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105 Death of a Salesman Essay Topics & Examples

Death of a Salesman is Arthur Miller’s multiple award-winning stage play that explores such ideas as American Dream and family. Our writers have prepared a list of topics and tips on writing the Death of a Salesman thesis statement, essay, or literary analysis.

119 Death of a Salesman Essay Topics

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The American Dream in Death of a Salesman
The Failure of American Dream in Death of a Salesman
Reality vs. Illusions: Death of a Salesman Analysis Essay
Symbolism in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman: Character Analysis
Death of a Salesman as a Social Drama
Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman: Character Analysis
The Representation of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman Living in a society where each person can achieve success and respect regardless of their origin, gender, or race was a general idea of the American Dream at the beginning of the 20th century. However, the American Dream is slowly fading and becoming more of an illusion after the Depression…
Death of a Salesman: Imagery & Sumbolism The Death of a Salesman was a tale of broken dreams, aspirations of the characters and unfulfilled promises. The Loman family is portrayed in the play as a dysfunctional family, each member with his or her issues.
Death of a Salesman: Critical Analysis In “Death of a Salesman” setting performs a task of great importance: the melody, the sound of flute, that is the initial element of the setting, speaks about something light and pleasant
“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller Seeds can be discussed as the most intriguing image presented in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” because seeds symbolize the hope of the main character Willy for the best future.
American Family in Death of a Salesman The main difference between the movie and the play is emotional representation of the characters and their actions.
Themes in Death of a Salesman: Research Paper This paper discusses a depressing story of illusions – 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller – and describes its main characters.
Symbolism in “Death of a Salesman” Play by Arthur Miller The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller is a story of a salesman, Willy, who is trapped by his daydreams.
The Last Scene of Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” The paper analyzes the scene the is at the last of Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman”, beginning about line 780 in Act II and continuing to the end of the play.
Similarities and Contrasts between “Fences” and “Death of a Salesman” Both plays are works that question the right of the average American to be a tragic hero. The central conflict of both works is consistent with the laws of tragedy
Social & Personal Values in Death of a Salesman Stylistic devices and unique vision of economic development help Miller to unveil social changes and new traditions influenced by new culture.
Willy Loman and His American Dream: Essay on Death of a Salesman In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, we see a devastating portrait of a man, Willy Loman, consumed by the wrong dream.
Willy & Linda: Family as a Theme in Death of a Salesman Miller creates contrasting characters of Willy and his wife Linda in order to depict and demonstrate different social and personal values typical for his age.
The Downfall of Willy Loman in the “Death of a Salesman” In the play “Death of a Salesman”, Arthur Miller manages to masterfully show how dreams, combined with pride and stubbornness, are able to destroy a person’s life.
Death of a Salesman Psychoanalitic Analysis Psychological problems and communication difficulties prevent the Loman’s from happy life and lead to breakdown of values, personal principles and family life.
Willy Loman’s Character in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller In his play the Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller narrates a story of Willy Loman’s desperate searching for happiness and recognition.
Death of a Salesman: Plot Analysis The events of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman take place in 1949, four years after the Second World War has come to an end.
American Reality vs. American Dream: Death of a Salesman Theme Analysis Arthur Miller dramatizes not only the disappointments of a little man in America but he focuses readers’ attention on the gap between the American dream and the American reality.
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in the Context of Modern Human Resource Fundamentals Since its first play in 1949, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is still recognized as one of the greatest dramatic pieces of the 20th century.
Miller’s Death of a Salesman: Thematic Analysis Death of a Salesman is a 1949 chef-d’oeuvre stage play by Arthur Miller, which addresses various issues that were affecting American society at the time.
Protagonist in Death of a Salesman: Character Analysis In Death of a Salesman, Miller depicts a contradiction between industrial society and personal values, false dreams, and inability to understand and find his place in this society.
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”: The Theme of the Small Man in the Play In the Death of a Salesman, the author – Arthur Miller – uses characters, plot and structure, and dialogues to advance the theme of a small man and the ruination of his illusions.
Death of a Salesman: Literary Analysis Essay A literary analysis of Arthur Miller’s "Death of a Salesman," as to draw out its theme, plot, structure, character, and setting proves that the literary merit of the play is astonishingly great.
The Comprehension of the American Dream in “Death of a Salesman” This play is a perfect example of a typical story of people attempting to define their American Dream and follow it through the struggling, yet those attempts are not successful.
Money & Wealth in Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” is, to me, all about the dangers of defining happiness in terms of financial success.
Women in Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman: Compare & Contrast Essay The leading females in Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman are submissive characters who are unable to avert the imminent tragedies of the dominant protagonists in both plays.
Willy Loman Death of a Salesman: Character Analysis Miller’s “The Death of a Salesman” vividly portrays a life of a middle-class salesman who tries to achieve the American dream and realize his life hopes.
Tragic Hero in A Death of a Salesman The Death of a Salesman is play written by Arthur Miller that touches upon the analysis of the downfall of an ordinary man.
Willy Loman as a Protagonist in Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller, the author of Death of a Salesman, is a well-known American playwright of the twentieth century. The play won him international fame and came to be counted by as a real achievement.
The Character Study of Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” Miller’s Death of a Salesman is iconic and representative since it takes place during a time of national catastrophe, the Great Depression.
Success in Death of a Salesman There are two types of people: those who do all they can to achieve some success, who work hard and at last achieve success.
Heroes and Cowards in “Oedipus Rex” and “Death of a Salesman” In the two plays, “Oedipus Rex” and “Death of a Salesman” there are many parallels. One major parallel is courage and cowardice.
Material Success and Failure in Miller’s Play “Death of a Salesman” The impossibility of gaining material success in Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” is transmitted through a variety of symbols.
“The Death of a Salesman” Film by John Malkovich John Malkovich’s film “The Death of a Salesman” is an adaptation of the 1949 play by Arthur Miller, which was also staged many times in the US, London, Berlin, and Bombay.
Symbolic Character in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller demonstrates the struggle of a man in an attempt to reach success in life.
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” Play Analysis The play “Death of Salesman” by Miller is a truly unique and valuable piece of art. It can be recommended to become familiar with this composition for both youth and adults.
“Death of a Salesman”: The American Dream by Arthur Miller Even though many readers consider the American Dream as one of the core ideas in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, there is always a chance to find some new interpretation.
Death of a Salesman: Book Review “The American Dream” is the highlight of this story. However, it can be learned from the story that the most meaningful way to achieving the American dream” is by climbing the ladder.
Death of a Salesman: the Theme of a Small Man in a Big City This research paper is designed to analyze the literary work of Death of a Salesman from the point of view of a small man in the big city.
“Death of a Salesman” Dramatic Tragedy by Arthur Miller The genre of dramatic tragedy is revealed comprehensively in the play “Death of a Salesman” written by Miller.
“Death of a Salesman,” Misinterpreting the Concept of the American Dream The American dream consists in altruism and spiritual values, rather than material welfare as such. In other words, it is more about spiritual prosperity.
Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “The Death of a Salesman” This paper discusses the character of Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s “The Death of a Salesman” – one of the essential tragedies in American literature.
“The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller Overview Arthur Miller defies the American dream mythology in “The demise of a salesman.” He invented the salesman character for the audience to connect with him without a recognized product.
Plot and Characters in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” In the play, “Death of a Salesman” Miller says that the latest boom in real estate is one of the testimonies of the success of the American businesses.
Death of American Dream in Death of a Salesman Using a dramatic point of view, Miller creates a theme loosing hopes and tragedy as a result of false ideals and inability to achieve the American dream.
Death of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman Miller’s play Death of a Salesman depicts the American dream and the inability of a person to understand the meaning of life and family happiness.
Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and the American Dream The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller is a prominent and well-known work with vivid and deep characters, and each of them had one’s own story.
Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” by A. Miller “Death of a Salesman” is one of the brightest works of Arthur Miller, and the problems enlightened in it remain actual long after the work was first published.
Seeing Inside Willy’s Head in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
The Loman Father and Sons in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Symbols and Journey Used in Ellison’s Book Invisible Man and Miller’s Death of a Salesman
The Selfish Linda Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
The Tragic Hero, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Dead End Dream in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Sympathy for Willy Loman – Death of a Salesman
Hardships, Family Relationships, Insanity and Death in Two Renowned Dramas Fences by Wilson and Death of a Salesman by Miller
The Conflicted Linda Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Characters Willy and Biff Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Contrasting Biff and Bernard in Death of a Salesman
American Values and Success in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Would Aristotle Label Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman as a Tragedy
Comparing Willy Loman From Death of a Salesman and Joe Keller From All My Sons
The Positive and Negative Personalities of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Seeking the American Dream Of Success as Presented in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
America’s Preoccupation With Materialism After World War II in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Comparing Light and Growth in a Raisin in the Sun and Death of a Salesman
Marxism and the Fall of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman
The Crucible and Death of a Salesman: Search for Happiness
Achieving the American Dream in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Chasing the American Dream in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Comparing Father and Child Relationships in Death of a Salesman
Father and Son Relationship Between Willy and Biff Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Good Looking and Popularity in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller’s Play, Death of a Salesman: How Willy Loman Was Killed by Change
Father and Son Willy and Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
How Women Are Portrayed in Death of a Salesman
How Does Miller Use the Father-Son Relationships to Question the Values of 1940’s America in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Perfect Wrong Dreams in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller Based the Death of a Salesman in the Pursuit of the American Dream
Structure, Themes, and Motifs in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
The Conflicted Linda Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman
The Reality for Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Willie Loman’s Corrupted View of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman
Willy’s Tragic Flaw and the Effect It Has Upon His Sons-Death of a Salesman
The Struggles Regarding Life Fulfillment Leading the Characters of “A Death of a Salesman” to Death
The Secret Between Biff and Willy in Death of a Salesman, a Play by Arthur Miller
Protagonists Looking for Happiness in “Death of a Salesman”
Is “Death of a Salesman” a Tragedy According to Aristotle?
Why Do Some Individuals Consider “Death of a Salesman” a Tragedy Instead of a Drama?
What Kind of Play Is “Death of a Salesman” and Why?
Why Is the Title “Death of a Salesman” Ironic?
How Is the Conflict in “Death of a Salesman” Resolved?
How Does “Death of a Salesman” Relate to the Real World?
What Is the Significance of the Title “Death of a Salesman”?
How Is Foreshadowing Used in “Death of a Salesman”?
What Is the Main Conflict in “Death of a Salesman”?
Does Modernity Play a Major Role in the Play “Death of a Salesman”?
What Is the Moral Lesson of the Story “Death of a Salesman”?
How Is the American Dream Represented in “Death of a Salesman”?
What Was the Original Name of “Death of a Salesman”?
Is “Death of a Salesman” Relevant Today?
What Techniques Does Arthur Miller Use to Highlight the Conflict Between Past and Present in “Death of a Salesman”?
Who Is the Tragic Villain in “Death of a Salesman”?
How Is Language Used in “Death of a Salesman”?
Is “Death of a Salesman” Realism or Expressionism?
Who Are the Main Characters in “Death of a Salesman”?
What Conventions Does Miller Use in “Death of a Salesman”?
How Does “Death of a Salesman” Link to Tragedy?
Are the Two Plays by Arthur Miller “The Crucible” and “Death of a Salesman” Similar?
Why Is “Death of a Salesman” Considered a Social Drama?
How Does Arthur Miller Define a Tragic Hero in “Death of a Salesman”?
Who Is the Best Character in the Story “Death of a Salesman”?

