Charley tells Linda that it is getting dark as she stares at Willy's grave.

Deeply angered,
Happy tells Linda that Willy had no right to commit suicide. Linda wonders where all of the
people that Willy knew are. Linda says it is the first time in thirty-five years that she and
Willy were nearly free and clear financially, because Willy only needed a little salary. Biff
says that Willy had the wrong dreams and that he never knew who he was. Charley says that
"nobody dast blame this man," for Willy was a salesman, and for a salesman there is no rock
bottom to the life. A salesman has to dream.

Biff asks Happy to leave the city with him, but Happy says that he's going to stay in the city
and beat the racket, and show that Willy did not die in vain. Charley, Happy and Biff leave,
while Linda remains at the grave. She asks why Willy did what he did, and says that she has
just made the last payment on the house today, and that they are free and clear.

Analysis:

Willy Loman's funeral is a cruel and pathetic end to the salesman's life. Only his family and
Charley attend, while none of his other customers, friends, or colleagues bother to pay their
respects. However, the funeral rests primarily on Willy's status as a salesman: it is the
character of a salesman that determined Willy's course of action, according to Miller. For a
salesman, there are only dreams and hope for future sales. Happy and Biff interpret Willy's
suicide in terms of these business dreams: Happy wishes to stay in the city and succeed where
his father failed, while Biff rejects the business ethos that destroyed his father and plans to
leave New York. Both Happy and Charley frame Willy Loman as a martyr figure, blameless
for his suicide and noble in his aspirations, repudiating the humiliations that Willy suffered
during the course of the play.

The play ends on an ironic note, as Linda claims that she has made the final payment on their
house, creating a sense of financial security for the Lomans for the first time. Willy Loman
worked for thirty-five years in order to build this sense of security and stability, yet
committed suicide before he could enjoy the results of his labor.

2. Themes, Symbols and Structure of Death of a Salesman

2.1 Structure of Death of a Salesman

CONFLICT

Protagonist:
Willy Loman is the protagonist. He is a traveling salesman, the low man of popular United
States culture, who believes in the false promises of the American Dream.

Antagonist:

The antagonist is the false promise of the American Dream, which makes people believe that
anyone in the United States can become rich through only hard work, perseverance, or
personality. The dream also seems to say that the individual need not master any form of skill
or profession to make it big. Unfortunately, Willy is overcome by his dreams and illusions
during the course of the play. He is fired by the company that he believes will promote him;
he is rejected by his sons, for whom he has worked and struggled; and he is forced to see that
his life and his philosophies are lies.

Climax:

Biff, Willy's son, makes his father see that both he and Willy are failures, who will never
obtain the American Dream. Biff makes his father realize the emptiness of their lives and the
unimportance of being well liked. Willy Loman cannot face or accept this reality.

Outcome:

The play ends in tragedy. Willy commits suicide in order to financially provide for his
family, especially to safeguard Biff's future with the receipt of Willy's twenty thousand dollar
insurance policy.

2.2 Themes

2.2.1 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 hard work. Willy Loman's version of the Dream, which has been influenced
by his brother Ben's success, is that any man who is manly, good looking, charismatic, and
well-liked deserves success and will naturally achieve it.
Over the course of his lifetime, Willy and his sons fall short of the impossible standards of
this dream. But the real tragedy of the play is not that Willy fails to achieve the financial
success promised in his American dream, but rather that he buys into the dream so thoroughly
that he ignores the tangible things around him, such as the love of his family, while pursuing
the success he hopes will bring his family security. By sacrificing himself at the end of the
play in order to get his family the money from his life insurance policy, Willy literally kills
himself for money. In the process, he demonstrates that the American dream, while a
powerful vehicle of aspiration, can also turn a human being into a product or commodity
whose sole value is his financial worth.

2.2.2 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 Willy instilled in
his sons—luck over hard work, likability over expertise—led them to disappoint both him
and themselves as adults. The dream of grand, easy success that Willy passed on to his sons
is both barren and overwhelming, and so Biff and Happy are aimless, producing nothing, and
it is Willy who is still working, trying to plant seeds in the middle of the night, in order to
give his family sustenance. Biff realizes, at the play's climax, that only by escaping from the
dream that Willy has instilled in him will father and son be free to pursue fulfilling lives.
Happy never realizes this, and at the end of the play he vows to continue in his father's
footsteps, pursuing an American Dream that will leave him empty and alone.

