Death of a Salesman Summary & Analysis

 Author: Arthur Miller
Published: 1949 (Viking Penguin, Inc.)


Plot:
     Willy Loman, a salesman living in the shabby outskirts of New York City, is the center of the play with his career, honesty, family relationships, and even his own sanity in question. The play opens with Willy coming home to his wife Linda at a late hour, with her worried and immediately questioning him, asking if something was wrong, if he crashed his car, etc. Not long after we are introduced to Linda's personality and role in the play as the anxious, stress-ridden caretaker of Willy, he begins talking to himself in the kitchen, the topic only his son, Biff, and his life. (ex. "You gonna wash the engine, Biff?", "Don't get your sweater dirty, Biff!","No kiddin', Biff, you got a date? Wonderful!","No, you finish first. Never leave a job till you're finished - remember that." [Miller, 27-28]) His life revolves around Biff and his concerns that his son won't be "well-liked" and successful. Willy looked up to his older brother Ben as an example, a man who went to Africa, and at the age of 21, came out of the country rich with his findings (somehow..) of diamonds. In one scene, Willy is in one of his fantasies, imagining a conversation with Ben, asking him how he should raise his boys, and if he had done a good job. Willy pressures his son after Biff's flunking out of his math class, and therefore out of his university. Instead of going on to become the "well-liked" salesman Willy always wanted him to be (and wanted himself to be) Biff goes West to farm. On his visit home (the time period of the play) Willy's fantasies and conversations with people who aren't there (according to Linda) become worse, and he heads into a mental crisis as he's fired from his job, facing his guilt of not being successful like his brother Ben, not having Biff turn out to be successful and rich, and from the affair he had on a business trip that Biff caught him on, and is struggling and having to borrow money from his neighbor to pay the bills for his home. In the end, Willy commits suicide in a last attempt to save his family, hoping that from his death, his family would be able to collect the insurance money, and have enough to go on.

Characters:

Willy Loman - Representative of the failure of the "American Dream" and the tragic hero of the story. Looks up to his older brother Ben's success and wealth, feels guilt for not being as successful, not making his boys that successful, guilt for the affair on Linda, guilt and shame for losing his job and not being able to pay the family's bills on his own.

Biff Loman - Seen by Willy as his failure, however, Biff, unlike Willy, was able to tell himself he knew that being a salesman wasn't right for him, and that he was happy in the West farming, and that was success for him. He was able to see past the strict, cut-throat business world Happy and Willy were stuck in, and struggled with Willy always over his shoulder to find his own "American Dream". Struggles as the "disappointment" son to his father, wanting to do his own thing, while his father has his own plans for his son according to the life he was unable to have, and therefore wants fulfilled in Biff's lifetime.

Happy Loman - serves for the most part of the play as a buffer between Willy and Biff during their arguments. Happy followed in his father's footsteps in the way that he got himself into the business world, and while he wasn't exactly super successful or wealthy, did alright for himself. Throughout the play, Happy continues to reassure his father and mother that he will get married, and that he's "gotten bigger", though he's never really particularly noticed by either parent. He has an over-active sex drive, talked about in the beginning of the play between he and his brother, and seen in the restaurant scene when Willy meets the boys for dinner.

Charley - Charley is the face of Willy's guilt. He must continuously borrow money from Charley to pay his bills because he doesn't have a job, and when he offers Willy a job, Willy refuses, insisting he has a job, only a short while later reluctantly admitting his unemployed status.

Linda - As explained in the plot summary, Linda is the caretaker of Willy. She goes along with his pretendings and lies about the job he doesn't have, congratulating him and advising him to ask his boss to drive to Boston. She gets upset and defensive of his mental state when Biff comes home, telling him that his failure of his math class and of not getting the business job Willy wanted him to are the reasons for his talking to himself and the evidence she found for his wanting to commit suicide.