late 1940s. The storyline takes place within one day, in the present time. Everything is told very elaborate. One chapter is equal to one conversation. In this way, we get to know the characters very well.
Willy’s flashbacks are from about 15 years earlier. You can tell this because his sons were very young at that time. Most of the time it’s confusing whether the play is about the past or the present time. Because Willy is so hectic and confused all the time, you often don’t know in which time he’s living. An example where Willy is confused and goes from present time to a flashback is:
Charley: Don’t call me disgusting, Willy. (present time) [UNCLE BEN, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a moustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as Willy speaks.]
Willy: I’m getting awfully tired, Ben. (flashback) [BEN’S music is heard. BEN looks around at everything.]
Charley: Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better.
Did you call me Ben? [BEN looks at his watch]
Willy: That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.
Ben: I only have a few minutes.
Place
The story takes place in New York, America. Willy Loman and his family live in a small house with a small yard. Their house is surrounded by apartments. Because of the huge number of population at that moment in New York (American Dream), Willy gets a bit paranoid. He’s surrounded by all kinds of apartments and there are people everywhere. This is why he’s so confused all the time, his life seems very hectic. At the end of the book he walks outside and starts to scream about how crowded his neighborhood is.
Willy [suddenly conscious of BIFF, turns and looks up at him, then begins picking up the package of seeds in confusion]: Where the hell is that seed? [Indignantly] You can’t see nothing out here! They boxed in the whole goddam neighbourhood!
The place of the play is similar to the feelings in the play. Willy is hectic all the time, so is their neighborhood because it’s so small.
Most of the time the play takes place in their home or garden. But at a certain time, they go to a restaurant. Willy is also at his office.
Social …show more content…
setting
The author does not give his meaning about certain things.
He also doesn’t chooses a side. This is because it’s a play. The book only gives us the texts and feelings of the characters. The author isn’t important at all.
The characters live in a poor environment. Willy doesn’t earn much and he has to work very hard and a lot to pay the bills. Meanwhile, he borrows money from his neighbor. His wife, Linda, doesn’t know about this. He wants to hide it from his family because he’s embarrassed.
Willy: I can’t work for you, that’s all, don’t ask me why.
Charley [angered, takes out more bills]: You been jealous of me all your life, you damned fool? Here, pay your insurance. [He puts the money in WILLY’S hand.]
Style
Death of a Salesman is written in dialogue. The book contains out of short sentences. Those sentences are the lines the characters say. The feelings of the characters are between “[ ]” signs. This way, you get to know what the characters are like and how they think about things. The parts which aren’t from the characters, are parts to make a certain situation more clear. It tells us how something look likes, or explains things. Most of the time they are about what is happening on stage.
Biff [to Happy]: I can’t talk to
him! [A single trumpet note jars the ear. The light of a green leaves stains the house, which holds the air of night and a dream. YOUNG BERNARD enters and knocks on the door of the house.]
Structure
The book contains out of two parts. This is probably because it’s a play. There aren’t any other chapters in the book. When you’re looking at a play, both parts, act one and act two, aren’t divided in small pieces either. It’s just one act with a small break in between.
The most important thing which comes back every time, are the thoughts of Willy. He’s constantly confused. He often doesn’t know the difference between the present time, and the past. In the middle of a conversation, he gets the weirdest flashbacks.
Willy has a lot of fights with his oldest son Biff. Biff found out Willy had an affair, when he was younger. His relationship with his father gets worse because he can imagine how hard it must be for his mother. However, his mother will always love Willy. She’s always very lovable towards Willy, even when Willy is so confused that he’s yelling at her.
Biff: Dad…
Willy: She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.
Biff: You-you gave her Mama’s stockings! [His tears break through and he rises to go.]
The book is divided in two time periods. The basic storyline which is happening on a normal day, and the flashbacks of Willy.
Symbolic meanings
The most important symbol in “Death of a Salesman” are the seeds. Willy sees the seeds as something very important, representing his family. They represent the opportunity for Willy to prove the worth of his labor as salesman and father. He works very hard but has a feeling it doesn’t pay off. He still can’t pay the bills and has to borrow money from his neighbor. When he dies, he can’t leave anything for his sons. He will be the same person as his own father. The seeds also represent his failure with his son Biff. Once, Biff was a popular American football player. Now he’s just some lazy person who can’t become a salesman (and live the American Dream) because he failed his exam. Willy feels if it is his fault.