2.2.3 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 search of diamonds, or even building wooden flutes and selling them on the rural frontier
of America as his father did. But Willy is both too timid and too late. He does not have the
courage to head out into nature and try his fortune, and, anyway, that world of a wild frontier
waiting to be explored no longer exists. Instead, the urban world has replaced the rural, and
Willy chooses to throw his lot in with the world of sales, which does not involve making
things but rather selling oneself.

Biff and Happy embody these two sides of Willy's personality: the individualist dreamer and
the eager-to-please salesman. Biff works with his hands on farms, helping horses give birth,
while Happy schemes within the stifling atmosphere of a department store. While Willy
collects household appliances and cars, as the American Dream has taught him to do, these
things do not ultimately leave him satisfied, and he thinks of his own death in terms of finally
venturing into nature, the dark jungle that the limits of his life have never allowed him to
enter.

2.2.4 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 able to sell himself to her, and
this feeling turns to shame only when he sees that by giving stockings to The Woman rather
than Linda, he is sabotaging his role as a provider. He doesn't see that his love, not material
items, is the primary thing Linda needs from him.

The link between love and betrayal is present throughout the play: part of Biff's revelation at
the play's end is that Willy has betrayed him by encouraging him to settle for nothing less
than greatness, thus making the compromises of the real world impossibly difficult. Happy,
and even Linda, also betray Willy out of a kind impulse to not shake him out of his illusions,
which forces Willy's fragile mind to deal alone with the growing discrepancy between his
dreams and his life.

2.3 Symbols
2.3.1 Rubber Hose

The rubber hose is a symbol of Willy's impending suicide. Linda finds it hidden behind the
fuse box in the cellar, and the "new little nipple" she finds on the gas pipe of the water heater
leads her to the conclusion that Willy had planned to inhale gas. Like Willy's other attempted
method of suicide—driving off the road in the car he uses to travel to work—the rubber hose
points how the conveniences such as the car and water heater that Willy works so hard to buy
to afford might, under their surface, be killing him.

2.3.2 Stockings

During his affair with The Woman, Willy gives her the intimate gift of stockings. Biff's
outburst at discovering Willy with The Woman—"You gave her Mama's stockings!"-- fixes
the stockings in Willy's mind as a symbol of his betrayal. He has let his wife down
emotionally, and he is siphoning the family's already strained financial resources toward his
ego-stroking affair.

2.3.3 Seeds

"I don't have a thing in the ground!" Willy laments after both his sons abandon him in Act 2.
The sons he has cultivated with his own values have grown to disappoint him, none of his
financial hopes have borne fruit, and he is desperate to have some tangible result of a lifetime
of work. By planting vegetable seeds, he is attempting to begin anew. But as Linda gently
reminds him, the surrounding buildings don't provide enough light for a garden. Willy's
attempt to plant the vegetable seeds at night further reinforces the futility of his efforts.

2.3.4 Flute

The flute music that drifts through the play represents the single faint link Willy has with his
father and with the natural world. The elder Loman made flutes, and was apparently able to
make a good living by simply traveling around the country and selling them. This anticipates
Willy's career as a salesman, but also his underused talent for building things with his hands,
which might have been a more fulfilling job. The flute music is the sound of the road Willy
didn't take.

3. Character List
3.1 Major Characters

3.1.1 Willy Loman

Death of a Salesman is Willy's play. Everything revolves around his actions during the last
24 hours of his life. All the characters act in response to Willy, whether in the present or in
Willy's recollection of the past. Willy's character, emotions, motivations, and destiny are
developed through his interactions with others. The problem arises, however, because Willy
reacts to characters in the present, while simultaneously responding to different characters
and different situations in the past. The result is Willy's trademark behavior: contradictory,
somewhat angry, and often obsessive.

Willy is an individual who craves attention and is governed by a desire for success. He
constantly refers to his older brother Ben, who made a fortune in diamond mining in Africa,
because he represents all the things Willy desires for himself and his sons. Willy is forced to
work for Howard, the son of his old boss, who fails to appreciate Willy's previous sales
experience and expertise. Ben, on the other hand, simply abandoned the city, explored the
American and African continents, and went to work for himself. As a result, after four years
in the jungle, Ben was a rich man at the age of 21, while Willy must struggle to convince
Howard to let him work in New York for a reduced salary after working for the company for
34 years. Willy does not envy Ben, but looks to him as model of success.

