The Death of a Salesman

Excuse the length of this. I plan on using DOS on my open prompt so i took the liberty of rewriting pretty much the whole darn story as a refresher. :)

The play, Death of a Salesmen (DOS) by Arthur Miller takes place in mostly New York (once in Boston), probably in the mid 1900s. It revolves around Willy Loman, a salesmen and his family. The play goes back and forth between the present and Willy's memories as the audience finds out the event that destroyed Willy and his family.

The play starts with Willy, returning home from a failed sales trip, tired and worn. His faithful wife, Linda, suggests he ask his boss to get him a desk job in New York but  Willy insists he is needed elsewhere. The conversation moves to their son, Biff, who has not made of anything of himself and has returned home which sends Willy on a rant about how lazy be thinks Biff is. Meanwhile, Biff and his brother, Happy are upstairs in bed, talking about their failed dreams and they half heartedly agree to start a ranch together. Linda, trying to calm Willy down,  suggests him to get food and he begins to hallucinate/talk-to-himself/get-a-little-craycray/flashback/or-all-of-the-above to the time when Biff and his other son, Happy, were younger, in high school. In this memory, Biff is a football star, the family interacting affectionately with each other as they are approached by Bernard, their neighbor’s son who insists that Biff study for math. Willy says that will Bernard is smart, he isn’t “well-liked” and therefore, will be unsuccessful in the future. He also hears the laughter of a woman, not Linda, and gives her stockings. The woman disappears and Bernard comes in again, looking for Biff, telling Willy he’s been stealing and roughing with girls, unable to take it, Willy yells at Bernard and Linda and they leave, him coming back to reality. Happy comes down stairs at the commotion, trying to ease Willy. This only angers him more and he yells, stopping when Charley, Bernard’s father and their neighbor, enters as Happy leaves. They sit down to a game of cards and Willy enters another daydream about his brother, Ben, who struck it rich in Africa after traveling to Alaska. He asks for his secret to success but Ben tells him he needs to leave. Meanwhile, in reality, Willy has been talking outloud and has called Charley Ben, when Charley questions him, Willy yells at Charley and he leaves.  Willy reenters his daydream as he walks outside while young Linda and their sons talk about Willy and his ‘condition’. Linda tries to defend Willy as Biff calls him a fake, and tells the boys that their father has tried to commit suicide. Willy then comes inside and yells at Biff for being a failure, Happy sooths Willy with the idea of the brothers starting a sporting goods business together. They agree that Biff will ask for a loan from Biff’s old boss to start the business.

            Act II starts with breakfast at the Loman’s, Linda reminding Willy that the boys are taking him out tonight. Enthralled, Willy decides this is the day he asks for a job in New York from his boss, Howard. However, when Willy is at Howard’s office, Howard denies his request and this sends Willy on a tangent about his time spent at the company and why he dream of being a salesmen in the first place. Howard tells him to take some time off and sends him out of his office where Willy begins to hallucinate/daydream/I’m-never-sure-which-one-he’s-doing about Ben, Alaska, Linda and his sons, being well liked and Biff’s football game and Bernard. Eventually, he is brought out of his daydream by an older Bernard, successful and a lawyer. Disappointed, he wonders out loud how come Biff failed and Bernard alludes to Biff’s failure in his math course. Willy begins to get defensive and Charley enters to see Bernard. Willy asks for more money but Charley offers Willy a job (again) but Willy refuses. Charley then yells at Willy for always needing to be well liked but gives him the money.

            At the diner, the boys wait for their father to arrive and they flirt with girls. It’s revealed that Biff waited for six hours to talk to Bill Oliver and Bill didn’t even recognize him. When his father arrives, Biff tries to tell him the truth but Willy isn’t listening as he daydreams again. Finally, Biff explodes and yells at him the truth. Biff just stole a pen from Bill’s office and he’s realized that the salesmen life isn’t for him. Biff helps at distraught and crazy Willy into the restroom and leaves, Happy already gone with two girls.

            In the restroom, Willy remembers the time when he is in Boston, having an affair with a woman. Biff comes to him, after failing his math course and finds him in the affair, realizing what a fake Willy is, that the father he knew and looked up to wasn’t what he told him he was. A waiter helps Willy out of the restroom and he walks him, but not before buying seeds.

            The family reconvenes at home, Linda scolding her sons for leaving their father. Biff leaves to go find Willy and he does, outside in the garden, daydreaming, talking to Ben about a 20K proposition. Willy goes inside and he and Biff argue, when Biff begins to cry, Willy is taken aback, surprised that his son is crying over him. Everyone goes to bed except Willy who goes back to talking to Ben about the 20K proposition. The family hears Willy speed off in his car, presumably committing suicide.

