Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy—the subtitle of the play is "Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem"—set in late 1940s Brooklyn and told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a traveling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Since its premiere, the play has been revived on Broadway five times, winning a to-this-day unprecedented four Tony Awards for Best Revival. It has been adapted for the cinema ten times. In 1999, New Yorker drama critic John Lahr said that with 11 million copies sold, it was "probably the most successful modern play ever published."
Background The genesis of the play was a chance encounter between Miller and his uncle Manny Newman, a salesman, whom he met in 1947 in the lobby of a Boston theater that was playing All My Sons. Miller later recounted that when he saw Manny at the theater, "I could see the grim hotel room behind him, the long trip up from New York in his little car, the hopeless hope of the day's business." Without acknowledging Miller's greeting or congratulating him on the play, Manny said "Buddy is doing very well." Buddy was Manny's son, and Manny saw Miller and his older brother as "running neck and neck" with his two sons "in some race that never stopped in his mind." When visiting Manny as a youth, Miller felt "gangling and unhandsome" and usually heard "some kind of insinuation of my entire life's probable failure." Seeing him again in Boston, Manny seemed to the playwright to be "absurd" and "so elaborate in his fantastic inventions," that "he possessed my imagination." Manny died by suicide soon after.
Miller had been thinking about a play about a salesman for years. He also had new interest in the simultaneity of the past and present. Miller sought to "do a play without any transitions at all, dialogue that would simply leap from bone to bone of a skeleton that would not for an instant cease being added to, an organism as strictly economic as a leaf, as trim as an ant." Miller was himself the model of the young Bernard.
Plot The play takes place in 1949. The setting is the Loman home in Brooklyn, located amidst a typical row of urban apartment buildings.
Act I
Willy Loman suddenly returns home in the middle of the night, exhausted after a failed business trip to Boston. Worried over Willy's rapidly declining state of mind and a recent near-fatal car accident, his wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss, Howard, to allow him to work in his home city so he will no longer have to travel. Willy complains to Linda about their son, Biff, who is 34 years old and has yet to do something meaningful with his life. Despite Biff having a promising high school football career with many scholarship offers to prestigious universities, he failed in mathematics and was therefore unable to enter a university, and spent years drifting around the Western United States working many odd jobs with no clear goal.
Biff and his younger brother, Happy, who is temporarily staying with Willy and Linda after Biff's unexpected return from the West, reminisce about their childhood together. They discuss their father's mental degeneration, which they have witnessed in the form of his constant indecisiveness and daydreaming about the boys' high school years. Eventually, Willy walks in, angry that the two boys have never amounted to anything. In an effort to pacify their father, Biff and Happy tell him that Biff plans to make an ambitious business proposition the next day.
Act II
The next day, Willy goes to Howard's office for a non-traveling job in town while Biff goes to make a business proposition, but they both fail. Howard staunchly refuses to give Willy a New York job, despite his desperate pleas and ignoring Willy's 34 years of devotion to the company. Willy then loses his temper and ends up getting fired when Howard tells him that he needs a long rest and is no longer allowed to represent the Wagner Company. On the other hand, Biff waits hours to see a former employer named Bill Oliver, who does not remember him and turns him down. In response, the devastated Biff impulsively steals a fountain pen. Willy then goes to the business office of his neighbor Charley, where he runs into Charley's son Bernard, whom Willy used to arrogantly dismiss as an "anemic" loser back when Willy's sons were in high school. Bernard is now a wealthy and successful lawyer about to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, and is happily married with two children of his own. Bernard tells him that Biff originally intended to go to summer school to make up for failing math, but something happened in Boston when Biff went to visit his father that changed his mind. Charley then offers Willy a stable do-nothing job, but Willy vehemently refuses despite having just lost his job. Charley, who feels insulted, reluctantly gives the now-unemployed Willy money to pay off his life-insurance premium, and Willy shocks him by remarking that, ultimately, a man is "worth more dead than alive."
Happy, Biff, and Willy meet for dinner at a restaurant called Frank's Chop House, but Willy refuses to hear the bad news from Biff and constantly interrupts. Happy tries to coax Biff to lie to their father. Biff angrily tries to tell him what actually happened as Willy gets frustrated, withdraws to the restaurant's bathroom, and slips into a flashback of what happened in Boston the day Biff came to see him: Biff had come to Boston to ask Willy to convince his teacher to curve his failing math grade so he could graduate. However, Willy was in the middle of an extramarital affair with a receptionist named Miss Francis when Biff arrived unexpectedly, and saw the half-dressed woman with him. Biff did not accept his father's cover-up story for her presence, and angrily dismissed him as a liar and a fake before storming out. From that moment, Biff's views of his father changed and set him adrift.
