thesis statement and summary of death of a salesman act 1

Death of a Salesman Act One Summary

• Let’s pretend we’re watching this play. We see a nice little two-bedroom house, probably only one bathroom, but that’s OK.
• We hear some nice flute-like music and feel like we’re entering Fantasia .
• Yet instead of dancing hippos, Willy Loman, an old, worn-out salesman, enters. He’s talking to himself, and this just can’t be good.
• Willy’s back from a trip and carrying some bags. It’s late at night, and he definitely should be in bed.
• Inside, Linda, Willy’s wife, is surprised to see him—he is supposed to be gone for several days on a business trip.
• Her husband explains that he kept forgetting he was driving (scary). Since his mind was totally not on the road (and frequently his car wasn’t either), he headed home.
• Linda, ignoring the fact that Willy has been talking with imaginary people and driving off roads, recommends that he ask his boss to transfer him to a local office job.

• Willy insists that he’s vital as a traveling salesman, but eventually agrees. He’s sure that his boss, Howard, loves him enough to give him the local NY gig.
• Willy and Linda chat about their grown sons, Biff and Happy, who happen to be sleeping upstairs.
• Biff has just come home from the West, where he was working as a farmhand.
• Willy is mad at Biff. The father-and-son duo had yet another fight that morning, primarily because Willy can’t handle the fact that his 34-year-old son isn’t able to hold down a real job, you know, the kind with suits and fluorescent lights.
• He concludes that Biff must be lazy.
• Willy then declares his son is hard-working hot stuff (notice how he changed his mind about the lazy part?). He can’t understand why, in the greatest country ever (a.k.a. America), his son can’t get his life together. Clearly (to Willy), Biff is wasting his life in order to spite his old man.

