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Arthur Miller’S: Death Of A Salesman

English - 2328
April 30, 2007

Arthur Miller’s: Death of a Salesman

A Summary of the work:

“Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller in 1949 attempts to give the audience an unusual glimpse into the mind of Willy Loman. The play focuses on Mr. Loman, a salesman in his early sixties whose mind is beginning to slip into senility. Willy thinks highly of his inner charm and quick ability to make friends. According to him, at one time he was well liked throughout the New England area as a traveling salesman who ultimately could sell anything. His two sons Biff and Harold (nicknamed Happy) were at one time the delight of the neighborhood, and his wife Linda was also know as being very charming. Unfortunately as the story progresses, time has passed, and now life seems to be spiraling out of control for Willy and his Family.

Willy Loman has worked hard his entire life and should be retired at this point; living at home and enjoying the company of his family. But recently he has had an escalating feeling of self loss, even to the point of impairing his ability to drive. Instead, all of Willy's ambitions seemed to have failed. He is fired from his job, which didn’t even pay enough to live on, by a man young enough to be his son. Willy is then forced to solely rely on loans from his next door neighbor Charley just to make ends meet. Charley is the closest thing Willy has to a friend, but Willy still harbors feelings of jealousy and contempt toward him for being more successful in life. Later in the play it is noted that none of Willy's old friends or previous customers remember him. Biff, Will’s 34-year-old son has been unable to settle down his whole life which is primarily caused by Willy telling him that he needed to “make it big within two weeks” or he would never amount to anything. Happy, the younger son, also lies blatantly to make it seem as if...