Miller Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is the story of Willy Loman and his obsession with personal attractiveness, financial success and popularity as the most important traits in life, and the ones most likely to lead to his vision of what success is. As it becomes more and more clear to him that he is not a big success, that he is no longer handsome, and that he is not particularly popular, he cannot face this reality, and begins revisiting his past so strongly that the incidents he remembers seem real to him. The play is an example of ordinary people overwhelmed by circumstances. It can fairly be called a tragedy. The main character has a tragic flaw -- his obsession with superficial traits and his insistence that it is these superficial qualities that are important. This flaw leads to his downfall. He has methodically taught his sons to value superficial values and to rationalize mistakes, for instance, re-representing Biff's theft of a football from the school as ingenuity.

When, finally, he can no longer delude himself into thinking that he, and his sons, are happy, popular and successful, the only answer he sees is suicide. He is not aware of at least one significant achievement: the mortgage on his house is about to be completely paid off. He will have paid for the house, free and clear.

The play provides a catharsis for the audience, main character has a tragic flaw, has a universal quality. Willy Loman could have been our uncle; the Lomans could have been the family next door. The play has a protagonist in Willy Loman, but the antagonist is Willy's belief in superficial values.

The inciting incident occurs when Willy returns home early from a sales trip because of disturbing daydreams he had while driving. He reports opening the windshield and enjoying the fresh air, and yet the windshield cannot be opened on the car he has now. That was a feature on an older car he no longer has.

Clearly stressed, he begins to fantasize about events that took place earlier. His boys were handsome and well liked, so grades didn't matter. His brother, Ben, who was an adventurer, had tried to get Willy to go with him to Alaska, where Ben had done very well for himself. Then, after Willy's mind returns to the present, his next-door neighbor, Charley, offers Willy a job. Willy rudely turns him down, viewing the job as beneath a great salesman like himself. Willy has set himself up for the events that will follow; he has cut off all avenues of escape.

This is an episodic play. Important information is illuminated or explained by means of small vignettes presented as flashbacks in Willy's or others' minds. The vignettes provide not only history but important information about the real-time setting of the play. The play actually takes place over decades, starting when the sons, Biff and Happy, are young boys and moving back and forth in time to the present, when the oldest, Biff, is thirty-four years old.

The point of attack in this play begins early, as soon as Linda, Willy's wife, begins to try to provide possible solutions for Willy's anguish. He feels closed in, but criticizes her plan to take a drive in the country. She suggests a rest, or a change in territory, but Willy vetoes every suggestion. He continues this when he rejects Charley's offer of a job.

Exposition occurs throughout the play in the form of flashbacks. They play a crucial role, because they demonstrate how completely Willy has been seduced by the desire for wealth and popularity. His conflict with this desire is hinted at by his last name, which is pronounced "Low-Man," and his wife's first name -- Linda, in Spanish, means "beautiful."

In the rising action, Willy's repeated flashbacks, which he appears to have no control over, demonstrate his deteriorating state of mind. It reveals the permanence over time of Willy's problem: this is not some sudden crisis he is going through but a continuing pattern of maladaption and unwillingness to live happily as who he is that leads to tragedy. In the rising action we see that Biff cannot hold a job and that Happy is impulsive, and drifts through life without any real thought or planning.