Speaker A
[Music] Set in New York in the 1940s, Arthur Miller's two-act play Death of a Salesman covers a 24-hour period, with the Requiem set several days later. In the introduction, Willy Loman comes home early from the road for lack of sales. He nearly crashed the car several times. Mental confusion is a new norm for Willy. Willy's adult sons, Biff and Happy, are home. Biff has just returned from the West, unsettled and unsure of his career path. Willy slides back and forth between present reality and flashbacks. His mind takes him back to moments of optimism and hope about the future, but Willy is also haunted by his infidelity. He also flashes back to his brother Ben, now dead, who traveled to Africa and became rich as a young man. Ben's success is a nagging reminder of Willy's own failures. As part of the rising action, Linda explains Willy's deterioration to her sons, including the fact that he lost his salary and is secretly borrowing money from Charley. Linda also tells them he tried to kill himself in the car, and she shows them a rubber tube she found in the basement, which suggests Willy might asphyxiate himself. She pleads with her sons to re-establish their relationships with their father. A family talk about Biff's future becomes a pie-in-the-sky plan to seek out an old employer for financial backing to start a sporting goods store with Happy. At the end of Act 1, Willy decides to ask his boss for a salaried position in New York. The next day, both Willy's and Biff's meetings go poorly. Bill Oliver refuses to see Biff, and Willy's boss fires him for lack of sales. When Happy, Biff, and Willy meet that night to celebrate, nobody feels successful. Biff and Willy argue, and the sons leave Willy in the restaurant, overwhelmed by memories of Biff's discovery of his affair. The play's climax makes clear that Biff's disillusionment stems from the shock of his father's lies and infidelity. Back at home, Willy's confusion continues as he's planting seeds in the backyard. In the falling action, Willy has a delusional conversation with his dead brother, who reminds him about his twenty-thousand-dollar life insurance policy. Willy and Biff have a final confrontation, and Biff, in tears, says he's leaving the family for good. Moved by his son's emotion and in the thick of his hallucinatory conversation with Ben, Willy decides to carry out his plan. After everyone else has gone to bed, Willy leaves the house and speeds away in the car. The play ends with the family gathered around a grave. In the Requiem, the Loman family and Charley reflect on Willy's life. Biff recognizes that his father had the wrong dreams. Happy remains unchanged and committed to Willy's dream to be the number one man. In the resolution, a grieving Linda wonders why Willy did it. She tells him she paid off the house and they're free and clear of debt. Let's talk about the characters of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman has become confused, often blurring past and present, and much of the play's sadness stems from watching this character struggle to fend off reality. He's lost his salary, been demoted to straight commission, and is no longer making any sales. He borrows money from his neighbor, and pending bills emphasize his failures as well as his deep disillusionment with the trajectory of his life. Willy's the father of two adult sons, Biff and Happy. Willy's own father abandoned him when he was still young, and his older brother Ben led a life of adventure in Alaska and Africa. During a trip to find his father, Willy met Dave Singleman, a successful traveling salesman, and he was determined to become one himself. He hoped to gain financial success and a reputation. Frequently away from home, Willy had an affair with another woman. When his son Biff discovered his infidelity, their relationship changed forever. Willy's delusion builds as the play progresses, and he eventually commits suicide to provide his family with the payout from his life insurance policy. Linda Loman's primary role is to support and defend her husband no matter what. She's aware of many of Willy's secrets, and she works diligently to maintain the illusion of his success in their marriage. She allows him a level of authority and control that he doesn't enjoy in his professional life, and this makes her an equal partner in the family's delusions. Linda seems to believe that the lies are what keep Willy alive. To this end, she tries to repair the relationship between Willy and their two sons, going as far as to tell Biff that his life is in his hands. Biff Loman is the Lomans' older son, 34 years old at the time of the play. As a child, he idolized his father and worked hard to please him, especially through his high school football career. Taking after his father, Biff as a young man valued being liked more than adhering to ethical rules, and he became a petty thief, something Willy overlooked. But the discovery of his father's infidelity caused a lifelong rift, and Biff struggles against the image of his father as a phony and a fake. He is also like his father in his love of the outdoors. He's not yet settled in life because business leaves him unfulfilled. Biff's desire to change, to come clean and face the realities of the past, and also to follow a different path to happiness causes conflict with everyone else in his family, but especially with his father. This father-son dynamic is arguably the emotional crux of the play. Happy Loman, the Lomans' younger son, is a 32-year-old womanizing deceiver who shares many of his father's worst characteristics. Happy seldom presents the truth about himself, and he's driven by a desire to be superior, which means sexual conquests and infidelities that humiliate executives. Happy shows none of Biff's desire for change. Even after Willy's suicide, Happy remains committed to his father's shallow dream to come out number one man. Let's consider some of the symbols in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Distant lands: In several of Willy's flashbacks, his brother Ben asked him to go to Alaska, a wide-open land of opportunity. In the end, Ben ends up in Africa, another wild and lush location, rich by the age of 21 in Africa's diamond mines. Uncle Ben and far-off geographical locations represent the material success that Willy has aspired to but not achieved. They also symbolize freedom and possibility in contrast to the confinement and death of New York City. Biff has his own symbolic pull toward the West and his dream of a cattle ranch. Both father and son experienced this pull, and though Willy commits suicide with unfulfilled dreams, the play's ending suggests that Biff might succeed where his father failed. Stockings: Miller's choice of stockings is significant. During World War II, the materials used to make stockings—silk, nylon, and rayon—were rationed for the war effort, making this staple of a woman's wardrobe hard to get. This context clarifies that the gift Willy gives his lover is rare and valuable, something he can't also give to his wife. Both the silk stockings and the woman's laughter symbolized Willy Loman's betrayal and deception. They also represent the play's central rift between Willy and Biff. Seeds: The seeds symbolize Willy Loman's longing for nature, something he cannot get in his urban environment. His desire to plant seeds reveals a healthy need to nurture growth, but near the end of the play, when a delusional Willy is planting seeds in the backyard, they represent a desperate, hallucinatory effort to become successful and fruitful. Overall, Willy's character doesn't match the symbol. He fails at raising his sons just as he has routinely failed to grow a garden without sunlight. Flute: The play begins and ends with the melody of a flute, and music is used frequently in stage directions. The sound of the flute signals to the audience that on stage, the past is about to overtake the present in the narrative of the play. Willy's father was a flute maker in Salesman, though he dragged his family across the country and abandoned them when Willy was a small b—
