Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman

The aims of the play

Miller himself defined his aim as being “to set forth what happens when a man

does not have a grip on the forces of life.”

The play shows the pros and cons of the American Dream.

Historical context

Set in the same time as it was written, so 1949.

The economy of America experienced an exceptionally prosperous period after

the end of World War II. There was a surplus of goods and lots of Americans with

the money to purchase them. Businesses of a non-agricultural basis grew by one

third and the housing market also experienced a boom.

Willy is the “American everyman” in that he represents the hopes, fears and

ideals of many aspiring entrepreneurs at the time.

The Characters

Willy Loman – main character – the salesman

Linda – wife of Willy

Biff – eldest son of Willy and Linda, aged 34

Happy – youngest son of Willy and Linda, aged 32, always been in brother’s

shadow

Charley – next door neighbour, successful business/salesman

Bernard – son of Charley, successful lawyer

The woman – a mistress of Willy’s when the boy’s were younger

Uncle Ben – Willy’s wealthy older brother, appears only in Willy’s daydreams

Howard Wagner – Willy’s Boss

Jenny – Charley’s secretary

Stanley – waiter at Frank’s Chop House, an acquaintance of Happy’s

Miss Forsythe – pretty, young woman in Frank’s Chop House, likely a prostitute

Letta – young woman Frank’s Chop House, likely a prostitute

The Story

Act 1

Willy is an aging salesman (approx 60 years old) who returns home on night

earlier than expected from a business trip. His wife is worried that something has

happened but he just said he couldn’t reach his destination. It turns out that he

couldn’t concentrate on driving and on the road and kept veering off so in the

end he drove home at 10 miles an hour with the windshield down, and the

journey ended up taking him 4 hours.

His wife tries to persuade him to get his boss to let him just work in New York

instead of travelling around but various reasons come up that mean Willy thinks

this is impossible.

Throughout the conversation Willy seems very detached and no quite in the

room.

They talk about the rising tower blocks around their house and how the increase

in people and buildings near them has ‘massacred the neighbourhood’.

Suggesting he needs to de-stress Linda comes up with the idea of a weekend trip

to the country with the car windshield down. Apparently modern cars don’t have

windshields that come down and earlier Willy had imagined he was driving a

Chevy they used to own years ago.

The two sons Happy and Biff have woken up in their room because of their

parent’s conversation. They start to talk about how Willy mocks biff for not

achieving anything and then the conversation moves on to what they do want to

achieve.

Happy has a job in a business where they build big housing estates. He owns an

apartment and a car and says he has women all the time but is not happy.

Biff suggests Happy comes out and works on the farm when he is working as it is

good strong outdoorsy work. Happy likes this idea and even one of them getting

a farm together but says he needs to earn big money first by taking over the

merchandise manager’s job when he gets the chance. He wants the ’waves to

part in front of him’ when he walks into the store the way they do for the current

merchandise manager. He also wants to settle down with a stable woman.

The scene goes back to a previous time when Happy and Biff were younger; this

is a daydream of Willy’s.

At first their lives seem content, the 3 men are all getting on well together,

talking about Biff’s expertise at football, his new University of Virginia sneakers

and Willy’s travelling (Biff is clearly Willy’s favourite, Happy is slightly in the

background), Willy says he will soon open a bigger business than Charley as

Charley is “liked but not well-liked” unlike Willy. Then Bernard enters and tells

Willy that Biff needs to study for math otherwise the teacher is going to fail him.

At first Willy says Biff should go study but then he defends his son to Bernard

saying no school is going to fail a guy that has football scholarships to 3 separate

universities. Biff then describes Bernard as “liked but not well-liked.”

Now inside the house, still in Willy’s daydream, Linda and Willy discuss how much

money he has made in the last week. The commission barely covers their

household bills.

In a moment of self-doubt Willy suggests he isn’t good in business as he is not

liked enough, he thinks he talks and jokes too much to the customers instead of

selling. Linda comforts him by calling him handsome and telling him Biff and

Happy idolize him.

The daydream changes now to a scene with The Woman. Her and Willy flirt and

kiss before the scene returns to the original daydream.

Linda is still calling Willy handsome.

Bernard returns to ask Biff to study, Willy orders him to give biff the answers but

Bernard refuses even though he has before as this is a state exam. Bernard says

biff should return the football and Linda then says she has heard that women in

the neighbourhood are scared that Biff is too rough with their daughters.

Willy gets angry and upset and shouts causing Bernard and Linda to leave.

The scene fades back to the present day; Willy is still talking to himself. Happy

appears and Willy laments on his brother Ben who recently died and made

money quickly by the age of 21 through diamond mines.

Charley comes round as he has been awakened by Willy’s shouting.