• Willy reminisces, in a rather sad and I-want-to-live-through-you-vicariously kind of way, about what a hotshot Biff was in high school.
• Willy and Linda get to bickering about cheese and population growth (no, we weren’t aware of any correlation between the two either).
• Biff and Happy are now awake (upstairs) listening to their dad’s odd mutterings. They’re worried about his sanity. We are, too.
• The brothers have a heart-to-heart conversation complete with reminiscing about their past. Biff, the sensitive one, tells Happy (the happy one?) that he’s upset about his fight with their dad.
• Happy thinks Willy is anxious about Biff’s aimlessness; he wants the low-down on what Biff is doing with his life.
• Biff tells his brother that he’s unhappy, hates the competitive world of business, and thinks farm work is better. (He likes acting strong and being shirtless, which he just can’t do in an office.)
• AND YET—he can’t keep even a farming job. This guy is having a serious internal battle.
• Happy’s name turns out not to fit him at all. He’s lonely despite having a decent job and endless women at his disposal.
• Biff and Happy fantasize about moving to the West together and being real men with a ranch and cattle and sweating in the sun while working with their hands.
• Biff seems ready to head for a ranch, but Happy won’t let go of his pursuit of wealth.
• Like so many other brothers, these two start chatting about ladies. Both want to settle down with someone, but Happy is a player and can’t stick to one woman. He’s super-competitive and chases his friends’ girls just for fun.
• Since the ranch idea is not working out, Biff says he’ll talk to this guy he used to work for named Bill Oliver. Biff was a salesman in Oliver’s sporting goods business way back when and thinks he made a good impression. He’s hoping Oliver will give him a loan so that he and Happy can start a business together.
• Happy thinks this is the best idea ever . With big dreams in mind, the brothers go back to sleep.
• Cut to downstairs, where Willy is still chatting with imaginary people.
• In his head, Willy relives the high school days of his sons.
• Said high school days go something like this:
• Biff and Happy are washing their dad’s car, hoping to impress him.
• The macho boys and their dad sit around and talk about how much everybody loves them and how popular they are.
• Biff says he’s "borrowed" (clearly stole) a football in order to practice his game (he’s a football star and also, it would seem, a kleptomaniac). Laughing, Willy tells him he should return it (good parenting move). But neither father nor son takes the stealing seriously.
• The father starts going off about how great America is and how everyone busts out the red carpet in the New England towns where he travels for business.
• He’s bragging and overdoing it here.
• Still in the flashback, Linda enters with some laundry, which Willy makes the boys help her with. Biff gets his gang of fawning friends to help out, too.
• Willy hasn’t had enough of bragging about himself yet, so he starts telling his wife about how "well liked" he is and how he made a killing on his recent trip.
• Willy, who actually made $70 in commissions, tells Linda it was $212.
• Sadly, when they add up the math, Linda finds that, even with the self-delusion and imaginary income, they’re still in debt.
• In a sudden (rare) moment of accurate self-reflection, Willy says people just don’t like him very much — but he blames his failure on being ugly and fat.
• Linda assures him that everything will be fine.
• No, wait, this is a flashback. We already know that "fine" never comes to pass.
• Now Willy’s mind flashes to a woman who is not Linda by any stretch of the imagination.
• The woman is putting her clothes on amid some sexually suggestive jokes.
• Willy has given her some stockings (remember these stockings for a little while longer).
• Back to the other flashback (with his wife and the boys and the laundry). Willy promises to make everything up to Linda.
• Linda acts like a loving angel, obviously unaware that her husband is cheating on her.
• Willy notices Linda mending her stocking. She responds that new ones are too expensive to buy (apparently too expensive to buy for wives, but not for mistresses).
• Willy is thinking along the same lines as we are, and guiltily snaps at Linda, telling her not to mend the stockings in front of him.
• We then get another flashback to the time when Biff is in high school. (If you’re a little confused at all of these flashbacks, just imagine how Willy is feeling.)
• Bernard, the son of Willy’s neighbor Charley, comes running in, shouting that Biff is going to fail math.
• Being the model parent that he is, Willy tells Bernard to give Biff the answers to the test and get lost.
• Linda is worried about her son failing math, but her husband brushes off her concern with assurances that Biff’s charm will carry him through.
• So that was a crazy trip, and now we’re back to real time.
• Willy snaps out of his daydream and finds Happy.
• Willy’s thinking is disjointed. He’s now complaining about how he was an idiot not to go to Alaska with his brother, Ben, when he was a young man. Ben apparently got rich on his adventures.
• Happy is unable to help his hallucinating father.
• Charley, the neighbor, comes into the kitchen. He’s heard noises and wants to make sure everything’s OK (remember, it’s still late at night).
• Charley knows Willy’s financial situation and kindly offers Willy a job. Offended, Willy says he already has a job (big mistake).
• Charley advises Willy to stop putting so much pressure on Biff. Offended again (as usual), Willy tells Charley to screw off.
• Ben enters the stage (not the real Ben, though—this is an imaginary Ben that Charley can’t see).
• Willy talks aloud with imaginary Ben. Charley, still sitting in the kitchen, has no idea what’s going on (and is in all likelihood thinking of retracting the job offer).
• Now Willy converses with the imaginary Ben and the real Charley at the same time.
• He informs Charley that Ben recently died.
• Back in Willy’s mind, Ben is rushing out the door to catch a train. He repeatedly urges Willy to go with him to Alaska.
• Back in real life, Charley, irritated and confused to no end, storms out.
• Back in Willy’s mind, Willy asks Ben how he made so much money in Alaska.
• Linda (an imaginary version of her) enters and greets Ben.
• Now we get a bit more background on Willy. Turns out, his father abandoned him and Ben when they were kids.
• So the deal with Alaska was that Ben tried to follow their dad there. Ben’s no genius (or migratory bird) and due to his sketchy sense of geography, ended up in Africa instead.
• There (in Africa), Ben struck it big in diamonds.
• Now more craziness ensues when imaginary young Biff and Happy enter. Willy tells the boys that Uncle Ben’s success is proof that great dreams can come true.
• Imaginary Ben has to go catch his train, but tells Willy and the boys that his father (the boys’ grandfather) used to play the flute. He also used to drive Willy and Ben around the country by wagon and sell his inventions along the way.
• Predictably, Willy brags to Ben about how well he has raised his sons.
• Showing off his son, Willy pushes Biff to start a fistfight with his Uncle Ben. This is weird.
• Ben wins (unfairly), saying that in order to survive, you must cheat in fights with strangers. What a great piece of wisdom.
• Poor Willy, looking for approval and trying to keep Ben around, starts going off about how even though he’s a city slicker and a salesman, he is still a manly man (think loincloths and hunting). Willy sends his sons to steal lumber (!) so they can show their uncle how manly they are.
• Here comes more confusion. You just met real Charley, but now enters imaginary Charley.
• Imaginary Charley enters the kitchen just as young Happy and Biff run off to steal some wood for a building project.
• Charley warns Willy that he’s got to stop them from stealing or they’ll get in big fat trouble (like jail).
• Everyone erupts into a shouting match and Willy insults Charley’s manliness.
• Everyone leaves the stage except Ben and Willy.
• Willy confesses that he’s scared he’s not raising his boys well and begs Ben to stay and tell him stories about their father. But Ben’s not so nice (if you hadn’t noticed) and he leaves.
• So Willy’s been chatting and fighting with lots of imaginary figures tonight, but we think that’s just about it for delusions, at least for the time being, because here comes real Linda.
• Now we’re back in real time. Linda wants to know what on earth is going on.
• Willy wanders outside, insisting he needs a walk.
• Real Biff and Happy come into the kitchen, freaked out. Their mom says that Willy’s behavior is worse when Biff is around. She tells Biff to stop drifting and to show his father some respect.
• Things heat up. Linda tells Biff to stay away from his father. Biff retorts that his father treats her terribly, and calls Willy crazy.
• Linda, deeply offended, responds that her husband is simply exhausted. (Yes, she’s clearly deluding herself.)
• Now she admits that Willy’s boss cut his salary and they’re struggling financially. Their dad has been borrowing money from Charley every week to pay the bills.
• Linda accuses her sons of being ungrateful and oblivious.
• Biff responds that Willy’s a fake but won’t explain why.
• To smooth out the situation, Biff tells Linda he’ll get a job and give them half his paycheck.
• As if things were not bad enough, Linda announces that Willy’s been trying to kill himself in car "accidents." Also, she’s found a short length of rubber pipe attached to the fuse box (it seems he was trying to gas himself).
• Linda tells Biff that Willy’s life is in his hands, so he must be careful.
• Biff says he’ll straighten out, but he just wasn’t made to work in the business world.
• Willy walks in. Almost immediately, he and Biff begin to argue.
• Happy, the peacemaker, interrupts and says that Biff is going to see Bill Oliver the following morning to get a business loan.
• Willy is all happy and perky for about two seconds before father and son are at it again.
• Happy strikes again, trying to make the situation... happy. He tells his dad that he and Biff are thinking of starting a sporting goods line in Florida.
• Excitedly, Willy starts telling Biff how to behave around Oliver, who is in the sporting goods business. He acts as if they’ve already sealed a million-dollar deal.
• Somehow angered again, Willy storms upstairs. Linda and the boys follow him. The boys say goodnight and are lectured about their greatness.
• Biff wanders downstairs alone while Linda desperately tries to sing Willy to sleep.

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W hy's T his F unny?

Death of a Salesman

By arthur miller.

• Death of a Salesman Summary

Willy Loman , a mercurial sixty-year old salesman with calluses on his hands, returns home tired and confused. His wife Linda greets him, but worries that he has smashed the car. He reassures her that nothing has happened, but tells her that he only got as far as Yonkers and does not remember all of the details of his trip; he kept swerving onto the shoulder of the road, and had to drive slowly to return home. Linda tells him that he needs to rest his mind, and that he should work in New York, but he feels that he is not needed there. He thinks that if Frank Wagner were alive he would be in charge of New York, but his son, Howard, does not appreciate him as much. Linda tells him how Happy, his younger son, took Biff, his eldest son, out on a double-date, and it was nice to see them both at home. She reminds Willy not to lose his temper with Biff, but Willy feels that there is an undercurrent of resentment in Biff. Linda says that Biff is crestfallen and admires Willy. They argue about whether or not Biff is lazy, and Willy believes that Biff is a person who will get started later in life, like Edison or B.F. Goodrich.

