Death of a Salesman is a play by Arthur Miller. It takes place in New York. Itis about a man named Willy Loman.
He has been traveling salesman for theWagner Company for 34 years. He has a wife named Linda, and two sonsnamed Biff and Happy. Happy lives in New York, and works in a departmentstore. After 14 years, Biff finally comes home, looking for a job in New York. Willy is so happy that his sons are with him, that he decides to ask his Boss ifhe can have a job in New York, rather than New England. Instead, Willy getsfired.
Willy then asks his friend Charley for fifty dollars, and Charley offersWilly a good job in New York. Willy refuses, and leaves to go meet his sons ina restaurant. Later on, after they have gone home, Willy commits suicide,because with the insurance money, he feels that Biff could be such amagnificent person. Willy Loman came back home after having left for NewEngland one day.
He is a traveling salesman for the Wagner Company. Hiswife Linda is at home, and he tells her how he hasn’t been able to keep hismind on driving. He starts daydreaming, and his car just swerves off to the sideof the road. He asks about their son Biff, who hasn’t been home in over 14years.
He is visiting in New York, and is staying with them. Willy startsdaydreaming about when Biff was a senior in high school, and was in a bigfootball game. People were coming from all over to offer him scholarships. Butsomething happened that year, because Biff was never able to find himself. Now that Biff is in New York, him and his brother Happy are trying to think ofa job that Biff could get in New York.
They decide that he could ask Mr. Oliver, a man Biff used to work for. He wants to ask him for a loan of tenthousand dollars, so that Biff can start his own business. When they tell theirfather about their plans, Willy is ecstatic.
He thinks they could conquer theworld. He reminds them that the most important thing in life is to be well-likedand to have personal attractiveness. Willy is so happy that his two sons aregoing to have a business together, that he decides to go ask his boss, HowardWagner, for a job in New York. Howard tells him there is no room for Willy inNew York, and then tells him that he can no longer work in New Englandbecause he is doing harm for the company. Willy goes to an old friend toborrow money.
His name is Charley. Willy tells Charley that he has been fired,and Charley offers him a job in New York. But Willy declines. Earlier, Biff hadgone to see Oliver about the loan.
He waited all day to speak to Oliver, andthen when he finally got to see him, Oliver didn’t even recognize Biff. Biff thenrealizes that his whole life has been a ridiculous lie. Later on, when Biff meetsHappy in a restaurant, he tells Happy about what happened. Happy suggeststhat Biff not tell Willy about it, and instead tell him a nice story instead.
WhenWilly gets to the restaurant, Biff tries to explain to him that he had neverworked as a salesman with Oliver, and that he was only a shipping clerk. ButWilly tells his boys he wants to hear something good, because he just got fired. Biff can’t believe that the company fired Willy. He keeps trying to tell Willy thetruth about the interview, but Willy doesn’t listen. He pretends that Oliver hadremember Biff after all those years, and how Oliver threw his arm around Biff.
Biff screams out that he can’t talk to Willy. Willy leaves and goes to thebathroom. Biff asks Happy to stay and wait for him. Biff leaves, and Happyfollows.
He brings along two girls that he picked up earlier. When Willy comeout of the bathroom, he sees that his boys left. He leaves the restaurant, andgoes to the store to look for seeds. Biff finds Willy in the garden planting theseeds.
Biff explains to him that he has to leave, and he wont be coming back. Biff tells him that he has stolen himself out “of every good job since highschool”. Biff starts crying, and then Willy sees that he was wrong when hethought that Biff had been intentionally hateful towards him. He then realizesthat Biff loves him. Later that night, Willy kills himself in a car accident.
A fewdays later, at Willy’s funeral, no one came. Willy died a forgotten man. Deathof a Salesman was a great book. It was a little hard to follow, because it had alot of flashbacks, and sometimes it was difficult to figure out what time period itwas in. At the end of the book, Willy kills himself, and no one but his familycame to his funeral.
All his dreams about being well-liked were phony, becausethe truth was that he wasn’t very well-liked at all. It is a book about the”common man being defeated by a society which drains the common man ofhis energy, and then drops him”.Bibliography:
