Death of a Salesman

For other uses, see the play.

Death of a Salesman
2nd edition cover (Viking Press)
Written by	Arthur Miller
Characters	Willy Loman Linda Loman Biff Loman Happy Loman
Date premiered	10 February 1949
Place premiered	Morosco Theatre New York City
Original language
Subject	The waning days of a failing salesman
Genre	Tragedy
Setting	Late 1940s; Willy Loman's house; New York City and Barnaby River

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by American playwright Arthur Miller and is a classic of American theater. The play ran for 742 performances, directed by Elia Kazan with Lee J. Cobb starring in the leading role.

Death of a Salesman made both Arthur Miller and the character Willy Loman household names. The play raises a counterexample to Aristotle's characterization of tragedy as the downfall of a great man: though Loman certainly has Hamartia, a tragic flaw or error, his downfall is that of an ordinary man (a "low man"). Like Sophocles' Oedipus in Oedipus the King, Loman's flaw comes down to a lack of self-knowledge; unlike Oedipus, Loman's downfall threatens not the city but only a single household. In this sense, Miller's play represents a democratization of the ancient form of tragedy; the play's protagonist is himself obsessed with the question of greatness, and his downfall arises directly from his misconception of himself as someone capable of greatness. The tragedy of Willy Loman contrasted significantly with that of Willie Stark, the charismatic, populist politician in All the King’s Men the movie of which won the Academy award for the best film of 1949.

Characters

Major characters: The Loman Family

Willy Loman

A middle-aged salesman who is no longer able to earn a living. He receives only a small commission as he ages, and he slowly loses his mind and attempts to kill himself by inhaling gas from the water heater or from crashing his car. Idolizes Dave Singleman to become well liked and rich. He spends most of his time dreaming instead of actually acting. He is obsessed with the post-war interpretation of the American Dream. In the end he kills himself by crashing his car. His attempt to help his sons through life insurance money is ultimately a failure, as life insurance does not cover suicides.

Linda Loman

Willy's wife who aids in shielding Willy from reality. Linda enables Willy and despite obvious faults, she continues to allow Willy to make mistakes and does not help him. She also tries to rationalize many of Willy's actions, including his attempted suicide.

Biff Loman

The older son of Willy and Linda, he is the all-star athlete of the family. After discovering his father had an affair, he abandoned all of his dreams and set out to make his own way. Unfortunately he cannot escape his past or what he was taught as a child. He comes to realize that he was only fooling himself into believing in lies about his life.

Happy Loman

The younger son of Willy and Linda, epitomizes all of Willy's negative points, such as Willy's blind following of the American dream, as mentioned above. Happy is generally supportive of his father. He seems to only worry about making his parents notice him even if it means making up lies. "Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have--to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and I'm going to win it for him."

Ben Loman

Willy's wealthy and recently deceased older brother, who only appears during his time shifts. Willy looks up to him and his successful tapping of diamonds from Africa. He is the subject of many of Willy's hallucinations.

Other characters

• Charley: Willy's neighbor. Sympathetic to Willy's plight, his job offer to Willy was rejected mainly out of hubris. He is forced to stand by and watch Willy's death as his help is rejected.
• Bernard: Charley's son. Is the antithesis of Biff, mostly due to the parenting of his father. An "anaemic", worried, "worm" of a boy, he grows to become a successful lawyer and gets to the top of his profession. He tries to help Biff by asking him to study before his Regent's exam, but is shunned by Willy, who emphasises likeability and personality above braininess. As an adult, he doesn't push his success into Willy's face when he encounters him, but remains sympathetic and tactful.
• Dave Singleman: Willy's hero. As Willy puts it, "he died the death of a salesman" (from which the play's title comes). Singleman has long since passed away by the time the play begins. He was a sixty-year-old salesman who died in a car accident. Willy noticed that numerous businessmen attended Singleman's funeral, and concluded that Singleman had been well-liked and popular, the two traits that Willy values above all else.
• Howard Wagner: Willy's boss. Inherited company from father; fires Willy shortly before the end of the play. Insensitive, he parades a tape recorder before Willy which he knows he is unable to afford. A symbol of the modern businessman - prof
• Stanley: A waiter. Refuses Willy's money and lends a hand to help Willy return home after his sons leave him.
• Miss Forsythe: A woman who Biff and Happy meet in the restaurant where Stanley works. She draws Biff and Happy away from the dinner they planned with their father.
• Letta: A woman that Biff and Happy meet, friend of Miss Forsythe.
• The Woman: Willy's mistress, referred to by Willy as 'Miss Francis'. Sight of her with Willy forever scars Biff.
• Jenny: Charley's secretary.

