Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
"Death of a Salesman" is a poignant play by Arthur Miller that explores the life and struggles of Willy Loman, a 63-year-old traveling salesman who faces the harsh realities of his declining career and the disillusionment of his family. Set in Brooklyn, the narrative unfolds as Willy grapples with his past and present failures, both personally and professionally. He longs for success and the American Dream, but finds himself increasingly isolated as his sales dwindle and his aspirations for his sons, Biff and Happy, remain unfulfilled.
The play delves into themes of identity, self-worth, and the impact of societal expectations on individual lives. Willy's relationship with his wife, Linda, and his sons reveals the emotional toll of his relentless pursuit of success, leading to profound moments of reflection and conflict. As Willy's mental state deteriorates, he ultimately makes a tragic decision, believing that his death will provide financial security for his family through life insurance. The story culminates in a powerful exploration of family dynamics and the complexities of human aspiration, leaving audiences to reflect on the nature of success and the cost of dreams.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
First produced: 1949; first published, 1949
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Tragedy
Time of plot: 1940’s
Locale: New York and Boston
Principal characters
Willy Loman , a traveling salesmanLinda , his wifeBiff , their older sonHappy , their younger sonCharley , their neighborBernard , Charley’s sonUncle Ben , Willy’s successful brotherHoward Wagner , Willy’s boss
The Story
Very late one night, having that morning set out on a sales trip to Portland, Maine, Willy Loman returns to his Brooklyn home because he repeatedly drove his car off the side of the road. Now sixty-three years old, Willy has worked as a traveling salesman for the Wagner Company for more than thirty years. Of late, his sales have declined because his old customers are dying or retiring. The company takes away his salary to make him work on straight commission. His wife, Linda, comforts Willy when he returns and encourages him to ask Howard Wagner for a position in the New York office, where he will not have to travel and can once again earn a guaranteed salary.
Upstairs in their old bedroom, Willy’s sons, Biff and Happy, reminisce about their happier times as adolescents and talk about how disappointing their lives are. At thirty-four years of age, Biff has held many different kinds of jobs since leaving high school, and he feels that he is not progressing toward anything. He was a high school football star but did not win a college scholarship because he failed a mathematics course and refused to make up the credits to graduate at summer school. Biff has just returned home from working on a farm in Texas, and that morning Willy already begins criticizing him about his failure to make money and to find a prestigious profession. Biff’s younger brother, Happy, remains in New York City, working in a low-level sales position and spending most of his time seducing women. As they talk, Biff and Happy decide they can be successful and much happier if they go into business together.
While Biff and Happy talk upstairs, Willy sits in the kitchen and talks loudly to himself, reliving moments from his past: Biff preparing for an important football game, Biff and Happy cleaning the family car, Willy’s own joy in working with his hands on projects around the house, and his afternoons in a hotel room with a woman on one of his sales trips to Boston. Eventually, Willy’s neighbor, Charley, comes over from next door. As Charley and Willy talk and play cards, Willy imagines that he is talking to his older brother, Ben, who once invited Willy to join him in Alaska to make his fortune. After Charley returns home, Willy moves outside, still caught up in his imagined conversation. Linda comes back downstairs and tells Biff and Happy of her fear that Willy is planning to kill himself (she had discovered a piece of rubber hose connected to a gas pipe in the basement). When Willy comes back into the house, the conversation turns to the dreams Willy has of Biff becoming a successful salesman and an entrepreneur. At Willy’s urging, the family agrees that the next morning Biff should see Bill Oliver, one of his former bosses, and ask for a loan to start a sporting goods business.
The next morning, Willy goes to his own boss, Wagner, to ask for a position in the New York office. Instead of getting a new position, however, he is fired from his job. Willy leaves Wagner’s office and goes to Charley’s office to ask for a loan to pay his bills. There he encounters Charley’s son, Bernard, a childhood friend of Biff and Happy and now a successful lawyer arguing cases in front of the US Supreme Court. Willy asks how Bernard managed to succeed when Biff and Happy failed, but Bernard asks why Biff, after flunking mathematics, never went to summer school so as to graduate from high school.
Happy goes to a local restaurant to arrange a dinner to celebrate Biff’s successful meeting with Mr. Oliver, but when Biff arrives he reports that Mr. Oliver did not remember him and that, in his anger, Biff impulsively stole Mr. Oliver’s fountain pen. When, however, he hears his father’s news that he was fired, Biff lies about his meeting with Mr. Oliver and, to console his father, describes it as a success. Happy arranges for two women to join them at the restaurant. When Willy goes to the washroom, Biff and Happy leave the restaurant with the two women and abandon their father. In the washroom, Willy has a flashback and remembers the time, right after Biff flunked his mathematics course, when Biff came to Boston on a surprise visit and caught Willy with another woman in his hotel room. It was this discovery that kept Biff from going to summer school and from graduating from high school.
After leaving the restaurant, Willy decides on the way home that the best way he can provide for his wife and sons is to commit suicide, so that the life insurance settlement of twenty thousand dollars would come to them after his death. Happy and Biff return home from their dates with the two women and are greeted by Linda’s reprimand for abandoning Willy at the restaurant. Biff responds angrily, accusing Willy and Happy of not facing the reality of their ordinary lives. He claims that he finally understands himself and will go back to farming and working with his hands, outdoors, where he is genuinely happy. This emotional confrontation ends with Biff crying on his father’s shoulder. Moved by his son’s display of affection, Willy leaves the house and drives the car to his death. In the play’s last scene, in the cemetery after Willy’s funeral, Linda talks to Willy over his grave and reflects on the irony that he killed himself just as they finished paying for their house.
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