Death of a Salesman

Author Miller's Death of a Salesman suggests that valuing words instead of actions leads to a delusional perception of one's conventional success; this delusion leads to a deterioration of family and one's self. 

Willy throughout the play expected results to come from just believing in dreams and not actually putting effort into being successful. He was repeatedly upset with Biff that he was not like Bernard and thought he was lazy not having a steady career. At the same time Willy wasn't doing well at his job and contradicting what he was telling Biff. One specific time that he was hypocritical was at the end of the book when he told Biff to aim high and ask for a big number but when he went to ask not to travel for his job he started asking to make lower a week than what would support his family, and kept going down. Even know Willy may have had good ideas, if you just say things and value words instead of actions than you won't achieve success. After Willy finally took in that his dreams were dead and that Biff was never going to be as prestigious as Bernard, he slowly went crazy and relied on memories of the past to keep his partly sane. At the end he destroyed himself and his family.

The setting helps the theme because you can see the distinct difference between when Willy found himself to be successful in the past, it being bright and happy and then the present being gloomy and tense. The tone is depressing and dry as Willy slowly falls into this fake reality of a mix between miss perceptions and a yearn for the past. The style of the writing of the play makes you feel Willy's disappointment with his life and children. The theme comes out clear the more you analyze the play and look at Willy's confused mind.

Narrative Voice: Author Miller is a Jewish man, Willy's family is not portrayed as a Jewish family but since Miller was married to a Christan women at the time you can see both aspects of Christianity and Judaism in the play. There is not a lot of imagery in the play, it is more focused on Willy's interpretations of the past and present. The tone is dry and sad because of the way Willy is trying to hold on to the dreams he had but is slowly deteriorating.

Setting: Most of the play is set in Willy's home between the past and the present. When Willy is showing a flashback the set usually gets brighter and happier looking with a lot of movement and excitement. In the background of the flashbacks their is a graveyard, maybe foreshadowing his demise as he tries to escape back to the past. In the present the house seems dull and sometimes Willy is in the backyard that is a tiny plot of land surrounded by tall apartments solidifying the idea of confinement of the present. There are also little scenes in other places like the hotel where he had the affair and Charlie's office.

Plot: Willy is a salesman who at one point made a good salary and has two sons Biff and Happy. He also has a wife Linda who goes along with Willy out of love and that she wants him to always have his pride. Willy is constantly having flashbacks to the past that are more like hallucinations and makes him forget the present. Biff use to be a hotshot in high school and was a football star, after he failed his math class he went to see Willy in Boston and found Willy having an affair. Willy and Biffs relationship shattered at that point and Willy's life started to go down hill. Biff did not become a salesman and left his father for years working on a farm, Happy did have a good job but Biff was the one that Willy wanted to see succeed because Willy deep down feels responsible for Biff not having success. Willy than started to see his Uncle Ben who had died years before, this is when Willy really started to lose his grip with reality. After Willy got fired and Biff had cried to him Ben (Willy's mind) has convinced him to kill himself so that Willy's family would get the insurance money.

Main Characters:

Willy- We see the play through Willy's eyes. He is going insane, having hallucinations of the past constantly and seeing his dead brother. He treats Linda and Biff horribly while having good intentions to support his family. In the end he kills himself because he thinks he is more valuable dead than alive.

Linda- Willy's wife in the play. She deals with the way Willy treats her and loves him to death. She knows that Willy is going down hill fast and fights with the boys about it. She is very important to the play because she is the one that is always there for Willy, she doesn't know about the affair and by the end Willy feels very guilty for making the mistakes he did.

Biff- Constantly fights with Willy because he does know about the affair and thinks that Willy is a fake. Biff doesn't have motivation to live up to Willy's expectations and gets mad at Happy for trying to put off reality.

Happy- He is the youngest in the family, very looked over by the family. He always says things like "I'm going to get married" and nobody really pays attention or seems to care. He fights with Biff because he likes to set all the issues aside like there are none. Ignorance is bliss is a good description of Happy.

Uncle Ben- He is Willy's rich dead brother, he represents what Willy wanted but never got. Willy's hallucinations of Uncle Ben lead him to his death at the end.

Symbols: One symbol in the play was the tape-recorder, it represents the past and how Willy can't get it back. Willy hates electronics because he thinks they never work yet Howard has a tape recorder that plays the past over and over when that's what Willy has been trying to do the entire story. Howard has the power to play back exactly what happened and Willy goes crazy trying to hold on to memories. Another symbol is the seeds that Willy was trying to plant in the garden, he wanted to make something new grow and flourish so maybe he would as well. 

Qoutes:

"A diamond is hard and rough to the touch."

Ben is saying this at the end when Willy is about to commit suicide, he is saying that through death it will give something good to his family and it might seem dismal but underneath it is a diamond. The word diamond symbolizes the money that Willy's family will get from the insurance, something that Willy could not offer after he got fired from his job.

"Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground."

This is a small but very important quote in the book. It shows that Willy doesn't have anything that shows the worked hard all his life and wants to plant something and see it grow. He wants something to succeed in his life. There is a motif of nature in the play and this is partly shown by using seeds as a symbol.

Motifs: 

•  Nature
• Words instead of actions
• Childish behavior
• Guilt
• False sense of reality
• Selling yourself
• Getting Success
• Broken Promises