Plot summary

One night, Willy Loman, a beaten-down traveling salesman based in New York City, returns home from a long business trip. His patient and loving wife, Linda, is surprised to see him but greets him warmly. From their ensuing conversation, it is revealed that Willy's early homecoming is due to his growing senility. Linda dotes on him and tells him to come to bed. Willy agrees but eventually remains in the kitchen, reminiscing, aloud to himself, about better times. His two sons, Biff and Happy, eventually awaken to Willy's loud mutterings but they remain in their beds to share a conversation. Biff, who had been working on a farm in Texas, talks to Happy about working outside, and how this house brings back bad memories, and boxes him in. Throughout the play, Willy also exhibits skills that would be more suited to an outside life, but he does not see these skills, primarily his ability to build and repair the house, as useful. The only success he can accept is the materialistic success of the 'American dream', which is beyond him. Willy goes outside and flashes back to Biff's childhood: Biff is the star quarterback of his high school football team. His father continuously dotes on Biff, while ignoring Happy. When Biff confesses to "borrowing" a football from his school's locker room, Willy simply writes off his behavior as initiative. Biff's classmate and neighbor, Bernard, arrives to help Biff study for math, but Willy and his sons ignore him and carry on playing football. Later on in the flashback, Willy goes inside, where Linda talks to him about their budget. Willy is reminded of a flirtatious encounter he had with The Woman, during which he gave her some silk stockings, originally meant for his wife. When he returns from the flashback, he sees Linda mending some stockings and snatches them away in guilt. Later, he and Charley engage in a card game (casino), during which Willy is reminded of his brother Ben. Ben begins a dialogue with him, and Willy contemplates why he can't become successful. Throughout the play, Willy has these imaginary conversations with Ben, during most of which he asks Ben how he made his millions. Ben had tried to go to Alaska to find their father but ended up in Africa. In Africa, he "stumbled" upon the diamond business and became wealthy by the time Willy was old enough to care about his own career. Willy feels that he can also become successful by luck alone. However, it is made apparent that Ben never spent much time with the rest of the Lomans and gave only rudimentary descriptions of how he gained his wealth. For instance, whenever Willy asks Ben (in his flashbacks) how he made his millions, Ben only answers "When I walked into the jungle, I was 17. When I walked out, I was 21, and by God I was rich." In addition, Willy worked for a man who only had to wake up in the morning, put his slippers on, and make phone calls, and had made millions of dollars. Willy assumes that one does not need to work hard or develop skill and experience, but that all that one needs is a "smile and a shoeshine" to be successful. In a sense, Willy's dream is the American Dream of material success. Willy has no interest in spiritual values or altruism.

As a salesman, Willy has been reduced to working for commission alone, has to travel long distances, and even has to borrow money from Charley to make ends meet. In order to escape from his own failure, he pressures his sons to make something of themselves, then is crushed when they don't live up to his expectations. The family discovers he's tried to kill himself when Linda finds a tube and "a new little nipple" on the heater, at which point Linda mentions he's deliberately crashed the car on several occasions. Biff has just returned from Texas after several years, during which he never contacted his family, and he is therefore not entirely welcome. In an effort to please their father, Biff and Happy plan to start a sporting goods business in Florida and put on exhibitions for publicity. Willy is excited by this plan, though it is ludicrous, and the boys plan to ask Bill Oliver, Biff's past employer, for startup money. Willy asks his current employer for a job in New York, so he doesn't have to travel so much. His employer, adamant there is no place in the business for him fires him instead. Willy is left desolate, and has another flashback and conversation with Ben, where he explains why he became a saleman instead of following him, and ends up in Charley's office. There, he runs into Bernard, who mentions that, during Biff's last year in high school, Biff went to Boston to visit Willy, but after he returned, had lost all interest in school, thereby failing in his further career. Willy denies anything happened in Boston. Charley mentions that Bernard is going to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, which astounds Willy. Charley offers Willy a job when he finds out that Willy has been fired, but Willy is too proud to accept.

Later, at a restaurant, Biff tells Happy about his encounter with Bill Oliver; he never got a chance to speak with Oliver, as he didn't even remember who Biff was. Infuriated, Biff stole Oliver's fountain pen and fled, at which point he realized his life was a lie and he was only a shipping clerk to Oliver. When Willy arrives, Biff tries to tell Willy the truth, but Willy so desperately wants good news that he forces Biff to lie. When Biff resists, Willy starts to pace, demanding to know why Biff didn't pass math. Biff takes pity on Willy, and lies that his encounter with Oliver went well, which allows Willy to continue denying reality. Willy has another flashback, during which he relives the night Biff found him in Boston; Biff walked in on Willy and The Woman, where Willy desperately tried to cover up his affair, but Biff saw through his lies and fled back to New York. Willy then wakes up in the bathroom, where he had somehow dozed off, and goes back home, where he begins planting seeds outside and talking to Ben. When Biff returns, he admits that he hadn't called because he had been in jail for a long time, and confronts Willy by showing him the tube with which Willy had attempted suicide. In a heated debate between Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy, Biff pleads with Willy to be free of his judgment, to "take this phony dream and burn it." Biff, Linda and Happy then go to bed. Willy then follows the voice of Ben, calling him to his car, and Willy drives off with the intent of killing himself in order to give Biff the settlement from his life insurance.

