Moreover, the company has taken away his salary so that he works on a straight commission. Recently, his sales rate has declined as his old costumes are either dying or retiring. Willy, who is now sixty-three years old, has been working as a traveling salesman for more than thirty years.
Willy Loman, after having set out on a sales trip to Portland, Maine that morning, returns to his Brooklyn home very late at night since he continually drove his car off the side of the road. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Summary And in the end, Willy commits suicide, realizing his so little accomplishments in his life. But, due to a miserable financial status, he couldn’t secure a loan for his son to start his own business. He, as a salesman, is subject to the impulses of the flea market and thinks that it is this job that can only rise him in the world of business. He craves his brother’s prosperity and endeavors for a flawless life, nonetheless, he frequently is unsuccessful to accomplish his dreams. Other than the American Dream, Willy Loman desires nothing. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller reconnoiters subjects of money, death and the loss of individuality. Initially the play was titled as The inside of His Head, however, later he appears dissatisfied with the title and conferred the second title of the play i.e., Death of a Salesman. We, from the 1 st title, get a deep intuition into the psychosomatic temperament of the central character who is a salesman. The play is awarded various honors and awards that also includes the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Death of a Salesman Characters Analysisĭeath of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is written in 1949, is a modern tragedy and is considered both the masterpiece of the playwright and foundation of modern American drama.Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Summary.Hope… so crucial, but it can’t be idolized. That’s why Bernard’s hope proves useful and Willy’s hope vanishes. That’s like holding tickets to the Super Bowl on a silver platter and showing them off to your friends and letting them get blown away with the wind or letting the date slip by before they can actually be made to good use, instead of keeping those tickets in a safe place and knowing where they are with utmost certainty when the time comes to use them. Willy’s hope is the kind that is worn around on sneakers getting dust all over it. Bernard can deal with a bit of intangibleness today because he knows he’s working hard for what he can get and touch tomorrow. That’s why Willy turns to adultery when his hope doesn’t get any closer: he needs tangibility. It’s just a possibility sitting in some indefinite future. Biff’s hope, like his fathers, was a distraction – Willy’s hope is the centerpiece: it leads to dreams and big talk and all kinds of exciting feelings. That’s why he didn’t flunk math and Biff did. It’s like his background motivator that accelerates him towards his goal. He hopes for a great future, but the way he uses his hope shoves it outside the spotlight. He fully knows about the future and thinks about it: that’s why he’s so motivated to work in the now. Is Bernard truly without hope? I think not. Bernard’s apparent lack of hope allows him to work towards the ideal future.
Hope: good or bad? Willy’s hope in a future distracts him. He talks about the future and revels in it, but Bernard seems to be too washed up in the cares of now to actually think about the future. Willy possesses more obvious hope than Bernard. Moreover, he knows when those around them are slipping and losing that precious grasp that can give them the hope of a future. He knows when to buckle down and focus on the task at hand so that he can build the future he wants. However, he is optimistic to the point that he forgets that there might be work and focus needed, even though he is more than willing to perform.īernard has a dream and he sees the importance of working towards it. His vision of a brighter future is what motivates him and compels him to action. He desires great things for himself and his family. Willy Lowman would do anything he could to get the future he wants. Specifically, in “Death of a Salesman,” we see almost all of the characters with some sort of idea of the future, a brighter future. The one common ground I can draw from all these views of hope is a certain vision of the future. Hope can be a dream, it can be the promise of improvement, or even something akin to trust. It can be a sense of optimism, well grounded or blind.
What is hope? It can be a longing, a desire. But no matter what the scale, hope is something peculiar that all people have in common. We all hope in something, don’t we? Or at least we all have some sort of hope FOR something, even if it’s as basic as our next meal.