Death of a Salesman: Summary and Analysis

Summary:

Death of a Salesman, a play by Arthur Miller, follows Willy Loman and the seemingly drastic, dramatic collapse of his life. Willy's eldest son Biff returning home is the primary catalyst for this. Willy desperately wants Biff fulfill the dream he sets up for him: a popular, well-liked, successful businessman. However, at the time of the play Biff is 34 and has been travelling around working temporary blue collar jobs. In a series of flashbacks we learn that Biff didn't graduate college because he flunked a math class, that Willy has cheated on his wife Linda with another woman, that his older brother Ben had inspired him, and that Willy is not nearly the businessman that he claims he is. Willy's family, but especially his wife Linda, keep reinforcing the idea in Willy's mind that he's a good salesman, perpetuating the false reality that Willy has seemed to create for himself. Linda and Biff also learn that Willy has had thoughts of suicide. Willy is fired from his job, though he can't seem to understand the reasoning behind it, and loans money from his friend Charlie. However, he won't take a job from Charlie. Biff's meeting with his old "friend" falls through, and although Biff's brother Happy tries to convince Willy that it went swimmingly, Biff tells his father otherwise at a restaurant. Willy can't seem to accept this and breaks down, where in more flashbacks we learn that Biff didn't go to a summer school he could have gone to to graduate after he had earlier caught Willy cheating on Linda. Willy completely snaps at this point, and Linda tells Biff to leave because he's going to end up killing Willy. Biff agrees to go, but another argument breaks out between Biff and Willy. Biff thinks that what he's said will keep Willy from killing himself. But Willy, after talking with a hallucination of his now dead brother Ben, convinces himself to commit suicide, and does so by driving his car off of a bridge as a boat passes. Willy's family may have collected life insurance due to his suicide, but regardless they are able to pay off the house shortly after his death. Willy says earlier that he wants to be a good salesman, to be popular, and well-liked. However, only four people are present at his funeral.

Theme:

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman comments that America's conformist society inhibits the pursuit of one's dreams, which can lead to tragic outcomes.

Analysis:

Main Characters:

Willy Loman - Willy has a somewhat admirable attitude of self-reliance. He wants to provide for his family and he wants to do it all by himself. He wants to succeed on his own merits, through hard work. The problem is that he wants to do this without actually having any merits or work ethic. He's a terrible businessman, and he seems completely fine with stealing and lying if it benefits him (he even cheats on his wife for the sake of business). He's also created his own world for himself, where he is the successful and well-liked businessman that he wants to be. However, semi-frequent relapses back into reality result in numerous contradictions and lies. Eventually, suicide becomes the best "business venture" he can see, and that plus the toll that reality is putting on his mind ultimately leads to his suicide.

Biff Loman - Biff is a lot like Willy when he's a kid. He holds a similar ideological view of the world and is okay with stealing and lying in the same way that Willy is. However, after Biff catches Willy cheating on Linda his worldview is shattered. It remains partially intact, but this leads to Biff not knowing what to do with his life. He works blue collar jobs after failing to graduate from college, but gets pulled back home and tries to go the business route again. However, it's this failure that finally and completely breaks the facade. While Willy is unable to ever confront reality, Biff is. He may take a rather pessimistic view towards his situation as a result, but he's no longer deluding himself. At the end of the play, Biff seems to have more direction than he began with.

Linda Loman - She is one of the biggest reasons that Willy can never confront and deal with reality. She helps maintain the delusion that Willy has built for himself, largely because she fear what will happen if it ever crumbles. She worries that Willy breaking from his delusion will result in his suicide, which is partially correct. She's fiercely protective of Willy, to the point where she's ready to throw out her two sons to save him. She's rather static as a character, however.

Biffy Loman - He's kind of ignored in the grand scheme of things. Willy always focuses on Biff's future instead of Happy's, even though Happy is only a few years younger. Biff does his best to appease everyone at almost all times. Even if this results in massive contradictions and enormous lies, he tries to keep everyone happy and pleased. Him lying to Willy about the result of Biff's meeting with Oliver is the most glaring incident. He also has lots of promiscuous sex with (often married) women with seemingly no intent to ever actually settle down, even though he continuously tells his mother that he'll get married.

Conformity:

Being a businessman is probably not what Willy, deep down, really wants to do. But he sees it as a quick way to success, largely inspired by his brother Ben: "...when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!" (36-37). Willy pushes himself into this mold because he kind of sees it as the American dream. You go through the system and you come out rich. Only it's not that simple. It's not as simple as Ben makes it seem like it was for him. And Willy doesn't realize that. He fails as a result. He doesn't become the success he imagines, because he thinks by just conforming to the system, things will work out and he'll be happy. He would have been a much better carpenter than a businessman. Biff confronts the issue of conformity though, except he realizes that it's not giving him what he wants, and by the end of the play he's broken the mold and completely resisted the conformity that his father succumbed to. "Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be?" asks Biff in his final argument with his father (105). Willy thinks that by conforming and buying into the system he'll be successful and thus be happy. He gets neither of those things. And when Biff tries to do the same thing, he gets the same result. One of the central points in this play is the contrast there between Willy and Biff. We don't get to find out if Biff ever does become successful or happy after having broken the mold, but I'm led to believe that he's already off to a better start than Willy ever was.

Setting (but really more conformity):

The setting reflects the growing conformity too. The house is, during the flashbacks, in an open area. There's so much left for development, anything could happen in the land surrounding the house. But in the present the house is surrounded by large apartment buildings, locked in place, unwavering and unyielding, they leave no room for change and no room for development. If you travel around you're going to get one thing and one thing only.