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These essay examples and topics on Death of a Salesman were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

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A Summary and Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Death of a Salesman is that rare thing: a modern play that is both a classic, and a tragedy. Many of the great plays of the twentieth century are comedies, social problem plays, or a combination of the two. Few are tragedies centred on one character who, in a sense, recalls the theatrical tradition that gave us Oedipus, King Lear, and Hamlet.

But how did Miller come to write a modern tragedy? What is Death of a Salesman about, and how should we analyse it? Before we come to these questions, it might be worth briefly recapping the plot of what is, in fact, a fairly simple story.

Death of a Salesman : summary

The salesman of the title is Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is in his early sixties. He works on commission, so if he doesn’t make a sale, he doesn’t get paid. His job involves driving thousands of miles around the United States every year, trying to sell enough to put food on his family’s table. He wants to get a desk job so he doesn’t have to travel around any more: at 62 years of age, he is tired and worn out.

He is married to Linda. Their son, Biff, is in his thirties and usually unemployed, drifting from one temporary job to another, much to Willy’s displeasure. Willy’s younger son, Happy, has a steady job along and his own home, and is therefore a success by Willy’s standards.

However, Happy, despite his name, isn’t happy with the life he has, and would quite like to give up his job and go and work on a ranch out West. Willy, meanwhile, is similarly dreaming, but in his case of the past, rather than the future: he thinks back to when Biff and Happy were small children and Willy was a success as a salesman.

The Lomans’ neighbour, Charley, offers Willy a job to help make ends meet, but Willy starts to reminisce about his recently deceased brother, Uncle Ben, who was an adventurer (and young Willy’s hero). Linda tells her sons to pay their father some respect, even though he isn’t himself a ‘great man’.

It emerges that Willy has been claiming to work as a salesman but has lately been borrowing money as he can’t actually find work. His plan is to take his own life so his family will receive life insurance money and he will be able, with his death, to do what he cannot do for them while alive: provide for them. Biff agrees reluctantly to go back to his former boss and ask for a job so he can contribute to the family housekeeping.

Meanwhile, Willy asks his boss, Howard, for his desk job and an advance on his next pay packet, but Howard sacks Willy. Willy then goes to Charley and asks for a loan. That night, at dinner, Willy and Biff argue (Biff failed to get his own former job back when his old boss didn’t even recognise him), and it turns out that Biff once walked in on his father with another woman.

Willy goes home, plants some seeds, and then – hearing his brother Ben calling for him to join him – he drives off and kills himself. At his funeral, only the family are present, despite Willy’s prediction that his funeral would be a big affair.

Death of a Salesman : analysis

Miller’s family had been relatively prosperous during the playwright’s childhood, but during the Great Depression of the 1930s, as with many other families, their economic situation became very precarious. This experience had a profound impact on Miller’s political standpoint, and this can be seen in much of his work for the theatre.

Death of a Salesman represented a decisive change of direction for the young playwright. His previous success as a playwright, All My Sons , was a social drama heavily influenced by Henrik Ibsen, but with his next play, Miller wished to attempt something new. The mixture of hard-hitting social realism and dreamlike sequences make Death of a Salesman an innovative and bold break with previous theatre, both by Miller and more widely.

In his essay ‘ Tragedy and the Common Man ’ (1949), which Miller wrote to justify his artistic decision to make an ordinary American man the subject of a theatrical tragedy, Miller argued that the modern world has grown increasingly sceptical, and is less inclined to believe in the idea of heroes.

As a result, they don’t see how tragedy, with its tragic hero, can be relevant to the modern world. Miller argues, on the contrary, that the world is full of heroes. A hero is anybody who is willing to lay down his life in order to secure his ‘sense of personal dignity’. It doesn’t matter what your social status or background is.

Death of a Salesman is an example of this ethos: Loman, who cheated on his wife and lied to his family about his lack of work and his reliance on friends who lent him money, makes his last gesture a tragic but selfless act, which will ensure his family have money to survive when he is gone.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Miller is somehow endorsing the hero’s final and decisive act. The emphasis should always be on the word ‘tragedy’: Loman’s death is a tragedy brought about partly by his own actions, but also by the desperate straits that he is plunged into through the harsh and unforgiving world of sales, where once he is unable to earn money, he needs some other means of acquiring it so he can put food on the table for his family.