Style

The play is mostly told from Willy's point of view, and it shows previous parts of Willy's life in his time shifts, sometimes during a present day scene. It does this by having a scene begin in the present time and adding characters onto the stage that only Willy can see and hear, representing characters and conversations from other times and places. One example of this is during a conversation between Willy and his neighbor Charley. During the conversation, Willy's brother Ben comes on stage and begins talking to Willy while Charley speaks to Willy. When Willy begins talking to his brother, the other characters do not understand who he is talking to and some of them even begin to suspect that he has "lost it". However, at times it breaks away from Willy's point of view and focuses on the other characters, Linda, Biff and Happy. During these parts of the play, the time and place stay constant without any abrupt flashbacks as usually happens while the play takes Willy's point of view. Willy dies self-deceived.

The play's structure resembles a stream of consciousness account: Willy drifts between his living room, downstage, to the apron and flashbacks of an idyllic past, and also to fantasized conversations with Ben. When we are in the present the characters abide by the rules of the set, entering only through the stage door to the left; however, when we visit Willy's "past" these rules are removed, with characters openly moving through walls. Whereas the term "flashback" as a form of cinematography for these scenes is often heard, Miller himself rather speaks of "mobile concurrences". In fact, flashbacks would show an objective image of the past. Miller's mobile concurrences, however, rather show highly subjective memories. Furthermore, as Willy's mental state deteriorates, the boundaries between past and present are destroyed, and the two start to exist in parallel.

Productions

The original production won the Tony Award for Best Play; Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Arthur Kennedy); Best Scenic Design (Jo Mielziner); Producer (Dramatic); Author (Arthur Miller); and Best Director (Elia Kazan). The play won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Jayne Mansfield performed in a production of the play in Dallas, Texas in October 1953. Her performance in the play attracted Paramount Pictures to hire her for the studio's film productions.

The play has been revived on Broadway three times since:

• June 26, 1975 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, running for 71 performances. George C. Scott was Willy.
• March 29, 1984 at the Broadhurst Theatre, running for 97 performances. Dustin Hoffman played Willy. In a return engagement, this production re-opened on September 14, 1984 and ran for 88 performances. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival.
• February 10, 1999 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, running for 274 performances, with Brian Dennehy as Willy. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play; Best Actor in Play; Best Featured Actress in a Play (Elizabeth Franz); and Best Direction of a Play (Robert Falls). This production was filmed.

Adaptations

Main article: Death of a Salesman (1951 film)

In 1951, it was adapted by Stanley Roberts into a film which was directed by László Benedek who won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Fredric March), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Kevin McCarthy), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mildred Dunnock), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

• 1961: En Handelsresandes död starring Kolbjörn Knudsen - directed by Hans Abramson (in Swedish)
• 1968: Der Tod eines Handlungsreisenden starring Heinz Rühmann and directed by Gerhard Klingenberg

Television

Main article: Death of a Salesman (1985 film)

• 1966: starring Lee J. Cobb, Gene Wilder, Mildred Dunnock, James Farentino, Karen Steele and George Segal. It was directed by Alex Segal.
• 1985: starring Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang and Charles Durning. It was directed by Volker Schlöndorff.
• 1996: starring Warren Mitchell, Rosemary Harris, Iain Glen and Owen Teale. It was directed by David Thacker.
• 2000: starring Brian Dennehy, Elizabeth Franz, Ron Eldard, Ted Koch, Howard Witt and Richard Thompson. It was directed by Kirk Browning.

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1949 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play
• 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• 1949 Tony Award for Best Play
• 1984 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival
• 1984 Tony Award for Best Reproduction
• 1999 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
• 1999 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival of a Play

Further reading

• Hurell, John D. (1961). Two Modern American Tragedies: Reviews and Criticism of Death of a Salesman and A streetcar Named Desire. New York: Scribner. pp. 82–8. OCLC 249094.
• Sandage, Scott A. (2005). Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 067401510X.

External links

• ​Death of a Salesman​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• Character Analysis of Willy Loman
• Character Analysis of Linda Loman
• GradeSaver analysis, glossary, themes and quizzes on the novel
• Death of a Salesman: A Celebration by Joyce Carol Oates
• Death of a Salesman Reviews
• Director's Notes for "Death of a Salesman"