Biff leaves the restaurant in frustration, followed by Happy, flanked by a pair of attractive women named Miss Forsythe and Letta, leaving a confused and devastated Willy behind. When they later return home, Linda scolds them for abandoning their father, while Willy remains outside talking to himself. Biff tries to reconcile with Willy, but the discussion quickly escalates into a heated argument. Biff conveys plainly to his father that he is not meant for anything great, insisting that both of them are simply ordinary, mediocre men meant to lead ordinary lives. The argument reaches an apparent climax as Biff hugs Willy and begins to cry as he pleads for Willy to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Rather than listen to what Biff actually says, Willy appears to believe his son has forgiven him and will follow in his footsteps, and after Linda goes upstairs to bed, lapses one final time into a hallucination, thinking he is talking to his long-dead estranged wealthy brother Ben. In Willy's mind, Ben "approves" of the scheme Willy has dreamed up to take his own life in order to give Biff his life insurance money to help him start a business, that his funeral will be well attended with all his admirers, and that this will leave Biff feeling "thunderstruck". Willy then promptly exits the house, and Biff and Linda cry out in despair as the sound of Willy's car blares up and fades out. The car crashes, and Willy is killed instantly.
The final scene takes place at Willy's funeral. Linda and Happy stand in surprise after Willy's funeral is sparsely attended only by his family, Charley, and Bernard, who does not speak during the scene. Biff upholds his belief that he is no longer interested in becoming a businessman like his father and decides to go back West. Happy, on the other hand, chooses to follow in his father's footsteps. Linda, who has finally paid off the family’s last debts with the life insurance payout, begins to sob, repeating "We're free..." All exit, and the curtain falls.
Characters and cast
Notable casts Character Broadway Broadway Revival Royal Shakespeare Broadway Revival Broadway Revival Broadway Revival Broadway Revival Broadway Revival19491975198019841999201220222026Willy LomanLee J. CobbGeorge C. ScottBob PeckDustin HoffmanBrian DennehyPhilip Seymour HoffmanWendell PierceNathan LaneLinda Loman Mildred DunnockTeresa WrightFrancesca AnnisKate ReidElizabeth FranzLinda EmondSharon D. ClarkeLaurie MetcalfBiff LomanArthur KennedyJames FarentinoMichael MaloneyJohn MalkovichKevin AndersonAndrew GarfieldKhris DavisChristopher Abbott Happy LomanCameron Mitchell Harvey Keitel Paul Greenwood Stephen Lang Ted Koch Finn Wittrock McKinley Belcher IIIBen Ahlers Uncle Ben Thomas Calmers Jack Somack Peter Guiness Steve Pickering Louis Zorich John Glover André De ShieldsJonathan Cake Bernard Joe Maross Lewis J. Stadlen Shaun Scott David Chandler Richard Thompson Fran Kranz Stephen StockingMichael B. Washington Charley Howard Smith James Greene Paul Moriarty Charles Durning Howard Witt Bill Camp Delaney WilliamsK. Todd Freeman The Woman Naomi Stevens Rhian Cardiosa Helen MirrenKathryn Rossetter Kate Buddeke Molly Price Lynn Hawley Tasha Lawrence
William "Willy" Loman: The salesman in the play's title. His product is never disclosed. He is 63 years old, insecure, and self-deluded believing himself to be highly successful and well respected even though he is actually a mediocre salesman who can barely make ends meet. He vacillates between different eras of his life throughout the play, and re-imagines them in the present. Willy's age and deteriorating mental state make him appear childlike. Linda Loman: Willy's loyal, loving wife. She listens patiently when Willy talks unrealistically about hopes for the future, although she seems to have a good knowledge of what is really going on. She chides her sons, particularly Biff, for not helping their father, and supports her husband, even though he treats her poorly. She is the first to realize that Willy is contemplating suicide. Biff Loman: Willy's elder son. Biff had a promising high school football career but failed math his senior year and dropped out of summer school when he saw Willy having an affair with another woman. He wavers between going home to try to fulfill Willy's dream for him as a businessman or ignoring his father by going West to be a farmhand where he feels happy. Biff steals because he wants evidence of success, even if it is false evidence. Harold "Happy" Loman: Willy's younger son. He has lived in the shadow of his older brother Biff, but he still tries to be supportive toward his family. He has a restless lifestyle as a womanizer and ambitions of career advancement. He takes bribes at work. He yearns for approval from his parents, but rarely gets it. His relationship with Linda is turbulent; she looks down on him for his lifestyle. Charley: Willy's wisecracking yet kind neighbor. He frequently lends Willy money and plays cards with him, although Willy treats him poorly. Willy is envious of him because his son is more successful than Willy's and because Charley has his own business. Throughout the play Charley offers Willy a stable do-nothing job, but Willy declines every time, even after losing his job. Bernard: Charley's son. In Willy's flashbacks, he is a stereotypical nerd. Willy forces him to give Biff test answers and sees him as an "anemic" loser compared to Biff. Later, he is a wealthy and successful lawyer who is happily married and expecting a second son – the same successes that Willy wants for his sons.
Themes Reality and illusion