But contrary to what we might expect, there is something positive and even affirmative about tragedy, as Arthur Miller views the art form.

For Miller, in ‘Tragedy and the Common Man’, theatrical tragedy is driven by ‘Man’s total compunction to evaluate himself justly’. In the process of doing this, and attaining his dignity, the tragic hero often loses his life, but there is something affirmative about the events leading up to this final act, because the audience will be driven to evaluate what is wrong with society that it could destroy a man – a man willing to take a moral stand and evaluate himself justly – in the way that it has.

Does Willy Loman deserve to be pushed to take his own life just so his family can pay the bills? No, so there must be something within society that is at fault. Capitalism’s dog-eat-dog attitude is at least partly responsible, since it leads weary and worn-out men like Willy to dream of paying off their mortgage and having enough money, while simultaneously making the achievement of that task as difficult as possible. When a younger and better salesman comes along, men like Willy are almost always doomed.

But by placing this in front of the audience and dramatising it for them, Miller invites his audience to question the wrongs within modern American society. Thus people will gain a greater understanding of what is wrong with society, and will be able to improve it. The hero’s death is individually tragic but collectively offers society hope.

So it may be counter-intuitive to describe a tragedy like Death of a Salesman as ‘optimistic’, but in a sense, this is exactly what it is. Miller takes the classical idea of the tragic flaw, what Aristotle had called the hamartia , and updates this for a modern audience, too: the hero’s tragic flaw is redefined as the hero’s inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity and rightful status in society.

There is something noble in his flaw, even though it will lead to his own destruction. So really, the flaw is not within the individual or hero as much as in society itself.

A key context for Death of a Salesman , like many great works of American literature from the early to mid-twentieth century, is the American Dream: that notion that the United States is a land of opportunity where anyone can make a success of their life and wind up stinking rich. Miller’s weaving of dream sequences in amongst the sordid and unsatisfactory reality of the Lomans’ lives deftly contrasts the American dream with the American reality.

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2 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman”

This is a very insightful and convincing appreciation. What it misses is any idea that Miller’s being Jewish may have had a hand in helping him to see why the American dream and its popularity-cult needed to be criticized. The word “cult” in “populairty-cult” says it all, because “The Death of a Saleman” is at its core a play about idolatry, the Ol,d Testament theme against which its prophets railed the most.

Willy is portrayed as an idol-worshipper, whereas his friend, Charely, and Charley’s son, Bernard, are both seen as devotees of the “true” God, in whose religion the human being is always endowed with dignity and always seen as an end in himself, never as a means to some other end. The play, in fact, asks a very Jewish question. If the true God and the false god both require sacrifice, how can you ever know which is which? And its tragedy supplies us with Miller’s answer: those who worship idols discover in the end that THEY are the sacrifice!

Miller, like Philip Roth later on, was a Jewish-American inheritor of the Old Testament’s prophetic tradition, a tradition in which Amos, Isaiah, Jeremia en Ezekiel continually used their verbal art to expose Israel’s stinking moral corruption, foreseeing nothing but doom if it continued in irs idolatrous ways. Change ancient Israel to America, change the average Israelite of that time to Willy Loman now: both wind up destroying themsevles for the very same reason: with all the good will in they world, they have no self-knowledge and spend their whole lives worshipping a false god, deluded in the belief that they are worshipping the true one.

Their mistake in both cases only becomes apparent when it is time to offer the sacrifice, but by then, of course, it is always too late!

Perfect analysis, particularly when viewed in regards to recent events, involving American involvement with Israel dogma

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 30, 2020 • ( 0 )

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is, perhaps, to this time, the most mature example of a myth of Contemporary life. The chief value of this drama is its attempt to reveal those ultimate meanings which are resident in modern experience. Perhaps the most significant comment on this play is not its literary achievement, as such, but is, rather, the impact which it has had on spectators, both in America and abroad. The influence of this drama, first performed in 1949, continues to grow in World Theatre. For it articulates, in language which can be appreciated by popular audiences, certain new dimensions of the human dilemma.

—Esther Merle Jackson, “ Death of a Salesman : Tragic Myth in the Modern Theatre”

It can be argued that the Great American Novel—that always elusive imaginative summation of the American experience—became the Great American Drama in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman . Along with Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night , Miller’s masterpiece forms the defining myth of the American family and the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the play’s only rival in American literature in expressing the tragic side of the American myth of success and the ill-fated American dreamers. A landmark and cornerstone 20th-century drama, Death of a Salesman is crucial in the history of American theater in presenting on stage an archetypal family drama that is simultaneously intimate and representative, social and psychological, realistic and expressionistic. Critic Lois Gordon has called it “the major American drama of the 1940s” that “remains unequalled in its brilliant and original fusion of realistic and poetic techniques, its richness of visual and verbal texture, and its wide range of emotional impact.” Miller’s play, perhaps more than any other, established American drama as the decisive arena for addressing the key questions of American identity and social and moral values, while pioneering methods of expression that liberated American theater. The drama about the life and death of salesman Willy Loman is both thoroughly local in capturing a particular time and place and universal, one of the most popular and adapted American plays worldwide. Willy Loman has become the contemporary Everyman, prompting widespread identification and sympathy. By centering his tragedy on a lower middle-class protagonist—insisting, as he argued in “Tragedy and the Common Man,” that “the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were”—Miller completed the democratization of drama that had begun in the 19th century while setting the terms for a key debate over dramatic genres that has persisted since Death of a Salesman opened in 1949.

Miller’s subjects, themes, and dramatic mission reflect his life experiences, informed by the Great Depression, which he regarded as a “moral catastrophe,” rivaled, in his view, only by the Civil War in its profound impact on American life. Miller was born in 1915, in New York City. His father, who had emigrated from Austria at the age of six, was a successful coat manufacturer, prosperous enough to afford a chauffeur and a large apartment over-looking Central Park. For Miller’s family, an embodiment of the American dream that hard work and drive are rewarded, the stock market crash of 1929 changed everything. The business was lost, and the family was forced to move to considerably reduced circumstances in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn in a small frame house that served as the model for the Lomans’ residence. Miller’s father never fully recovered from his business failure, and his mother was often depressed and embittered by the family’s poverty, though both continued to live in hope of an economic recovery to come. For Miller the depression exposed the hollowness and fragility of the American dream of material success and the social injustice inherent in an economic system that created so many blameless casualties. The paradoxes of American success—its stimulation of both dreams and guilt when lost or unrealized, as well as the conflict it created between self-interest and social responsibility—would become dominant themes in Miller’s work. As a high school student Miller was more interested in sports than studies. “Until the age of seventeen I can safely say that I never read a book weightier than Tom Swift , and Rover Boys, ” Miller recalled, “and only verged on literature with some of Dickens. . . . I passed through the public school system unscathed.” After graduating from high school in 1932 Miller went to work in an auto parts warehouse in Manhattan. It was during his subway commute to and from his job that Miller began reading, discovering both the power of serious literature to change the way one sees the world and his vocation: “A book that changed my life was The Brothers Karamazov which I picked up, I don’t know how or why, and all at once believed I was born to be a writer.”