They play cards together, Willy talks to him but also to a vision of Ben. Charley

eventually leaves after Willy accuses him of cheated on cards, worried about

Willy’s disorientation and daydreaming.

Willy now becomes fully immersed in a daydream of a time when his brother

visited them when Biff and Happy were young. Ben is dignified and confident. He

is 14 years older than Willy and remembers their father whereas Willy does not.

Ben tells Biff and Happy of his success and of their grandfather. Although begged

to stay longer by Willy he leaves to catch a train.

Returning to the present day the play takes an interesting turn. Willy decides to

go for a night walk and while he is out Linda, Biff and Happy discuss his well-

being. It turns out that Willy has been having accidents in the car but they are not

really accidents he is trying to kill himself. He also has a rubber pipe next to the

water heater in the cellar and has fixed a gas nipple there. He has been taken off

salary in his job and is back on commission like a beginner. Linda is very worried

and Biff decides to stay and get a job in business instead of going back to the

farm.

The idea is to set up a sporting goods business with a loan. Biff and Happy will

demonstrate the goods therefore satisfying their want for exercise and labour.

Willy likes the idea and starts to offer advice about how Biff should go about

asking for the loan. He is quite condoning in his approach to this.

As Linda and Willy go to bed she begs him once again to get a non-travelling job.

Biff removes the rubber pipe before he goes to sleep.

Act 2

The 2nd act starts on a high note. Billy and Happy have already left and Willy is in high spirits with the prospect of the business idea. He mentions that he would like to make the garden better by planting vegetables etc. Linda reminds Willy again to ask his boss for a non-travelling job as well as an advance to pay the insurance premium.

Linda tells Willy that Biff and Happy have organised to take him to dinner at Frank’s Chop House at six o’clock.

Willy is excited at this and seems happy but just as he leaves sees a stocking in Linda’s hand that reminds him of The Woman and he is filled with guilt and tells her to throw it away.

Willy goes to see his boss Howard. Howard is playing with a wire recorder he has just purchased for dictation. Willy is repeatedly told to be quiet while Howard shows off his new machine.

Willy asks for a non-travelling job. He lowers the amount of money he is willing to earn after continual dismissal from Howard about working in New York.

After a while Willy gets angry that Howard is being condescending and calling him ‘kid’ because he remembers Howard being brought in as a baby when his father owned the business.

Desperately pleading for the job, Willy tells a story about Dave Singleman, an eighty-four-year-old salesman who sold from his hotel room. When he died the noble “death of a salesman” that eludes Willy, hundreds of salesmen and buyers attended his funeral. Willy says this is what made him want to be in sales and not follow his brother Ben. He then laments the loss of friendship and personality in the business, and he complains that no one knows him anymore.

Howard keeps making excuses to leave and when he comes back into the room after Willy accidently switches on the recorder he suggests that Willy take a period of ‘rest’, essentially firing him. He suggests that Willy ask his sons for financial help.

Willy then has another daydream about a visit from Ben and then an important game of football that Biff played in. In the daydream about the football game Charley teases Willy over the importance he is placing on the game.

Back in the present, the grown-up Bernard is asked to deal with Willy by Charley’s secretary Jenny. Outside, Willy, still immersed in his memory, argues with an invisible Charley from the past about Biff’s football game.

Bernard talks with Willy and they discuss why Biff’s life ended after the big football game mentioned earlier. Apparently although Biff failed maths he could have gone to summer school to catch up and he was going to until he went away with Willy to Boston for a while. When he came back he burnt the Uni of Virginia sneakers.

Bernard asks if something happened in Boston that could have changed Biff’s mind. Willy becomes angry and thinks Bernard is blaming him.

Charley enters and Bernard leaves to go argue a case at the Supreme Court.

In his office, Charley counts out fifty dollars to loan to Willy. Willy asks for the extra to pay the insurance etc and Charley gets angry as he offered Willy a job where he didn’t need to travel but Willy wouldn’t take it.

Willy once again refuses the job, saying he has one already but Charley dismisses him saying it isn’t a job where he earns any money. Willy admits he was fired.

Charley angrily gives Willy the money for his insurance and Willy leaves in tears.

The scene changes to Frank’s Chop House. Happy talks with the waiter, Stanley and they ogle over a girl (Miss Forsythe) who walks in. Happy is flirting her when Biff arrives.

Happy lies about his and Biff’s jobs to try and make them seem better than they are. He invites her to join them for dinner; she leaves to ask one of her friends to come too.

Happy enquires about the loan appointment and Biff explains that he waited six hours to see Oliver, only to have Oliver not even remember him.

Biff says he was never a salesman for Oliver really, he had actually been only a lowly shipping clerk, but somehow Willy’s exaggerations and lies had transformed him into a salesman in the Loman family’s collective memory.

