Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a tragic play about an aging and struggling salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s misguided perception of success. In Willy’s mind, being well-liked is more important than anything else, and is the means to achieving success. He teaches this flawed idea to his sons, Biff and Happy, and is faithfully supported by his wife Linda. Linda sympathizes with Willy’s situation, knowing that his time as an important salesman has passed. Biff and Happy hold their father to impossibly high standards, and he tries his best to live up to them. This causes Willy to deny the painful reality that he has not achieved anything of real value. Willy’s obsession with a false dream results in his losing touch with reality and with himself.
Many times during the play, Willy drifts in and out of flashbacks. Most of these occur during the period when Biff was in high school, and foreshadow the events of the present. For instance, in one of the flashbacks, Biff “borrows” a football from the locker room, and is told by Willy, “Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative.” Obviously, Willy rationalizes Biff’s behavior in addition to his own. In the same flashback, Willy asks Biff, “What do they say about you in school, now that they made you captain?” Willy proudly hears that Biff has a crowd of followers in the halls between classes, and is well on his way to becoming well-liked and successful. The reason Willy tries to maintain the guise of success is to not disappoint his boys who admire him. He wants the best for Biff and Happy; deep down, he hopes that their lives will be better than his.
During the play, Willy loses touch with himself, evidenced by his numerous contradictions. In one scene, he mentions that Chevrolet is “the greatest car ever built,” only to say later that “they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car.” Willy is an elderly man, his mind is slowing, and he has trouble remembering what he truly believes. When he does have moments of heartbreaking clarity, Linda does her best to buoy his spirits. Willy painfully realizes that people do not seem to like him very much, but Linda reassures that he will do better next time. Later, Linda calls Willy “the handsomest man in the world.” While Linda probably thinks that she is helping Willy by comforting him, she is actually enabling him to continue his self-delusions. Willy needs someone to stir him from his illusion, not someone to reaffirm his beliefs. The idea of the American dream is a significant part of the play. Unfortunately, Willy sees only a portion of the picture- the superficial part. Personality and charisma are important, but hard work, determination, and ethics are more essential. Willy views his life as a childish popularity contest; the one with the most friends wins. His immaturity is most clearly demonstrated in a flashback in which Bernard warns that Biff had better study so he doesn’t flunk math, and Willy dismisses Bernard a nerd. However, as Willy finds out, the quest of being liked by everyone is futile and will never bring true happiness. One of the most humiliating insults was that Willy was fired from his job by his boss, Howard- whom Willy had named when Howard was an infant. Because appearance and popularity are so vital to Willy, he feels utterly disgraced when he is dismissed by a man half his age.
Willy’s sons, Biff and Happy, are also failures. Biff is a thirty-four-year-old man whose favorite memories are from his days as a high school football player. He inexplicably ignored a football scholarship from the University of Virginia, and has not been able to find himself since. Willy cannot understand how everything could have gone so wrong for Biff, who had just come back from a ranch in the West. Willy believes that he has taught him the way to be successful, when really he did nothing but rationalize and condone harmful activities. “I never told him anything but decent things,” Willy laments. Like his brother, Happy is also misguided. He grew up in the shadow of his brother, and attempts to mask his self-esteem issues by surrounding himself with women. He has sordid sexual affairs with the wives of executives at his company, and hates himself for it. After his father commits suicide, he tries to carry on Willy’s unrealistic notions of success.
Reality, in the play, is represented by the character of Charley, the Loman’s neighbor. He is Willy’s only friend, and offers him a job when the old salesman is fired. Willy’s egotism gets in the way, however, and he cannot bring himself to work for Charley, since this would be admitting failure. Charley symbolizes reality- a reality that Willy never acknowledges.
Death of a Salesman is one of America’s most tragic plays, because it tells of disappointment, failure, and death. Ultimately, Willy wastes his adult years trying- unsuccessfully- to prove his worth. He has a misguided philosophy that he passes on to his two children, and can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. The story of Willy Loman will remain popular because it serves as a warning to all: the question to be asked upon retiring from an occupation is not, “What does the person know?” but rather, “What has the person become?”
