Blog #15: Summary of "Death of a Salesman"

Death of a Salesman: Summary

Author: Arthur Miller

Setting: New York, partially in an apartment, other parts in various sites around NYC (Howard's office, a nice restaurant, and Charley's office). Parts of the play take place in the present, other parts in various memories of Willy's (unclear whether or not they are exaggerative).

Plot: The beginning of the play starts with Willy surprisingly coming home early from one of his traveling business trips, the reason for this is unclear. Once talking to his wife, Linda, she tries to convince him to leave his job as a traveling salesman and ask his boss for a job in NYC so he would no longer have to travel. Once deciding to ask Howard for the job in New York, the conversations moves on one of their two sons, the oldest Biff. Willy is disappoint that Biff has yet to settle and essentially become more like himself (this is one of the driving plots of the play). As Willy leaves to go get a snack, the scene flashes to Biff and Happy talking in their room. The boys discuss their father and how he is seemingly beginning to lose his mind and is talking to himself. They also discuss the glory days of the young and what they want from their future, moving together out West and owning their own farm.        

     Going back down to Willy, we now enter the first of many of Willy's memories. The memories starts with Willy and his boys when they were in high school goofing off in the backyard. The atmosphere is care free until Bernard comes in begging Biff to come study with him, so that Biff won't fail his math class. Willy quickly shoos him off in order to gain the full attention and admiration of his boys again. Almost right after Bernard leaves, the boys are once again interrupted, but this time by Linda who wants to talk money with Willy. Questioning how much he has made on his last trip, Linda finds out that Willy may not be a honest as she had thought. At first the amount of commission Willy claimed to had made would have be enough to pay the several sets of bills the Lomans have but the truth soon comes out that he has not made as much as originally thought. 

     As Linda begins to fiddle with her stockings, the laugh of a woman is heard onstage. This woman is assumed to be a woman that Willy is having an affair with. As the laughter gets louder, the memory shifts to one of the woman and Willy inside of a hotel room in the midst of a night together. After the woman brings up stockings, Linda's laughter mixes in with the Woman and the scene is transferred to yet another memory. This time Linda, Bernard, and Willy are discussing how Biff needs to begin to study in order to pass a set of exams. Willy however, doesn't understand the importance and yells at both Linda and Bernard to stop pressing Biff to succeed in school. 

     Now back in the present, Happy makes his way down the stairs after hearing his dad from his room, briefly causing a stir and waking the neighbor Charley. Once Happy goes back upstairs, the men begin to play cards, but this is soon interrupted with the intrusion of another one of Willy's memories, this time about his brother Ben. This memory was on of the first times that the family had met Ben and shows what Willy's life could have been. Ben had wanted Willy to come with him to Alaska but he had chosen not to. Each time that Ben appears in a memory we see Willy trying to convince him that his life is successful and that he is happy. We then learn that Ben actually went to Africa and found diamonds in the jungle.

    As Ben leaves the Loman's house, the play goes back to the present with Willy in the kitchen and Linda walking into the room. After a few minutes of talking, Willy goes outside for a walk and the two boys come down to talk to their mom. Biff talks about his concerns regarding his dad and Linda blames him for not becoming successful and disappointing Willy. Linda then reveals shocking news to her boys, Willy has been trying to kills himself. This causing the boys to rethink the problems that are faced in their house. Willy comes back to the house and begins to fight with Biff. To diffuse the situation, Happy tells his father that the two boys have a plan to ask for money in order to begin a new business. This news excites Wily and helps mend the drift between him and Biff. After heading to bed, Biff removes a nozzle on the gas pipe (put there by Willy) so that he could not kill himself. 

     The next act starts out by Linda telling Willy that the boys want to meet with him for dinner after Biff meets with Bill Oliver. Leaving in good spirits, Willy goes to meet with Howard to see if he can begin to work in the New York office. The scene starts off with Howard showing Willy his new recording device, uninterested Willy asks if he can work in the NY office. After being rejected Willy causes a scene and is fired by Howard. There are two memories after this, first another involving Ben asking Willy to go to Alaska and the next before Biff's big football game in high school. Still  in the memory, Willy leaves the office and goes to Charley. Now with no job, Willy goes to Charley to borrow money to pay bills. There he sees Bernard and they discuss Biff and his failure in life. Willy begins to blame himself and get upset. Once Charley comes into the scene, he gives Willy money and offers him a job. Taking the money, but not the job, Willy leaves to go meet his boys. 

   Once getting to dinner Biff tells Willy that he had no luck with Oliver and stole his pen. Willy can't believe that happened and refuses to face the truth. Biff storms off and Happy (with two girls) follow after him. Willy locks himself in the bathroom at the restaurant. Once in the bathroom, another one of Willy's memories begins. After failing math, Biff goes to meet his father in Boston. Biff walks in on Willy and the Woman and can't believe that Willy would cheat on Linda and looses all interest in making up his credit to graduate. After going back to the present, Willy realizes that his boys are gone and leaves to go buy seeds to plant. 