Another symbol which actually is representing the opposite of the seeds, are diamonds. Seeds represent Willy’s poor life. Diamonds represent Willy’s rich dreams. He really wants to mean something to his family. Because he doesn’t earn much and has to borrow money, he wants to live like his brother once lived. He feels like a failed salesman.
Ben [with greater force]: One must go in to fetch a diamond out.
Willy [to LINDA, as he moves slowly along the edge of the kitchen, toward the door]: I just want to get settled down, Linda. Let me sit alone for a little.
Stockings are an important symbol too. They are important to Willy’s pride being financially successful. They’re also important for Willy because he betrayed Linda a few years earlier. He was seeing another woman, his mistress. He gave her Linda’s stockings. Linda didn’t know anything but his oldest son Biff found out. He was already feeling terrible because his father was seeing another woman, but it got worse when he discovered his father was giving his mother’s stockings to another woman.
An ironic symbol is the rubber pipe. He wanted to commit suicide by inhaling gas. Gas stands for health and comfort. The reason why he wanted to commit suicide, is because he could not give his family health and comfort. This is why it’s so ironic: he wants to kill himself with something that is the reason for his suicide.
Relations
Willy Loman is a salesman who wants to live the American Dream. He is very insecure because he’s not living the American Dream at all. His income is not much and that’s why he’s not doing well. He’s constantly confused and is not living the realistic world anymore. Biff (his oldest son) doesn’t really support him and this makes it even worse. Also, Biff failed in Willy’s view. He did not become a salesman and that’s why Biff and Willy are arguing most of the time.
Willy Loman has a wife and two sons.
His wife is called Linda Loman. She’s a very loving person and always supports Willy, even if he’s going through a very tough time. However, she suffers too through Willy’s grandiose dreams and self-delusion. Sometimes she’s taken in by Willy’s dreams and weird thoughts. But at other times she’s far more realistic than her husband.
Willy’s oldest son is called Biff Loman. He’s thirty-four years old and led a good life in high-school. He was the popular football-guy and had good male-friends and a lot of female admires. He did well in high school until he failed his math exam. He didn’t graduate and got fired from every job he has held. Willy wants Biff to become a salesman, just like his father. However, Biff wants to go out of town and get a job where he can work with his hands.
Happy Loman is Willy’s youngest son with an age of thirty-two. Happy always lived in the shadow of his oldest brother. He works as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department store. However, he sees his career as very good.
Willy’s next-door neighbor is Charley. Charley owns a successful business. Willy is very jealous of him and borrows money from him because he can’t afford to pay the bills all by himself. At one point Willy tells Charley that he is his best friend.
Charley’s son is Bernard. Bernard is a successful lawyer and always loved Biff and Happy. He saw Biff as a hero in high school. Bernard’s success is difficult for Willy to accept because his own sons’ lives do not measure up.
Willy’s older brother Ben only appears in Willy’s daydreams. Ben already died a few years ago. Willy regards Ben as a symbol of the success that he so desperately craves for himself and his sons.
When Biff and Happy were in high school, Willy had a mistress. Biff found out and got very angry. He didn’t have any faith anymore in his father.
Howard Wagner is the boss of Willy. He inherited the company from his father, whom Willy regarded as “a masterful man”. At a certain moment, he fires Willy.
Stanley is an old friend of Happy. He’s a waiter at coffeehouse “Frank’s Chop House” and together with Happy, they ogle Miss Forsythe before Willy and Biff arrive at the restaurant.
Miss Forsythe and Letta are two young women who Happy and Biff meet at the coffeehouse. Happy thinks they are prostitutes.
Jenny is Charley’s secretary.
Theme
Death of a Salesman contains out of several themes. The most important theme is the American Dream. Someone who’s living the American Dream is “well liked”, “personally attractive” and living a business life. Willy’s fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.
Another important theme is abandonment. Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.