The play begins and ends in the present, and the plot occurs during the last two days of
Willy's life; however, a large portion of the play consists of Willy's fragmented memories,
recollections, and re-creations of the past, which are spliced in between scenes taking place in
the present. Willy not only remembers an event but also relives it, engaging himself in the
situation as if it is happening for the first time. As the play progresses, Willy becomes more
irrational and is not able to transition between his memory of the past and the reality of the
present.

Willy's memories are the key to understanding his character. He carefully selects memories
or re-creates past events in order to devise situations in which he is successful or to justify his
current lack of prosperity. For example, Willy recalls Ben and the job he offered to Willy
after being fired by Howard. Willy is unable to cope with the idea that he has failed, so he
relives Ben's visit. The memory allows Willy to deny the truth and its consequences — facing
Linda and the boys after being fired — and to establish temporary order in his disrupted life.
At other times, Willy proudly recalls memories of Biff's last football game because it is more
pleasant to re-create the past in which Biff adored him and wanted to score a touchdown in
his name, rather than face the present where he is at odds with his own son.

Willy's constant movement from the present to the past results in his contradictory nature.
Although he fondly remembers Biff as a teenager, he is unable to communicate with Biff in
the present. As a result, he praises Biff in one breath, while criticizing him in the next. The
cause of Willy's inconsistent behavior is his unbidden memories of a long-ago affair, which
he forgets or chooses not to remember until the end of Act II. It is difficult enough for Willy
to deal with Howard, his buyers (or lack of buyers), and the everyday reminders that he is not
a great salesman like Dave Singleman; however, it is even more insufferable for Willy to
accept the idea that he is a failure in his son's eyes.

Prior to the Boston trip, Biff, more than anyone, sincerely believes in Willy's success,
potential, and inevitable greatness. Willy is able to achieve the success and notoriety he
desires only through Biff, but this changes when Biff learns of the affair. After the Boston
trip, Willy tries to regain the success he once had by focusing on memories or events prior to
the discovery of the affair. It is not surprising that Willy contradicts himself when speaking in
the present about Biff or to him, for although Willy chooses to remember Biff as he used to
be, he cannot eradicate the words Biff spoke to him in Boston: "You fake! You phony little
fake!"

Willy perceives himself as a failure: He is not Dave Singleman. He is just a mediocre

salesman who has only made monumental sales in his imagination. Now that he is growing
old and less productive, the company he helped to build fires him. He regrets being unfaithful
to his wife, even though he will never admit the affair to her. He is no longer a respectable
man in Biff's eyes. Biff recognizes Willy's tendency to exaggerate or reconstruct reality and is
no longer a willing participant in Willy's fantasy. By the end of the play, Willy is
overwhelmed; he can no longer deny his failures when they become too many to deal with.
Instead, he seeks a solution in suicide. Willy reasons he can finally be a success because his
life insurance policy will in some way compensate Linda for his affair. Additionally, Biff will
consider him a martyr and respect him after witnessing the large funeral and many mourners
Willy is sure will attend.
3.1.2 Biff Loman

Biff is a catalyst. He drives Willy's actions and thoughts, particularly his memories,
throughout the play. Whenever Willy is unable to accept the present, he retreats to the past,
and Biff is usually there. Prior to his Boston trip, Biff adored Willy. He believed his father's
stories and accepted his father's philosophy that a person will be successful, provided that he
is "well-liked." Biff never questioned Willy, even when it was obvious that Willy was
breaking the rules. As a result, Biff grew up believing that he was not bound by social rules
or expectations because Willy did not have to abide by them, nor did Willy expect Biff to. It
is not surprising that Biff's penchant for stealing continued throughout his adult life because
Willy encouraged Biff's "little thefts" while he was growing up. For example, instead of
disciplining Biff for stealing the football, Willy praised his initiative.

Biff's perception of Willy as the ideal father is destroyed after Biff's trip to Boston. Once he
learns that Willy is having an affair, Biff rejects Willy and his philosophy. Biff considers
Willy to be a "fake," and he no longer believes in, or goes along with, Willy's grand fantasies
of success. Instead, Biff despises his father and everything he represents.

