    (c) 1991 Bureau Development, Inc.

    File: \DP\0128\01281.TXT         Wed Mar 10 00:45:02 1993
Database: Monarch Notes By Author


$Unique_ID{MON01281}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Arthur Miller
Death Of A Salesman (1949)}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Miller, Arthur}
$Affiliation{Department Of English, St. John's University}
$Subject{willy
biff
linda
willy's
charley
happy
bernard
house
young
biff's}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       Works of Arthur Miller
Book:        Death of a Salesman
Author:      Miller, Arthur
Critic:      Nourse, Joan Thellusson
Affiliation: Department Of English, St. John's University

Death Of A Salesman (1949)

Characters

     Willy Loman - The Salesman, over sixty, beaten and exhausted, who once
dreamed that he and his sons would achieve success by being well-liked.

     Linda - His devoted and patient wife, who would have Willy's sons treat
him with compassion and respect.

     Biff - Their older son, thirty-four, ruggedly built but disheartened,
partial to outdoor farm work but afraid that it offers no future.

     Happy - His brother, thirty-two, a slick, dapper clerk, who accepts
bribes and brags about his sensual affairs, but talks of settling down with a
good wife like Mom.

     Bernard - The slight, studious boy next door, who grows up to be a
flourishing young lawyer.

     Charley - Bernard's father, an unassuming, quietly plodding businessman,
who proves a loyal friend to Willy, "lending" him hundreds of dollars to
salvage his self-respect.

     Uncle Ben - Willy's almost legendary older brother, whose talk of
dazzling fortunes made quickly in Alaska and Africa filled the Salesman with
tantalizing visions.

     Howard Wagner - The shallow, unresponsive son of Old Man Wagner, the
original boss who had thought highly of Willy and predicted for him an
eventual partnership in the firm.

     Jenny - Charley's secretary, a little afraid of Willy when he seems
overwrought and confused.

     Stanley - An accommodating waiter at Frank's Chop House, who is suitably
impressed with Happy's bravado air of being a connoisseur of rare wines and
beautiful women.

     Miss Forsythe - An elegant, attractive young prostitute whom Happy
suavely picks up in the restaurant.

     Letta - The girl Miss Forsythe obligingly provides for Biff, at Happy's
request, an outgoing type who thinks Willy is "cute" and looks forward to jury
duty.

     The Woman - A Boston buyer, whose casual affair with Willy did much to
shatter young Biff's shining image of his father.

The Setting:

     Much of the "action" really occurs inside Willy's disturbed, faltering
brain, as he relives crucial scenes from the past even while groping through
present-day encounters. In general, however, the setting gives us the kitchen
and two bedrooms of Willy's modest Brooklyn house, once practically suburban
but now crowded in by high apartment buildings. Other locations, such as
Howard's office, the restaurant, and the Boston hotel room, are set up on the
stage apron with clever lighting and a few basic props. (The lighting involves
the projection of a pattern of leaves on the stage during Willy's mental
retreats from the present into the past, the density of the leaves indicating
the extent of his withdrawal from reality, and the leaves themselves providing
a symbolic reference to the more rural circumstances of the past.) Haunting
flute music is used on occasion to set the mood, hopeful or plaintive.

Plot Analysis

Act I.

     Wearily hauling in his big sample cases, Willy Loman, a salesman over
sixty, returns unexpectedly to his Brooklyn home. En route to sell in New
England, he tells his worried wife, Linda, he kept losing control of his car
and had to come back. Linda urges him to ask Howard Wagner, his young boss,
for easier work in town. She also tries cheering him with the news that their
grown sons, Biff and Happy, are together again upstairs, amicably sharing
their old room.

     Willy is concerned about Biff, thirty-four, who has just quit one more
farm job out West. How can such an impressive lad be so lost? Willy also
regrets that their house, at last almost paid for, has been gradually hemmed
in by soaring apartments. He misses the earlier country scents of spring
flowers.

     Upstairs, the boys, roused by Willy's arrival, laughingly recall their
first flings with prostitutes. Then Biff, troubled, admits smarting under
Willy's disapproval but says he found the routine of office and sales work too
confining. He likes herding cattle better but fears that it offers no future.
Happy, younger and cockier, can afford an apartment, a car, and the sensual
affairs he craves. But he envies the highly paid merchandise manager, and gets
even by taking bribes and seducing the fiancees of fellow employees. He would,
however, like to settle down with a good girl like his mother. He is tempted
by Biff's invitation to join him in some outdoor ranch project, but wants
first to equal the manager as regards salary and prestige. Biff, in turn,
talks of floating a loan from Bill Oliver, a sporting-goods man, whose employ
he abruptly quit long ago after stealing a carton of basketballs.

     Meanwhile, Willy, alone for a kitchen snack, relives a cherished memory.
Young Biff and Happy, of high-school age, have proudly and energetically
shined up the family car. Much pleased, Willy gives them a punching bag and is
undismayed to learn that Biff has helped himself to a new football. The lads
idolize him, and he boasts of his sales prowess. Young Bernard, the studious
boy next door, warns that Biff is failing math and may not graduate. Willy
scoffs at this, citing athletic-scholarship prospects. He predicts greater
success for his sons since they are better liked than the conscientious
Bernard.

     A younger Linda enters with the wash. Having bragged to her of big sales,
he quickly cuts his estimate when he learns how much they need for car
payments and household repairs. He adds that he is not so sure of himself as
he pretends. When Linda reassures him, his mind reverts guiltily to
compliments paid him by a Boston buyer with whom he had an affair. He also is
disturbed by new reports of Biff's wildness. Back in the present, Charley,
Bernard's father, comes over to soothe Willy with a card game. Willy, however,
remains nervous and irritable.

