Miller has made Willy Loman a character stuck in the past who hides away from the truth, the man he really is. ‘I am known! Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey – I am known”, Willy states that he is a man with a big imagination and is a very competitive character. Willy believed there was a shortcut for his sons Biff and Happy to achieve this dream because he believed that if you were masculine, social and popular you could accomplish the ‘American dream’ easily. This demonstrates a failure of the ‘American Dream’ because according to Willy if you are attractive and well known then you can carry out the ‘American Dream’ and there is a lack of personality which is missing from Willy.
Ben is seen as Willy’s conscience. We know this because Willy is the only person who can see Ben and they normally have conversations between each other throughout the play. Miller intends to show Ben is the ‘Voice of Reason’ of Willy, the side who knows the truth, that he hasn’t achieved the dream and can have a fresh start by committing suicide. Ben is a ‘personification’ of the ‘American Dream’. Earlier on in the play Ben mentions to Willy how he goes into the jungle and comes out successful metaphorically. We see Ben as one of the failures of the ‘American Dream’ because Ben says “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy” meaning he has already achieved the ‘American Dream’ by walking into the world and coming back to his dream world with lots of money making Willy thinking that it is easy to attain.
The family’s relationships between each other are fractured due to the pressure to do well and to live up to the ‘American Dream’ which makes the ending effective because this means they have to live a lie and hide from the truth. The truth is that the Loman family is your everyday American family who are trying to make ends meet. If the Loman family do not do well this leads to anger from the family especially Willy. We know this because of the props used throughout the play which represents the truth and that the Loman family have failed to live up to the ‘American Dream’.
The rubber tube is a stage prop which makes the ending of the play effective because the tube comes back towards the end of the play reminding the audience of Willy’s desperate attempts at suicide. Linda had found the tube earlier on in the play and shown it to Biff and Happy. Now Biff has the tube and reveals another part of the truth to this family trying to pull them out from the pile of lies and the ‘American Dream’. Biff “whips out the rubber tube from his pocket and puts it on the table” is the stage direction in the play. At this moment Willy and Biff are sitting at the dinning table and Linda is standing beside Willy and Happy is more to the other side of Biff as shown in the movie. I think in terms of staging we can see the relationship between all the characters from where they are stood or sat. It shows that all the tension is between Biff and his father, Willy in the centre of the room at the dinning table and that there has always been a wall between them. This tube represents the truth because it tells us that Willy has been trying to kill himself and has even failed as that.
Linda says “Biff” as soon as the tube is out in the air indicating that she is the one hiding the tube from the family and not wanting to discuss the matter. The stage direction says after that line “Linda turns away from them, her hands covering her face” Miler illustrates that Linda is trying to hide from the truth by using her hand and turning away from it. Happy’s reaction to the tube was him saying “You crazy” telling the audience that Happy also wants to hide behind all the lies and act as if nothing ever happened going back to their illusion of their perfect family.
Another prop used to represent the truth is the flowers. This makes the ending of ‘Death of a Salesman’ effective because when Happy and Biff come home after leaving their dad alone in the restaurant they were meant to eat in but instead left with some girls, Happy comes home with some flowers for his mother, Linda. Linda knocks the flowers out of Happy’s hands out of anger. Linda starts to clean up the mess she has made then realises she has cleaned up enough of her sons messes “Pick up this stuff, I’m not you maid” Linda says. Then the stage direction says “Happy turns his back to her in refusal. Biff slowly moves over and gets down on his knees, picking up the flowers” which explains another failure of the ‘American Dream’. I think this proves the difference between the two brothers and how Biff kneels indicating that he can accept the truth and knows that he can’t achieve the ‘American Dream’ whereas Happy is more stubborn like Willy into believing the dream so Miller intends he is destined to go in the same direction as Willy, which is another failure of the ‘American Dream’.
Another failure of the ‘American Dream’ is that Happy follows in his father’s footsteps after he knows what happened to him which led to his suicide which makes the ending of the play effective because this play about Willy could repeat it self but would be about Happy. Happy in a way is brainwashed into thinking that he can reach the ‘American Dream’ easily because Willy said you just need to be well-liked and masculine when he was younger. Happy is trapped in his own world creating the same tragedy which has already been lived by his father Willy Loman. It also makes the ending of the play effective because Happy still believes in this ‘dream’ when it might not even be real as he doesn’t know anyone who has achieved it.
On a materialistic basis, Willy has worked all his life to realize the ‘American Dream’ but still fails to do that which makes the ending effective. Willy purchases some seeds for his garden and begins to plant them late at night which is another prop which represents the truth. I think Miller’s intention here was to show the audience that he is close to his suicide but realises that he needs to leave something real and living behind for his family to remember him by. We also know that Willy is close to his suicide because he is planting the seeds at the wrong time of the day, which again I think Miller’s target here was to give more clues to the audience that Willy was very serious about committing suicide soon. I also think that the seeds that Willy plants are symbolic in a way to another failure of the ‘American Dream’ because this was Willy’s desire to grow big and tall ironically just like the plant eventually would.
At the end of the play Willy is talking to Ben while he is planting the seeds. He talks about how big his funeral will be before he is even dead making the end of the play effective because he’s dreaming about depressing things that will happen after his death for example what his funeral would be like. To be more specific how many people there would be from all over America. This is another failure of the ‘American Dream’ because Willy shows that he has definitely given up on this dream that he had talked about all his life implying that he is going to kill himself. He is selling himself off and valuing himself and he acts as if he is making a business deal with himself.
He also talks about how much money Biff will get and that he will be in front of Bernard again in terms of money. Bernard was their neighbour who was a clever boy and went to the same school as Biff and Happy. But back then, in the past Willy influenced his sons to just concentrate on being popular so they could accomplish the ‘American Dream’ as soon as possible which is a failure of the ‘American Dream’ because there is a lack of personality from both Biff and Happy.
The stage directions are another significance in the play to represent the failures of the ‘American Dream’. At the very end of the play it mentions that the hard towers of the apartment buildings rise into sharp focus. I think Miller illustrates that even though Willy has now gone forever and is dead, the things that Willy hated the most will still be there and the society will move on which is a failure to achieving the ‘American Dream’ because he has given up on himself and letting society win over him.
In the video each time Willy went back into the past it was always set in the garden where it was bright. The contrast of colours between the clothes that were worn were the colours of the American flag. But in the past the colours were bright colours of red blue and white whereas in the present the clothes worn were more faded and dull colours. I think the costumes designer’s purpose here was to show the difference between the present and the past. I also think that the costume designer used bright colours in the past to illustrate that there was more hope for Biff and Happy to achieve the ‘American Dream’ back then. I believe that the audience might respond to the faded colours of clothes worn in the present meaning that the clothes were old, demonstrating that the family could not afford to buy new clothes and other luxuries and this reflects a failure of the ‘American Dream’ in the film.
The ending of the play is effective because it’s a tragedy how Willy still believes in the ‘American Dream’ after all he has been through and all the lies he has made up to accomplish this dream. There are many failures of the ‘American Dream’ which makes the ending of ‘Death of a Salesman’ effective because all these failures are revealed at the end of the play.
Overall I think that Arthur Miller makes ‘Death of a Salesman’ an effective ending in terms of presenting the failures of the ‘American Dream’ by revealing the truth at the end of the play. The ending of the play is appropriate because it unravels all the unknowns throughout the play explaining why things happened and reasons why Willy, Biff and Happy had failed the ‘American Dream’ .
