anything extraordinary. Willy refuses to listen to him and pretends
that Biff has another appointment for the next day. When Biff
tries to make Willy face the truth, Willy becomes furious and goes off
to the bathroom. Biff and Happy then leave the restaurant.
While Willy is in the bathroom, he goes into another illusion. He
finds himself in a hotel room with a woman. She is telling him how
much she loves his sense of humor. Then knocking is heard at the door,
and at first Willy refuses to answer it. As the knocking continues,
Willy tells the woman to wait in the bathroom. He opens the door and
finds Biff there. Biff tells Willy that he has flunked math and asks
that Willy talk to his math teacher about it. Biff explains that his
teacher doesn't like him because he once caught Biff imitating him in
class. Biff shows Willy the imitation and they both start laughing.
The woman hears them laughing and comes out of the bathroom. Willy
hurries her out of the room, but not before the woman demands the
stockings that Willy promised her. Willy tries to explain the
situation, but Biff won't listen. He accuses Willy of giving away
Linda's stockings and calls him a liar and a fake. Willy is then
brought out of his illusion by the waiter at the restaurant. Willy
asks if there is a seed store in the neighborhood and then leaves.
Later that night Biff and Happy come home and find Willy planting
seeds in the back yard. Biff tells Willy that it would be best if they
didn't see each other again. He tries to explain that he is only a
common man and will never live up to Willy's expectations, but Willy
refuses to listen. Willy decided that he will commit suicide because
he believes that with the 20,000 dollars of life insurance money Biff
will finally be able to make something of himself. At his funeral, we
see that Willy died a forgotten man because no one except his family
came.
Character Analysis
Willy Lowman
The main conflict in Death of a Salesman deals with the confusion
and frustration of Willy Lowman. These feelings are caused by his
inability to face the realities of modern society. Willy's most
prominent delusion is that success is dependant upon being well-liked
and having personal attractiveness. Willy builds his entire life
around this idea and teaches it to his children. When Willy was young,
he had met a man named Dave Singleman who was so well-liked that he
was able to make a living simply by staying in his hotel room and
telephoning buyers. When Dave Singleman died, buyers and salesmen from
all over the country came to his funeral. This is what Willy has been
trying to emulate his entire life.
Willy's need to feel well-liked is so strong that he often makes
up lies about his popularity and success. At times, Willy even
believes these lies himself. At one point in the play, Willy tells his
family of how well-liked he is in all of his towns and how vital he is
to New England. Later, however, he tells Linda that no one remembers
him and that the people laugh at him behind his back. As this
demonstrates, Willy's need to feel well-liked also causes him to
become intensely paranoid. When his son, Biff, for example, is trying
to explain why he cannot become successful, Willy believes that Biff
is just trying to spite him. Unfortunately, Willy never realizes that
his values are flawed. As Biff points out at the end of the play, "he
had the wrong dreams."
Biff Lowman
In many ways Biff is similar to his father. In the beginning of
the play we see that Biff shares many of the same ideas as Willy.
He values being well-liked above everything else and sees little value
in being smart or honest. One of Biff's main flaws is his tendency to
steal. Early in the play we learn that he has stolen a football from
the school locker. When Willy finds out about this, instead of
disciplining Biff, he says that the coach will probably congratulate
him on his initiative. We also learn that Biff once stole a box of
basketballs from Bill Oliver. This foreshadows the scene in which Biff
steals Bill Oliver's fountain pen after trying to get a loan for his
sporting goods business.
The climactic scene in Biff's life comes when he finds a woman in
Willy's hotel room. This causes Biff to realize that Willy is a fake.
Biff's tragedy is that he has accepted Willy's values all his life,
and now that he finds out they are false, he has no values of his own
to rely upon. Thus, Biff becomes lost and must set out to find his own
values.
Once Biff begins to develop his own beliefs, his opinions about
his father change. Instead of viewing his father as a fake, Biff
comes to realize that his father had some good qualities, but was
simply misguided by inadequate values.
