Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller\'s Death

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is about a sad salesman, Willy Loman has spent his entire adult life in sales, with little success, but always believing affirming that a man who is well-liked is always successful. There have been many film and television versions of Miller's play since its first performance in 1949. The 1966 version directed by Alex Segal and starring Lee J. Cobb has proven to be particularly interesting in the way it treats the specific themes of the story. Death of a Salesman has what would initially seem to be a spare plot; an aging man comes face-to-face with the reality of his existence and crumbles in the wake of his failures. The mental anguish of the main character is only one theme of the piece. When looked at more deeply, it becomes apparent that beneath the surface, there is a second layer to the story which deals with themes of the fallacy of the American Dream as well as the failure of the stereotypically happy American family.

Most performers who portray Willy Loman show him as a physically weak character, this is used to mirror his failing mental state. In the case of Cobb, who also originated the role of Loman in 1949, he was most famous for playing burly, angry, physically-intimidating men. When the audience is first introduced to Willy, he is mentally exhausted from driving about making sales. "Suddenly I'm goin' sixty miles per hour and I don't remember driving the last five minutes. I'm…I can't seem to…keep my mind to it" (I). From the outset, it is made clear that this man has given his all and has not much left to give. It is therefore interesting that Cobb, who is still older than the young men around him, has a presence that shows stronger physicality than his sons. His weakness is thus far more in mind than in body, making Loman's descent a mental more than physical problem.

The American Dream is the idea that anyone who is willing to work hard can come from nothing and build themselves a fortune so long as they live in America. Willy Loman staunchly believes in this dream, at least he did when he was a young man. Loman believes that a man who is well-liked will always have a better shot at achieving the Dream than one who is not. Unable to keep up with the younger men in his office, those who have yet to become jaded enough to give up on their American Dreams, Loman is fired at the relatively young age of 63. Incredulously, he cries, "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away -- a man is not a piece of fruit" (II.) The fallacy of the Dream proves fatal for Loman, who cannot live with the death of his dream. Willy Loman feels that he has nothing left to offer this world, and so he kills himself in the hopes that the insurance money will give his wife and his boys another chance at life. "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive" (II). In the play, this death could be interpreted as an actual car accident or a suicide depending on individual analysis. The film makes it very clear that Loman's death was not an accidental accident.