Arthur Miller:

DEATH  OF A SALESMAN

The author:

Arthur Miller was born in 1915 in Harlem, New York City as the son of a Jewish immigrant. After a lot of difficulties he was allowed to enter the University of Michigan, where his talent as a playwright emerged (even his undergraduate plays won important university awards). After his graduation in 1938 Miller wrote radio plays, screenplays, articles, stories and a novel until his first successful Broadway play ("All My Sons"). After that, he wrote two very famous plays: "Death of a Salesman" (1949) and "The Crucible" (1953) where he dealt with the time of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1909-1957). In this anti-Communist hysteria hat possessed the nation, many writers, artists and performers were blacklisted, which means they were prevented from working in public and some were imprisoned. For a time Miller was blacklisted too, but the conviction was soon reversed.

Miller, after divorcing his first wife, married Marilyn Monroe in 1956, but it was a very unhappy marriage for him. In his novel "After the Fall" (1964) is also a portrayal of this time.

Another important work is his novel "Focus" (1945), an ironic tale of anti-Semitism. Miller also wrote the script for "Playing for Time" the true-life dramatic special about the experiences of an all-woman orchestra in a Nazi concentration camp, which won four Emmy Awards following its television debut in 1980.

In 1987 Miller published "Timebends: A Life", his autobiography.

Miller's plays demonstrate a strong intellectual understanding of history and the social world, he also dealt with political issues and problems of anti-Semitism. He won a lot of prizes, e.g. for "Death of a Salesman" he got the Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

'About Miller we can be sure of at least this much: he is one of the five or six incontestably fine writers for theater that America has produced. His position in the drama of America and, indeed, in the drama of the Twentieth Century, is both secure and high.'[1]

Contents:

The protagonist of the story is Willy Loman, a rather old and poor salesman living with his wife Linda in New York. They have two sons, Biff and Happy. Willy thinks he is nothing ordinary and believes everybody likes him.

One day, his sons Biff, who was away for a long time, and Happy are coming for a visit. Willy seems irritated and angry. Then he has a flashback when Biff and Happy were young. They adored their father, who told them that they could achieve everything in their lives because they are special and well-liked, not like the son of their neighbour, Bernard.

Biff was a very good football player and he had offers from several universities. But he had flunked math and went to Boston in order to tell his father, who worked there. He found him in his hotel room with another woman. From this time on Biff was another boy. He didn't get the exam and went away from home.

Biff asks his mother Linda about his father's condition. She tells him that he tried to commit suicide several times and that Willy is very frustrated of Biff, who has no job and no education.

Biff and Happy have the idea of selling sporting goods and so Biff goes to see Bill Oliver, with whom he worked, in order to get some money. They tell their father about their plan and he is very proud of them.

Next day Willy goes to his chef and he asks him for a job in New York City because he is not able to drive around as a salesman any more. But Howard tells him that there is no room for him and Willy is fired because he is unable to represent the company in New England in a good way.

In the evening Biff, Happy and Willy meet at a restaurant and Biff tries to tell his father that he didn't get any money and that they all have lived in an illusion. But Willy refuses to listen and he simply pretends that Biff has another appointment with Bill Oliver and Happy is glad that his father didn't realise the truth. When Willy goes to the bathroom, Biff leaves the restaurant frustrated and Happy follows him with two girls he has picked up.

Later that night Biff and Happy come home and Linda tells them to leave the house forever. Willy is in the backyard planting seeds and talking to his dead brother Ben.

Biff explains to the protagonist that he would go away, that he is a common person without outstanding qualities and that they all live in an illusion. But his father doesn't believe him and refuses to see the truth. The older son also asks Willy about his attempts to commit suicide, but he does not answer.

Finally Biff breaks down and cries. In this moment the old salesman realises how much Biff loves him. He drives away and commits suicide which would give his family 20,000 dollars in life insurance.

Only Charlie and Willy's family go to the funeral.

Background:

Miller began writing "Death of a Salesman" at the age of seventeen when he was working for his father's company. He reworked the play in 1947 upon a meeting with his uncle, Manny Newman, a salesman who was a competitor at all times, even with his sons, Buddy and Abby. Miller described the Newman household as one in which one could not lose hope, and based the Loman household and structure on his uncle and cousins.

There are numerous parallels between Abby and Buddy Newman and their fictional counterparts, Happy and Biff Loman: Buddy, like Biff, was a renowned high school athlete who failed high school. Miller's relationship to his cousins parallels that between the Lomans and their neighbour, Bernard.

The first performing of the play was in 1949 in New York and it was a great success. The people called the play a mixture of "compassion, imagination, and hard technical competence not often found in our theatre".

First, "Death of a Salesman" was called "Inside His Head".

Formal interpretation:

The play is divided into three main parts: Act I, Act II and the Requiem. Each section takes place on a different day in the present.

