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.......Traveling salesman Willy Loman arrives home later than expected one evening after a car trip through New England. When his wife, Linda, greets him, he tells her that he was delayed because his car kept swerving and he had to drive slowly. Linda is deeply concerned, for he has been in a series of accidents lately. She thinks the accidents are suicide attempts, symptoms of a terrible realization that begins to gnaw at him: failure as a husband, a father, a human being. .......Loman, 63, no longer receives a salary from his company, only commission. He lives in a shabby house on which he still owes  money.
Bills for appliance repairs are piling up. He frequently borrows money
from his neighbor Charley, a successful businessman, even though he doesn’t
like Charley and sometimes ridicules him. Willy’s son Biff is a 34-year-old
ne’er-do-well who has recently returned home from the West after failing
to make his mark. His other son, Hap, 32, has a steady job, his own apartment,
and a way with women. But he lacks the push and derring-do to rise above
mediocrity. Nevertheless, Hap has big ideas for business ventures that
he and his brother can look into now that they are together again.
.......In high school, Biff was a star football player–the pride of the Loman household–earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Virginia. But he lost it after failing a high-school math test. .......Tired and irritable after his motor trip, Willy complains to Linda about repair bills and about Biff. Nothing seems to work, he says, slamming a fist on the kitchen table–not the refrigerator, not the car, not Biff. But although Willy ridicules Biff one moment, calling him a lazy bum, he praises him the next, saying he has what it takes to succeed in the business world. .......Meanwhile upstairs, Hap–pleased that Biff has returned home–reminisces with his brother about their high-school days and proposes plans for business ventures. Biff, who has worked many jobs and says he once herded cattle, announces he may try to get a job in sporting goods with Bill Oliver, for whom he worked years before in a local store. .......Downstairs again, Willy begins hallucinating. He sees himself in the back yard of the Loman house, years ago, with his sons. Willy laughs when Biff tells him that he stole a football from a locker room. It was all good fun; it was what spirited young men do. The future is as bright as the sun that shines down on them as they play catch and Willy tells Biff that he will be a successful businessman someday, more successful than their neighbor, Charley, who owns his own business and enjoys respect even though, as Willy says, he is “liked, but not well liked.” Willy boasts about his own success: On the road selling his products, he says, everybody recognizes and esteems him; he has even met the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. .......During the hallucination, Charley’s son, Bernard, comes by and reminds Willy that Biff should be studying for his math test. Passing it will assure his entry into the University of Virginia on a scholarship. Willy dismisses Bernard as a pest; Willy’s son, a star athlete, cannot be bothered with such trivialities as math. Being able to throw a football–being able to meet the mayor of Providence–those are the things that count. Like his father, Willy says, Bernard is “liked, but not well liked.” .......Willy also hallucinates from time to time throughout the play about his late older brother Ben, who made a fortune in African diamond mines. Ben is the man Willy has always wanted to be. .......Willy returns to reality momentarily, bemoaning his present state of affairs, and Linda–ever a supporting pillar–comforts him, saying people esteem him and his sons respect him. He then slips back into an illusion, seeing himself in a Boston hotel room with a woman with whom he is having an affair. (These lapses enable playwright Miller to reveal not only Willy’s disturbed state of mind but also the secrets of his past.) He also sees Bernard again, who warns Willy that Biff is breaking the law by driving without a license and that he is jeopardizing his future by not studying for his math test. The woman in the hotel room then speaks to Willy, and he again returns to reality and shouts at Linda, this time defending Biff. .......When they hear their father ranting, Biff and Hap go downstairs. Willy and Biff argue, make up, then argue some more. Linda does her best to pacify them. Every time she interrupts the conversation to promote an armistice, Willy scolds her. Eventually, everyone makes peace and goes to bed. .......Willy’s problems continue to worsen. After Linda pleads with him to ask his boss, Howard Wagner, to station him in New York so he no longer has to go on tiring road trips, Willy broaches the idea to Wagner, saying that he’s too old to travel anymore and that he’s willing to accept a modest salary. Wagner not only refuses to grant the request, but he also fires Willy. .......Meanwhile, Biff, who has agreed to ask Bill Oliver for a job, fails even to get an interview with Oliver. In a bar where Biff, Hap, and Willy are to have dinner, Biff first lies to his father about his latest failure, then admits he did not see Bill Oliver. They argue. To pacify Willy, Biff says he has an appointment with Oliver the next day. .......Biff and Hap then leave with women they met before Willy arrived–Miss Forsythe and Letta. Willy goes to the restroom and hallucinates again about the woman in the hotel room. A persistent knock at the door of the hotel room unnerves Willy, and he orders the woman into the bathroom to hide. The door opens and Biff presents himself, informing his dad that he has traveled all the way to Boston to tell him that he failed math with a 61 and his teacher won’t give him the extra four points needed to pass and to graduate. He begs his father to talk to the teacher. .......