Biff Loman , at thirty-four, is well-built but not at all self-assured. Happy, two years younger, is equally tall and powerful, but is confused because he has never risked failure. The two brothers discuss their father, thinking that his condition is deteriorating. Biff wonders why his father mocks him, but Happy says that he merely wants Biff to live up to his potential. Biff claims he has had twenty or thirty different jobs since he left home before the war, but has been fired from each. He reminisces about herding cattle and wistfully remembers working outdoors. Biff worries that he is still merely a boy, while Happy says that despite the fact that he has his own car, apartment, and plenty of women he is still unfulfilled. Happy believes that he should not have to take orders at work from men over whom he is physically superior. He also talks about how he has no respect for the women he seduces, and really wants a woman with character, such as their mother. Biff thinks that he may try again to work for Bill Oliver, for whom he worked years ago but quit after stealing a carton of basketballs from him.

The play shifts in time to the Loman house years before, when Biff and Happy were teenagers. Willy reminds the teenage Biff not to make promises to any girls, because they will always believe what you tell them and he is too young to consider them seriously. Happy brags that he is losing weight, while Biff shows Willy a football he took from the locker room. Willy claims that someday he'll have his own business like Charley , their next door neighbor. His business will be bigger than Charley's, because Charley is "liked, but not well-liked." Willy brags about meeting the mayor of Providence and knowing the finest people in New England. Bernard , Charley's son, enters and tells Willy that he is worried that Biff will fail math class and not be able to attend UVA. Willy tells Bernard not to be a pest and to leave. After Bernard leaves, Willy tells his sons that Bernard, like Charley, is liked but not well-liked. Willy claims that, although Bernard gets the best grades in school, in the business world it is personality that matters and that his sons will succeed. After the boys leave, Linda enters and Willy discusses his worry that people don't respect him. Linda reassures him and points out that his sons idolize him.

Miller returns to the more recent past past for a short scene that takes place in a hotel room in Boston. A nameless woman puts on a scarf and Willy tells her that he gets lonely and worries about his business. The woman claims that she picked Willy for his sense of humor, and Willy promises to see her the next time he is in Boston.

Willy, back in the kitchen with Linda, scolds her for mending her own stocking, claiming that she should not have to do such menial things. He goes out on the porch, where he tells Bernard to give Biff the answers to the Regents exam. Bernard refuses because it is a State exam. Linda tells Willy that Biff is too rough with the girls, while Bernard says that Biff is driving without a license and will flunk math. Willy, who hears the voice of the woman from the hotel room, screams at Linda that there is nothing wrong with Biff, and asks her if she wants her son to be a worm like Bernard. Linda, in tears, exits into the living room.

The play returns to the present, where Willy tells Happy how he nearly drove into a kid in Yonkers, and wonders why he didn't go to Alaska with his brother Ben , who ended up with diamond mines and came out of the jungle rich at the age of twenty-one. Happy tells his father that he will enable him to retire. Charley enters, and he and Willy play cards. Charley offers Willy a job, which insults him, and they argue over the ceiling that Willy put up in his living room. Willy tells Charley that Ben died several weeks ago in Africa. Willy hallucinates that Ben enters, carrying a valise and umbrella, and asks about their mother. Charley becomes unnerved by Willy's hallucination and leaves.

The play returns to the past, where Willy introduces his sons to Ben, whom he calls a great man. Ben in turn boasts that his father was a great man and inventor. Willy shows off his sons to Ben, who tells them never to fight fair with a stranger, for they will never get out of the jungle that way. Charley reprimands Willy for letting his sons steal from the nearby construction site, but Willy says that his kids are a couple of "fearless characters." While Charley says that the jails are full of fearless characters, Ben says that so is the stock exchange.

The play returns to the present, where Happy and Biff ask Linda how long Willy has been talking to himself. Linda claims that this has been going on for years, and she would have told Biff if she had had an address at which she could contact him. She confronts Biff about his animosity toward Willy, but Biff claims that he is trying to change his behavior. He tells Linda that she should dye her hair again, for he doesn't want his mother to look old. Linda asks Biff if he cares about Willy; if he does not, he cannot care about her. Finally, she tells her sons that Willy has attempted suicide by trying to drive his car off a bridge, and by hooking a tube up to the gas heater in the basement. She says that Willy is not a great man, but is a human being and "attention must be paid" to him. Biff relents and promises not to fight with his father. He tells his parents that he will go to see Bill Oliver to talk about a sporting goods business he could start with Happy. Willy claims that if Biff had stayed with Oliver he would be on top by now.

The next day, Willy sits in the kitchen, feeling rested for the first time in months. Linda claims that Biff has a new, hopeful attitude, and the two dream of buying a little place in the country. Willy says that he will talk to Howard Wagner today and ask to be taken off the road. As soon as Willy leaves, Linda gets a phone call from Biff. She tells him that the pipe Willy connected to the gas heater is gone.

At the office of Howard Wagner, Willy's boss, Howard shows Willy his new wire recorder as Willy attempts to ask for a job in New York. Howard insists that Willy is a road man, but Willy claims that it is time for him to be more settled. He has the right to it because he has been in the firm since Howard was a child, and even named him. Willy claims that there is no room for personality or friendship in the salesman position anymore, and begs for any sort of salary, giving lower and lower figures. Willy insists that Howard's father made promises to him. Howard leaves, and Willy leans on his desk, turning on the wire recorder. This frightens Willy, who shouts for Howard. Howard returns, exasperated, and fires Willy, telling him that he needs a good, long rest and should rely on his sons instead of working.

Willy hallucinates that Ben enters and Linda, as a young woman, tells Willy that he should stay in New York. Not everybody has to conquer the world and Frank Wagner promised that Willy will someday be a member of the firm. Willy tells the younger versions of Biff and Happy that it's "who you know" that matters. Bernard arrives, and begs Biff to let him carry his helmet to the big game at Ebbets Field, while Willy becomes insulted that Charley may have forgotten about the game.

