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Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller's Play About The American Dream Turned Nightmare

Apr 3, 2009 Samantha Markham

Death of a Salesman is one of Arthur Miller's most famous plays. It is a timeless work, which is just as relevant and poignant today as it ever was.

Death of a Salesman is a tragedy, which offers a counter view of the classic definition of tragedy by which an audience witnesses the downfall of a great man. Willy Loman, the eponymous salesman, is an everyman, in fact he is a ‘low man’, as Miller indicates with the character’s name.

Death of a Salesman's First Run

The play premiered in February 1949 and ran for 742 performances. It has since become an American classic. The play examines the fall of an American household through the protagonist’s misinterpretation of both himself and of the ingredients to success.

It is often espoused that Miller is a supporter of socialism and therefore this play, like much of his other work, All My Sons to name but one example, is a critique of capitalist America.

Characters in Death of a Salesman

The play consists of five primary characters; the aforementioned Willy Loman, who in his middle age has lost the knack of clinching sales and seems to be becoming increasingly senile. Linda Loman is Willy’s wife; it could be argued that Linda’s role in the play is to enable Willy in his pursuit of the unattainable. It seems that she does nothing to steer him away from his self-destructive path.

Biff and Happy Loman are Linda and Willy’s sons. Biff is the sportsman of the family, who idolises his father, until he makes a terrible discovery, which disillusions him permanently. Happy (Harold) on the other hand is a carbon copy of his father’s idealism, which he continues to hold on to, even at the very end of the play.

Ben Loman is Willy’s brother. He has recently died, so we are only offered glimpses of him in the flashback sequences of the play and in Willy’s hallucinations. Ben has made a fortune through diamond mining in South Africa. He represents the example to which Willy is trying to live up to.

The Form of The Play

The play has the feel of a stream of consciousness, the audience is constantly shifted through different time periods, and much of the play is told from the perspective of Willy Loman. There are often characters that only Willy is able to see. This adds to an audience’s sympathy for the character, but it also serves to illustrate Willy’s ever decreasing mental state.

Death of a Salesman tells the story of a man who is approaching the end of his life and discovers that he was striving for unreachable goals. In fact, Miller suggests that Loman’s aims do not even exist. Miller undoubtedly questions the validity of the American dream and challenges a world in which an ageing salesman is financially worth more dead than alive.

The copyright of the article Death of a Salesman in Playwrights & Stage Actors is owned by Samantha Markham. Permission to republish Death of a Salesman in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.