74 pages • 2 hours read
Arthur MillerDeath of a Salesman
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1949A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Willy Loman
The events of Death of a Salesman revolve around the actions of the aged salesman, Willy Loman, during the last day of his life. Willy’s perception of reality, both the imagined past and real present, construct the audience’s understanding of the play’s events. The fluidity of time accurately represents Willy’s disturbed mental state and his constant efforts to make sense of his failures and to create order in his disorderly life. Simultaneously responding to events of the past and present, Willy comes off as mentally unstable. He constantly contradicts himself and is obsessed with his distorted worldview. In an effort to maintain the image that he and his son Biff are likeable, he fabricates stories about their popularity and success. This creates a false sense of hope around attaining the American Dream. When faced with particularly troubling situations, Willy recreates memories from the past that justify his lack of success and convince him of his and his son’s potential. In turn, he avoids thinking about past events that most disturb him, such as his affair with the unnamed Woman, until his mind is unable to handle the situation at hand.
Willy’s motivations are characterized by his dedication to the American Dream, his failure to attain it, and his regrets in life. He is obsessively committed to providing his family with what the Dream categorizes as success, and he believes that being well-liked and maintaining a personality is the only path to it. His obsession is in part a justification for his choice to stay in Brooklyn as a salesman; he subconsciously regrets not heading to Alaska with his brother to live in the wilderness according to his true inclinations. Willy is not suited to life as a salesman, nor does he enjoy it, but he insists that it is the only true way to success and happiness. Willy is acutely aware of his failures—despite the stories he tells himself, he and Biff aren’t well-liked or popular. They are both mediocre salesman who never amount to anything extraordinary.
Overwhelmed with his inability to provide his family with the success and greatness he dreams of, he turns to suicide as a solution. However, his belief that his suicide will prove his greatness and provide financial gain for his family proves wrong when very few people attend his funeral.
Biff Loman
Willy’s expectations of his elder son, Biff, become his final hope when he himself is unable to attain the American Dream. However, Biff follows in the Loman family tradition in his inclination toward working outdoors with his hands. Though Biff perceives Willy to be the ideal father throughout his childhood, witnessing his father’s betrayal in the form of his sexual infidelity tears apart his belief in Willy and everything he stands for. He rejects any outlet for success his father dreams for him. Unlike Willy, however, Biff both accepts and embraces the lie that he and his father have lived. He is relieved to finally come to terms with who he is, finally understanding the true fabricated nature of Willy’s stories of their greatness. Unlike his father’s rejection of the call to the wild, Willy accepts and pursues his longing for working outdoors instead of dooming himself to a dissatisfactory life in the business world.
Willy invests the majority of his reconstructed memories with a distorted perception of Biff’s past success and popularity. He maintains the image that Biff has always been well-liked and has the potential for greatness. Even in the past, Willy hyperinflates Biff’s ego to the extent that Biff himself never comes face to face with his shortcomings. However, the reality remains that Biff was nothing more than a thief who failed math, dropped out of high school, and remains unable to hold a job.
Happy Loman
Biff’s younger brother Happy indulges in Willy’s grand fantasies by following in his father’s footsteps in the business world. Though it is evident that Willy never gave Happy the same attention that he gave to Biff, Happy tries to follow Willy’s standard for Biff by becoming a somewhat successful businessman. While Biff refuses to indulge in fabricated fantasies, Happy obliges in his father’s imaginations and is unwilling to make Willy face the truth. Happy himself exaggerates his own success and position just as his father did, and he relishes in his successful endeavors with women to curate his perception of his own power.
Linda Loman
Linda proves to be a committed and dedicated wife, despite Willy’s irrational, erratic, suicidal, and difficult nature. She plays along with Willy’s fantasies to protect him from the reality that would inevitably tear him apart. Even when money is needed to pay the bills, she never nags Willy and takes every opportunity to encourage him and build his confidence. Aware of Willy’s multiple attempts at suicide, she is extremely concerned with Willy’s mental state and asks her sons for help. When her sons try to make Willy face reality, she angrily defends Willy’s fragile mental state and tries to send the boys off. Linda plays the role of the ideal, doting, and loving wife. She would rather play along with Willy’s delusions of greatness than force him to face reality and possibly lose him.
Charley and Bernard
Charley and Bernard serve as a foil to the Loman family. Though the father and son duo are the Lomans’ neighbors and closest friends, Willy constantly demeaned the two of them in the past to feel better about himself. In the present, however, Willy is disturbed at Charley and Bernard’s success because they were never as well-liked as he perceived himself and Biff to be. Charley and Bernard’s successes disprove Willy’s ardent belief that the key to success is being well-liked and having an impressive personality.
Ben
As Willy’s elder brother, Ben plays the role of the father figure Willy never had. However, Ben abandoned Willy just as their father did to follow his dreams in the wilderness. As a direct contradiction to Willy’s beliefs about the American Dream, Ben becomes successful by leaving the modern world of business and heading into the wilderness. Ben represents Willy’s desire for acceptance from a father figure. He constantly seeks Ben’s approval as a way to justify his choice to be a salesman. Similarly, Willy’s regret at not taking Ben’s offer to go to Alaska sheds light on Willy’s inclination towards nature and his desire to work outdoors.
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