Death of a Salesman - review.

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Arthur Millers’ Death of a salesman, set in the 1950’s is about a salesman called Willy who has worked all his life to earn a living and to make a success of himself, but ends up a failure.  One of the most important scenes is where Willy goes to visit Howard his Boss.  Willy has gone to Howard to ask him if he can have a $65 salary because Willy gets paid on commission and he is not doing very well in the business world.

        Willy believed very much in The American Dream.  The meaning of The American Dream is that anyone who is starting from scratch with determination, enthusiasm and personality can make a huge success of their life and become very wealthy.  Willy’s idol was a man called Dave Singleman.  He was an 84-year-old salesman, who even at that age was still working.  He was very rich and successful; he was also well liked.  Dave Singleman achieved The American Dream, and he inspired Willy.  Willy followed Dave’s career, to become a salesman.  Willy thought that being a salesman was the best job, and when I saw that, I realised that selling was the greatest career a man could want.”  Willy lived and died by The American Dream, however to Biff, Willy had “all the wrong dreams.  All, all, wrong.”  This was true, Willy was not a success, because he had to go and ask Howard for a salary.

        Willy had gone to see Howard for a few reasons but importantly to ask him for a 65$ salary because he gets paid on commission.  Willy is not doing very well in the business world; therefore he is living on next to nothing.  For help he has to borrow 50$ a week from Charlie to show Linda, and pretend to her that, he had earned it.

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         He has also gone to visit Howard to speak to him about his job and the fact that he is unable to travel around anymore.  He asks Howard if he could possibly get transferred to the city.

        In this scene Howard treats Willy with disrespect.  Howard is not sympathetic towards Willy when the salesman asks for a New York job, telling him there’s no place for him in New York.  Howard is also patronising towards Willy; this is because he keeps on using the word kid referring to Willy, “No, but it’s a business, kid, and everybody’s gotta pull his ...

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