Summary & Analysis of The Death of a Salesman

The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller was, in short, a story of both the conflict between the dreams of a father and son and between man and society. Willy is a salesman who had high hopes about his future, aspiring to be a rich man simply by being "well liked." Needless to say, he was rather unsuccessful in his efforts due to his faulty philosophy. His failure leads him to look to his firstborn son, Biff, for his redemption. He insists that Biff take up his dream where he left off, to become a salesman and strive for wealth on the basis of being well liked. However, after a scandal is unearthed between Willy and another woman, the trust between Biff and Willy is broken, and Biff leaves to find himself in the West.

Arguably, Biff succeeds in discovering what he wants, to work with his hands, but Biff is too engrained with his father's desire for instant, painless gratification, resulting in a desperate frustration with both himself and his father. His return, the start of the play, began a period where old scabs were opened to bleed. Biff tries to explain to his father that their dream was incompatible, but Willy will have none of it, accusing Biff of ruining himself out of spite. After a climatic clash of wills, Willy realizes that Biff loved him all along, even after the incident between Willy and the whore. Enthralled, Willy comes up with a scheme to give Biff the money he needed to get started in the world. He figures he is worth nothing while alive, but his death was worth twenty thousand dollars in life insurance, and minutes later, he commits suicide.

It is very important to note that the play is from Willy's point of view. Willy is the only one reminiscing about the past and imagining his brother Ben. While driving, he thinks he is enjoying scenery that isn't there. While playing cards with Charlie, he speaks with his brother Ben, leaving Charlie confused. By writing from Willy's perspective, Miller is able to show the audience both Willy's unrealistically "perfect" dream he lived in his mind and the resulting reality to which he was bound. Willy was obsessed with a notion of being well liked, but that, rather than being the cause of the success he saw around him, was merely a side effect of being wealthy.

Miller creates a very tangible tone of despair in this play through multiple flashbacks where Willy is transported into the past where he once had hope, yet was living a lie that only just began to backlash on him. His flashbacks brought hope, but as Bane says to Batman, hope is the seed of despair. He continued to lie to himself, believing he was better than he really was, well known, and successful. However, every time he glimpsed a spark of hope--when his sons describe their idealized business plan to him, for example--it is instantly battered down again by yet another reminder of his failure, and he falls back into his pit of self pity.

Being a play, much of the imagery comes from director's decisions. However, on occasion, when Miller finds imagery important, he works it into the dialogue. For example, when Willy is bemusing the expansion of the city, he describes the loss of the elm trees where he had wished to hang a hammock, describes the apartment buildings that crowded out the sun, and describes the garden that he could never plant as a result. Otherwise, much of the imagery is left to the director.

One of the most important pieces of symbolism in The Death of a Salesman is that Willy himself represents us, the people living in a society where possessions are the mark of a successful person. Willy has fallen prey to this trap, even compromising relationships in an effort to maintain his perceptive status in the social order. Ironically, Willy seems to believe in the opposite end of the spectrum: that it is one's relationships with those around him that make him successful.

Charlie, Willy's foil, is the embodiment of the ideal businessman. He says little, is well respected, and is successful in life. He believes the opposite of Willy's "well-liked" philosophy--that one must be successful to be well liked, even bringing up an example: "Who liked J. P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath he’d look like a butcher. But with his pockets on he was very well liked" (Miller n.p.). Being well liked is not as important to one's monetary success as Willy makes it out to be. However, Charlie has something wrong as well. One does not simply become well liked when he "puts on his pockets." The friends gained because of the money are really friends with the money and not the person.

"The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell" (Miller n.p.). There are two extremes in this respect. On one side, you have Charlie's view--a strict capitalistic perspective where possessions are everything. On the other hand Willy's point of view is that relationships are everything. Willy's perspective, however, is incompatible with the society he lives in, but he continues to try to jam it in and make it fit, trying to believe relationships result in possessions.