In 1934 Miller was accepted as a journalism student at the University of Michigan. There he found a campus engaged by the social issues of the day: “The place was full of speeches, meetings and leaflets. It was jumping with Issues. . . . It was, in short, the testing ground for all my prejudices, my beliefs and my ignorance, and it helped to lay out the boundaries of my life.” At Michigan Miller wrote his first play, despite having seen only two plays years before, to compete for prize money he needed for tuition. Failing in his first attempt he would eventually twice win the Avery Hopwood Award. Winning “made me confident I could go ahead from there. It left me with the belief that the ability to write plays is born into one, and that it is a kind of sport of the mind.” Miller became convinced that “with the exception of a doctor saving a life, writing a worthy play was the most important thing a human could do.” He would embrace the role of the playwright as social conscience and reformer who could help change America, by, as he put it “grabbing people and shaking them by the back of the neck.” Two years after graduating in 1938, having moved back to Brooklyn and married his college sweetheart, Miller had completed six plays, all but one of them rejected by producers. The Man Who Had All the Luck, a play examining the ambiguities of success and the money ethic, managed a run of only four performances on Broadway in 1944. Miller went to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, tried his hand at radio scripts, and attempted one more play. “I laid myself a wager,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I would hold back this play until I was as sure as I could be that every page was integral to the whole and would work; then, if my judgment of it proved wrong, I would leave the theater behind and write in other forms.” The play was All My Sons, about a successful manufacturer who sells defective aircraft parts and is made to face the consequences of his crime and his responsibilities. It is Miller’s version of a Henrik Ibsen problem play, linking a family drama to wider social issues. Named one of the top-10 plays of 1947, All My Sons won the Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award over Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh. The play’s success allowed Miller to buy property in rural Connecticut where he built a small studio and began work on Death of a Salesman .

This play, subtitled “Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem,” about the last 24 hours of an aging and failing traveling salesman misguided by the American dream, began, as the playwright recounts in his introduction to his Collected Plays , with an initial image

of an enormous face the height of the proscenium arch which would appear and then open up, and we would see the inside of a man’s head. In fact, The Inside of His Head was the first title. . . . The image was in direct opposition to the method of All My Sons —a method one might call linear or eventual in that one fact or incident creates the necessity for the next. The Salesman image was from the beginning absorbed with the concept that nothing in life comes “next” but that everything exists together and at the same time within us; that there is no past to be “brought forward” in a human being, but that he is his past at every moment. . . . I wished to create a form which, in itself as a form, would literally be the process of Willy Loman’s way of mind.

The play took shape by staging the past in the present, not through flashbacks of Willy’s life but by what the playwright called “mobile concurrency of past and present.” Miller recalled beginning

with only one firm piece of knowledge and this was that Loman was to destroy himself. How it would wander before it got to that point I did not know and resolved not to care. I was convinced only that if I could make him remember enough he would kill himself, and the structure of the play was determined by what was needed to draw up his memories like a mass of tangled roots without ends or beginning.

At once realistic in its documentation of American family life and expressionistic in its embodiment of consciousness on stage, Death of a Salesman opens with the 63-year-old Willy Loman’s return to his Brooklyn home, revealing to his worried wife, Linda, that he kept losing control of his car on a selling trip to Boston. Increasingly at the mercy of his memories Willy, in Miller’s analysis, “is literally at that terrible moment when the voice of the past is no longer distant but quite as loud as the voice of the present.” Reflecting its protagonist, “The way of telling the tale . . . is as mad as Willy and as abrupt and as suddenly lyrical.” The family’s present—Willy’s increasing mental instability, his failure to earn the commissions he needs to survive, and his disappointment that his sons, Biff and Happy, have failed to live up to expectations—intersects with scenes from the past in which both their dreams and the basis for their disillusionment are exposed. In the present Biff, the onetime star high school athlete with seeming unlimited prospects in his doting father’s estimation, is 34, having returned home from another failed job out west and harboring an unidentified resentment of his father. As Biff confesses, “everytime I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life.” His brother, Happy, is a deceitful womanizer trapped in a dead-end job who confesses that despite having his own apartment, “a car, and plenty of women . . . still, goddammit, I’m lonely.” The present frustrations of father and sons collide with Willy’s memory when all was youthful promise and family harmony. In a scene in which Biff with the prospect of a college scholarship seems on the brink of attaining all Willy has expected of him, both boys hang on their father’s every word as he exults in his triumphs as a successful salesman:

America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ’cause one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own.

Triumphantly, Willy passes on his secret of success: “Be liked and you will never want.” His advice exposes the fatal fl aw in his life view that defines success by exterior rather than interior values, by appearance and possessions rather than core morals. Even in his confident memory, however, evidence of the undermining of his self-confidence and aspirations occurs as Biff plays with a football he has stolen and father and son ignore the warning of the grind Bernard (who “is liked, but he’s not well liked”) that Biff risks graduating by not studying. Willy’s popularity and prowess as a salesman are undermined by Linda’s calculation of her husband’s declining commissions, prompting Willy to confess that “people don’t seem to take to me.” Invading Willy’s memory is the realization that he is far from the respected and resourceful salesman he has boasted being to his sons as he struggles to meet the payments on the modern appliances that equip the American dream of success. Moreover, to boost his sagging spirits on the road he has been unfaithful to his loving and supportive wife. To protect himself from these hurtful memories Willy is plunged back into the present for a card game with Bernard’s father, Charley. Again the past intrudes in the form of a memory of a rare visit by Willy’s older brother, Ben, who has become rich and whose secrets for success elude Willy. Back in the present Willy is hopeful at Biff’s plan to go see an old employer, Bill Oliver, for the money to start up a Loman Brothers sporting goods line. The act ends with Willy’s memory of Biff’s greatest moment—the high school football championship:

Like a young god. Hercules—something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. Remember how he waved to me? Right up from the field, with the representatives of three colleges standing by? And the buyers I brought, and the cheers when he came out—Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!

The second act shatters all prospects, revealing the full truth that Willy has long evaded about himself and his family in a series of crushing blows. Expecting to trade on his 34 years of loyal service to his employer for a nontraveling, salaried position in New York, Willy is forced to beg for a smaller and smaller salary before he is fired outright, prompting one of the great lines of the play: “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit.” Rejecting out of pride a job offer from Charley, Willy meets his son for dinner where Biff reveals that his get-rich scheme has collapsed. Bill Oliver did not remember who he was, kept him waiting for hours, and resentfully Biff has stolen his fountain pen from his desk. Biff now insists that Willy face the truth—that Biff was only a shipping clerk and that Oliver owes him nothing—but Willy refuses to listen, with his need to believe in his son and the future forcing Biff to manufacture a happier version of his meeting and its outcome. Biff’s anger and resentment over the old family lies about his prospects, however, cause Willy to relive the impetus of Biff’s loss of faith in him in one of the tour de force scenes in modern drama. Biff and Happy’s attempt to pick up two women at the restaurant interconnects with Willy’s memory of Biff’s arrival at Willy’s Boston hotel unannounced. There he discovers a partially dressed woman in his father’s room. Having failed his math class and jeopardized his scholarship, Biff has come to his father for help. Willy’s betrayal of Linda, however, exposes the hollowness of Willy’s moral authority and the disjunction between the dreams Willy sells and its reality:

Willy: She’s nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.

Biff: You—you gave her Mama’s stockings!

Willy: I gave you an order!

Biff: Don’t touch me, you—liar!

Willy: Apologize for that!

Biff: You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!

Willy’s guilt over the collapse of his son’s belief in him leads him to a final redemptive dream. Returning home, symbolically outside planting seeds, he discusses with Ben his scheme to kill himself for the insurance money as a legacy to his family and a final proof of his worth as a provider of his sons’ success. Before realizing this dream Willy must endure a final assault of truth from Biff who confesses to being nothing more than a thief and a bum, incapable of holding down a job—someone who is, like Willy, a “dime a dozen,” no better than any other hopeless striver: “I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like all the rest of them!” Biff’s fury explodes into a tearful embrace of his father. After Biff departs upstairs the significance of his words and actions are both realized and lost by the chronic dreamer:

Willy, after a long pause, astonished, elevated Isn’t that—isn’t that remarkable? Biff—he likes me!

Linda: He loves you, Willy!

Happy ,deeply moved Always did, Pop.

Willy: Oh. Biff! Staring wildly: He cried! Cried to me. He is choking with his love, and now cries out his promise: That boy—that boy is going to be magnificent!

Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Plays

Doggedly holding onto the dream of his son’s prospects, sustained by his son’s love, Willy finally sets out in his car to carry out his plan, while the scene shifts to his funeral in which Linda tries to understand her husband’s death, and Charley provides the eulogy:

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 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.

Linda delivers the final, heartbreaking lines over her husband’s grave: “Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home. We’re free and clear. We’re free. We’re free . . . We’re free. . . .”

The power and persistence of Death of a Salesman derives from its remarkably intimate view of the dynamic of a family driven by their collective dreams. Critical debate over whether Willy lacks the stature or self-knowledge to qualify as a tragic hero seems beside the point in performance. Few other modern dramas have so powerfully elicited pity and terror in their audiences. Whether Willy is a tragic hero or Death of a Salesman is a modern tragedy in any Aristotelian sense, he and his story have become core American myths. Few critics worry over whether Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero, but Gatsby shares with Willy Loman the essential American capacity to dream and to be destroyed by what he dreams. The concluding lines of The Great Gatsby equally serve as a requiem for both men:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eludes us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Death of a Salesman

Arthur miller, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Death of a Salesman: Introduction

Death of a salesman: plot summary, death of a salesman: detailed summary & analysis, death of a salesman: themes, death of a salesman: quotes, death of a salesman: characters, death of a salesman: symbols, death of a salesman: theme wheel, brief biography of arthur miller.

Historical Context of Death of a Salesman

Other books related to death of a salesman.

Full Title: Death of a Salesman
When Written: 1948
Where Written: Roxbury, Connecticut
When Published: The Broadway premiere was February 10, 1949. The play was published in 1949 by Viking Press.
Literary Period: Social Realism
Genre: Dramatic stage play
Setting: New York and Boston in 1948.
Climax: Biff's speech to Willy at the end of Act Two.
Antagonist: Howard Wagner; the American Dream that allows Willy and his sons to delude themselves.

Extra Credit for Death of a Salesman

Death of a Simpson: Beleaguered, overweight family man Willy Loman has been the genesis not only of live-action domestic sitcoms like All in the Family and Married with Children , but animated satires like The Family Guy and The Simpsons , both of which have made knowing reference to Death of a Salesman in various episodes.

Salesman in Beijing: In 1983, the People's Art Theatre in Beijing wanted to put on a Chinese-language production of Death of a Salesman . Arthur Miller flew to Beijing and spent six weeks directing the cast, though he only spoke two words of Chinese. He documented his experiences in the book Salesman in Beijing , published in 1984 with photographs by his wife, Inge Morath.

Death of a Salesman - Essay Examples And Topic Ideas For Free

Death of a Salesman is a famous American play written by Arthur Miller. Exploring this play and choosing it among other essay topics provides an opportunity to make an analysis of important issues related to modern society. This is a tragedy that raises issues of identity, ambition, realization of dreams, and dealing with stress and pressure. It also tells the fascinating and dramatic story of an old man named Willy Lowman. By conducting a thorough research paper on Death Of A Salesman and developing a detailed outline, you can organize your thoughts and present a comprehensive analysis of Death of a Salesman. The play emphasizes the price one pays and the disappointment that can accompany the endless pursuit of success. This idea can be used as a thesis statement.

Explore existing essays on Death Of A Salesman to gain inspiration and insight into different approaches to the play. During the writing, remember that an impactful introduction sets the stage. It captures the reader’s attention and provides the necessary context. You need to support your arguments with textual evidence and examples. You can discuss the themes and messages provided by the author. You can also add details about the influence of the play on the literary world and the broader cultural landscape. By drawing upon the insights gained from The Death Of A Salesman essay examples, you can draw a comprehensive conclusion. It will help your readers to think and leave a lasting impression.

Betrayal in “Death of a Salesman”

Betrayal is breaking or violating trust within a relationship. Relationships are amongst individuals or organizations. In Fences, Troy has cheated on his wife. In Death of a Salesman, Willy makes multiple attempts at ending his life, later succeeding. Willy also has an affair while on sales trips. Biff fails to meet Willy’s expectations of making it in the business world. All of which are acts of betrayal. Death of a salesman and Fences share a common motif of betrayal. Willy […]

The American Dream in “Death of a Salesman”

“Death of a Salesman,” a play by Arthur Miller, was written in 1948 and produced in 1949. In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” one theme revealed in the drama play is the concept of the American dream of opportunity. America is the dream land of golden opportunities, even the poorest man can build his way upward in life. Miller uses this concept of opportunity by illustrating that new opportunity does not occur multiple times. Born in Harlem, New York, […]

Linda Loman Wife of Willy Loman

"Death of A Salesman Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning master piece (Miller 1019) in 1949. The play represent a tragedy about Willy Loman a self centered salesman whom as passed his time in the professional world of sales. A Devoted Wife: Linda Loman is a devoted wife. She shows constant wifely care and kindness about Willy. This is her most important characteristic. This trait appears in opening dialogue when Willy has unexpectedly returned after having left […]

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Willy’s Struggle for Identity in “Death of a Salesman”

Willy Loman is a 63-year-old salesman, father, and husband. Willy believes that all you need to live the American dream is wealth which comes from being well-liked by others. Never have succeeded in his sellings, Willy is unable to face the truth, expects his sons to do great things and fulfill his own - dreams the ones he couldn’t fulfill himself. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, parent’s deluded definition of the American dream can affect their relationships […]

Analysis “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the play revolves around Willy Loman, a salesman, and his family dealing with his struggles. Based in the 1940s, the play had different mannerisms than what people would perceive today. These mannerisms were affected by the Great Depression and World War II. While mannerisms may have been different, there are many similarities with how the men of this play behaved. Willy Loman, however, was a very difficult man who had many different […]

Analysis of Willy Loman

We see the caricature drawings of people when we go to an amusement park and laugh at them. Willy Loman, on the other hand, was the depressing literary caricature of a man who time has passed by as he has outlived his ability to be a successful salesman. Willy Loman lived in a world of fantasies where being well liked and good looking were the keys to the American dream. Due to his obsession with his understanding of the American […]

Symbolism in Death of a Salesman

"In psychology, a person has a threshold of how much stress they can uphold; an excessive amount of stress can lead to unsuccess, and a deficiency will lead to the same. Willy, a father of two adult kids with a wife, was exponentially spiraling into insanity due to the stress of his family and his future not coming together. He had unhealthy obsessions with his children and his car which lead to him ultimately ruining his life further. Throughout the […]

Character Analysis “Death of a Salesman”

Biff would express Willy's more aware and creative side. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. Willy tries to bring him out of the past, but Biff imitates his maths teacher's lisp, instigating laughter from Willy and The Woman. Occasionally, she appears to be deceived by Willy's self-deceptive hopes for future prosperity and success, but at other times, she appears more realistic and less vulnerable than her husband. Willy's emotional well-being decreases sharply as dramatic events unfold […]

Amanda and Linda: a Comparative Observation

When examining the characteristics of a matriarch and the type of woman one might consider proper for the role, the many first ladies of the United States over the past two centuries come to mind. A matriarch will guide her family throughout decades providing unwavering strength and support during the most celebrated times, and she will stand firm with her loved ones during the most difficult of times. First ladies certainly do fit the profile. Most matriarchs do not experience […]

Family Name in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller

What does a name really mean? What does it represent? Does your last name affect how others see you just because of how that name was represented by your ancestors? In many cases, yes. A name can affect your reputation positively or negatively. Many times people can get too caught up in their work or personal situations and don’t put enough time or energy into their kids and helping them develop into productive citizens in order to carry on their […]

Linda Loman in “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller

The character Linda Loman, who plays the role of Willy Loman's wife, in Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman is a very important part in the play. Her character shows the typical American wife of that era. This is directly indicated by her behavior, the way she hides her feelings, and the way she treats her sons. There are many examples throughout the play that reveals that Linda is the classic enabler who indirectly causes the dysfunction in the […]