The play returns to the present day, where the adult Bernard sits in his father's office. His father's secretary, Jenny, enters and tells Bernard that Willy is shouting in the hallway. Willy talks to Bernard who will argue a case in Washington soon and whose wife has just given birth to their second son. Willy wonders why Biff's life ended after the Ebbets Field game, and Bernard asks why Willy didn't make Biff to go summer school so that he could go to UVA. Bernard pinpoints the timing of Biff's failures to his visit to his father in New England, after which Biff burned his UVA sneakers. He wonders what happened during that visit. Charley enters, and tells Willy that Bernard will argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. Charley offers Willy a job, which he refuses out of pride. Charley criticizes Willy for thinking that personality is the only thing that matters in business. Willy remarks that a person is worth more dead than alive, and tells Charley that, even though they dislike one another, Charley is the only friend he has.

At the restaurant where Willy is to meet his sons, Happy flirts with a woman and tells her that Biff is a quarterback with the New York giants. Biff admits to Happy that he did a terrible thing during his meeting with Bill Oliver. Bill did not remember Biff, who pocketed his fountain pen before he left. Biff insists that they tell their father about this tonight. Willy arrives and tells his sons that he was fired. Although Biff tries to lie to Willy about his meeting, Biff and Willy fight. Biff finally gives up and tries to explain. As this occurs, Willy hallucinates about arguing with the younger version of Biff. Miss Forsythe , the woman with whom Happy was flirting, returns with another woman and prepares to go out on a double date with Happy and Biff. Happy denies that Willy is their father.

Willy imagines being back in the hotel room in Boston with the woman. The teenage Biff arrives at the hotel and tells Willy that he failed math class, and begs his father to talk to Mr. Birnbaum. Biff hears the woman, who is hiding in the bathroom. Willy lies to Biff, telling him that the woman is merely there to take a shower because she is staying in the next room and her shower is broken. Biff realizes what is going on. Willy throws the woman out, and she yells at him for breaking the promises he made to her. Willy admits the affair to Biff, but promises that the woman meant nothing to him and that he was lonely.

At the restaurant, the waiter helps Willy and tells him that his sons left with two women. Willy insists on finding a seed store so that he can do some planting. When Biff and Happy return home, they give their mother flowers. She asks them if they care whether their father lives or dies, and says that they would not even abandon a stranger at the restaurant as they did their father. Willy is planting in the garden. He imagines talking to Ben about his funeral, and claims that people will come from all over the country to his funeral, because he is well known. Ben says that Willy will be a coward if he commits suicide. Willy tells Biff that he cut his life down for spite, and refuses to take the blame for Biff's failure. Biff confronts him about the rubber tube attached to the gas heater, and tells his mother that it was he, not Willy, who took it away. Biff also admits that his parents could not contact him because he was in jail for three months. Biff insists that men like he and Willy are a dime a dozen, but Willy claims otherwise. Biff cries for his father, asking him to give up his dreams, but Willy is merely amazed that he would cry for his father. Happy vows to get married and settle down, while everybody but Willy goes to sleep. Willy talks to Ben, then rushes out of the house and speeds out away in his car. Happy and Biff come downstairs in jackets, while Linda walks out in mourning clothes and places flowers on Willy's grave.

Only his wife, sons, and Charley attend Willy's funeral. Linda wonders where everybody else is, and says that they have made their final house payment and are free and clear after thirty-five years. Biff claims that Willy had the wrong dreams, but Charley says that a salesman must dream, and that for a salesman there is no rock bottom in life. Biff asks Happy to leave the city with him, but Happy vows to stay in New York and prove that his father did not die in vain. Everybody leaves but Linda, who remains at the grave and talks about how she made the final house payment.

Death of a Salesman Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Death of a Salesman is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Significant of the tittle in 600 words.

I think the title refers to both the death of Willy the salesmen and the death of his dreams. Willy's dreams of success turn to disillusionment when he cannot compete in the capitalist world. An extended metaphor might also involve Capitalism and...

death of a salesman

Charley visits because he is worried about Willy.He knows Willy is a proud man and he wants to help him, though Willy isn't really willing to take his help.

Please submit your questions one at a time.

How have biff and happy responded to their father’s condition

Biff denies responsibility for his father's condition, but he is forced to acknowledge that he is linked to his father's guilt and irrational actions. I think happy is just stressed about it.

Study Guide for Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman study guide contains a biography of Arthur Miller, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Death of a Salesman
• Character List

Essays for Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

• Shattered Dream - The Delusion of Willy Loman
• Perceptions of Self Worth and Prominence: Spaces and Settings in Death of a Salesman
• Sales and Dreams
• Musical Motifs
• Death of A Salesman: Shifting of the American Dream

Lesson Plan for Death of a Salesman

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Introduction to Death of a Salesman
• Relationship to Other Books
• Notes to the Teacher

Wikipedia Entries for Death of a Salesman

• Introduction
• Characters and cast

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• Death of a Salesman

Read our detailed notes on the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Our notes cover Death of a Salesman summary and analysis.

Introduction

Death of a Salesman  by Arthur Miller, is written in 1949, is a modern tragedy and is considered both the masterpiece of the playwright and foundation of modern American drama. The play is awarded various honors and awards that also includes the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

Initially the play was titled as  The inside of His Head,  however, later he appears dissatisfied with the title and conferred the second title of the play i.e.,  Death of a Salesman.  We, from the 1 st  title, get a deep intuition into the psychosomatic temperament of the central character who is a salesman.

In  Death of a Salesman,  Arthur Miller reconnoiters subjects of money, death and the loss of individuality. Other than the American Dream, Willy Loman desires nothing. He craves his brother’s prosperity and endeavors for a flawless life, nonetheless, he frequently is unsuccessful to accomplish his dreams.

He, as a salesman, is subject to the impulses of the flea market and thinks that it is this job that can only rise him in the world of business. But, due to a miserable financial status, he couldn’t secure a loan for his son to start his own business. And in the end, Willy commits suicide, realizing his so little accomplishments in his life.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Summary

Willy Loman, after having set out on a sales trip to Portland, Maine that morning, returns to his Brooklyn home very late at night since he continually drove his car off the side of the road. Willy, who is now sixty-three years old, has been working as a traveling salesman for more than thirty years. Recently, his sales rate has declined as his old costumes are either dying or retiring.

