Muhammad Amin Fauzi
A 320080226 / F
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Main Characters
* Willy Loman - A 63 year old once popular salesman who’s lost his popularity and sales, not to mention his mind.
* Biff Loman - A 34 year old son of Willy who has been searching for himself while working on farms in the west to the dismay of his father.
* Happy Loman - The younger brother of Biff who tries in all he can to please his father and attempts to continue his father’s dream after he dies.
* Linda Loman - The wife of Willy who tries to protect Willy’s feelings and can’t make herself confront him if it means hurting his feelings.
Minor Characters
* Bernard - A bookish friend of Biff and Happy who urges Biff to study in high school to no avail, however, he himself makes it as a prominent lawyer and goes to argue a case to the supreme court at the end of the play.
* Charley - Bernard’s father who is fairly successful and offers Willy a job which Willy refuses on the basis of pride.
Setting
* Willy’s house - Small house in New York
* Restaurant - Restaurant where Stanley
* The hotel - The hotel where Willy stays while in New England for his business trips. This is where Biff catches his father in the affair.
Plot the story
Death of a Salesman is a tragic story of the hopeful dream of one salesman that led to the damnation of an entire family. Willy is a man who is lost in the past and his mind is constantly tormented with the hopes and dreams he had years ago that have since fallen through. Willy believes that all it takes to become successful is to be well liked, and is evidenced by this quote and others like it.
The Loman family is wrought with dysfunction, stemming from these false dreams and hopes Willy has imbued in his sons. Biff and Hap have always been shown that a business career is the only way to achieve success. In reality, Willy is not well liked, and he has a very hard time selling. In fact, it is probably Willy that passed this attribute onto his son. Hap and Biff will soon be making up stories to cover for their last one, leading the family lower and lower. The flashback where Biff finds Willy with the woman is an important part of the story. The knowledge of his father''s unfaithfulness shatters this ideal that Biff has held for so long. It this event that sparks the turmoil Biff suffers for the next fifteen years.
Most of the story is full of deceit and pompous lies to cover up the reality that bites at the soles of the shoes of this poor family. Willy Loman had a dream that was not realistic. In the end, he thought he had no choice but to kill himself and try to make things better.
The Kinds of Drama
This drama is classified as “man vs. society”
Symbols
* Stockings - They symbolize Willy’s infidelity and his lack of caring for his own wife since his gives his wife’s stocking to “The Woman.”
* Stolen lumber - This symbolizes Willy’s acceptation of stealing and lack of understanding what really goes on.
* Recorder - This symbolizes the success Willy dreams he could have had and wishes he had. It also symbolizes his pride as he tells Howard that he will get one while there is no way he can afford it.
* Tennis rackets - Ironic symbol of Bernard’s success since Bernard goes to play tennis with a friend who owns a tennis court. It is ironic since it was the Loman brothers who thought sports equipment would be their success.
Style
The style and devices Miller uses enhances Willy’s mental state. By using flashback and reveries, he allows the audience to get into the mind of Willy Loman and brings us into a sense of pity for him. Miller also uses a lot of motifs and repeated ideas through the play to give the viewers an idea of what Willy and his situation is all about. Personal attractiveness is an oft repeated motif. It shows that Willy believes that personal attractiveness makes one successful, but his belief is shot down by the success of Charley and Bernard who, in his mind, are not personally attractive. Other motifs are debt which sadly the Lomans escape after Willy dies, stealing which Willy condones, even encourages, the boxed-in feeling of Willy, the idea that Willy’s life is passing him by, expressed in the quote, “The woods are burning,” and Ben’s success and the qualities that brought about his success.