            In the requiem, Charley and Willy’s family stand at his grave. Biff states he believed that Willy had the wrong dream, Charley thinks Willy was a salesman and died in the way all salesmen had. Happy hopes to continue Willy’s vision. It ends with Linda, saying that she paid the last mortgage payment that day.

______________________

Characters:

Willy Loman- The father and patriarch to the Loman family, Willy is an old man in his sixties. He lives on the hopes of a dream, to become a salesmen he had once met, one that was highly successful and “well liked”. He also has a brother who he admires that went off to Alaska and got rich and never really got to know his own father. He is, however, hard on his sons, especially Biff who conflicts with him often. Willy is also prideful, childish and prone to “dramatize” things. It’s funny, because his name is Low Man. Represents the average man trying to attain the American Dream.

Linda Loman- The wife of Willy and mother Biff and Happy, she is the dedicated and faithful wife. It seems like she either genuinely loves Willy to the deepest depths of her heart or (my personal interpretation of her) chooses to stay with him because she has no other place to go and really, she’s known about his affair all along and puts up with it. She’s the more realistic and morthers Willy.

Biff Loman- Argueably Willy’s favorite son, was a star football player in high school and failed a math course that eventually halted his career. He’s a kleptomaniac because of the pressure that Willy puts on him, constantly telling him what he has to be. After discovering that his father was a fake, Biff loses sight of his dreams and beliefs, working job to job. He also “likes to work with his hands” and while I’m tempted to make a dirty joke out of that, it’s more likely referring to Biff’s love of agriculture and ranching. He’s representative of the farmers/people that don’t try to achieve the American dream in America.

Happy Loman- Brother to Biff, he’s sort of like the second best/first loser. Was a lame-o in HS but then he whipped himself up and now he’s a total lady killer. He isn’t a success in terms of money either and this upsets Willy too but not to the same degree as Biff. He acts as a buffer between Willy and Biff, often trying to calm their arguments and compromising. After Willy’s death, he promises to carry out his father’s dreams and become a salesmen.

Charley- Willy’s successful neighbor that’s been loaning him money for quiet some time. He sees the world for what it is, unlike Willy, he often acts as a voice of reason to Willy’s insanity. (I’m tempted to call them foils but…) Willy seems jealous of him or what he has and seems to compete with him, all the while calling him his “only friend.”

Bernard- The successful son of Charley, he successes only because his father never pressured him and left him to grow by himself. While Willy’s delusions make him out to be a soft, wimpy, whiney boy, his own recollection (which I trust more than Willy’s) makes him out to be more of an equal to Biff than an underling.

Narrative Voice

Since DOS is a play, there really isn’t a point of view. The tone is definitely interesting, you get this ominous feeling that you’re waiting for the ball to drop (It is called Death of a Salesman after all), you feel Willy’s anxiety and the suspense created by his daydreams. I think that a major component to the tone is the flute that’s played, it works as symbolism to signal the start of Willy’s daydreams.

Symbols

Seeds/Flowers: Willy goes looking for seeds after Biff abandons him at the restaurant and he speaks of  flowers and how his neighborhood now does not have any. The lack of growth that surrounds Willy symbols the lack of growth within himself, his money or his sons. His need to go and buy seeds in the middle of the night shows his desperation to try and succeed in something.

Diamonds/Wealth like the radio: Symbolizes the American dream that Willy is trying to achieve yet never does.

Stockings: Willy’s guilt and his affair with the woman in the hotel.

Quotes:

“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.” This explains who Willy is and why is he the way he is, specifically the dream in which he is trying to achieve. It also highlights the gritty truth behind the job of a salesman, all he has is what’s in his hands and his hopes.

“A dime a dozen” In contrast with the quote above, Biff states that they’re just a dime in a dozen. Meaning that they’re not really that single special snowflake but in fact, many and plenty. This destroys Willy’s idea of being that salesman who walks in and is greeted and loved, Biff has realized this and that’s why he says that he’s “a nobody.”

Theme:

Miller uses the dysfunction of a family and the death of a salesman to critique the illusion of the American values and dreams.

(All the stuff mentioned above proves the theme so I won’t reference any specifics that’s already been mentioned) The problem that Miller is trying to address isn’t the American dream itself or even it’s failures so much as the idealism and mistaken perfection behind it. Willy’s American dream is that if you’re well like enough that you’ll get somewhere in life, that if people love you enough, the sales will make themselves whereas Charley and Bernard shows that it’s hardwork that proves to be a success in the American society. He’s also, at the same time critiquing the dysfunction of a family caused by the American society through Willy’s affair and his struggle with Biff and Happy.