“You’re on,” Willy says. “We’ll drive right back.” .......Biff says the teacher doesn’t like him because one day Biff imitated him in class by speaking with a lisp and crossing his eyes. They both laugh raucously. Unfortunately for Willy, the woman in the bathroom laughs too, and she comes out. Biff, shocked, begins to weep. Willy says, “She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.” .......Deeply disappointed in his father, Biff calls him a liar and a fake. The scene shifts back to the bar. When a waiter named Stanley calls out to Willy, Willy’s hallucination ends and he comes out of the restroom assisted by Stanley, who tells him that his sons have left with the two women. Willy gives Stanley dollar, saying, “You’re a good boy.” Stanley refuses the money, but Willy throws out more bills. .......“I don’t need it any more,” he says. .......Willy asks directions to a store that sells gardens seeds. After Stanley gives directions to a hardware store, he stuffs the money in Willy’s coat pocket after Willy turns around to leave. .......When Biff and Hap arrive home, Hap gives his mother flowers and tells her he and Biff were out with two girls. She angrily knocks the flowers to the floor and says, “Don’t you care whether he [Willy] lives or dies?” .......She then orders them out of the house. .......“I don’t want you tormenting him any more,” she says. .......But Biff insists on seeing his father, now in the back yard planting seeds. After going out to the garden, Biff tells Willy he is leaving never to return. They go inside and Biff asks to shake his father’s hand. Willy refuses and says, “May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” They argue violently. However, still holding out hopes for Biff, Willy says, “The door of your life is wide open!” .......Biff says, “Pop, I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you! . . . I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you.” Biff breaks down and hugs his father, and Willy says, “Isn’t that remarkable? Biff–he loves me!” Linda and Hap both assure Willy that his observation is true. Everyone goes to bed except Willy, who tells Linda he will come upstairs in two minutes. Moments later, there is the sound of a car starting up and driving off. .......There is a crash. Willy dies. .......At the funeral, Hap says Willy “did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have–to come out number-one man.” Linda says, “Willy, I can’t cry. It seems to me that you’re just on another trip . . . . I made the last payment on the house today. And there’ll be nobody home.” . Settings Willy Loman’s house in the New York City area; Boston; New York City. Some of the action takes place in flashbacks while Willy hallucinates. Protagonist:
Willy Loman
Death of a Salesman is a Drama of tragedy and pathos. It contains two acts and a conclusion called a “Requiem.” Unlike the classic Greek or Elizabethan tragedy, which focuses on the downfall of a noble character (often a king or another person of high social status), Death of a Salesman focuses on an ordinary character, a common American man. The play won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony after it debuted in New York City. Willy Loman, like so many other American men of the last century, is in conflict with society, his family, and himself. In his struggle to compete in materialistic America, he comes up short; society beats him down. In his effort to communicate with his son Biff and mold him into a success, he fails. In a war with his own inner self, he refuses to accept what he is–ordinary, average, unremarkable. Ultimately, Willy's inner and outer conflicts destroy him. The climax occurs when Biff, who well knows his own and his father's limitations, tells Willy, “Pop, I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you! . . . I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you.” The denouement, or conclusion, occurs when Willy drives off and crashes, apparently committing suicide, and his wife says at his funeral, “Willy, I can’t cry. It seems to me that you’re just on another trip . . . . I made the last payment on the house today. And there’ll be nobody home.” Death of a Salesman
was published in 1949. In that year, America was enjoying an economic boom
that initiated a significant trend: the absorption of small businesses
by large corporations that reduced the importance of the individual worker
and increased the importance of the company as a whole and its bottom line.
To an extent, Willy Loman must cope with this trend.
Theme 1 The death
of Willy Loman’s dream of a more prosperous and rewarding life for himself
and his two sons, especially Biff. Willy’s failure as a breadwinner
and father are due mostly to his own shortcomings, but he is also a victim
of the survival-of-the-fittest business philosophy taking hold in America.
References to Willy Loman's traffic accidents–possible suicide attempts, his wife thinks–at the beginning of the play foreshadow the ending and help to make it plausible. Study Questions and Essay Topics
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