Death of a Salesman Summary and Analysis

After reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, readers are presented with another version of the American Dream. This dream is a lot like the American Dream Mommy and Daddy represented in Edward Albee's The American Dream. Sixth hour's theme for the play was prioritizing success over moral values will harm oneself and cause personal failure. 

The play starts out with main character Willy Loman comes back from a business trip and is greeted by his wife Linda. Readers/viewers find out that Willy's sons, Happy and Biff, are back in town. Willy heads to the kitchen where he has his first flashback. This involves his sons, in high school age, Linda and his neighbor's son, Bernard. Bernard rushes in saying that Biff will fail math if he doesn't study. Willy dismisses this and asks Biff if he is "well-liked". Willy then jumps back to reality where he angrily yells at Linda for mending stockings. This reminds Willy of his affair with The Woman, where The Woman was given stockings by Willy. His brother Ben then comes in in another flashback. Here, readers/viewers find out that Ben was a wealthy diamond tycoon in Africa, where he made his fortune. Willy was offered a job by Ben to go to Alaska. Charley, his neighbor, enters and tries to calm Willy down because of the ruckus he was making. Biff complains to Linda about Willy. Lind proceeds to tell Biff about Willy's suicide attempts. The family then goes to bed. The next morning, Willy goes to visit his boss, Howard, to try and secure a news job. Howard lets him go. Willy then goes to visit Charley at his office. He meets with Charley again and asks for money after Charley offers him another job. Willy again refuses and tells Charley that he was fired. Charley, furious, gives Willy the money needed to pay his bills and criticizes Willy for being prideful. Willy then goes to Frank's Chop House to meet his sons for dinner. Beforehand, Happy starts flirting with Miss Forsythe. Earlier that day, Biff had gone to see Bill Oliver to try and get a contract, but ends up leaving with no contract. Biff tries to tell Willy what actually happened, much to Happy's displeasure. Willy blurts out that he was fired, triggering another flashback. Here, we see Willy and The Woman. Biff enters the room and sees his father having an affair. Biff breaks down, causing Willy to not be able to convince Biff's teacher to pass him in math. The boys leave their father in the restaurant. At home, Linda tells the boys to leave. Willy enters and Biff and Will fight. Biff breaks down again and tells his father that they will not be seeing each other ever again. Everyone but Willy heads upstairs. Willy gets into his car and then commits suicide. At Willy's funeral, there are only five people, Linda, Biff, Happy, Charley and Bernard. 

Willy's top priority is to be popular or "well-liked". He puts that over his own family obligations. In regards to his children, he doesn't want them to be smart, or good people. He only cares about their popularity. For instance, when Biff is talking about his math teacher, Willy asks him why his teacher hates him. Biff responds that he pulled a prank on him. Willy then asks if the other students laughed. He says yes and Willy is happy. Also, Willy talks about all of the places that he's been to and how he's "well-liked" there. If Willy were "well-liked" then why is he not able to sell anything? His priority on success blinds him as to his actual failures. This priority causes him to idolize his brother. Ben went to Africa and became rich. When Ben goes to Africa for diamond mining, he is certainly not doing the mining. It's the natives he's exploiting. When Willy idolizes Ben. he throws all moral values out the window, and only focus on success.