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Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1949. The play focuses on the last 24 hours of the main character, Willy Loman’s life. It also shows flashbacks which include memories that Willy has experienced. In this essay, I will analyze the main themes along with the structure of the play and how the characters are revealed within the text.
The main themes in this essay are betrayal, abandonment, the American Dream, and family. As a young boy, Willy is abandoned leaving him to be engulfed in the idea of the American Dream, the idea of working hard and being determined, to live a life that is filled with wealth and joy. Although the concept of the American Dream is the same for everyone, what people view it as can be different. For example, what one person class as a life that is better, richer, and overall fulfilling, others may disagree.
Willy believes that the way in which to achieve his American dream is to be well-liked and to be the perfect family to everyone who looks at them from the outside. ‘I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!’ (Miller 1949). This quote helps to reiterate how Willy wants himself and his family to look smart, well-dressed, and overall perfect to the outside world. It also helps to show how Willy spends money that he doesn’t have on items that he doesn’t need because they are well-advertised. He does this so that he can create an impression of success. He doesn’t tell his family that they cannot afford many of the things that they own. However, when they find out they put up with it so that they don’t upset him.
Throughout the play, we learn how Willy has been abandoned and betrayed throughout his life, whether it be by his work, his family, or his friends. We first see the theme of abandonment when Willy’s dad leaves him and his brother Ben in search of his own American Dream of wealth, leaving Willy with no father figure to look up to. Ben then abandons Willy just like their father did. He did this to search for their father. ‘Can’t you stay a few days? You’re just what I need, Ben because I have a fine position here, but I’well, Dad left when I was such a baby, and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel kind of temporary about myself.’ (Miller 1949). This quote shows how Willy has missed his brother and wants to know more about his father because due to his age when he left, Willy doesn’t remember anything about his father. The phrase ‘you’re just what I need’ (Miller 1949) helps to show just how important family is to Willy.
The next sense of abandonment and betrayal is apparent when Biff catches Willy, having an affair. ‘You fake! You are a phony little fake! You fake!’ (Miller 1949). This quote helps to show that he feels betrayed by his father and shows how Willy puts up a front and that his life has been built upon illusions and pretense. Biff does not see the point in going home and pretending that everything is normal and therefore he abandons his family to go and find work away from the town he grew up in. This leaves Willy to assume that Biff’s betrayal comes from his discovery of Willy’s affair. ‘You – you gave her Mama’s stockings!’ (Miller 1949). This shows how Biff sees what his father has done as a betrayal of his mother’s love. The stockings now represent all the lies and secrets that Willy has told, and this now haunts him forever. When Biff leaves Willy feels as though he has been betrayed by his son. Willy constantly feels betrayed by his sons. This is shown again when Biff and Happy, his other son, abandon him for two girls when they have already promised to have a meal at the restaurant with him.
It is not just his family that Willy feels abandoned by. All his old clients have either retired or died and nobody knows him anymore, which eventually leads to his employers abandoning and betraying Willy; by firing him. ‘I was fired, and I’m looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited, and the woman has suffered. The gist of it is that I haven’t got a story left in my head, Biff. So don’t give me a lecture about facts and aspects. I’m not interested. Now what’ve you got to say to me?’ (Miller 1949). This quote shows how Willy is emotionally exhausted from all the abandonment and betrayal that he has suffered in his life. Yet he still wants to make his wife happy by asking Biff to lie about how his interview went. This again shows just how important family truly is to Willy.
Biff refuses to lie for Willy which leads to the fact that throughout the play Biff is the only character who seems to change, and it is this change that creates the final catalyst in the drama of the last interaction. In this final interaction, Biff confronts his father with the truth. He tells him that he isn’t special and that due to his upbringing, he finds it hard to listen to orders, meaning he cannot hold down a job for a long period of time. However, with Willy being the tragic hero that he is, he is unable to accept anything that Biff says. The only part of what Biff says that Willy understands is that Biff does love him even though he disagrees with how he lives his life. ‘Isn’t that ‘ isn’t that remarkable? Biff ‘ he likes me!’ (Miller 1949), ‘He loves you, Willy’ (Miller 1949). These quotes suggest how shocked, yet happy Willy is to find out that his son loves him. However, this motivates Willy to commit suicide because he wants Biff to achieve his full potential with the money from Willy’s death. All Willy has ever wanted to do is to provide for his family, and he thinks that killing himself is the only way to do so. However, this can also be seen as ironic because even though Willy sees it as helping Biff to achieve in life, Biff could see it as his father abandoning him just like how Willy’s father did to him.
The play is split up into three parts. These are Act I, Act II, and the Requiem. From the start of Act I up until the end of Act II only 24 hours pass. However, it feels like a lot longer and this is because, throughout the two acts, we watch as Willy retreats into his memories, with the flashbacks in the play spanning around 16 years. This storytelling technique means that the audience is given the full spectrum of what Willy has experienced throughout life, which helps them gain a sense of sympathy for Willy from the start through to the end.
Throughout the play Miller uses past-time switches, these help the meaning of what the audience sees on stage to be altered so that they can see what is truly happening. Each memory has something to do with what is happening in Willy’s present-day life. Although the play follows a rather straightforward structure, these past-time switches mean that it becomes more complex. By using these past-time switches, Miller can incorporate both real and remembered time into the play, with Willy’s flashbacks taking the audience out of the present day and into remembered time. The earliest memory is Willy talking to Biff and Happy in the garden, and the last is Biff discovering Willy’s affair. The fact that the first and the last flashbacks involve family; reiterates the importance of family that Miller is trying to show throughout the play. Willy is a man who fears the truth and is obsessed with his image, therefore; Miller uses flashbacks to reveal the secrets of his deep past to the audience watching on. If the audience met Willy as an oppressive parent who mocks his neighbors and puts up a front to not reveal his true income, instead of a frail man in his sixties, then it would reduce the impact of Willy being a tragic hero. By introducing Willy as he did Miller helped to build up the tension throughout the story and again allows the audience to feel sympathy for Willy.
Miller’s description of Willy as the tragic hero shows how heavily the play is influenced by Greek tragedy. Willy fits into Aristotle’s role as the tragic hero as he portrays the different personality traits that define this type of character. These are hamartia (a tragic flaw that causes the downfall) because he is completely committed to the American Dream and refuses to accept the reality that surrounds him; Hubris, as he shows excessive pride towards himself and his family; Peripeteia (reversal of fate that the hero experiences)), this is shown within the discovery of this affair and the loss of his job; Anagnorisis (an important discovery), because he realizes that he may never be as successful as he would like to be; Nemesis (an unavoidable punishment), because he committed suicide due to his excessive amount of pride; and lastly Catharsis (fear and pity from the audience), which is shown by poor attendance at his funeral and because Biff doesn’t fulfill his father’s wishes with the insurance money.
In conclusion, the main themes of abandonment, betrayal, the American Dream, and family are all frequently included throughout the narrative. Willy and Biff’s relationship highlights all these themes. The play is structured in a way to reveal how the characters behave and think about reality as well as to show how the importance of family can impact a man’s life.
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