Escaping the Shackles of Modern Society

Throughout the history of drama production, the underlying message meant to be conveyed has been interpreted in many ways. Terrence Smith and Mike Miller argued that “The purpose of drama is not to define thought but to provoke it,” suggesting that plays are not used to spell out a one-sided topic, but rather are meant to evoke further speculation from all angles upon a specific subject. While witnessing the plot unfold amidst the play’s dynamics, the audience has the opportunity […]

Comparison between “Death of a Salesman”, “Oedipus Rex”, and “A Streetcar Named Desire”

Both “Oedipus Rex,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and “Death Of A Salesman” have scenes where a character’s past is revealed, whether it is to other characters or the audience (Oedipus’ parentage, Blanche’s past, or Willy’s affair). This overall foreshadows that they cannot fully escape their past, whether it is an eventual surfacing (“A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Death of a Salesman”) or an unexpected revelation (Oedipus Rex). This is linked to the theme of the inevitability of fate. There are […]

The Interpretation of a Family-Man: Fences V. Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s Fences follow a comparable storyline of two fathers struggling to keep their families together. Main characters, Troy Maxson and Willy Loman, have suffered with infidelity and failing father-son relationships while in pursuit of their possibly unrealistic dreams. The focus on father-son relationships in Death of a Salesman and Fences is an apparent similarity throughout both plays. Troy and Willy have high expectations and dreams for their sons. However, these dreams for […]

Utilizing Literary Device of Theme in ‘Death of a Salesman’

A theme is a literary device used by an author to help the readers understand the central focus of a literary work. Some authors use themes to help the readers see the deeper meaning behind the story. While others use themes in order to help the reader understand and connect all of the parts of a story. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller many themes are shown to the reader throughout the play to help develop the characters […]

Perception of Reality in Death of a Salesman

"In the play Death of a Salesman, the family shown is dealing with the repercussions of their father being affected by a form of memory loss or dementia. Many of the characters in the story suffer from perceiving their lives as different to what they actually are. Willy, Biff and Happy all tend to lie and fabricate new stories about how their lives are better than how they actually are. Willy is the worst of the three, often lying to […]

Lavish Lifestyles and the Ideals of the American Dream

"For centuries people have been inspired by lavish lifestyles and the ideals of the American Dream. The saying “keeping up with the Joneses” holds true to not only today’s society, but has held true to society for decades now. The idea that anyone can achieve financial success is held near and dear to those who believe in one day acquiring the riches that the American Dream “says” an individual should obtain. Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman shines a […]

Comparison of Father-Son Dynamics in ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘Fences’

"Does your son have to like you you for you to be a good father? Willy is a man who believes that the key to success is being well liked and he instills this in this sons even though this might not be true. Troy is a man who take care of his responsibilities and tries to keep his son from being him because he wants him to be a better man than he ever was. A fathers job is […]

Analysis of Death of a Salesman

"In death of a salesman, Arthur Miller While reading a book, you should feel the feelings of the characters and everything that is expressed. Many books I don’t understand but this book did a very good job at doing just that. What i’m trying to say is, this book shows a lot of emotions and also relates to today's lifetime. Many symbols were shown in this book for example, his car was a great symbol. From page 48-50 the car […]

The American Dream in Play ‘The Death of a Salesman’

Research from Washington University Professor Mark Rank found that people define the American dream as three things: being able to pursue your passion, have economic security and being optimistic about the future (Cite 2). But, what if your typical dream never unfolds as in the case of Willy Loman and his family, in the play “The Death of a Salesman”? It’s as if the creator of the play, Arthur Miller, had a crystal ball in the 1940’s to look at […]

Paralels with Death of a Salesman

"In the Death of a Salesman there are many poems that connect with its themes, such as family life or work life. You can also see some themes alike like wanting to save the life of someone you love. Or just wanting someone you love to succeed these are some parallels in the poems and Death of a Salesman. In the poem Do Not Go Gentle by Dylan Thomas it has a lot in common with death of a salesman […]

Death of Salesman

The play “Death of a Salesman” greatly portrays a specific ideology in regards to values, dreams, goals, and success in our society. It helps showcase the American dream that society tends to strive for even in the early 1900’s. That dream of being a successful business person. As well as the theory that image and physical attributes are most important to gaining fruition. Willy Loman plays a man in his sixties who has strived for this American dream for over […]

Different American Dreams in Death of a Salesman

"In the play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller brings to life the idea that the American dream is different for everyone, yet is achieved by the same process and rules through the use of convincing analogies, metaphors, and verbal contradictions. Miller's use of convincing analogies in the play during Act 2 brings across the importance of knowing people, being well-liked and putting a smile on your face. ”WILLY: Without a penny to his name, three great universities are begging […]

Death of a Salesman Tells the Story

"Death of a Salesman tells the story of a dysfunctional family through the eyes of the father whose sons are grown. The family went from prosperous, to needing support as the father gets older and the truth of his character is revealed. We see Willy, the father, as a grumpy old man we find out through his unhinged flashbacks his life used to be golden, he lived the American dream. His sons were popular, he was a great salesman who […]

Willy Character Analysis in “Death of a Salesman”

Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's 'Demise of death of a Salesman' is a complex and clashed character. He winds up inconsistent with his environment, his qualities, and even his family, now and again. Furthermore, these contentions overflow into how he brings up his children. Willy attempts to impart what he supposes are his increasingly outstanding attributes into his young men; affability and activity. In any case, one can see by his activities and even his words that he has a […]

Themes in Death of a Salesman

The American Dream is a relevant and universal theme in the play. As Willy Loman there are many people who misinterpret the idea of the American Dream. For him, to accomplish success and wealth a person needs to be “well liked” (p.20). Willy’s obsession with popularity leads him to tell his son Biff “you are going to be five times ahead of him. / Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal […]

Failure in Achievnig the American Dream

"In The Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller shows the failure to achieve the American Dream that we all strive for can lead to drastic decisions by using irony, symbolism, and allusions. For example, Biff Loman in The Death of a Salesman tells Willy Loman “I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like the rest of them!"" (Miller 132). This quote is […]

Literary Analysis – Death of a Salesman

In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, the conflict between father and son shapes the work’s overall significance and explains all the unfortunate occurrences throughout. The American Dream plays a big role in this novel. The American Dream symbolizes the ideas of futurism and possibilities. The American Dream has a definite objective for many people, and it means a different thing for all. The American dream also is accessible, but in this world, people still believe that because of […]

Death of a Salesman Summary

"The tragic play Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller is a story about a salesman named Willy Loman, who spends his whole life with a deluded dream of achieving lofty goals in an unforgiving society. Willy often neglects his family’s needs, because he is so blinded by the thought of vast riches that are unattainable for him. Being a modern day tragedy, Death of a Salesman examines the effects of what can happen when a person chasing the […]

Willy’s Obsession with the American Dream in Death of a Salesman

The American Dream throughout the ages has stood as each person's idea of success. The American dream normally associated with nineteen fifties America is a small family, cookie cutter house, and maybe even a dog. Though that is only one idea of the American dream, a shallow analysis that can and should go farther. Arthur Miller uses his play Death of a Salesman to do just that and absolutely succeeds in doing so. Throughout Death of a Salesman, Miller portrays […]

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How to Write an Essay About Death Of A Salesman

Understanding 'death of a salesman'.

Before writing an essay about Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman', it is essential to understand the play's context, themes, and characters. 'Death of a Salesman' is a classic of American theater, written in 1949, that explores the American Dream's disillusionment through the life of Willy Loman, a struggling salesman. Begin your essay by outlining the play's plot, setting, and main characters, including Willy, his wife Linda, and their sons, Biff and Happy. Discuss the historical and cultural context of post-war America in which the play was written, as it is crucial for understanding the themes of the play, such as the pursuit of success, the fragility of the human psyche, and the impact of societal expectations.