Moreover, the company has taken away his salary so that he works on a straight commission. On his return to home, Linda, Willy wife, ease him and motivates him to ask the master of the company, Howard Wagner, for a place in in the New York office where he his salary will be guaranteed without traveling.

Biff and Happy, Willy’s two sons, upstairs in their bedroom recalls their past happier times of their adolescents and compares it with their disappointing lives of today. Biff, now thirty-four years of age, has held four different jobs since graduating from his high school. He senses that he’s not moving ahead toward anything at all.

At a high school, he was among the best football player but couldn’t get a college scholarship since he failed the mathematics test and declined to earn money for his summer school to graduate. After working on a farm in Texas, Biff has just returned home and Willy, that morning, begins criticizing for his failures to earn money and to find a prestigious profession.

Happy, the younger son of Willy, works as a low-level sales position in New York City, employing most of his time seducing women. Biff and Happy, as they talk, resolve that they can be effective, successful, and happier if they initiate a business of their own, together.

Meanwhile, Willy sits downstairs in the kitchen and talks to himself loudly, recalling happy moments from past: their family car cleaned by Biff and Happy, Biff’s preparation for his important football game, willy’s joyfully working on projects around his own home, his afternoon with a woman in a hotel room on trips to Boston.

Ultimately, Charley, Willy’s neighbor, enters from the next door. While playing play cards and talking to Charley, Willy imagines himself talking to his elder brother, Ben. Ben once invited Willy to Alaska and ask him to join him in order to make his fortune. Willy moves outside the kitchen, after Charley leaves home, and is still caught up in his imagined conversation with his elder brother.

Meanwhile, Linda comes downstairs and speaks to Biff and Happy that she dreads that Willy is planning to kill himself as she had found a piece of rubber hose that was connected to a gas pipe in the basement. The conversation turns to dreams when Willy returns home: of Biff becoming a successful entrepreneur and a salesman that Willy has of him. Willy advises Biff, upon which the whole family agrees, to see Bill Oliver, one of his former bosses, and request for a mortgage so that he can start his own sporting goods business.

The very next morning, Willy visits his boss, Wagner, to requests for a place in the New York office. However, despite getting a new place, Wagner fires him from the job. Leaving Wagner’s office, Willy directs his way to Charley’s office to request for a mortgage to pay off his bills where he meets Bernard, Charley’s son. Bernard was a boyhood friend or Biff and Happy, now a successful lawyer dealing with cases before Supreme Court. Willy, being amazed, inquiries that how he was able to succeed since Biff and Happy failed, however, Bernard asks Willy why Biff never went to school to graduate, after doing badly in a mathematics course for a scholarship.

Happy arranges a dinner in a local restaurant so as to celebrate the successful meeting of biff with Mr. Oliver, however, when Biff reaches he informs that his owner didn’t recognize him, and Biff, as a reaction, angrily stole Mr. Oliver’s fountain pen.

Biff lies to his parents about his meeting (that it was a successful one) when hears about his father’s news that he is fired so as to console them. At the restaurant, happy arranges two women to join them. When Willy excuses for the washroom, Biff and Happy abandon their father and leave the restaurant with their father. While in the washroom, Willy recalls the time when Biff failed his Mathematics test and comes to Boston on a surprise visit and discover him with another woman in a hotel room. It was because of this incident that Biff refused to join summer school and to graduate from high school.

Willy, after leaving the restaurant, resolves on the way to the home that the only way to provide the best livings is that he commits suicide. By doing so, the twenty thousand dollars for his life insurance settlement would come to his family.

When Biff and Happy return from their date with the women, they encounter Linda’s scolding for abandoning their father at the restaurant. In return, Biff angrily accused his father and brother of not taking life seriously and claims that he, now finally, knows himself and will work at the farm with his own hands, that gives him more satisfaction than any other job could. Biff confronts everything and cries at his father’s shoulders.

Willy, moved by Biff’s affectations, leaves home and drives the car to commit suicide and ultimately died. Linda, in the last scene, in the graveyard, talks ironically to Willy that he killed himself in the same way when they ended disbursing for their house.

Death of a Salesman Characters Analysis

Willy loman.

He is a sixty-three-year-old traveling salesman. Willy has started dwelling on past unknown of the present condition. His past life frequently flashes back before his eyes in the last two days of his life. He has two sons, Biff and happy, who he wants to have a cherished lifestyle and worldly success, though he is unable to help to achieve it. At last, he commits suicide, the last gesture for his family, so that they can have a lavish lifestyle by the insurance money.

He is the elder son of Willy Loman. Biff, thirty-three-year-old, is still in search of himself. The best football player at school, couldn’t get anywhere for further studies. When his owner refused to give a loan, frustrated, he steals his owner’s cheap fountain pen. Though he loves his father, however, because of his defeated state curses him as a fool and a dreamer.

Happy Loman

He is Willy Loman’s younger son, who is somehow successful in his life, he works as a clerk in a store. He is a womanizer, who chases a woman to seek pleasure.

He is a friend and a neighbor of Willy Loman. He provides money to Willy and also suggests him a job.

He, son of Charley, is a successful lawyer who argues cases before the Supreme Court. His success is an indictment for Biff and Happy.

Linda Loman

She is Willy’s wife. She is fearful, however, patient woman. Despite Willy’s failures, she loves him very much and consoles him in his hard times.

Howard Wagner

He is the son of Willy’s boss at the company. He fired him from the company and let him know that he is no more able to work as a salesman

He is a brother of Willy. He is a rich man whose success is an accusation to Willy. He once goes into the jungle and comes out, after a few years, from the diamond mines, a rich man.

The unnamed character in the play with whom Biff caught his father in a hotel room and due to this discovery he refuses to join the summer school for further studies.

Themes in Death of a Salesman

Failure of the american dream.

One of the most important themes of the play  Death of a Salesman  is the failure of the American dream. The American dream symbolizes a promise and commitment of opportunity and freedom for all. Those who follow the American dream believed that the only way to accomplish a dream is hard work and those who work hard are only qualified to be the follower of the American dream.

