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Literary Contexts in Plays: Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"
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Title: Literary Contexts in Plays: Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" By: Panesar, Gurdip, Literary Contexts in Plays: Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman',
Database: Literary Reference CenterHTML Full TextLiterary Contexts in Plays: Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"
Contents
Plot Synopsis
Historical Context
Societal Context
Scientific & Technological Context
Religious Context
Biographical Context
Complementary Texts
Adaptations
Discussion Questions
Essay Questions
Works Consulted
Abstract
Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman" features Willy Loman, an aging failed salesman in 1940s Brooklyn. Willy's struggles to come to terms with what has happened in his life, and the breakdown of his relationship with his once-favourite son Biff, eventually drive him over the edge.
Author Supplied Keywords Arthur Miller; Death of a Salesman; Symbolism in literature; The American Dream; The family in literature
Plot Synopsis
"Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller's most celebrated play, features Willy Loman, a failed salesman in his early sixties living in 1940s Brooklyn. There is also his devoted wife, Linda, and his two sons, Biff, who is thirty-four and Happy, thirty-two. The action takes place, for the most part, in and around the Loman's apartment, in the last twenty-four hours of Willy's life.
Act I. It is late on a Monday evening. Willy has just returned from a business trip in the car and appears worn out. Linda has been waiting for him. He confesses to her that he was unable to concentrate on driving and nearly ran someone down, and that at one point he thought he was driving a car he had twenty years previously. He is fretting over his struggle to make money through his sales and we also learn that he is at odds with his son Biff who has failed to establish himself in business or indeed to make any kind of proper living for himself at all. Linda, as is her wont, endeavours to soothe Willy, but Biff and Happy, who are upstairs in bed, are roused by Willy's complaining. Happy informs Biff, who has just returned from a spell working on a ranch out West, about Willy's worrying state of mind. Biff in his turn reveals his profound dissatisfaction with his life; he doesn't know what to make of himself: 'I don't know what the future is. I don't know – what I'm supposed to want' (Miller 16). Happy has a steady job as a buyer at a store, and his own car and apartment, but chafes at the essential inferiority of his position; he is making nowhere near as much money as he would like. Biff suggests they get together to build up a family business in the West. Happy is enthusiastic but reserved about the amount of money that they could actually make from this. Biff finally decides that he will ask an old business acquaintance, Bill Oliver, for a loan with which to make a fresh start. They return to bed, while alone in the kitchen, Willy reverts to happier memories of the past during the boys' high-school days, when he and Biff were comrades. The boys and Linda all appear as their younger selves. They talk excitedly about a forthcoming football game in which Biff is due to take part. Bernard, one of their classmates who lives next door, comes to remind Biff that he ought to be studying for his final examinations, but the Lomans all scoff at his conscientiousness. In front of the boys, Willy boasts about all the great sales he's just made but when left alone with Linda is forced to admit that he's actually made very little money. He also reveals to Linda his fear that people make fun of his appearance. Linda, as ever, comforts him but Willy is racked with guilt as he recalls the memory of his mistress, known only as The Woman. With an effort, he turns his attention back to Linda, but is further agitated when he notices her mending stockings, as he has given stockings to his mistress as a present. He demands that Linda throw them out.
Willy is recalled to the present only when Happy comes down out of bed to talk to him. Charley, Bernard's father, appears, complaining about the noise that Willy's been making. Happy returns to bed while Willy and Charley play cards. Charley knows all about Willy's financial problems as Willy habitually borrows money from him. Charley, a taciturn but kindly man, offers him a job, but Willy, affronted, declines. Willy is again distracted by his memories; this time he recalls his elder brother Ben (now dead) who years before made a fortune abroad. Willy turned down the chance to go with him and has seemingly regretted this as a missed opportunity ever since. Ben appears onstage and Willy addresses him directly, much to the bewilderment of Charley, who goes back next door. Willy continues talking with Ben, eagerly questioning him about their father, a travelling salesman who left when Willy was just a baby. Ben then leaves, although Willy entreats him to stay. Then Willy returns to the present as Linda comes down to ask him to come up to bed. He refuses and goes for a walk, still wearing his slippers. Biff and Happy take advantage of his absence to discuss his increasingly erratic behaviour with Linda. Linda reveals that he is no longer even receiving a salary and is working on commission, and fears he has become suicidal. It seems he has tried to deliberately crash the car and also to inhale gas. Linda also taxes Biff about the unceasing tension between him and his father. Biff reveals his confusion and frustration at not being able to live up to Willy's expectations. When Willy returns, he and Biff as usual fall to arguing, but Happy quickly intervenes with an idea for him and Biff to go into business together selling sporting goods, with the loan that Biff hopes to get from Bill Oliver. Willy is instantly thrilled and Biff also is enthusiastic. On this happier note, the family finally retire to bed.
Act II. It is the following morning. Willy and Linda talk brightly about Biff, who has already left for his meeting with Oliver. Linda declares that Biff's attitude has changed; he has become more hopeful. Willy is further elated when Linda tells him that the boys are going to treat him to dinner at a restaurant that evening. With new-found confidence, he determines to ask for promotion at work that day. However his meeting with Howard, his employer, is disastrous. Far from giving him a better deal, Howard dismisses him altogether, tactfully suggesting that he come back when he's feeling better. Willy, in despair, tries to remind Howard how he spent his life building up the firm. Howard is unmoved and goes out. Left alone, Willy again recalls the opportunity he had to go with Ben to Alaska.
The next scene takes place in Charley's office. Bernard, now a lawyer, has dropped in to see his father. Willy enters and they greet each other warmly, but the contrast between Bernard's obvious success and his own sons' – particularly Biff's – failures is painful for Willy. Willy asks Bernard why Biff never managed to make anything of himself. Bernard does not have the answer but recalls that during their final high school examinations Biff failed maths, and although initially prepared to make up the subject at summer school, seemed to lose all motivation following a visit to Willy in Boston. Willy appears shaken by this. Charley arrives and Bernard leaves for a case in the Supreme Court. Willy has come to borrow money once more, but again turns down Charley's job offer and takes an almost tearful farewell of him.
Later that day, Happy is waiting for Biff and Willy at the restaurant. He talks light-heartedly with Stanley, a waiter, and chats up a glamorous customer, Miss Forsythe. Biff arrives but is extremely perturbed. He reveals that Bill Oliver wouldn't even see him and that in a fit of pique he stole a fountain pen from his office. When Willy comes, he immediately starts questioning Biff about his meeting and also reveals that he himself has been fired. This increases the pressure on Biff to provide some 'good news,' but he finally tells the truth. Willy immediately recalls the day when news came that Biff had failed his high school examination. Biff leaves in distress and Happy follows, along with Miss Forsythe and Letta, one of Miss Forsythe's friends. Willy, left behind, remembers the traumatic day when Biff came to see him in Boston after failing his exam and accidentally discovered his infidelity with his mistress. Stanley comes to him, abruptly rousing him out of his memories. He declares he has to get some seeds planted and hurries off leaving Stanley mystified.
Biff and Happy arrive home. Linda is furious with them for abandoning Willy in the restaurant and orders them both to leave. Meanwhile, Willy is out in the garden planting the seeds he has bought. Once more, he imagines Ben is with him, and they discuss his plan to raise money for the family through the insurance that will be paid out in the event of his death. Then Biff comes to him to inform him that he is leaving for good. Biff hopes to go without any more fighting, but Willy accuses him again of wasting his life, provoking a final violent confrontation. Biff makes it clear that he cannot be what Willy wants him to be and that for too long, Willy has been feeding off lies and delusions about his own and his sons' importance in the world and forcing his family to do the same. Willy still attempts to deflect away such recriminations by accusing Biff of spite. Biff is finally spent by his emotions, breaks down in sobs and goes upstairs. Seeing his tears, Willy swings from anger to overwhelming affection. While the rest of the family retreat upstairs he remains in the kitchen, intent on his final grand plan of suicide, and puts it into action by driving away in the car at top speed.
Reqiuem. It is just after the funeral. Linda, Biff and Happy are at the graveside, along with Charley but (contrary to Willy's own expectations) no-one else has come at all. Biff remarks that Willy never knew who he was, but Happy clings stubbornly onto Willy's old dream of making it big and insists he's going to make it come true. Linda takes a moment to say a final goodbye to Willy before leaving the graveyard.
"Death of a Salesman," with its searing portrayal of social and family issues and unusual mode of presentation, has a sound reputation as one of the greatest of all American plays and won the Pulitzer Prize. Willy Loman is an Everyman for his time, ensnared by the American consumer dream, struggling to provide for his family and to leave his mark on society, yet too proud to admit defeat, at least to the outside world. Miller dispenses with conventional structures and time frames to take us deep into Willy's mind where past and present fuse together as he endeavours to make meaning out of his life and to understand where things went wrong. This technique makes it easier for the audience to identify with him and to understand the nature of his problems and delusions. Critics debate whether his story is finally tragic or merely pathetic. He is not a grand figure, he achieves no self-realization, his final act of self-sacrifice appears more misguided than heroic and does not have the desired results: there is no large crowd of mourners, as he had fondly imagined, and we do not even know if the insurance money has been paid out upon his death. In any case, Biff, whom he has intended as the prime recipient, does not want the money as he has repudiated all of Willy's ideas. In the end, however, it is precisely the fact of Willy's littleness in the scheme of things, his desperate attempt to maintain a living in the anonymity of the urban jungle, that has such resonance with modern audiences; his struggles are all too common, his hopes and failures all too recognisable.
Historical Context
"Death of a Salesman" appeared in the years immediately following the Second World War, ostensibly a time of new hope and prosperity for the country. But the awed reaction to the Broadway premiere in 1949 showed that the play articulated concerns that were already beginning to emerge about this new age of consumerism and wealth, exposing cracks in its supposedly idyllic social façade. It was seen as the first major play to challenge the long-standing American dream of seizing the opportunity to earn one's own personal success and fortune. This great dream appears distinctly tarnished in the play as it appears to have degenerated into a pursuit of material wealth for its own sake, as underlined by the frequent references to payments on house, car and all manner of gadgets. Willy finds it increasingly difficult to keep up appearances of material wealth but cherishes the dream to the last: even his final act of suicide has a mercenary motive. Willy is also seen to make things even harder for himself by buttressing his pursuit of material and social success with what appear to be archaic values in the world of the play: notions of loyalty, friendship and respect. However he is forced to admit sorrowfully to Howard that such things do not seem to matter any more. He clings to his idea that 'the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead' (Miller 25). The truth is that the America of the mid twentieth century is seen to operate on hard-headed business principles rather than on the kind of chivalric values that Willy espouses. (See also Societal Contexts.)
Societal Context
Societal expectations put a great strain on Willy. His main problem is that he surrenders entirely to the lure of the American capitalist dream and when he fails to realize it, he feels he has no other resources to fall back on. Ben, who symbolises the fulfilment of this dream to Willy, is a pervasive, somewhat mocking, presence in the play; mention should also be made of Dave Singleman, the salesman still working at the time of his death at the age of eighty-four, whose apparently resounding success (as reflected by the huge turn-out at his funeral) fatally influenced Willy's choice of career. Willy is not entirely condemned for his vain dreaming, however: in a much-quoted passage at the scene of Willy's funeral, Charley points out that 'a salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory'(Miller 111). Charley thus recognises that a salesman has got to think big, to live on the hope and dream of making good sales. Willy however is so enslaved by the lure of social and material success that he appears unable to envisage any other kind of life. With his natural talent for manual work and the whole family's love of the countryside, 'those grand outdoors' (Miller 66) the Lomans could have led a very different existence. Instead, they continue to stifle in an unsympathetic urban environment. Willy's story illustrates the dire consequences of making the wrong career choice and sticking to it; this condemns him to a lifetime of social struggle and personal and psychological turmoil. However, to the end of his life, he dreams of raising a proper garden, and just hours before his suicide is planting seeds which reflects his natural inclinations as well as being symbolic of his doomed attempts to make something grow and flourish.
Willy also suffers because he feels unable to live up to the socially-constructed and masculine image of himself as provider for the family. This prevents him from revealing the true state of his affairs to his sons and asking for their, or anyone else's, help. Instead, he prefers to mull over things in his mind and to try to find his own way, which in the end drives him to suicide. The real tragedy is that in his struggle to live up to society's expectations he is unable to accept the natural healing love of his family. Linda is utterly devoted to him, yet he cheats on her – and the discovery of this liaison is what first drives a wedge between him and Biff. He also fails to see that Biff, in spite of all their quarrels, cares deeply about him. And his pursuit of a futile social dream proves damaging to the family as he endeavours to instil his ideas into his sons' minds, thus transmitting the flaws of one generation to the next. Moreover, in his over-emphasis on creating the right impression in society, of being 'well-liked', he appears to neglect to teach his sons basic moral values. He does not discourage Biff from stealing at an early age or from cheating in his final exams; and Biff grows up to be a habitual thief. Happy, too, becomes an inveterate womaniser and bribe-taker. And while Willy's grand plans for Biff and Happy fail to ever materialise, their neighbour Bernard, quietly, without fuss, attains the social success that Willy is so desperate for, by dint of his own hard work.