Developing a Thesis Statement

A strong essay on 'Death of a Salesman' should be centered around a clear, concise thesis statement. This statement should present a specific viewpoint or argument about the play. For example, you might analyze Willy Loman’s character as a representation of the failure of the American Dream, discuss the play's commentary on societal values and pressures, or explore the theme of reality versus illusion. Your thesis will guide the direction of your essay and provide a structured approach to your analysis.

Gathering Textual Evidence

To support your thesis, gather evidence from the text of the play. This involves close reading to find relevant quotes, dialogues, and scenes that support your argument. For instance, if discussing the theme of disillusionment, identify key moments in the play that demonstrate Willy's growing despair and disillusion. Use these examples to build your argument and provide depth to your analysis.

Analyzing Miller's Techniques and Themes

Analyze how Arthur Miller uses literary techniques to develop the play's themes and characters. Discuss his use of symbolism, the play’s structure, and the use of flashback as a narrative device. For example, explore the symbolism of the seeds Willy plants, which fail to grow, as a metaphor for his unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. This analysis should demonstrate a deep understanding of the text and how Miller communicates his ideas.

Concluding the Essay

Conclude your essay by summarizing your main arguments and restating your thesis in light of the discussion. Your conclusion should tie together your insights into 'Death of a Salesman,' emphasizing the significance of your findings. Reflect on the broader implications of the play, such as its relevance to contemporary society or its place in American literary history.

Reviewing and Refining Your Essay

After completing your essay, review and refine it. Ensure that your arguments are coherent, your evidence is clearly presented, and your writing is free of grammatical errors. Consider seeking feedback from teachers or peers to help improve your essay. A well-written essay on 'Death of a Salesman' will not only demonstrate your understanding of the play but also your ability to engage critically with literary texts.

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Death of a Salesman

By arthur miller, death of a salesman study guide.

Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman stems from both Arthur Miller's personal experiences and the theatrical traditions in which the playwright was schooled. The play recalls the traditions of Yiddish theater that focus on family as the crucial element, reducing most plot to the confines of the nuclear family. Death of a Salesman focuses on two sons who are estranged from their father, paralleling one of Miller's other major works, All My Sons , which premiered two years before Death of a Salesman.

Although the play premiered in 1949, Miller began writing Death of a Salesman at the age of seventeen when he was working for his father's company. In short story form, it treated an aging salesman unable to sell anything. He is berated by company bosses and must borrow subway change from the young narrator. The end of the manuscript contains a postscript, noting that the salesman on which the story is based had thrown himself under a subway train.

Arthur Miller reworked the play in 1947 upon a meeting with his uncle, Manny Newman. Miller's uncle, a salesman, was a competitor at all times and even competed with his sons, Buddy and Abby. Miller described the Newman household as one in which one could not lose hope, and based the Loman household and structure on his uncle and cousins. There are numerous parallels between Abby and Buddy Newman and their fictional counterparts, Happy and Biff Loman : Buddy, like Biff, was a renowned high school athlete who ended up flunking out. Miller's relationship to his cousins parallels that of the Lomans to their neighbor, Bernard .

While constructing the play, Miller was intent on creating continuous action that could span different time periods smoothly. The major innovation of the play was the fluid continuity between its segments. Flashbacks do not occur separate from the action but rather as an integral part of it. The play moves between fifteen years back and the present, and from Brooklyn to Boston without any interruptions in the plot.

Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway in 1949, starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman and directed by Elia Kazan (who would later inform on Arthur Miller in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee). The play was a resounding success, winning the Pulitzer Prize, as well as the Tony Award for Best Play. The New Yorker called the play a mixture of "compassion, imagination, and hard technical competence not often found in our theater." Since then, the play has been revived numerous times on Broadway and reinterpreted in stage and television versions. As an archetypal character representing the failed American dream, Willy Loman has been interpreted by diverse actors such as Fredric March (the 1951 film version), Dustin Hoffman (the 1984 Broadway revival and television movie), and, in a Tony Award-winning revival, Brian Dennehy.

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Death of a Salesman Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Death of a Salesman is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Significant of the tittle in 600 words.

I think the title refers to both the death of Willy the salesmen and the death of his dreams. Willy's dreams of success turn to disillusionment when he cannot compete in the capitalist world. An extended metaphor might also involve Capitalism and...

death of a salesman

Charley visits because he is worried about Willy.He knows Willy is a proud man and he wants to help him, though Willy isn't really willing to take his help.

Please submit your questions one at a time.

How have biff and happy responded to their father’s condition

Biff denies responsibility for his father's condition, but he is forced to acknowledge that he is linked to his father's guilt and irrational actions. I think happy is just stressed about it.

Study Guide for Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman study guide contains a biography of Arthur Miller, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman Summary
Character List

Essays for Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

Shattered Dream - The Delusion of Willy Loman
Perceptions of Self Worth and Prominence: Spaces and Settings in Death of a Salesman
Sales and Dreams
Musical Motifs
Death of A Salesman: Shifting of the American Dream

Lesson Plan for Death of a Salesman

About the Author
Study Objectives
Introduction to Death of a Salesman
Relationship to Other Books
Notes to the Teacher

Wikipedia Entries for Death of a Salesman

Introduction
Characters and cast

Death of a Salesman Essay Topics & Samples

As a Pulitzer Prize winner, Death of a Salesman deserves some attention, which is most likely the reason why you were asked to write an essay about it. Even though Arthur Miller wrote it in the middle of the twentieth century, the play is still relevant.

This Custom-Writing.org article aims to help you if you have questions or are looking for a decent Death of a Salesman essay topic or have to choose between many variants.

The first section of it contains a list of ideas that might help you write a great essay.
The second one contains Death of a Salesman essay samples that you are welcome to use for inspiration.
💡 Essay Topics
✒️ Essay Samples

💡 Death of a Salesman: Essay Topics

Miller addresses various themes, such as the American dream and betrayal, incorporated into family life. To write a killer essay on Death of a Salesman , you should first study all aspects of the play. So you don’t forget to read through our analysis of the main characters and themes !

Now you are all set up to pick a topic from the list below.

Analyze the main symbols of the play. There are multiple hidden symbols that Miller uses to represent one idea or another. The interpretation depends on you. There are no wrong answers. However, to set a direction, we recommend looking at such a symbol as the stockings. It is quite an obvious hint on the theme of betrayal.
How is Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman as a father? Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman , is far from being the employee of the month. But as a father, he is also supposed to be a role model to his two sons. However, we can see that Biff and Happy have developed their personalities according to their dad’s behavior.
Can Willy Loman be considered a hero? Loman tries to solve the problems which are too big for him. He cannot possibly overcome capitalism and becomes its victim. Analyze Willy’s last act and see whether it can be genuinely regarded as a good deed or it is a desperate attempt to get rid of a problem.
Discuss the theme of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman . Is it Willy’s fault that he failed his family? Think about how our ambitions shape the course of our lives and write an essay reflecting on it in relation to the play. Discuss the fate of the salesman as the embodiment of the American dream.
How reasonable was Willy’s despair in the final scenes? Look through all the details you can find about the Loman family and analyze their social and financial state. Try to write an objective opinion on whether Willy’s suicide was the only option for them. What might have caused him to exaggerate the problems they were having?
Discuss the statement “Be liked, and you will never want” from Death of a Salesman . This prompt is related to Willy’s life philosophy, which he passes on to his sons. Are there any reasons to claim that it doesn’t work? Why? Maybe reflect on the same idea circulating in modern society.
What is the meaning of Arthur Miller’s play? We suggest you answer the question, “What is the main message of Death of a Salesman ?” Rereading our analysis of the main themes and characters should give you some ideas! However, remember to focus on ONE idea and present persuasive arguments.
Analyze Willy Loman’s career choice. What do you think about Willy’s decision to go into the sales business? Was it the right choice? Find the evidence in the play? Think about how different his life and life of his family could be if he had chosen a different occupation, which fits his natural abilities.
Illusions and realistic dreams as Willy Loman’s coping mechanism. Look at Death of a Salesman as a tragedy and the story about the main character’s inner fight. Write about how he retreats into the memories to escape real-life problems. Does it have anything to do with his failure to understand his ambitions?
Discuss the reason for Willy’s rejection of Charley’s job offer . Loman keeps turning down his friend’s job offer, and it seems to be annoying him more and more every time. But what is the reason? He might have been more well-off if he accepted it. Is it about his pride or social values?