The followers of American dream believe in a happy and prosperous life; moreover, they also believe that those who are born Americans naturally acquires a happy and prosperous life. Moloch, money, and materialism have become the famous song of the followers of American dreams. They believed that, in a material world, one is always destined to have a prosperous and successful life. Failure is no option for the one born in America and if a failure occurs, suicide is much better than that failure.

Willy Loman is also facing this kind of creed behind the American dream in his life. Willy had a natural capability in the field of carpentry, but the craze of earning more money and a bright future made him choose the field of business with an occupation of a salesman. He spent the mature and productive period of his life doing hard work in hopes of having a comfortable and settled life in a later part of life.

Opposing this expectancy, he was downgraded and terminated. He, financially ruined, had to lend money from his friend to pay off his bills.

Furthermore, his son Biff, from whom Willy had great expectations, has ruined his life by not joining the school. Biff, another follower of American dreams, didn’t know how to start his career from the bottom and also wants to start from the top. Biff was not settled in his life, even in the age of Thirty-four, he was moving from one job to another. It was wearisome for Willy to see the unsettled life of both of his son. Failure of his son was equally burdened for him as his own failure.

Crumpled by absolute defeat and great desperateness Willy planned suicide. When his miserable itch overwhelmed him, he committed suicide.

Fake existence

Willy Loman turned out to be an obsessive believer of the deity of success. Success, to him, was life, and life is all about success. He was ambitious to make his dream for successive life a reality. He not only became ambitious is striving towards success but also made his son ambitious, too. There was no limit in his struggle to achieve his dreams as they were natural, however, the consequences of all the struggle that he made turned out to be humiliating.

Willy, throughout his life, encourages his son to realize the principles of the American dreams, but Biff turned out to be immature and reckless boy who couldn’t proper in getting a settled life and a salaried job and turned out to be a briber; Happy carried dishonor by seducing the women in his store whom he had no concern at all. Willy was penniless when fired from the job, and borrowed from his friend Charley, in order to give an impression to his wife, Linda, that he is earning money.

Willy was living a fanciful, fake life that was filled with illusions. He was full of arrogance, egocentric and unreasonably over-assertive. It was because of these flaws that he was unable to accept and face the reality. Sightless to his genuine dilemma he instigated to hide in the sanctuary of illusion. Despite his total failure, he wasn’t accepting his failure. It was more insulting and painful for him to accept his failure.

It was due to this reason, he stopped talking to his friends and avoided people around. He would use to lie to others and was just making himself a fool by a false vision of his popularity.

Nature versus City

The comparison between nature and city is shown through Willy’s love for music. He is a great admirer of natures. When Willy’s self goes close to his nature, the music plays in a loud tune. This melody is a representation of Willy’s sentimental yearning for instinctive rusticity that has exemplified in the affiliation between music and Willy.

It appears that Willy is certainly prone to adore and appreciate nature. When we traced the family background of Willy Loman, we see that Willy father was a wanderer, a musician, a maker of flute and a pioneer. Similarly, his brother Ben was also an adventurer. Willy’s son has strong athletic skills. Thus all of them were wonderful in outdoor skills. However, Willy’s monetary anxieties locked in on him, overwhelming him with the need to produce money.

Morality versus Immortality

The dramatist Arthur Miller has said that besides hunger and thrust, to leave a thumbprint after death is also another strong need of humans. Every human, consciously or unconsciously, has a strong desire to be remembered after his death. Physically man is mortal, however, through his deed, he can make himself immortal. In the play, Willy is a symbol of failure. He is accused, mocked, and humiliated by many. He is considered petty and useless. It was because of this, he planned suicide and the insurance money of twenty thousand dollars will be given to the family which will settle their lives. Willy, by committing suicide made himself immortal.

Death of a Salesman Literary Analysis

The play  Death of a Salesman  is also subtitled as “Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem”. According to the subtitle, the play is divided into two acts and each act is further divided into conversations- the present conversation and the conversation from the past- that are intermingled. The play covers an evening and the day following, however, the action is intermittent with past memories and flashbacks, mostly 17 years back.

The play  The Death of a Salesman  is a modern tragedy that depicts the last days of the life of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman. The play is both emotionally and psychologically realistic when the action occurs in the present; however, when the action occurs in past, the drama appears more dreamlike. For instance, only Willy can see the scenes when his sons Biff and Happy are in high school. Moreover, to inculcate Willy’s elder brother Ben, a rich man whom Willy consulted for advice when things were not functioning well in his life, a flashback system is also used.

The plot of the play is complex not only because it chains past and present events but also as it propagates out of a period of deceits, lies, and reputation. The tragic hero, Willy, is unable to uphold his energetic life on the path as a traveling salesman and is looking for a stable job in New York City. On request for this job, he is fired by his boss, Howard Wagner, the son of the man who hired him in the first place. Furthermore, he is burdened by his Thirty-four-year-old son Biff, who has recently returned from the farms in Texas in hopes of finding a salaried job in New York.

Biff and Happy have moved back to their parent’s house lamenting of their failures and their loss of innocence. Their boyhood friend’s Bernard, success has become accusation for both of them. Only Bernard has realized his dreams. Both brothers, consequently, blame Willy for not directing them well, though their resentment is yet oppressed with respect and affection.

Linda, during the quarrel, discloses before her sons that their father has been attempting to suicide by different means that is he has attempted suicide in a car with series of accidents and also with a hose that is fastened to a gas pipe. Upon hearing this, Biff decides to modify his life for his father. Act 1 of the play closes with the acquainted renunciation of long-standing abrasions and Biff’s promise to create a professional deal in New York.

The act two opens with Biff, Happy and Willy’s meeting at a restaurant. Willy, after being fired from the job, hopes to listen to good news regarding his meeting with his former boss, however, Biff reveals him the scene of the stolen fountain pen.

Shocked, Willy departures to the restroom, where he recalls the crucial and critical moment of his and Biff’s life, i.e., the time when Biff discovers his father with another woman in a hotel room, after coming back from failing math course. Biff, crumpled by his dad’s unfaithfulness with his mother, snubbed to go to summer school and to graduate from high school. This incident was the beginning of the series of trivial tragedies and insignificant robberies that have tumble-down his life.

