Death of a Salesman Summary/Analysis

• Summary: Death of a Salesman begins with an exhausted Willy returning from an out of town business trip. Upstairs, Happy and Biff, who are in their 30s but still living with their parents, reminisce about their younger years. Back downstairs, Willy daydreams about the earlier years, when Biff's life still held promise and money didn't seem so tight, however, we can see that things are starting to unravel: Biff is failing math, Willy's mistress makes an appearance, and Linda gets Willy to tell her the truth about his sales trip, which wasn't so successful after all. He lapses into another daydream about a younger Linda. Here Willy expresses his regret of not going with Ben, his older brother, on an adventure to Alaska and Africa, where Ben became rich. In the present, Linda and the two boys come downstairs to try and console Willy, and that is when Happy and Biff discuss going into business together and Willy tells Linda that he will ask for a New York, instead of travelling, sales job in the morning. The act ends on a happy note, with everyone going to bed full of promise. In the morning, Willy visits Howard, his boss, and attempts to ask him for a New York job, but Howard is too preoccupied with a new piece of technology, the wire recorder. This suggestion that Willy is too old fashioned in his methods is only solidified when Howard refuses Willy the job and instead fires him, because he and his job have been eliminated by call centers within the office. After this incident, Willy goes to Charley's office to ask for money before meeting up with Happy and Biff at a nice restaurant. At the restaurant, it is revealed that Biff failed to get a salesman job that day, and after fighting with them, Willy reverts to daydreaming about his mistress. We find out that Willy's affair is the reason for Biff not going to summer school and therefore failing high school. Back at their house, Willy is found in the backyard, in a state of daydreams, planting seeds, which suggest that he wants to start again, or return to nature to "be free". Biff decides to leave the house, and when he tries to bring Willy inside and say goodbye, Willy becomes mad with him. The motif of $20,000 culminates in Willy's suggestion that that amount would be useful to the family, and they could get it from insurance money if he were to die. With that, Willy crashes his car and kills himself. At the funeral, Linda apologizes for not being able to cry, and ends with telling Willy that they are now "free".
• Basics:
• Author: Arthur Miller
• Setting:  Brooklyn, late 1940s
• Significant characters: Willy, Linda (the coddling mother, trying to keep the family together), Happy (searching for his father's approval, even as an adult), Biff (even though he was brought up as a god figure, has failed to live up to expectations), Bernard (realistic, voice of reason, understated success)
• Title significance: the title on the surface obviously suggests Willy's death, but deeper, it shows Willy's desire for a well-attended funeral, which he thinks shows that he was well liked. Unfortunately, his funeral is exactly opposite. His death also represents the death of his dreams as the result of an evolving, capitalistic society.
• Symbolism:
• The flute music: this occurs whenever Willy is having a daydream, suggests peacefulness (at least at the beginning of these daydreams), could also represent the only memories Willy has of his immediate family (i.e. his brother)
• Ben's travels: daring risks that Willy was never able to take, paralleled by Biff's decsion to leave in the end
• New technologies, methods: suggest that the old styles (represented by Willy) are no longer useful, leads to Willy's job loss, commentary on society
• Quotes:
• "Like a young god. Hercules--something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him...and the cheers when he came out--Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he'll be great yet." (68)
• Here Willy is reminiscing about Biff playing in a football game when he was younger. The God reference calls to attention the fact that, even though he was raised as a Jesus figure, it is too late in life for Biff to fulfill that role. One also questions how valid Willy's declaration of Biff's popularity, seeing as his own popularity is a lie.
• "How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there?...I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! We've been talking in a dream for fifteen years." (104) or "The door of your life is wide open!/Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" (132)
• These quote show Biff's disillusionment as he realizes what he was raised to do, and what he has acutally done. However, he fails to get his dad to see the truth he sees.
• Theme: In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller is commenting on the evolving and unjust American capitalist society. As a man who put his entire life into his work, Willy loses everything when he loses his job as the result of new technologies. These technologies are brought about by the competitive nature of a capitalist market. With the loss of Willy's job, his dream, essentially the classic American dream, is lost as well. On top of that, his supposed reputation does not recieve conformation, as there is hardly anyone at his funeral. The fact that he dies just for money enforces the power of the capitalist system to control people's lives. Biff represents a character who wants to return to his roots and go back to being a farmer, which still leaves a sense of hope for morals sometime in the future.

*This version takes into account the peer comment.