✒️ Death of a Salesman: Essay Samples

Below you’ll find a collection of Death of a Salesman essay examples. You are welcome to use them for inspiration!

“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller
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Is the American dream attainable? What makes someone a successful person? How does your image of yourself shape your life? Arthur Miller’s play is a tragic but true-to-life illustration of these philosophical questions without definitive answers. This Death of a Salesman Study Guide will help you understand the author’s intention...

Looking for a summary of Death of a Salesman? This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains everything you might need for your studies or essay: Death of a Salesman’s synopsis, a plot infographic, Death of a Salesman’s short summary, and detailed descriptions of the events in the play act by act....

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Like any other literary work, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman contains various stylistic devices to discuss, symbols to interpret, and motifs to find. That is what this article written by Custom-Writing.org experts is about! This analysis can answer any question you might have about the play, including: What do...

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Death of a Salesman — Analysis of “Death of a Salesman”

Analysis of "Death of a Salesman"

Categories: Death of a Salesman

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Words: 847 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 847 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Body paragraph 1: the illusion of the american dream, body paragraph 2: the demise of the traditional family, body paragraph 3: the dehumanizing effects of capitalism, body paragraph 4: the evolving definition of success, counterargument: critiques and alternatives, references:.

Trandell, Jesica et al. "American Dream: Is the American Dream Dead or Alive?" Michael H. Conseur Company, 2020, https://www.ihcnp.com/american-dream/.
"Family Dynamics - a Look at the American Family." Walden University, http://www.waldenu.edu/connect/newsroom/publications/articles/2012/08-family-dynamics-a-look-at-the-american-family.
Kasser, Tim. "Materialistic Values and Goals." Psychology Today, 21 June 2012, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-and-the-good-life/201206/materialistic-values-and-goals.
Ramasubbu, Shantala. "Death of a Salesman: A Mindmap and General Notes." Ramasubbu, 2011, https://ramasubbutech.blogspot.com/2011/02/death-of-salesman-mindmap.html.
SparkNotes Editors. "SparkNote on Death of a Salesman." SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2002, http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/salesman/.

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Related Essays on Death of a Salesman

In Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman," the central conflict revolves around the protagonist, Willy Loman, and his struggle to achieve the American Dream. The play delves into the complexities of familial relationships, [...]

The American Dream is a prominent theme in Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman. The concept of the American Dream originated in the early twentieth century, as many immigrants came to America in search of economic [...]

“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller displays a man whose inability to accept change within himself, and the reality of his life led to his and his family’s loss of identity and grasp of the truth. This man is Willy Loman [...]

After the Second World War, writers started to use their platform as a way to voice their opinions and concerns with the world. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller which was performed in 1949 tells the tragedy of Willy Loman [...]

Many stories have a hero that is fortunate to overcome their problems, although some have flaws and meet tragic ends. In the Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is conveyed as a tragic hero as he loses his battle [...]

There is a reason why Willy Loman is considered as a tragic hero where a great deal of it has to with his pride. As a matter of fact, through the character of Willy, Arthur Miller is able to build the theme of pride around him [...]

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105 Death of a Salesman Essay Topics & Samples
Updated: Dec 6th, 2023. 12 min. Death of a Salesman is Arthur Miller's multiple award-winning stage play that explores such ideas as American Dream and family. Our writers have prepared a list of topics and tips on writing the Death of a Salesman thesis statement, essay, or literary analysis. We will write.
119 Death of a Salesman Essay Topics
Miller's "The Death of a Salesman" vividly portrays a life of a middle-class salesman who tries to achieve the American dream and realize his life hopes. Tragic Hero in A Death of a Salesman. The Death of a Salesman is play written by Arthur Miller that touches upon the analysis of the downfall of an ordinary man.
A Summary and Analysis of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman: summary. The salesman of the title is Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is in his early sixties. He works on commission, so if he doesn't make a sale, he doesn't get paid. His job involves driving thousands of miles around the United States every year, trying to sell enough to put food on his family's table. He ...
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Outline. I. Thesis Statement: Being a salesman not only constitutes Willy's occupation but shapes his entire personality and outlook on life. His identity as a salesman greatly influences his ...
Analysis of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Categories: Drama Criticism, Literature. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is, perhaps, to this time, the most mature example of a myth of Contemporary life. The chief value of this drama is its attempt to reveal those ultimate meanings which are resident in modern experience. Perhaps the most significant comment on this play is not its ...
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2 pages / 871 words. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a tragic play focusing on the common man during the late 1940's. Much of the story is told by flashbacks of Willy Loman's past, including him cheating on Linda, his wife. His older son, Biff, witnessed the... Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller Tragic Hero.
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Analysis. Death of a Salesman raises many issues, not only of artistic form but also of thematic content. Dramatically speaking, the play represents Arthur Miller's desire to modernize the ...
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Author: Luciano Colos. Published: Jan 14, 2024. Inside This Article. 107 Death of a Salesman Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" is a classic piece of American literature that explores themes of the American Dream, family dynamics, success, and failure.
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Key Facts about Death of a Salesman. Full Title: Death of a Salesman. When Written: 1948. Where Written: Roxbury, Connecticut. When Published: The Broadway premiere was February 10, 1949. The play was published in 1949 by Viking Press. Literary Period: Social Realism. Genre: Dramatic stage play. Setting: New York and Boston in 1948.
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In the following essay, Sister Bettina examines the function of the character of Ben in Death of a Salesman, arguing that Ben is an extension of Willy's own consciousness, and that "through [Ben ...
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Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller's 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, endures today because of its ability to effectively convey a complex family dynamic in the wake of its patriarch's failed American dream. Themes of disappointment and denial, embellishment and skewed... Death of a Salesman essays are academic essays for citation.
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Death of a Salesman is a famous American play written by Arthur Miller. Exploring this play and choosing it among other essay topics provides an opportunity to make an analysis of important issues related to modern society. This is a tragedy that raises issues of identity, ambition, realization of dreams, and dealing with stress and pressure.
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Topic #6: Setting in Death of a Salesman. Setting can affect a variety of elements in a story, including characters' personalities, character interactions, mood, and plot. Here are a few ways you could approach analyzing a Death of a Salesman setting:. Examine the contrasting locations in Death of a Salesman and the effect they have on the play.; Death of a Salesman is set in Brooklyn.
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The Question and Answer section for Death of a Salesman is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Significant of the tittle in 600 words. I think the title refers to both the death of Willy the salesmen and the death of his dreams. Willy's dreams of success turn to disillusionment when he cannot compete in the ...
Death of a Salesman Study Guide
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As a Pulitzer Prize winner, Death of a Salesman deserves some attention, which is most likely the reason why you were asked to write an essay about it. Even though Arthur Miller wrote it in the middle of the twentieth century, the play is still relevant. Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you! This Custom-Writing.org ...
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A Summary and Analysis of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

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How to Write an Essay About Death Of A Salesman

Developing a Thesis Statement

Gathering Textual Evidence

Analyzing Miller's Techniques and Themes

Concluding the Essay

Reviewing and Refining Your Essay

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman Questions and Answers

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Death of a Salesman Essay Topics & Samples

💡 Death of a Salesman: Essay Topics

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Analysis of "Death of a Salesman"

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