Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Death of a Salesman
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman (1949) (edit title/settings)

Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

by Arthur Miller (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

The tragedy of a typical American--a salesman who at the age of sixty-three is faced with what he cannot face; defeat and disillusionment.

Summary edit see section history

(Wikipedia Creative Commons)
Willy Loman returns home exhausted after a cancelled business trip. Worried over Willy's state of mind and recent car "crashes," his wife Linda suggests that he asks his boss Howard Wagner to allow him to work in his home city so he will not have to travel.... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

(Wikipedia Creative Commons)
Willy Loman returns home exhausted after a cancelled business trip. Worried over Willy's state of mind and recent car "crashes," his wife Linda suggests that he asks his boss Howard Wagner to allow him to work in his home city so he will not have to travel. Willy complains to Linda that their son, Biff, has yet to make good on his life. Despite Biff's promise as an athlete in high school, he flunked senior year math and never went to college.
Biff and his brother, Happy, who is also visiting, reminisce about their childhood together. They discuss their father's mental degeneration, which they have witnessed by his constant vacillations and talking to himself. When Willy walks in, angry that the two boys have never amounted to anything, Biff and Happy tell Willy that Biff plans to make a business proposition the next day in an effort to pacify their father.
The next day, Willy goes to ask his boss for a job in town while Biff goes to make a business proposition, but neither is successful. Willy gets angry and ends up getting fired when the boss tells him he needs a rest and can no longer represent the company. Biff waits hours to see a former employer who does not remember him and turns him down. Biff impulsively steals a fountain pen. Willy then goes to the office of his neighbor Charley, where he runs into Charley's son Bernard (now a successful lawyer); Bernard tells him that Biff originally wanted to do well in summer school, but something happened in Boston when Biff went to visit Willy that changed his mind.
Happy, Biff, and Willy meet for dinner at a restaurant, but Willy refuses to hear bad news from Biff. Happy tries to get Biff to lie to their father. Biff tries to tell him what happened as Willy gets angry and slips into a flashback of what happened in Boston the day Biff came to see him. Willy had been in a hotel on a sales trip with a young woman when Biff arrived. From that moment, Biff's view of his father changed and set Biff adrift.
Biff leaves the restaurant in frustration, followed by Happy and two girls that Happy has picked up. They leave a confused and upset Willy behind in the restaurant. When they later return home, their mother angrily confronts them for abandoning their father while Willy remains talking to himself outside. Biff goes outside to try to reconcile with Willy. The discussion quickly escalates into another argument, at which point Biff forcefully tries to convey to his father that he is not meant for anything great, that he is simply ordinary, insisting that they both are. The feud culminates with Biff hugging Willy and crying as he tries to get him to let go of the unrealistic dreams he still carries for Biff and wants instead for Willy to accept him for who he really is. He tells his father he loves him.
Rather than listen to what Biff actually says, Willy realizes his son has forgiven him and thinks Biff will now pursue a career as a businessman. Willy kills himself intentionally crashing his car so that Biff can use the life insurance money to start his business. However, at the funeral Biff retains his belief that he does not want to become a businessman. Happy, on the other hand, chooses to follow in his father's footsteps.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Willy Loman: (aged 63) The brother of Bill Loman, husband of Linda Loman, and father of Biff and Happy Loman, he is a disillusioned salesman who hangs all his hopes on Biff. In his early days, he was quite successful with high hopes, but is today quite unstable and even suicidal.
  • Biff Loman: Willy's son. He chafes under his father's expectations of him, and he strikes out for rural life away from the passive city jobs he hates. He let down his father by failing his maths course in high school, not making it up in summer school, and refusing to go to university despite being recruited by three colleges for football. He loves and looks up to his dad, but...(see spoiler)
  • Happy Loman: Willy's second son and Biff's younger brother. He has a job, an apartment, a car, and makes money, yet is lonely and, ironically, unhappy. In the fictional present he is staying with his parents in their house, and Biff comes to visit.
  • Linda Loman: Willy's faithful wife. She accepts and even sympathizes with his outbursts and irrationalities because she recognises him as the good but cheated man he is. It is she who encourages her sons to make Willy happy.
  • Bernard: Charley's son and Biff's and Happy's childhood friend. Now a successful lawyer.
  • Uncle Ben: Willy's brother. He got rich from diamond mining in the African jungle, and he represents the missed opportunities (i.e. a job in Alaska) and exciting life Willy feels he is missing. He is the only character who calls Willy ‘William’.
  • Charley: Willy's neighbour. He understands Willy and his pride, but consistently offers him a job.
  • Howard: Willy's boss in New York and the son of Willy's former boss. He sends Willy out of state to sell instead of keeping him in New York.
  • Bill Oliver: Biff's old boss
  • The Woman: No name is given to her in the play. She has a connection to Willy's past.
  • Jenny: Secretary
  • Stanley: Waiter at restaurant
  • Miss Forsythe: Lady at restaurant that Happy flirts with
  • Letta: Friend of Miss Forsythe
Show all 14 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement.”
    Charley
  • “Nobody dast blame this man. You don't understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock-bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back--that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.”
    Charley
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want.
    Highlighted by 99 Kindle customers
  • Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.
    Highlighted by 86 Kindle customers
  • The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.
    Highlighted by 79 Kindle customers
  • You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit!
    Highlighted by 71 Kindle customers
  • Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.
    Highlighted by 68 Kindle customers
  • Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff—he’s not lazy.
    Highlighted by 67 Kindle customers
  • When today fails to offer the justification for hope, tomorrow becomes the only grail worth pursuing.
    Highlighted by 56 Kindle customers
  • BIFF is two years older than his brother, HAPPY, well built, but in these days bears a worn air and seems less self-assured. He has succeeded less, and his dreams are stronger and less acceptable than HAPPY’S. HAPPY is tall, powerfully made. Sexuality is like a visible color on him, or a scent that many women have discovered. He, like his brother, is lost, but in a different way, for he has never allowed himself to turn his face toward defeat and is thus more confused and hard-skinned, although seemingly more content.]
    Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers
  • His problem is that he has so completely internalized the values of his society that he judges himself by standards rooted in social myths rather than human necessities.
    Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers
  • If personal meaning, in this cheer leader society, lies in success, then failure must threaten identity itself.
    Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers
Show all 12 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • The Loman Household: Linda and Willy's home in New York City, where Biff and Happy grew up. They stay at the house when they visit. The house has just been paid off after about 30 years of payments, but as Willy notes, his things begin to break just when he finishes paying for them. The house has two stories.
  • Boston: One of the various places Wily has visited in his days as a salesman.
  • Alaska: Where Ben proposed Willy comes to work for a good salary.
  • Florida: At the beginning of the play, Willy has returned from an assignment that sent him to Florida.
  • Africa: Ben became successful entering African forests and finding diamonds.
  • Frank's Chop House: restaurant where Biff, Willy, and Happy have dinner
  • Charley's office
  • Howard's office