Scientific & Technological Context
The fruits of technological progress are clearly to be seen in the play; ordinary households now have more gadgets than ever before, and when Willy goes to see Howard, he finds him preoccupied with his new wire recorder, insisting on demonstrating its capabilities before he will even let Willy get a word in. However, these household improvements bring their own troubles; they have to be paid for in instalments (at least in the Loman household) and are forever incurring extra expenses; the shower drips, the refrigerator uses up one belt after another, the car keeps on breaking down. Willy is finally driven to exclaim 'I'm always in a race with the junkyard! …. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up' (Miller 57). (Incidentally, as Willy acrimoniously remarks, Charley's refrigerator has never given any trouble, another way in which Willy has been upstaged by his neighbour.) Furthermore, two notable modern inventions – domestic gas heating and the automobile – take on distinctly sinister overtones as they become the means by which Willy tries to end his life and finally succeeds. Technological advancements, as seen in the play, have contributed little to human happiness.
On a different note, Miller draws on psychology – a burgeoning science throughout the first half of the twentieth century – to adopt a stream-of-consciousness approach to the play. What we see happening onstage is a reflection of what is passing through Willy's mind where past and present co-exist, resulting in a unconventional non-linear narrative style. Miller, like Eugene O'Neill, also utilizes psychological concepts popularized by the likes of Sigmund Freud regarding the importance of the family, and particularly parental influence, in shaping individual development. Biff and Happy are, obviously, dominated by their father's hopes and expectations; Biff finally rebels against this.
Religious Context
There appears to be no sense of any divine agency in "Death of a Salesman." None of the Lomans, or anyone else, appeal to any kind of religious belief. The post world-war society appears to have pinned all its faith in tangible and visible signs of social and material success.
Biographical Context
For many observers, Willy Loman is an Everyman figure for modern times, but the character had an intensely personal application for Miller. The model for Willy was his travelling salesman uncle Manny Newman, a braggart with a well-developed sense of competition who was always comparing Miller to his own sons, Buddy and Abby (Buddy, like Biff in the play, never lived up to the promise of his high school days). Miller revealed in later days that Manny was always full of big plans for himself and his family, which never came to fruition. A chance meeting with Manny outside a performance of his earlier play "All My Sons," in 1947 was Miller's immediate inspiration for "Death of a Salesman," although he had already written a short story about an unsuccessful salesman before this. Miller also drew on the character of his own father for the play. The family theme is central to Miller's plays as a whole, as to twentieth-century American drama more generally from Eugene O'Neill onwards. "All My Sons," his first important work, like "Salesman" features the head of a household who is eventually driven to suicide. After "Salesman," he wrote several more plays which gained critical and popular acclaim, notably "The Crucible," an account of the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692, arising from his own persecution in the anti-Communist McCarthy era. Miller was still writing at the time of his death on February 10, 2005 – fifty-six years to the day that "Salesman" premiered on Broadway – but none other of his characters ever captured the public imagination in quite the same way as the well-meaning and hapless Willy Loman.
Complementary Texts
Miller, Arthur. All My Sons, 1947.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey into Night, 1953.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie, 1945.
Adaptations
The following are two well-known TV film adaptations:
Death of a Salesman. Directed by Alex Segal. CBS Television, 1966.
Death of a Salesman. Directed by Volker Schlondorff, CBS Television, 1985.
Discussion Questions
What is the effect of combining past and present events as Miller does in the play? Do you find it distracting? Why or why not?
Do you think that Linda is over-protective of Willy? Why or why not?
Discuss Miller's portrayal of female characters in the play.
Do you think that Willy's good points ultimately outweigh the bad? Explain.
Do you find the Lomans too self-pitying? Why or why not?
Is the dialogue of the play altogether naturalistic? Answer with reference to specific examples.
What is the effect of the play's title? Do you think it is a good choice? Explain.
Do you think that Biff makes Willy a convenient scapegoat for all of his problems? Why or why not?
Compare and contrast the characters of Willy and Charley.
In what way (if any) can Willy be accounted heroic?
Essay Questions
Analyze Miller's use of symbolism in "Death of a Salesman."
Examine the role of parental influence in "Salesman."
Analyze the role of money in "Salesman."
Examine the theme of conflict in "Salesman."
Analyze Miller's narrative and stage techniques in "Salesman."
Works Consulted
Bloom, Harold, ed. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: Contemporary Literary Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 1995.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1998.
Siebold, Thomas, ed. Readings on Death of a Salesman. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.
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Essay by Gurdip Panesar, Ph. D.
Dr. Gurdip Panesar earned his M.A. and PhD degrees in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Panesar has contributed various entries to recent literary reference works and is at present teaching in the Department of Adult Education at the University of Glasgow.
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