Willy’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with “insult” and “spite”). Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff’s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy’s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda’s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him, Biff feels that Willy, a “phony little fake,” has betrayed him with his unending stream of ego-stroking lies.
Title
The meaning of the title is pretty obvious. “Death of a Salesman” relates in all ways to Willy who is a salesman. All his life he’s been a salesman, not a good one tough. But at a certain moment he gets very confused and commits suicide. From the other hand, Willy always believed in the American Dream. He never lived the American Dream but wanted to very bad. Willy never achieved to become a successful salesman so the dream was kind of death at the end.
Plot
Willy Loman, a sixty-year-old traveling salesman, is having trouble lately because he can't seem to keep his mind on the present. He keeps drifting back and forth between reality and memory, looking for exactly where his life went wrong. Having been demoted to a strictly commissions salesman, as he was in the beginning of his career, Willy begins to wonder what missed opportunity or wrong turn led his life to this dismal existence. Willy always believed that being well liked was the key to success -- it's not what you know, it's who you know. But now, as he nears the end of his life, he realizes that the only things you can count on are the things you can touch. You can't touch appointments and half-hearted sentiments. This was something that his brother, Ben, a man independently wealthy by the age of twenty-one, tried to tell him years ago. Despite this, Willy insisted that his success would come from being well liked.
Throughout his life, Willy attempted to show his sons the keys to success and to prepare them, or at least Biff, his oldest son, for excellence in the business world. Willy pretended to be an important, respected, and successful salesman to win the love and respect of his family (and himself in some ways). He even started believing that he was as important as he convinced the boys he was; whenever he couldn't live up to that expectation, and reality contradicted the image he tried to put forth, his whole life began to crumble. He realizes that he is a failure and he has wasted his life. Not only that, but he has taught his sons the wrong things. Now Biff is a bum who can't hold a job anywhere but in the West as a farmhand, and Hap is a philandering assistant's assistant who is just as deluded about his importance as Willy. Willy taught his sons the wrong things, and now their lives are mediocre because of it.
Willy and Biff, although close when Biff was younger, are always at odds because Biff hasn't lived up to Willy's great expectations for him. Biff was never given the proper direction to fulfill these expectations. Willy encouraged him only to be well liked and popular; Biff learned he never had to work for anything or take orders from anyone, and as a result, he couldn't keep a job in the business world. Willy even encouraged his boys to steal: another reason Biff couldn't hold a job , because he kept getting in trouble for stealing. Integrity was never an emphasized characteristic in the Loman house. Now Biff has come home and he realizes that he's just an ordinary guy who was meant for a life outside the business world. He is happy only when he is honest with himself. This realization prompts an entire overhaul of the values taught to him by his father, and Biff wants to expose the lies Willy has been telling for years. Willy won't have it. After a series of long arguments, Biff decides it's best if he leaves for good; he will never fulfill his father's dreams, nor will he convince Willy to confront reality.
Willy, now unemployed and completely broken down, decides that he must do something magnificent to prove to Biff his life wasn't useless and completely wasted. Feeling he will be of greater value dead, he kills himself so that Biff can use the insurance money to start his own business. His son will consider his father a hero, and appreciate the sacrifice that he made for his son. He also wants to prove that his importance and success as a salesman was not fake, expecting a grand funeral attended by many buyers in New England (similar to the funeral of Dave Singleman). It doesn't work out that way. The insurance doesn't cover suicide and only Willy's family and their two neighbors attend the funeral. In the end, Willy's legacy is one of a broken man, whose life had become a sad failure.
Evaluation
I didn’t understand the book when I read it in class. It was all a little vague. When I saw the movie when we almost finished the book, things got more clear. I understood the flashbacks which I didn’t when I was reading the book. Some symbols and themes got more clear. Especially the plot of the book. I understood the book was about a confused salesman, but I did not get the whole idea behind it, such as the American Dream. Altogether I thought the book is much more fun when you read it the second time. Things get more clear the second time.
Passage
I choose the following page, somewhere at the end of the book.
The reason why I thought this page is so important is because Biff finds out about “the woman”, Willy’s mistress. This happens in the past and Biff is still mad at his dad in present time. He’ll never forgive his father for doing this to his mother. This is exactly why Biff and Willy fight a lot.