death of a salesman

setting: An old house in Brooklyn surrounded by dead grass and apartment buildings. The ground isn't fertile and nothing grows, like a dystopian Garden of Eden. The importance of the Big Apple as the setting is summed up in the saying, "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" from the theme of Scorsese's New York, New York (I prefer Sinatra to Liza Minnelli, shoot me). It's the city of dreams and opportunity and represents all of America and all that jazz.

plot: It's springtime and Biff returns home once again, taking a break from the riveting life of a drifter. We learn that he and his father, Willy, do not get along well when Willy is yelling about how Biff isn't making anything of his life. Biff and his brother Happy are in their old room reminiscing about their childhoods and their sexcapades, which shows us that their family used to be much happier. Willy's only friend Charley is introduced when he comes over to check on Willy during one of his freakouts. He guises his concern very well so as not to hurt Willy's pride, and they play cards. This is where Willy's brother and sort-of confidant Ben is introduced when Willy hallucinates that Ben is in the room and begins talking with him. Happy and Biff learn some of the causes and the severity of Willy's instability: he is not succeeding at his firm and he plans to kill himself. Biff vows to stay home to work in business to make his father happy, and departs the next morning trying to secure a business deal. Biff, Happy and Willy all meet at a restaurant that evening. Biff's business endeavors failed and Willy was fired from his job. Willy starts hallucinating, and here we see that Biff and Willy are at ends because Biff found Willy with another woman, giving her Linda's stockings. Biff and Happy leave the hallucinating Willy at the restaurant. Later that night, Biff confronts Willy about his suicide plans and begs him to forget his dreams for Biff's success before anything happens. He cries on Willy. Willy is ecstatic that Biff doesn't hate him but totally missed the point of the conversation and he kills himself to get insurance money for Biff and Happy to go into business. Ramble ramble ramble.

characters:
Willy Loman: 63yo salesman with nothing to show for it. His denial of his shortcomings and wrongdoings drive him insane (and ultimately to suicide) and destroy his relationship with his son. He values external validation and encourages his kids to steal and flunk math, as long as they're well-liked. He cheated on his wife, though I can't decide if it was a power play in the business world or if it was due to his obsession with being liked. This affair is what causes Biff to destroy his life.

Linda Loman: Willy's wife. She loves Willy more than she loves her sons, despite his lack of respect for her, and would do anything she can to keep him stable. She acts as his codependent, sheltering him from the truth and allowing him to live a lie, furthering his descent into insanity.

Charley: Willy's only friend. He helps Willy out in times of need by lending him money and checking on his sanity. He offers Willy a well-paid job, which Willy refuses. He also picks up on Willy's hints of suicidal thoughts, and tells him "Nobody's worth nothing dead." His actions do not enable Willy's self-destruction, however. He confronts Willy when he's being irrational, telling him to grow up and calling him out for his pride.

Biff Loman: Drifter and criminal. He hates his father intensely for disrespecting and cheating on Linda, but seems to forgive him more-or-less when he learns of Willy's suicide attempts. Biff's time in the West allowed him to unlearn all the bad things Willy taught him. He sees that Willy had the wrong dream: chasing success, instead of doing what he loved.

Hap Loman: Womanizer. Everybody in the family ignores him, but everybody outside of the family seems to pay attention to him; he sleeps with executives' wives and girlfriends and whatnot. Conversely, Willy is the center of attention in his own household but ignored in the business world. He wants to succeed in New York to validate Willy's dream and to stick it to the snobby executives that he works under that he can outbox and outrun and outperform.

Bernard: Charley's son. He's a sort of foil for the Lomans: he shows that hard work leads to success and external validation isn't necessary. He always tried to get Biff to behave and work hard in school. Biff didn't and failed at life, while Bernard went on to become a successful lawyer. He doesn't need external validation: he doesn't even mention that he's seeing a case at the Supreme Court when talking to Willy. As Charley says, "He don't have to, he's gonna do it."

style:
It's a play, so that takes care of point of view and imagery. It's got a bunch of symbols so I'll just name a few. The stockings represent success, because of that stuff about silk being really expensive. They also represent infidelity; Willy gave his ladyfriend some socks, and Willy always gets ornery when Linda is mending socks. He's trying to hide his shame and repress his infidelity. Biff's age, 34, is symbolic, because Jesus died at 33. Too late to be reborn or whatever. The seeds and the failed garden serve to show that reality sucks. The Garden of Eden isn't real, and Willy is unable to nurture anything in it. His inability to raise a garden is like his inability to properly raise his sons, etc etc. Miller's tone throughout the piece is both angry and piteous. There's a lot of yelling and fury and anger and a harbor grudge and all that sort of thing. At the same time, everyone feels bad for Willy because his life has been a total failure (or at least, he doesn't see how he succeeded).

theme: uhh there are a bunch of these. One theme is honesty. Throughout the work, the Loman family tells lie after lie. Biff says, "We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house," to which Happy appropriately responds, "We always told the truth!" Biff steals a lot, Happy sleeps with wives and girlfriends, Willy had his affair, and more abstractly, Willy lies to himself. He's in denial about his lack of business success and about his affair. He convinces himself that Biff gave up his life to spite him and refuses to acknowledge that he messed up.

and another quote, for good measure:
"When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle. When I was twenty one I walked out, and by God, I was rich!" This quote from Ben shows that the American Dream, as interpreted by Willy, does not include working hard in its formula for success. Ben simply walked into the jungle, and simply walked out rich. Having to work for your wealth devalues it, in a sense.