Happy believes that Biff should pretend to Willy that he has a lunch date with the loan guy, Oliver, the next day just to keep him happy. He says that they can keep giving excuses and eventually Willy will forget about the whole idea.

Willy arrives revealing that he has been fired. He says he wants some good news from the boys to tell Linda. Despite this Biff tries to tell the truth but Happy stops him.

After some confused conversation and shouting about Biff’s failures Biff once again tries to tell the truth but Willy absolutely refuses to listen to Biff’s story.

As the truth begins to dawn on him, Willy enters a semi-daydream state, reliving Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room.

Biff tries to calm his father down but Willy says Biff is full of spite and lashes out. He then wanders to the toilet talking to himself.

Miss Forsythe returned with her friend Letta in the middle of the argument and Happy tries to persuade her that Willy is not actually their father. Biff angrily tells Happy to help Willy, accusing him of not caring about their father. He leaves.

Happy rushes after Biff, and Willy is left alone babbling to himself in the toilet.

Willy’s daydream of Biff discovering The Woman becomes more prominent.

Biff comes to tell Willy he has failed Math and asks Willy to persuade the maths teacher to pass him. Willy promises to help but is just trying to get Biff out of the room quickly.

The Woman emerges from the bathroom nearly naked and although Willy tries to make excuses Biff sees it clearly for what it is, an affair.

Biff decides not to go to summer school killing Willy’s American Dream of his son’s success. He accuses Willy of giving Linda’s stockings away to his mistress. Biff leaves, with Willy shouting after him.

Stanley makes Willy come out of his daydream and Willy goes to buy seeds for his garden.

Biff and Happy return home later that night with a bouquet of roses for Linda but she is angry about them leaving their father and tells them to go away and never come back.

It turns out Willy is now frantically planting seeds even though it is dark. He is once again talking to an invisible Ben. He says to Ben that Biff will realise how important he is once he sees the number of people who attend his funeral. Ben warns that Biff will call him a coward and hate him. Willy is clearly contemplating suicide, which would allow his family to cash in on his life insurance policy.

Biff goes outside and tells Willy that he is going away and not to keep in touch. He says Willy should try and forget him.

Willy believes Biff is being spiteful again and throwing his life away, so Biff confronts him with the rubber hose.

Biff says the family never tell the truth ‘for ten minutes in this house.’ Happy has been exaggerating his position in the company, he would never become the manager he is and assistant of an assistant.

Biff wants to learn who he is and for his father to learn who he is as well. He urges Willy to accept that they are common; they are not destined for leadership or wealth.

Biff is now crying and he leaves to go to bed. Willy feels happy because he thinks Biff must like him because he cried and his own delusions of his son’s success are re-established. Linda and Happy tell him that Biff has always loved him.

They all go to bed apart from Willy. He says he will go upstairs soon.

Willy daydreams of Ben again and says he thinks Biff will go far with $20,000 of insurance money. Ben disappears although Willy tries to make him not.

Linda calls for Willy to come to bed but he doesn’t and then the family hear the car start and speed away.

Requiem

Linda, Happy, Biff, Charley and Barnard are the only ones who come to Willy’s

funeral. Linda is upset by this but also wonders why Willy killed himself when

they were so near to paying all their bills off.

Biff says he thinks Willy was happier working on the house than he was as a

salesman and that he had all the wrong dreams. Charley replies that a salesman

has to dream or he is lost, and he explains the salesman’s undaunted optimism in

the face of certain defeat as a function of his irrepressible dreams of selling

himself.

Happy says he will fulfil Willy’s dream himself.

They leave and Linda is left on her own by the grave. She speaks to Willy telling

him she paid the last part of the mortgage off and then says sorry for not crying

but as Willy was away for a lot it hasn’t hit her yet. She starts to sob, saying

“We’re free” over and over again. Biff helps her to leave and they all exit.

Synopsis

Basically, Willy is a failing 60 year old salesman who is slowly going mad due to his

depression and failure to live up to his dreams. Despite his family’s attempts to help him

he eventually commits suicide as he believes his family’s life will be better off after he is

dead as they can get more insurance money from that than he can earn. His constant

daydreams show how he believed his life and his son’s lives could turn out. He was

particularly hopeful about Biff and because neither of his sons have amounted to

anything he feels he and they are failures.

Themes

The American Dream – what they want, similar to Of Mice and Men in Biff (and

Happy)’s case. Charley and Bernard epitomise the dream, bringing it so close to

home. This is the constant reminder of Willy’s unfulfillment of the dream. The

story of Dave Singleman also represents the dream.

Abandonment – Biff and Happy do not visit home often, Willy’s decline in mental

state has been going on for a while but they did not know. Willy’s abandonment

by killing himself.

Betrayal – The affair, causes guilt. Also betrayal of the business, it isn’t a friendly

place to work anymore.

Hope this helps if you need anything else let me know