The family, after meeting in the restaurant, reunite at home. In this gathering, they have the final short-tempered confrontation. Both Willy and Biff accuses each other: Biff accuses his father of not taking his life seriously and calls him the cause of his failures while Willy accuses Biff of spoiling his life without any reason.

Linda, a patient lady, and a peacemaker try to calm them down, however, is shouted down. Biff throws a hose before Willy and asks him whether committing suicide will make a hero out of him or something else. Willy starts weeping and both of them reconciled crying on each other’s shoulders. When the rest of the family goes to sleep. Willy accelerates his car for suicide in hope that the insurance money will provide Biff to initiate his own business and a new life that he greatly needs.

More From Arthur Miller

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Death of a Salesman

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Summary and Study Guide

Death of a Salesman is a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller and first performed on Broadway in 1949. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play, it is considered by critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The cynical play follows the final hours of a mentally unstable salesman at the end of his career who fails to attain the American Dream.

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Willy Loman , a 63-year-old traveling salesman, returns to his home in Brooklyn after another failed business trip. He has difficulty remembering things and distinguishing the past and present. His wife, Linda, suggests that he request a job in New York. They discuss their older son Biff’s failures as Willy heads to the kitchen. There, Willy talks to an imaginary Biff, criticizing his failures. Meanwhile, Biff and his younger brother Happy reminisce about their youth and fantasize about living in the country. Willy falls into a memory of young Biff and Happy washing his car and displaying affection. Willy says that he will own his own business, one bigger than that of their neighbor Charley whom Willy dislikes.

Charley’s son, Bernard, interrupts the Lomans to say that Biff will fail math if he doesn’t study. Willy points out that although Bernard is intelligent, he is not “well-liked”. Willy brags to Linda about how successful his business trip was until she cajoles him into admitting that it wasn’t. Willy complains about his inability to pay the bills and the fact that people don’t like him. When Linda reassures him, Willy hears the laughter of his past mistress and enters a daydream of “the Woman,” who flirts and thanks Willy for the stockings he gave her.

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The scene shifts to Willy’s memory of Linda mending stockings. An irritated Willy demands that she stop. Bernard again looks for Biff, and Linda reminds Willy that Biff stole a football. The Woman laughs, and a frustrated Willy begins shouting. Willy returns to the present, mumbling about Biff’s thievery and expressing his regret for not taking his elder brother Ben’s offer to go to Alaska. Charley arrives to play cards with Willy. Willy converses with both Charley and an imaginary Ben simultaneously until a confused Ben leaves.

In another daydream, Ben shares stories of their father, who abandoned them when Willy was a baby. Back in the present, Linda finds Willy outside muttering. Biff and Happy discuss Willy’s mental state with Linda, who reveals that he has attempted suicide multiple times. Willy yells at Biff for his failures until Happy interjects with the proposal that he and Biff start a sporting goods business. Biff decides to ask his old employer, Bill Oliver, for a loan.

Act II opens on Willy and Linda discussing their hopes for Biff and their upcoming dinner. Willy heads to his office to request a job in New York. His employer, Howard, shows no interest and instead shows off his record player. Willy insists, slowly lowering his asking salary until Howard tells Willy that they have no openings. Given that he spent over 30 years at the firm, an angered Willy doesn’t understand. Howard tells Willy to have his sons support him. When Howard leaves, Willy reminisces about Ben’s offer to come to Alaska. Willy turns down his offer, stating that he can become successful as a businessman.

In the present, Willy arrives at Charley’s office. Unlike Biff, the grown-up Bernard is largely successful. Bernard remembers that after failing math, Biff visited Willy in Boston and returned bitter. A defensive Willy lashes out at Bernard before he leaves. Charley then gives Willy money and offers him a job. Offended, Willy rejects the offer but calls Charley his only friend.

At dinner, Biff tells Happy that Bill Oliver didn’t even remember him—Willy lied in telling Bill that Biff was a well-liked salesman, when he was only a clerk. Happy asks that Biff not tell Willy the truth. However, when Biff attempts to give Willy the news, he refuses to listen and an exasperated Biff explodes. Willy blames Biff’s failures on failing math. The voice of a phone operator and a knocking on a hotel door comes into focus. The Woman asks if Willy will open the door before he sends her into the bathroom. Willy opens the door to find Biff, who admits he failed math. The Woman then enters in her nightgown. Biff refuses to listen to Willy’s excuses and storms off.

Back in the present, Linda scolds the boys for abandoning Willy in the restaurant. Willy is in the garden consulting an imaginary Ben about suicide and the life insurance it will give his family. When Willy enters the house, Biff confronts him about his fabricated reality and how ordinary they are. As Biff sobs in his arms, Willy is touched and decides to commit suicide to impress his son with a big funeral. He speeds off in his car after everyone goes to bed. At the funeral, the Lomans are shocked at the lack of a crowd. Biff sadly admits that Willy never knew who he was, and Happy declares that he will fulfill Willy’s dreams. Linda doesn’t understand why Willy committed suicide, as they have finally paid off their home and are free of debt. 

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105 Death of a Salesman Essay Topics & Examples

Death of a Salesman is Arthur Miller’s multiple award-winning stage play that explores such ideas as American Dream and family. Our writers have prepared a list of topics and tips on writing the Death of a Salesman thesis statement, essay, or literary analysis.

Arthur Miller

• Literature Notes
• About Death of a Salesman
• Play Summary
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Act I: Scene 1
• Act I: Scene 2
• Act I: Scene 3
• Act I: Scene 4
• Act I: Scene 5
• Act I: Scene 6
• Act I: Scene 7
• Act I: Scene 8
• Act I: Scene 9
• Act I: Scene 10
• Act I: Scene 11
• Act I: Scene 12
• Act II: Scene 1
• Act II: Scene 2
• Act II: Scene 3
• Act II: Scene 4
• Act II: Scene 5
• Act II: Scene 6
• Act II: Scene 7
• Act II: Scene 8
• Act II: Scene 9
• Act II: Scene 10
• Act II: Scene 11
• Act II: Scene 12
• Act II: Scene 13
• Act II: Scene 14
• Act II: Requiem
• Character Analysis
• Willy Loman
• Linda Loman
• Happy Loman
• Character Map
• Arthur Miller Biography
• Critical Essays
• Miller's Manipulation of Time and Space
• Major Themes in Death of a Salesman
• Full Glossary for Death of a Salesman
• Essay Questions
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• Cite this Literature Note

Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman addresses loss of identity and a man's inability to accept change within himself and society. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Willy Loman's life. The play concludes with Willy's suicide and subsequent funeral.