     Back at home, Linda yells at the two boys for leaving their dad and kicks the out of the house and out of their lives. Once knowing that he will have to leave, Biff goes to say one final goodbye to his dad. After a huge fight and hashing it out, Willy learns that Biff is only doing it out of love and finally realizes that Biff has found is place in life and puts him at ease. After one final flashback with Ben, Willy gets in the car and kills himself to provide the insurance money for his family.

Significant Characters: 

-Willy- seemingly going insane, sporadic, specific moments in the present trigger his memories, exaggerative, pushes all his hopes and dreams on Biff, treats his wife more like his mother, struggles to maintain control of his life, wants to be successful, equates success with being liked, sacrifices his life in order to save his family, lives with the guilt of his affair, 

-Linda- only relatively sane character, wants to protect her husband, only one that shows emotion, treats Willy like a child, resentful toward her children's lack of respect for Willy, naive to the issues surrounding her family

-Biff- expected to be like his dad, wants to defy the standard, rejects his dad after finding out that he has an affair causes him to no longer go to college or graduate, equates success with being happy, hasn't found his place in life, doesn't want to be like his dad, lost confidence in himself after he didn't go to college, overall not successful in his life

-Happy- not as important as Biff in his parents eyes, has a mediocre life, parallels Willy, wants to carry out his dad's dream after his death, does and says pointless things in order to get the attention of his parents, lives in Biff's shadow 

-Charley- foil of Willy, is successful, Willy is jealous and resentful, seen as the voice of reason, provides money for Willy to provide for his family, Willy rejects his job offer due to embarrassment, Willy's only friend

-Bernard- foil to Biff, graduates high school, becomes a successful lawyer, though seen as a nerd ends up becoming everything Biff could have been, ridicule in his childhood led to his success, tried to look out for Biff but every attempt to help is blocked by Willy

Narrative Voice: none, this is a play

Author's Style: Some techniques used include diction, details, several uses of figurative language, anaphora, andiplosis, antistrophe, parallelism, symbolism, and strong imagery that creates the premise of the memories that Willy has. Since this is a play, there is no specific point of view create. This play has several different tones. Each tone is reflected by a different character. Biff's tone is very harsh and hopeless, this comes from looses his ideological complex of his father and his failure in life. This tone reflects how he feels about life and the American Dream that he should have achieved by now. Willy's tone however is different. When Willy talks his tone can very from angry to awestruck showing his childish side and how he is almost regressing through his life. These two tones showcase Willy's changing opinion on his success and happiness. Imagery is used to create clear distinctions between the past and the present, along with detail in order to help the reader follow along. Symbols also are an important part of Miller's style. One important symbol used is the stockings. Each time the stockings are mentioned, the scene transfer either from Linda to the Woman, or from the Woman back to Linda. Other symbols include football, the Chevy, the seeds, and dairy products. 

Quotes:
-Quote 1-"We're free and clear. We're free. We're free... We're free..." This closing line of the play spoken by Linda is one of the most important quotes of the play and can be interpreted in many ways. Linda could be feeling relief that her husband in no longer suffering in a unhappy life, figuring that death was the best option she can be showing her knowledge that this was the only option for Willy. Another way could be the insurance money aspect. A few lines prior Linda speaks about how she had finally paid off the house, this may not have been possible without the money. Now, she has the financial freedom that should have been provided through Willy while he was living. The final way this quote could be understand is that she and her boys are no longer stuck in the limbo of choosing between Willy's happiness and the happiness of the boys.
-Quote 2-"The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy." Spoken by Ben, this quote can be directly compared to Willy's life. Though his life seems like it was hopeless and empty, there were bits and pieces that stood out and that were important to him. These pieces can be seen in the flashbacks that Willy has throughout the play. Once reliving these moments, Willy then feels that his life is "all out of diamonds" and that he no longer has anything worth searching for.

Theme: One theme found in this play is the typical American Dream has be deluded and diluted, needing some serious change in order to make families happy and healthy.

Support of Theme: Willy equates being successful with being well liked and making a lot of money. This is shown as the typical American Dream, Willy being the key symbol of this. As we see Willy struggle throughout the play, it is directly related to the struggle in achieving what people believe is the American Dream. Willy's death shows how the American Dream is fading and dying off. Biff however represents the second part of the theme, change. Biff essentially breaks the cycle of being a salesman. Though he is unsuccessful in his life, towards the end of the play we see him breaking free and given the opportunity to look for what he really wants in life. The set of the play doesn't seem to have much effect on the play, other than the roof in which Willy in constructing and the constant remarks about opening windows or feeling trapped. This represents how Willy feels like he is trapped into striving to achieve the American Dream even though it may not really be what he wants. The title has a significant effect on the theme. Death of a Salesman should really be called Death of the American Dream, since the salesman is referring to Willy and his death is essentially the death of the American Dream. Lastly, the tone effects the play in a subtle but strong way. The differing tones found in Biff and Willy showcase the two opposing views of the theme and help strengthen the theme throughout the play.