Death of a Salesman Summary/Analysis

Main info:

• Arthur Miller
• Play
• Published 1949 Viking Press
• Genre:  tragedy, drama, social commentary

 Setting:

• Time: Willy's "present" = (1940's?), mixed with Willy's daydreams
• Brooklyn, travels to NY and Boston
• Set in the Loman house 
•  We are aware of towering angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides...As more light appears , we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home. An air of dream clings to the place a dream rising out of reality.  
• The entire set is wholly, or, in some places, partially transparent. The roof-line of the house is one-dimensional; under and over it we see the apartment buildings.
• Biff & Happy talk in their bedroom
• Behind the kitchen, on a level raised six and a half feet, is the boys' bedroom, at present barely visible. Two beds are dimly seen, and at the back of the room a dormer window. (This bedroom is above the unseen living-room.) At the left a stairway curves up to it from the kitchen.
• Biff & Linda talk a little in the main bedroom 
• To the right of the kitchen, on a level raised two feet, is a bedroom furnished only with a brass bedstead and a straight chair. On a shelf over the bed a silver authentic trophy stands. A window opens onto the apartment house at the side.
• MAIN ACTION happens in the kitchen
• The kitchen at center seems actual enough, for there is a kitchen table with three chairs and a refrigerator. But no other fixtures are seen. At the back of the kitchen there is a draped entrance, which leads to the kitchen.
• Loman backyard --> "flashbacks" of playing ball w/Biff/family/planting seeds in the present
• Before the house lies an apron, curving beyond the forestage into the orchestra. This forward serves as the backyard as well as the locale of all Willy's imaginings and of his city scenes.
• Sales offices
• Frank's Chop House
• "Flashback" setting: hotel room w/the other woman

• Stage/setting boundaries - entering & exiting
• Action: actors observe the imaginary wall-lines (entering the house only through the its door on the left)
• Scenes of the past: boundaries are broken, characters enter/leave a room by stepping "through" a wall onto the forestage

• Social environment: 
• Power structure/struggles: 
• Household: Willy obviously has power over Linda (who almost silently manipulates him?) with Biff (and sometimes Happy) intervening and "putting Willy back in his place" in relation to Linda. Happy doesn't have much influence.
• Willy dotes on his boys (especially Biff)
• Ben has power over Willy (Willy looking up to him? Emulating him?)
• Charlie almost envies Willy, although Charley is more successful
• Bernard vs. Biff/Willy - in the beginning Willy/Biff make fun of and tease Bernard, but in the present Bernard is more successful (& higher up on the financial/power ladder)
• Vulnerability: 
• Willy is psychologically/financially vulnerable
• Linda is vulnerable when it concerns Willy (fears desertion?) & financially when he dies
• Biff is finally figuring what he does(n't) want in his life - most power?
• Happy has deluded himself into thinking he can withstand society's pressures --> makes him most vulnerable?

• Dominant Impression:
• The way the set is described makes it seem transparent, generic (Miller says "we're all Willy Loman") and because the set is so minimalistic it could be conveyed that the Loman's are any family --> the play is set all over the world
• Passage of time:
• Unclear, although there is a definite difference between Willy's "present" and his "flashbacks"...it's to hard to keep track of

Plot:

• Freytag's Pyramid: The Elements of Plot
• Status Quo: intro of characters, setting, & conflict at the beginning
• Introduce Willy, Linda, Happy, & Biff. Willy comes home, fights w/Linda about the boys, worries about his job, decides to talk to the boss, Happy & Biff talk - about jobs, Willy
• Rising Action: events that complicate/intensify the conflict
• Willy talks to his boss, gets fired, runs into Charley and Bernard, (flashbacks throughout - introduced to Ben, younger family), Biff & Happy go the the restaurant, meet Ms. Absynthe, and leave Willy alone at the restaurant (delusional?)
• Climax: point of greatest tension
• The movie really intensifies Willy's breakdown at the restaurant (reliving Biff discovering him and the other woman)
• Resolution: where conflict may/may not be resolved
• I think it's more of a "may not be resolved"
• Happy & Biff come home to find Linda furious & Willy in the backyard. An argument ensues, Biff exposes Willy's suicide plan, they fight it out, Willy "realizes" Biff loves him, they go upstairs,  Willy stays in the kitchen talking to Ben, leaves and crashes the car (killing himself)
• Funeral: Linda laments Willy's death, Biff heads out (Why didn't more people come?)
•  What conflicts does it dramatize? 
• Certainty in oneself, success (fiscal vs. personal), relevance in the face of change, the "American Dream" 
•  Qualities of protagonist & antagonist:
• Willy seems to be the stories protagonist and antagonist (fights against himself)/...American society
• External/Internal conflicts
• External: money, jobs
• Internal: Willy's mind (keeping present & past separate), depression, struggles w/i the family

Significant Characters:

• Willy - dynamic, depressed, wistful, feels cheated by life, ambitious, "tall tales" (exaggerates own importance), caved to society's standards/pressure
• Linda - static,"Madonna"(in Madonna/whore), dependent on Willy, verbally abused, able to convince/persuade Willy - Alaska
• Biff - dynamic,"golden boy", switches job frequently, outdoors/manual labor, only one who acknowledges problem & vows to set off & strike his own path
• Happy - static, eager to please, doesn't get attention, (Willy-in-the-making), superficial
• Ben - static (because we only see a snippet of him through Willy's eyes), wealthy (dirty money), worldy, Willy looks up to him (older brother/successful)

Narrative voice/author's style:

• Point of view:
• The play helps translates Miller's view on the changing society and the common man 
• Tone: (I'm a bit confused about this bit.)
• A bit absurd?
• Realism
• Cynical
• Imagery/Symbolism
• repeated images/symbols: diamonds, stockings, the rubber hose, broken parts of the house, money, dairy products, (not an image - but the flute)

Quotes

•    "He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine."
• Charley's requiem about Willy depicts Willy's determination to make a path for himself - with only his wits and talent ("a smile and a shoeshine")

•  "Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?"
•  This conveys Willy's drive and goals in his life - it shows what he strives for and what he longs to be. In addition to laying out what he holds dear, it shows what Willy wants most - recognition and success.