Biff's problem lies in the fact that, even though he does not want to associate with Willy, he
cannot change the fact that he is his son. And as a result, he cannot change the fact that his
father has inevitably affected him. It is true that Biff is not a womanizer like his brother
Happy, but he has incorporated Willy's tendency to exaggerate and manipulate reality in his
favor. For example, Biff truly believes he was a salesman for Oliver, rather than a shipping
clerk. It is only when he confronts Oliver that Biff realizes how wrong he was.

Biff is different from Willy because he does finally accept and embrace the fact that he has
been living a lie all of his life. Biff is relieved once he realizes who he is and what he wants,
as opposed to who Willy thinks he should be and who Biff needs to pretend to be in order to
please him. Once Biff states that "We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house," he
severs himself from Willy because he openly refuses to live by Willy's philosophy any
longer. Ironically, Biff reconciles with Willy almost immediately following this statement.
Since he acknowledges that he, too, is a "fake," Biff can no longer hold a grudge against
Willy.

3.1.3 Linda Loman

Linda is a woman in an awkward situation. She knows that Willy is suicidal, irrational, and
difficult to deal with; however, she goes along with Willy's fantasies in order to protect him
from the criticism of others, as well as his own self-criticism. Linda is Willy's champion. She
gently prods him when it comes to paying the bills and communicating with Biff, and she
does not lose her temper when he becomes irate. Linda knows that Willy is secretly
borrowing money from Charley to pay the life insurance and other bills. She has discovered
the rubber hose behind the heater and lives in fear that Willy will try to asphyxiate himself.
She is also aware that he has attempted to kill himself several times before. Despite all this,
Linda does nothing, afraid to aggravate Willy's fragile mental condition. In fact, she even
throws Biff and Happy out when their behavior threatens to upset Willy. In many ways Willy
is like a small child, and Linda is like a mother who anxiously protects him from Biff, Happy,
and the rest of the world.

Linda is a character driven by desperation and fear. Even though Willy is often rude to her
and there is the possibility that Linda suspects Willy may have had an affair, she protects him
at all costs. According to Linda, Willy is "only a little boat looking for a harbor." She loves
Willy, and more importantly, she accepts all of his shortcomings. She would rather play
along with his fantasies of grandeur, or the simple ones like building a garden and growing
fresh vegetable, than face the possibility of losing him.

3.1.4 Happy Loman

Happy is a young version of Willy. He incorporates his father's habit of manipulating reality
in order to create situations that are more favorable to him. Happy grew up listening to Willy
embellish the truth, so it is not surprising that Happy exaggerates his position in order to
create the illusion of success. Instead of admitting he is an assistant to the assistant, Happy
lies and tells everyone he is the assistant buyer. This is Willy's philosophy all over again.

Happy also relishes the fact that "respectable" women cannot resist him. He has seduced the
fiancées of three executives just to gain a perception of pleasure and power. He thrives on
sexual gratification, but even more than that, Happy savors the knowledge that he has
"ruined" women engaged to men he works for and also despises. He states, "I hate myself for
it. Because I don't want the girl, and, still, I take it and — I love it!" Happy is similar to Willy
in two ways. Both deny their positions and exaggerate details in order to aggrandize
themselves, and sexual interludes are the defining moments of both of their lives. Willy's life
revolves around his attempt to forget his affair with the Woman, while Happy's life revolves
around an active pursuit of affairs with many women.

3.1.5 Ben Loman

Ben is Willy's adventurous and lucky older brother. Of course, he's dead, so he only appears
in the play as a character in Willy's troubled imagination. Willy totally idolizes Ben because
he was an adventurer who escaped the world of business and got rich quick by finding
diamonds in the African jungle.

One of Willy's lifelong regrets is that he didn't go with his brother to Alaska. Unlike Willy,
Ben was able to take a risk and stray from the world of fierce ambition and competition.
Willy interprets Ben's good fortune as undeniable proof that his dreams of making it big are
realistic.

Willy also associates Ben with knowledge and self-awareness, qualities that he himself is
severely lacking. Willy always wants advice, and Ben gives it. Of course, it's frequently not
very good advice, and, actually and is usually the product of Willy's own imagination.