     Something Charley says makes him recall his older brother, Ben. He
remembers a brief visit when Ben told him of having made a fortune quickly in
African diamonds. Ben also recounted how their father crossed the country with
them in a wagon selling flutes. Actually, flute music is heard through much of
the play. Ben urges Willy to try his fortune in Alaska and gives young Biff a
lesson in fighting ruthlessly, jungle style. Charley warns that Biff is taking
lumber from building projects, but Willy sees this as initiative. He sneers at
Charley and Bernard as unable even to hammer nails.

     Again in the present, Linda and the boys try getting the disturbed Willy
to bed, but he insists upon taking a walk-in his slippers. Linda rebukes Biff
for staying away and then quarreling with Willy. She loves her husband deeply,
and feels that even if he is collapsing now he deserves respect as a person.
His company, after thirty years, has taken him off salary and put him back on
straight commission. The boys are shocked by this news and are saddened even
more to hear that Willy has been trying suicide. Once he drove his car off the
road, and he keeps some tubing handy, for inhaling gas. Biff promises reform,
but upon Willy's return they promptly argue bitterly. Willy, however, is
delighted to hear of Biff's plan to approach Oliver. He tells him to request a
large sum and act as if he were already prosperous. Biff and Happy talk
further of organizing teams to sell a line of sports equipment. Despite some
further bickering, all are buoyed up with hope: Happy says he will get
married, Willy will see Howard, and even the moon shines brightly on the
little house.

Act II.

     The next morning, Willy, well-rested and confident, prepares to face
Howard. The boys have already left, with Biff looking handsome and assured.
Linda reminds Willy that they need some two hundred dollars to cover the
insurance premium, repairs, and the last home mortgage payment. The house will
finally be all theirs, and Willy proudly recalls the good carpentering he did
to make it strong and safe. Linda also gives him the welcome word that his
boys will take him to dinner that night.

     At the office Willy can hardly get the attention of Howard, whose one
interest of the moment is a costly new tape recorder. Finally made to listen,
Howard disclaims a Christmas party pledge to find Willy a New York job, and
remains unyielding as the salesman desperately offers to work for less and
less money. Angered, Willy recalls an earlier business world in which selling
roused respect and gratitude. Then old Dave Singleton, eighty-four, in green
velvet slippers, could sit in his hotel room anywhere and sell buyers by
phone. Howard will not hear of old promises made to Willy by his father, and
eventually discharges Willy, despite his eagerness to try the Boston route
again.

     Again reverting to the past, Willy recalls Ben's urging to seek his
fortune in Alaska. Then, however, Linda had stressed the good prospects in his
selling job. He then relives the day of Biff's last football triumph at Ebbets
Field. Even Bernard pleads to carry the shoulder guards, but Charley chides
Willy, half-jokingly, for letting a game mean so much at his age.

     Back in the present, Willy makes a distractedly noisy entrance into
Charley's office, upsetting Jenny, his secretary. There with luggage and
tennis rackets is Bernard, now a pleasant, confident young lawyer, off to try
a case before the Supreme Court. After pitiably bluffing about Biff's
prosperity, Willy sadly asks Bernard why Biff gave up. Puzzled himself,
Bernard does know that Biff really lost heart not after the math failure but
after a trip to Boston to meet Willy. This information disturbs Willy further.

     He then asks for and receives a large sum from Charley but refuses the
latter's well-meant offer of a job. His benefactor disputes the idea that
success stems from being well liked, and also sharply denies that Willy would
be worth more dead. As he leaves, Willy sobs that Charley is his one friend.

     At Frank's Chop House, Happy impresses the waiter, Stanley, with his
sophisticated airs and deftly picks up an attractive prostitute, Miss
Forsythe. Then he sends her for a friend for his rich, notable brother.

     Upon arrival, however, Biff glumly admits that Oliver had no time for his
former shipping clerk. Upon impulse, Biff stole his fountain pen, but knows
now that his life has been one great lie. Willy joins them, in no mood for
Biff's facing of hard facts. Drifting again back into the past, he relives the
distressing scene in which the idolizing Biff caught him in a hotel room with
the lady buyer. Biff then angrily denounced his father as a lying fake and
dropped plans for going on to any university.

     In the present, coming back to the table after a trip to the men's room,
Willy is dismayed to find boys and prostitutes gone. Hurt, he tips Stanley
well and goes off, oddly, to buy seeds. Later, Happy and Biff return home with
flowers for Linda. She is furious and orders both to leave home and stop
tormenting their father. Out planting the old garden by flashlight, Willy
discusses with the phantom of Ben the merits of killing himself and leaving
the twenty thousand dollars of insurance for Biff. It would be a great
gesture, and he would have a huge funeral. Ready to leave, Biff argues that
Willy should never have filled him or himself with such blown-up ideas of
their own importance. He, Biff, has just been in jail for stealing a suit.
They quarrel further, but Biff breaks down. And Willy, convinced at last of
his son's love, knows what he must do. Over Linda's fearful protests, he
drives off in his car to kill himself.

Requiem.

     Charley, Bernard, and the three Lomans are the only mourners at Willy's
grave. Linda grieves that he had to die just when the house was finally
theirs. They talk of Willy's fine carpentering, and Charley envisions him as
riding on "a smile and a shoeshine." Biff is leaving, but Happy still wants to
make Willy's grandiose ideas work. Linda alone sobbingly asks Willy why he did
it. They had their house and could now at last have been really free.

