The American Dream Summary

Death of a Salesman

Author: Arthur Miller

Setting: Brooklyn townhouse

Primary Characters: Willy Loman, Linda Loman, Biff Loman, Happy Loman

Secondary Characters: Charley (neighbor to the Lomans), Bernard (Charley’s son)

PLOT

Note: Italics denotes events in a flashback

ACT I

• ·     
Biff and Happy, now grown, are visiting their parents in Brooklyn and reminiscing on the past.
• ·      Willy is talking to himself (a habit he has developed, something we learn from his sons’ discussion) when the scene cuts to a flashback.
• o   Willy is praising Biff and Happy for washing the car as he returns from a sales trip, and he tells his sons that he’ll someday start a company of his own.
• o    Willy claims his future company will be greater than that of Charley, their neighbor. This sets a tone of competition and subtle hostility between the two men for the rest of the play.
• o   Bernard enters the scene, and after he leaves Willy emphasizes the importance of being “well-liked” (like Biff) rather than being book smart (like Bernard).
• §Emphasis on Willy’s values, and the irony of Biff’s failure later on
• o   Linda enters, and Willy, though at first claiming his business trip to be wildly successful, eventually admits that he may not be able to cover the bills on the appliances and car for that month. He also claims that people don’t like him and that he’s bad at his job.
• §  Emphasis on the difficulties of capitalist society and Willy’s difficulty with self-acceptance
• o   After fighting with Linda, who tries to calm him down, Willy plays cards with Charley and begins thinking about his brother, Ben. He causes confusion when he refers to Charley as “Ben”.
• §  Emphasis on Willy’s desire to have success, but not necessarily to work for it
• ·      Linda enters, and informs her two sons that their father has tried to commit suicide recently.
• ·      Biff tells Linda that Willy is a “fake”.
• §  Emphasis on the unexplained tension between Biff and Willy
• ·      After fighting with their father over their lack of success, Biff and Happy agree (fairly optimistically) to open a sporting goods store. They plan to borrow money from an old employer of Happy’s, Bill Oliver.
• §  Emphasis on the optimism in Biff and Happy, and its effect on Willy, who goes to bed content only because his sons have a plan for success (Willy lives through his sons)

ACT II

• ·      Willy is eating breakfast, looking forward to the future. He then becomes angry about his appliances again. 
• ·      Linda informs Willy that Biff and Happy are planning on taking him out for dinner that night, and he is once again excited for the future. He exclaims that later that day he’ll demand his boss (Howard Wagner) to give him a New York job, rather than the traveling salesman job he currently has.
• §  Emphasis on Willy living through his sons, and his overconfidence.
• ·      Willy is sitting Howard’s office, and Howard is making him listen to a recording of his children and wife on his new wire recorder. Willy and Howard enter into a heated conversation because Howard doesn’t offer Willy a New York job, and Howard ends up telling Willy to take some time off.
• ·      Ben appears, and invites Willy to come to Alaska. Willy is hopeful once again.
• §  Emphasis on Ben’s presence, and its effect on Willy.
• ·      After being let go, Willy enters the offices of his neighbor Charley. Bernard is there, and it is revealed that he is a lawyer about to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court. His success is daunting to Willy, and Bernard wonders what happened to Biff to cause his lack of success.
• ·      Willy meets his sons for dinner, but ends up crying in the bathroom before the scene cuts to a flashback.
• o   Willy is cheating on Linda while on a business trip in Boston. Biff enters, a high school senior at this point, and he discusses his plans to go to summer school to make up a failed math class. This would allow him to graduate.
• o   He then realizes that his father is with another woman, and immediately leaves. It is revealed that this scene is a possible reason for Biff’s failure, as he never took the math class that summer.
• ·      Biff and Happy leave Willy at the restaurant and Linda scolds them for doing so.
• ·      Biff finds Willy in the backyard, planting seeds and talking with Ben, and attempts to say goodbye to his father. Willy is talking about a $20,000 proposition.
• ·      Biff and Willy start yelling at each other, and the fight moves into the house. Willy is thinking about how much better off Biff will be with $20,000 in (life) insurance money.
• ·      As the family goes to bed, the sound of Willy’s car driving off is heard.
• ·      At Willy’s funeral, Happy vows to validate his father’s death. Biff says Willy had the wrong dreams. Charley says Willy was a victim of his profession.
• §  Emphasis: All are important observations of Willy’s life

QUOTES

“Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground.” – Willy Loman

            After leaving the restaurant, Willy decides to plant seeds in his sunless backyard. This represents a last-ditch attempt at success and reconciliation for both Willy’s and Biff’s failures in life.

“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.” – Charley

            At Willy’s funeral, his neighbor Charley says the above quote to defend Willy’s actions and integrity. This depicts Willy as a hero, completely counter to what Willy actually was, and serves to idolize the career of salesman.

THEME

            Death of a Salesman emphasizes the importance of finding the right path in life, rather than bowing to societal pressure or focusing too heavily on stereotypes that are counter to one’s true desires.

• ·      The setting of Death of a Salesman is a middle-class Brooklyn townhouse, which was fairly stereotypical of that time. The appliances and the family car emphasized the middle class lifestyle (and revealed the struggle of the Lomans to live it).
• ·      The play’s title foretells a story of American stereotypes being shattered, and they are.
• ·      The symbols and motifs of the plot – the softly playing flute, the car that constantly needs fixing, seeds, “Ben” – distinctly reinforce a message of despair, failure, and lost hope that Miller is aiming for.