Happy Lowman
Happy is the younger of the two Lowman brothers and thus is often
overshadowed by Biff. Because of this, Happy is constantly trying to
get attention from Willy. In one of the flashbacks Happy continually
says, "I'm losing weight, you notice, Pop?" This is an attempt by
Happy to get recognition from Willy. When in the present, Happy tries
to get recognition by announcing that he is getting married. In both
instances, however, Happy's remarks are dismissed as unimportant. Thus
it is no surprise when Happy leaves Willy alone in the restaurant. It
is merely in retaliation for his own rejection.
Another characteristic of Happy is his refusal to recognize
reality. When Biff, Happy, and Willy are in the restaurant, Happy
tries to prevent Willy from learning that Biff did not get the loan.
While Biff is trying to explain that he never actually worked as a
salesman for Oliver, Happy is continually reassuring Willy that the
interview went well. Another example occurs at the end of the play
when Happy insists that Willy "did not die in vain. He had a good
dream."
Themes/Purpose/Ideas
The main theme in Death of a Salesman is illusion versus reality.
Willy has lived his entire life in a world of illusions. These
illusions include Willy's belief that being well-liked is the key to
success, as well as the literal illusions that Willy has of his past.
Originally, Biff shared Willy's illusions of success and greatness,
but by the end of the play he has become completely disillusioned.
Once Biff comes to fully understand his place in life, he says to
Willy, "I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you." Willy, however, has lived
too long in his dreams and cannot understand what Biff is trying to
say. If Willy had to face reality, he would then be forced to examine
the affair he had in Boston, his philosophy, and all of his illusions.
Instead, he prefers to live in the past. And now Biff, who is trying
to confront the truth about himself, finds that he is completely
unable to commuicate with his father.
Another theme of Death of a Salesman is the old order of agrarian
pride and nobility versus the new order of industrialization. In the
beginning of the play, Willy foreshadows this theme by criticizing the
changes brought about by industrialization. "The street is lined with
cars. There's not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood." It is
this conflict between the old and new orders that brings about Willy's
downfall. Willy's father, a pioneer inventor, represents the
traditional values and way of life that Willy was brought up on. So
does Dave Singleman, the eigthy-four year old salesman that inspired
Willy to go into the sales industry. Howard, the young boss of Willy's
company, represents the impersonal and ruthless nature of capitalistic
enterprise. When Willy goes in to ask Howard if he can be transferred
to a job in New York, Howard refuses to help him even though Willy has
been working for the company for several decades and was good friends
with his father. When Willy asks why he cannot be reassigned, Howard
replies, "Šit's a business, kid, and everybody's gotta pull his own
weight," thus demonstrating Howard's cold indifference to Willy's
situation.
Style
In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller uses a very realistic style
of speech. Because the story is carried almost completely by the
dialog, this is vital to the play's success. Miller also uses
repetition of significant phrases throughout the play. Phrases such
as "He is not just liked, but well-liked" and "Isn't that a remarkable
thing" acquire greater meaning over the course of the play. One
example of this is how the phrase "Isn't that a remarkable thing"
comes to signify Willy's occasional disillusionment. The first time we
hear this phrase is when Willy says that he can't roll down the
windshield on his car and Linda reminds him that he said he rolled it
down on his trip to Boston. The phrase doesn't really acquire
significance, however, until the scene in which Willy borrows money
from Charley. Willy has always thought of Charley as representing the
worst qualities in humanity. He is neither well-liked nor personally
attractive. For this reason, Willy has never considered Charley to be
his friend. After Willy is fired, however, he discovers that the only
person he can borrow money from is Charley. Thus he comes to realize
that Charley is his only friend, and he says "Isn't that remarkable."
Willy also uses the phrase near the end of the play after Biff has
broken down and cried while trying to explain his life. Willy has
always though that Biff was destroying his own life just to spite him,
but now he realizes that Biff actually loves him.
Another technique used by Miller is changing the tone of the play
when switching to different time periods. In the present, the tone is
generally serious and dark. When it changes to the past, however, the
tone becomes brighter and more optimistic. This change in tone
represents Willy's desire to return to the time before he became
enemies with Biff.