In Act I and II the story is presented through Willy's flashbacks, which are necessary to understand the play. The contents of them offer essential background-information.

Characterisation:

Willy Loman:

Willy is a dreamy salesman whose imagination is much larger than his sales ability. He thinks he is well-liked and a very good salesman.

He spends a lot of energy on his job, but he gets fired because he is "unproductive". Willy does not want to realise that he and his sons are ordinary people and he cannot understand why they are not successful.

He has also troubles distinguishing the past and the present and between illusion and reality. Willy is no longer able to provide for his family; no one knows him anymore, and he feels like a failure. That's why thinks that he is more worth dead than alive.

Linda Loman:

Willy's wife tries to keep peace in her family. She stands between her sons, who do not care much about their parents, and her husband, who is an old confused man. Nevertheless Linda adores Willy and she is caught up in his lies.

She wants him to be happy, and if he is happy living in an illusion it is okay with her. She knows that he tried to commit suicide but she doesn't talk to him about it because she does not want to embarrass him.

Biff Loman:

The elder son of Willy was a star football player in high school and he had scholarships to good universities. Everybody thought he would become a very important man with a good job and a lot of money.

He adored Willy but when he caught him being unfaithful to Linda it changed his view of his father completely. From this time on, Biff couldn't trust in Willy and he was a kind of drifter and didn't come home for 15 years. He didn't had a job very long because he is unable to take orders and he even was in jail.

Biff has an internal struggle between the dreams of his father (he should become a successful business-man) and his dreams. He wants to work on a ranch and not behind a desk. Biff is the only one in the play who lives in reality because he is forced to see it.

Happy Loman:

He is the youngest son and he has his own apartment in New York. He has a bad job but tells everybody how successful he is. He tries to find his way in life and he is confident he is doing everything right. He has always been the second son and so Happy tries to get noticed by his parents by showing off. He often says "I'm going to get married, just you wait and see" and he also tries to keep Willy happy by telling him what he wants to hear.

Happy is also unable to see reality and he is a rather low character, because for example he doesn't really worry about his father.

Charlie:

He is the Loman's neighbour and he has his own sales company. He and Willy don't get along very well. Charlie is always the voice of reality in the play and he wants to help Willy by telling him the truth, which Willy doesn't want to hear, and offering a new job, which Willy doesn't want because he is so stubborn.

Bernard:

Bernard is Charlie's son and a childhood friend of Biff. He always studied a lot and became a successful lawyer. This makes Willy really angry and jealous, because neither Biff nor Happy are successful.

Uncle Ben:

Willy's brother is already dead but he appears very often in flashbacks. He is the only one in the Loman family who did achieve success. Ben is a symbol of all that Willy could have been.

Interpretation:

The Lomans in general are unable to distinguish between reality and illusion, particularly Willy. This is the major theme and source of conflict in the play. Willy doesn't want to see who he and his sons are. He is also unable to see change. He is lost in the modern era of technology.

The old salesman believes that personal attractiveness and being well-liked makes one successful, but his belief is shot down by the success of Charley and Bernard, who are not very handsome.

He is a man who has worked all his life. He is proud of being a salesman and it costs him a lot of energy. But finally he gets fired and he says "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit".

Willy believes that Biff tries to "ruin" his life on purpose in order to hurt his father. He thought that his son does not love him and does everything out of spite.

In the end, the protagonist believes that a man can be "worth more dead than alive." And Charlie, the voice of reality tells him "A man isn't worth anything dead". Willy dies in the illusion that he helps his family with his death and he thinks a lot of people from all over the country will come to his funeral.

Miller brings the reader into a sense of pity for Willy Loman. He gives us an idea of what the protagonist and his situation is all about. Though you notice a lot of mistakes Willy makes, you feel sad for him.

Willy Loman is also an example for the unfulfilled "American Dream". Miller shows the dissolution of a man whose dreams does not become reality, which Willy cannot accept. But the author does not blame the system of America because he gives also the example of Bernard and Charlie, who reach their goals and make the American system work for them. It is Willy's fault that he does not become what he wanted to be, because it is up to the individual.

Miller seems to say with this play that every man can have a great fall, not only a king or a famous person. Just because they are ordinary people it does not mean that their falls are less steep. This is in contrast to the beliefs of the old Greeks.

The protagonist is a kind of outsider. He lives in his own world and has forgotten how to cope with reality. Willy has only little contact with other people because he likes being alone, remembering happy times and thinking of a better future. He sees everything through "pink glasses".

Personal statement:

I liked this play very much because as a reader you really can identify yourself with the protagonist and you feel pity for him. To my mind the theme is very topical because one of the messages is to try hard to get what you want and to live in reality.

Bibliography:

Kindlers neues Literaturlexikon

www.biographies.com

www.death-of-a-salesman-essays.com

https://playwrites.net/salesman1.html

www.homework-online.com/doas/

www.bookrags.com

www.gradesaver.com/classic/ClassicNotes.html