Death of a Salesman Summary and Analysis

Death of a Salesman: A Summary

Author:  Arthur Miller

Setting: In Willy Loman's home (most of play)- house has no roof and is disjointed in areas

             In Boston

             In New York City- sales office, Charley’s law office, restaurant

Characters:

Willy Loman- salesmen, father to Biff and Happy, husband to Linda. About 62 years old and ready to retire. He experiences jumps into the past several times during the play and is contemplating killing himself, so his family can have the insurance money. He and Biff have a strained relationship because of an instance in Boston. He always conveys to his children that selling is the best job a man could do, but he shows some regret in his decision to stat in New York instead of going to Alaska to search for gold with his brother.

Linda Loman- Wife of Willy; a meek character; knows about Willy trying to kill himself, but will not stop it; believes Willy to be a good man. Towards the end, she becomes very upset with her sons, even telling Biff he should leave.

Biff Loman- Willy’s and Linda’s oldest son. Never graduated from high school; high school football star; bad relationship with Willy; early 30s; wants to work outdoors and farm, but Willy wants him to be a salesman; eventually decides to move back West

Happy Loman- Younger brother; works as an assitant at a company; womanizer, claims he sleeps with women that are married and about to be married; people pleaser; wants to live like his father has

Uncle Ben- Willy’s brother; struck gold in Africa (South) while trying to go to Alaska (Northwest); large man, sophisticated; portrayed as successful, though he is dead

Charley- Willy’s neighbor; lawyer; portrayed as successful; father of Bernard; loaning Willy money to Willy every week

Bernard- Charley’s son; about Biff’s age; in high school was considered nerdy by Willy; arguing a case at the supreme court; portrayed as successful by Willy

Howard- Willy’s boss; fires Willy; has a wife, daughter, and son; father used to own company; portrayed as successful by Willy

The Woman- a secretary Willy met while selling; Willy cheats on Linda with her and is caught by Biff

Summary:

Willy Loman is in his sixties and still working as a salesman, but he cannot even bring money in through selling. With Biff staying in his house, Willy is on edge and begins to jump back to past memories, where the entire family seems happier. Biff is a football star, Willy is making a bit more money, and overall Biff seems to admire Willy.

Willy also seems to show Ben his brother in a positive light. Ben makes a lot of money, according to Willy, and he has so much money because he struck gold in Africa, though he was heading to Alaska. Ben did physically hurt Biff in the memory, but Willy still admires him.

Back to the present, Biff tells Willy that he is going to meet a salesmen he used to work with and tell him about an idea he has for sports equipment. He tells Willy this after he hears about Willy’s attempts to kill himself, and is making an effort despite his desire to work with his hands in the West. Willy shows aggression towards Linda, which upsets Biff, but they all go to bed with their plans intact.

The next day, Willy goes to his boss, Howard, to tell him he wants to work in New York CIty instead of traveling. Howard messes around with his recorder, showing Willy, before he finally tells Willy he has to fire him. Willy tries to bargain salary with him, but Howard refuses.

Willy visits his neighbor, Charley’s office to borrow money. He sees Biff’s childhood friend and finds out that Biff decided to not go to summer school, despite the fact he failed a class and was unable to graduate, after he visited Willy in Boston. He also finds out that Bernard is arguing a case at the Supreme Court and takes money from Charley, but refuses a job.

Willy goes to meet Biff and Happy at the restaurant, where Biff is telling Happy that he did not ever sell for the man he saw and that he did not see him. Instead he stole his pen, something he says he does to sabotage himself at many jobs.

Willy shows up, and Happy tells Biff to tell Willy what he wants to hear. Biff tells Willy that he has a meeting with the man the next day. Happy and Biff leave, abandoning Willy at the restaurant. Willy is in the memory where Biff discovers him cheating on Linda. Biff starts crying and leaves Willy in Boston.

When home, Willy is planting seeds, but Biff quickly gets in a fight with him. Biff decides to leave, but still cries to Willy. Willy crashes his car and dies, so the family can collect on the insurance. At the funeral, Biff goes one way and Linda, Happy, Bernard, and Charley go another.

Death of a Salesman: An Analysis

Theme: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman conveys that society’s definition of success may not match one’s own dream and ignoring one’s true dream may lead to destruction.

Throughout the play, Willy struggles with his true desire. He seems to believe selling is the best thing he should be doing, but also displays regret in his decision to sell instead of going to Alaska with Ben. By the end of the play, it is clear that Willy's true desire to similar to Biff's. He is happiest planting seeds in the backyard. Linda even says he put his best work in the porch he built on their house. Still, Willy's focus is on selling. He refuses to abandon the work he has done in sales, despite his lack of ability to sell. Sometimes he displays that he is good at selling, but more often he is complaining that people do not take well to him. His low commission is more evidence that he is not good at what he is doing. 

Other characters, like Charley, Bernard, and Ben, achieve more success just because they do not try to go against their own desires. All cultivate the things they are good at, though they are all in different fields, and in the end they are paid back for their work with money and happiness from Willy's point of view.

POV:

The play centers around Willy and the memories are being remembered by him. Because of this, many aspects are hard to trust. With so many actions and words from Willy being contradictions, parts of the memories, like how much Willy made or Biff’s admiration of him, could be exaggerated. Some people even debate the existence of Ben.

Tone:

The play is largely a tragedy, which makes the whole tone of the play negative and sad. The characters bring out pity and Willy is often pitied by other characters, like Charley, Bernard and Howard. Generally, the entire play displays a negative outlook on society and how work is viewed.

Imagery:

Most of the imagery comes from Miller’s detailed stage directions. The stage directions make Willy seem small and weak, but also unbalanced. The smallest things make Willy incredibly angry or happy and the emotions change quickly. Biff on the other hand seems to be above what is happening towards the end. He is described as above the earth and often has light around him. This contradicting descriptions show how Willy is unaware of the world and himself, while Biff is self aware.

Symbolism:

The seeds and porch symbolize Willy’s true desire to work with the land, rather than be a salesman. Willy only became a salesman because he thought it would make him successful. The seed are planted in infertile ground and will not grow because the dream of working with the land, maybe in the West, like Biff wants, is lost on Willy by the end of the play.

The recorder symbolizes Willy’s lack of understanding with his past. Willy is unable to admit that he is the reason Biff did not go to summer school and have a successful life. Biff defied Willy because he cheated and because Biff lost respect for him. The recorder’s perfect memory forces Willy to recognize his flaws.

Quotes:

“And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want” (Miller 81)

Here, Willy shows that he only became a salesman because he saw someone else was successful at it. He thinks that being a salesman is the key to success, when in reality, Willy is entirely unsuccessful as a salesmen. He really does not want to be a salesmen, but convinces himself to want it and tries to convince Biff and Happy they want it too. In the end, Willy’s greatest achievement is his porch that he built. This is true, though he tells Biff that he cannot be successful if he works on a farm, because he measures success through the man he met, through society.

“Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (122).

Here, Willy is literally talking about planting seeds in his back yard, a yard that is unable to grow anything. But, figuratively, Miller is trying to show that Willy is going to die with sons he disapproves of and really no legacy of success. Willy made all his decisions because he wanted to be successful and have hundreds of people at his funeral, but he does not achieve this goal. This is because he does not spend his life working with his true desire, but instead focuses on ways other people, like the man he met, his father, Ben, etc. were successful. In the end, Willy only has two sons to leave behind and neither have done what Willy wanted them to do, neither could be labeled successful in his eyes.