In his imagined conversations with his brother, Willy pries him for information about their
father, about how he succeeded financially, and for advice about parenting Biff and Happy.
It's hard to talk about Ben and his responses to these pleas, since he is either a memory of the
past or a figment of the imagination. And, with Willy's complete lack of credibility, it's hard
to tell even these apart.

But one thing we can take as true with reasonable confidence is the scene where Ben fights
Biff. Ben wins, but only by cheating, informing the boy that that's the only way to win.
There's some sketchiness surrounding his success in Africa (we're thinking he wasn't just
handed the diamonds and sent along his way). He even says, in Willy's imaginings, "The
jungle is dark but full of diamonds." That's big stuff right there.

Considering Ben's self-serving nature and amoral proclivities, the word "dark" connotes more
than just shadows under the trees. We're not going so far as to say words like "evil" or "Darth
Vader," but Ben's success is certainly blemished by his apparent use of cheating to get what
he wants.

3.2 Minor Characters

3.2.1 Charley - Willy's neighbor, a steady businessman. He is a constant friend to Willy
through the years, though Willy is quick to take offense whenever Charley tries to bring
Willy's unrealistic dreams down to earth. Charley foresees Willy's destruction and tries to
save him by offering him a job. He gives the final elegy about what it meant for Willy to live
and die as a salesman.

3.2.2 Bernard - Charley's son, he is studious and hardworking. As a boy in high school, he
warns Biff not to flunk math, a warning both Biff and Willy ignore. He grows up to be a
successful lawyer who is about to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

3.2.3 The Woman - Willy's mistress in Boston, during the time that Biff and Happy were in
high school. She is a secretary to one of the buyers, and picked Willy as a lover because, it
seems, she is able to exploit him for gifts.

3.2.4 Howard Wagner - Willy's boss and the son of Frank Wagner, who founded the
company for which Willy works. A cold, selfish man, he inherits his success without building
anything himself. He refuses to take the personal association between Willy and his father
into account when he tells Willy there is no place for him at the New York office. He
represents the new, impersonal face of the sales business.

3.2.5 Stanley - A waiter at Frank's Chop House, who is friendly with Happy but has
sympathy for Willy's plight.

3.2.6 Miss Forsythe - A call girl Biff and Happy met at Frank's Chop House.

3.2.7 Letta - A call girl friend of Miss Forsythe.

3.2.8 Jenny - Charley's secretary.

3.2.9 Bill Oliver - Biff's former boss. Though crucial to the plot, he doesn't appear onstage.

4. Arthur Miller’s contribution to American Literature

As a dramatist, Miller has more in common with Ibsen, Shaw, Chekov, and Brecht than with
his fellow American playwrights, Eugene O'Neil or Thornton Wilder. With Ibsen, Shaw, and
Chekov, Miller shares in common the philosophy that the fate of a person is social and that
the stage should be considered as a medium more important for ideas than for mere
entertainment. As a dramatist, Miller is a moralist, and his plays have a serious intellectual
purpose.

The theater of twentieth century America took a long time to come of age. No American
dramatist in the early 1900's dared to experiment with subjects, ideas, or production
techniques because theatre was regarded as business. Slowly, in response to the plays of
European realistic dramatists, American theater began to change. The years between the end
of World War I and the beginning of the Depression saw more frequent reflections of
economic problems on the American stage. In 1922, Eugene O'Neill'sHairy Ape represented
the psychological defeat of an uncouth proletarian struggling to adjust himself to a complex
economic order which he could not understand. Maxwell Anderson's play What Price
Glory(1924) dealt with the bitter realities of war and its aftermath.

After World War II, the theatre of social protest fell into disrepute. Senator McCarthy
succeeded in suppressing critical dissent and created a climate hostile to the free expression
of the artist. During this period, the American theater concentrated on light comedy and lush
musicals. Arthur Miller, born in 1915, was a young adult at the time of the suppression of
free thinking. He decided to fight McCarthyism and to work for the expression of free ideas
in the theatre. He also decided to write plays of social protest. In Death of a Salesman (1949),
Miller criticizes the falsity of the American Dream and the emphasis placed on financial
success in the United States.

5. Questions

1. Discuss Willy Loman as a pathetically tragic figure. What actually overcomes him in life?

2. Which character in the play changes the most? Support your answer with specific detail.

3. What aspects of American society are criticized by Arthur Miller in the play "Death of a
Salesman"?