Miller uses the Loman family — Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy — to construct a self-perpetuating cycle of denial, contradiction, and order versus disorder. Willy had an affair over 15 years earlier than the real time within the play, and Miller focuses on the affair and its aftermath to reveal how individuals can be defined by a single event and their subsequent attempts to disguise or eradicate the event. For example, prior to discovering the affair, Willy's son Biff adored Willy, believed all Willy's stories, and even subscribed to Willy's philosophy that anything is possible as long as a person is "well-liked." The realization that Willy is unfaithful to Linda forces Biff to reevaluate Willy and Willy's perception of the world. Biff realizes that Willy has created a false image of himself for his family, society, and even for himself.

Willy is not an invincible father or a loyal husband or a fantastically successful salesman like he wants everyone to believe. He is self-centered. He fails to appreciate his wife. And he cannot acknowledge the fact that he is only marginally successful. Hence, Willy fantasizes about lost opportunities for wealth, fame, and notoriety. Even so, it would be incorrect to state that Miller solely criticizes Willy. Instead, Miller demonstrates how one individual can create a self-perpetuating cycle that expands to include other individuals. This is certainly the case within the Loman family. Until the end of the play, Willy effectively blocks the affair out of his memory and commits himself to a life of denial. He cannot remember what happened, so naturally he does not understand why his relationship with Biff has changed. Willy wants Biff's affection and adoration as before, but instead the two constantly argue. Willy vacillates, sometimes criticizing Biff's laziness and ineptitude, other times praising his physical abilities and ambition.

Linda and Happy are also drawn into the cycle of denial. Linda is aware of Willy's habit of reconstructing reality; however, she also recognizes that Willy may not be able to accept reality, as shown through his numerous suicide attempts prior to the beginning of the play. As a result, Linda chooses to protect Willy's illusions by treating them as truth, even if she must ignore reality or alienate her children in doing so. Happy is also a product of Willy's philosophy. Like Willy, he manipulates the truth to create a more favorable reality for himself. For example, when Happy tells everyone that he is the assistant buyer, even though he is only the assistant to the assistant, he proves that he has incorporated Willy's practice of editing facts.

Miller based Willy's character on his uncles, Manny Newman and Lee Balsam, who were salesmen. Miller saw his uncles as independent explorers, charting new territories across America. It is noteworthy that Miller does not disclose what type of salesman Willy is. Rather than drawing the audience's attention to "what" Willy sells, Miller chooses to focus on the fact that Willy is a "salesman." As a result, Miller expands the import of Willy's situation. Willy is an explorer — conqueror of the New England territory — and a dreamer, and this allows the audience to connect with him because everyone has aspirations, dreams, and goals.

Willy's despair results from his failure to achieve his American dream of success. At one point, Willy was a moderately successful salesman opening new territory in New England, and Biff and Happy viewed him as a model father. Once Biff discovers the affair, however, he loses respect for Willy as well as his own motivation to succeed. As Willy grows older, making sales is more difficult for him, so he attempts to draw on past success by reliving old memories. Willy loses the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy, and this behavior alienates him from others, thereby diminishing his ability to survive in the present. As the play progresses, Willy's life becomes more disordered, and he is forced to withdraw almost completely to the past, where order exists because he can reconstruct events or relive old memories.

The play continues to affect audiences because it allows them to hold a mirror up to themselves. Willy's self-deprecation, sense of failure, and overwhelming regret are emotions that an audience can relate to because everyone has experienced them at one time or another. Although most do not commit suicide in the face of adversity, people connect with Willy because he is a man driven to extreme action. An audience may react with sympathy toward Willy because he believes he is left with no other alternative but to commit suicide. On the other hand, an audience may react with disgust and anger toward Willy, believing he has deserted his family and taken the easy way out.

Either way, individuals continue to react to Death of a Salesman because Willy's situation is not unique: He made a mistake — one that irrevocably changed his relationship with the people he loves most — and when all of his attempts to eradicate his mistake fail, he makes one grand attempt to correct the mistake. Willy vehemently denies Biff's claim that they are both common, ordinary people, but ironically, it is the universality of the play that makes it so enduring. Biff's statement, "I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you" is true after all.

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Death of a Salesman

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The American Dream

The American Dream that anyone can achieve financial success and material comfort lies at the heart of Death of a Salesman . Various secondary characters achieve the Dream in different ways: Ben goes off into the wilderness of Alaska and Africa and lucks into wealth by discovering a diamond mine; Howard Wagner inherits his Dream through his father's company; while Bernard , who seemed a studious bore as a child, becomes a successful lawyer through…

Fathers and Sons

The central conflict of the play is between Willy and his elder son Biff , who showed great promise as a young athlete and ladies' man, but in adulthood has become a thief and drifter with no clear direction. Willy's other son, Happy , while on a more secure career path, is superficial and seems to have no loyalty to anyone.

By delving into Willy's memories, the play is able to trace how the values…

Nature vs. City

The towering apartment buildings that surround Willy 's house, which make it difficult for him to see the stars and block the sunlight that would allow him to grow a garden in his back yard, represent the artificial world of the city—with all its commercialism and superficiality—encroaching on his little spot of self-determination. He yearns to follow the rugged trail his brother Ben has blazed, by going into the wildernesses of Africa and Alaska in…

Abandonment and Betrayal

Inspired by his love for his family, Willy ironically abandons them (just as he himself was abandoned by his father when he was three). The tragedy of Willy's death comes about because of his inability to distinguish between his value as an economic resource and his identity as a human being. The Woman , with whom Willy cheats on Linda, is able to feed Willy's salesman ego by "liking" him. He is proud of being…