Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller

✨They laugh at me, heh? Go to Filene’s, go to the Hub, go to Slattery’s. Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!✨

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning, “Death of a Salesman” Miller explores the capitalism of 1940s America and how the American Dream does not benefit everyone in the business

world. The play addresses loss of identity and a man’s inability to accept change within himself and society. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Willy Loman’s life. The play concludes with Willy’s suicide and the subsequent funeral. Miller uses the Loman family — Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy— to construct a self-perpetuating cycle of denial, contradiction, and order versus disorder.

Just like all the other despaired characters in a tragic play, Willy Loman fails to

achieve self-actualisation or realisation. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional and spiritual understanding of himself. It is visible that he is losing his mind due to his dissipating career, poor relationship with his family and his haunting past- he cannot distinguish between the past and the present. It can often be seen that Willy is constantly walking randomly down the memory while interacting with someone in the present.

Loman is portrayed as a delusional, insecure salesman who is a true believer of the American Dream. He is way over his head when it comes down to his success and popularity. When confronted with the actualities of life, his mental condition

deteriorates. After losing faith in his sons’ ability to succeed where he failed as

well as the disparity caused by social imperatives are the main factors for the

conflict in Death of a Salesman. All throughout the play, Loman tells his two sons

Biff and Happy that the key to success in life is to be “well-liked” and “ that all you

need is a smile and shoeshine”.

The title signifies as a forewarning that the play is truly Willy Loman's. The title ‘Death of a Salesman’ indicates that Willy’s identity was interwoven with his profession.

He believes that he’s a salesman like Dave Singleman who successful and a lot of people admired him. This statement was far from the truth- when he died, no one came to his funeral but he never failed to point out the opposite.

Initially, the play was titled ‘The Inside of His Mind’ but Miller felt that the title did not convey the real meaning of his play. He altered it to ‘Death of a Salesman’ because

at the beginning of the book itself, we can assert that Willy lives in the state of phantasmagoria. At his father’s grave Biff sums up Willy’s life, thus: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong”.

Miller said, “The trouble with Willy Loman is that he has tremendously powerful

ideals ... [the play’s aim is] to set forth what happens when a man does not have a

grip on the forces of life and has no sense of values which will lead him to that

kind of a grip”.

The play is heart-wrenching. It forces one to see the reality, something which Willy Loman is not ready to accept. Miller’s writing is simple, direct and assertive. Although The constant shift between Willy’s delusions and the reality may make the reading of the play a little difficult, it is interesting to read.

🧡 This is one of my favourite plays and I would highly recommend this to anyone. 🧡