First Sentence edit see section history

A melody is heard, played upon a flute.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Act I
Act II
Requiem

Glossary edit see section history

  • Stage left and Stage right: The terms “stage left” and “stage right”, respectively, denote the sides of the stage that are on the actor's left and right when the actor is facing the audience.
  • elegiac: expressing sorrow or lamentation
  • gilt-edged: of the highest or best quality, kind, etc.
  • gregarious: outgoing; friendly
  • megalomania: obsession with oneself
  • mercurial: volatile; changeable
  • Regents: New York State exams, required to graduate from high school
  • requiem: the Roman Catholic Mass celebrated for the repose of the souls of the dead.
  • simonize: to shine or polish to a high sheen, esp. with wax
  • wire recorder: a primitive recording device
  • anemic: lacking power, vigor, vitality, or colorfulness; listless; weak
Show all 11 glossary entries

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • The Dangers of Modernity: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Gender Relations: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Madness: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Cult of Personality: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Nostalgia / regret: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Opportunity: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Growth: http://www.gradesaver.com/death-of-a-salesman/study-guide/major-themes/
  • Music: One motif is music. Some characters have their own music, a flute is sometimes heard playing, etc.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Arthur Miller (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Kent Paul
  2. Liza McAlister Williams

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Viking Press
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1949
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 117

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Serious topics such as contemplation of suicide here. Characters argue almost violently verbally, discuss topics not inappropriate but that children wouldn't understand such as alcohol and sex.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Wikipedia Page: Plot / Characters / Style / Productions / Film and television adaptations / Awards and nominations / References / Further reading / External links
  • SparkNotes: Death of a Salesman: Context / Plot / Overview / Character List / Analysis of Major Characters / Themes, Motifs & Symbols / Summary & Analysis / Important Quotations Explained / Key Facts / Study Questions & Essay Topics / Quiz / Suggestions for Further Reading
  • GradeSaver Study Guide: About Death of a Salesman / Character List / Glossary of Terms / Major Themes / Quotes and Analysis / Summary and Analysis / More

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Death of a Salesman
  • Cliffs Notes on Miller's Death of a Salesman
  • Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Modern Theatre Guides)

We’re hiding the errata, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

Carly McNeil

You were just viewing this book on Carly McNeil’s shelf.

 

© 2006-2013 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close