Death Of A Salesman

Improved Essays
Throughout every story read, there is a theme that the author uses to teach the reader a valuable lesson. The theme of the story is used to get an important message across to the reader, allowing them to possibly put themselves in the shoes of the characters in the story. In the play Death of a Salesman, the author uses not only one strong theme throughout the story but multiple themes in an enjoyable manner to let the reader learn from the troubles the main characters are going through. The characters in the play experience many hard times such as a spouse losing their mind, stealing, and the fallout of a married couple. Death of a Salesman keeps the reader interested while teaching them more than one important message while reading. While reading Death of a Salesman, the reader learns that the husband Willy talks to himself and is slowly losing his mind. His wife does not want to accept the fact that something wrong with her husband, while the two sons, Biff and Happy, know something is not completely right. The two sons are not only worried about their father but are always extremely embarrassed of how their father is now. Throughout the story, the reader reads about the sons thinking back to when their father was the most important person in their life and how excited they were when Willy came in from work, …show more content…
Willy never truly let his family know the real him up until his death. Willy cheated on his wife Linda for many years without his family acknowledging, making the reader question who Willy really was. Willy gave other women nice, expensive stockings, leaving Linda with cheap, poor stockings to wear. This theme is shown mostly at the end of the play because Linda is not able to cry at her husband’s funeral but rather sobs repeating “we’re free”. Lies and deception is the major theme used throughout the story and many authors use this to prove overall how much one lie can damage a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The relinquishment of his more youthful sibling to a much lesser life has positively scarred Willy in routes from which he can never recoup. He can 't reprimand Ben for relinquishing him, seeing him rather as a legend of mythic extents. To shore up his own particular self-regard, he obtains from Ben 's story to bring up his own children: as yet neglecting reality, he decimates their lives and in addition his own, never perceiving how he empowers the falsehoods, deceiving, and taking that inevitably cut them down. With the play 's last scenes of the terrible truth, the lives are presently tore separated, and Willy can no more proceed with the act that has been his entire…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Willy Loman talks about Dave Singleman in his personal narrative, the man who inspired him to take the path and lifestyle of a salesman. Willy strives to be like Singleman and is particularly fond of one thing about him: his ability to be liked. Miller utilizes Singleman’s life as the fantasy Willy is thriving for. Willy even desires the way Singleman passes: “When he died, -and he died, by the way, the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers….- when he died hungers of salesman and buyers were at his funeral.”…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The protagonist of the story is a travelling salesman. He dreads his job but keeps pushing through the suffering in order to provide for his family and pay off their debt. As the provider, he truly puts his family first and hopes for the best for them. However he is has become fed up with his job and one day wakes up to find himself with the body of a vermin. Yet his feeling towards his new bg body are so mundane compared to the worries of his old life, he worries more about how he is going to get to work on time.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play “The Death of A Salesman” by Arthur Miller, Willy and Biff’s lies and deceit lead to destructive behaviour and emotional damage. For Willy and Biff, their lies and deceit lead their destruction, caused their past to strongly impact their present situations, and leads their already deteriorating relationship to its end. Coming from a home…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Willy Loman's Sympathy

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Because of Willy’s interactions with other characters, and because of the modern societal standards, Willy Loman is empathized with by many audiences. One of the reasons why Willy Loman is sympathized with at the end of the book may be due to how Willy is treated by others in the play. The characters way of dealing with Willy usually works to elicit some feeling of sympathy for Willy. For instance, when Linda talks with Happy and Biff about Willy, she berates them for showing a lack of caring for whom she sees as an overworked and under recognized man. Moreover Willy being fired gives a feeling of loss, and…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In these ways, Miller uses Willy to illustrate how people lie in order to make themselves look better than they actually are. Miller uses Will`s lies about his success to portray how most people lie to make themselves look better. For instance, Willy lies about his success to his wife, Linda. For…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Duality of a Salesman When Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman at the end of the 40's, it was with a purpose. There was much he wanted to say being a man of loud and strong opinions and Death of a Salesman may have been one of his most profound works. With this in mind, every production of the play has created thoughtful representations of the tale. The original theatrical run of the show on Broadway opened in February 10, 1949 and had a year and a half run (http://www.playbill.com/production/death-of-a-salesman-morosco-theatre-vault-0000002446).…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Impact of Willy’s Expectations in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman “Blessed [are] [those] who expect nothing, as [they] will never be disappointed” (Alexander Pope). In the playwright Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is a mercurial salesman who contemplates suicide due to the emptiness in his life. Despite his hard work, the Loman family survive with only minimum income, causing Willy to hold his sons, Biff and Happy, to unhealthy pressure that hinders their mental wellbeing. Therefore, Willy’s unrealistic expectations lead to the mental downfall of Biff and Happy, which is proven through their denial, anxiety, and dishonesty. Both sons are lead into a state of denial as Willy pressures them to be financially successful.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    When the woman of Willy’s dreams makes stockings, he thanks her ecstatically, but when Linda made stockings he accosted her, almost to a histrionic level. This might be due to the fact that Willy felt guilty of the fact that…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Death of a Prince (An analysis of three important symbols in Death of a Salesman) Every human is unique in their own way and they all die a death that is similar, but yet different. It is similar in the fact that everyone takes their last breath, but different in the fact that they choose when they die or they let nature choose for them. Arthur Miller can be considered a master not only of writing plays, but also plays of death or tragedy.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    At the time Linda had no idea about the affair, that taken place years earlier. But to digress back to the topic, Willy cheated on his wife, lied to his sons and never told the truth, similar to how Claudius comitted incset with his brothers wife, lied to Hamlet and kept his own dark secret. In…

    • 1941 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Advertising, mass production values, worship of gadgetry, narrow love of family and mystical faith in commercial success; Willy being a salesman must represent these values to the consumers. The most powerful value that the play offers is the value of family loyalty. There is no doubt of Willy's love for his family, particularly for his son, Biff. It is the betrayal of this loyalty which ruins Willy's life, rather than a commercial failure, and it is in the name of family love that he finally kills himself, dying "as a father, not as a salesman". His insecurity and role of a father is evident in the memory scene, where he confesses to Ben that he feels “Kind of temporary” (DSM 191) about himself and seeks his brother’s assurance, that he is doing a good job of bringing up…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Chasing Death Despite the fact that Willy Loman may not exemplify the tragic hero due to his lack of success and stature, Death of a Salesman should be considered a tragedy as it succeeds in crafting a narrative that is centralized around the dangers of ambition, illustrated through the cautionary tale of the fall of Willy Loman, who falls to Earth from his lofty dreams, and in the process tears his life to pieces. It is difficult to proclaim Willy a typical tragic hero; he is anything but that. Willy can’t keep a salary or a job; however, it is what he loses that makes Death of a Salesman a tragedy. In his decline Willy loses his family and the image they held of him, and by the end of his downward spiral he actually loses himself.…

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This makes Linda an enabler of Willy’s behaviors because she shields him from truth and denies that there is anything wrong with him. The play begins with Willy coming home early from a business trip. As he enters the house, Linda greets him downstairs. She is clearly worried and asks if he had another accident.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller. In 1949, the play made its debut in New York City. To this day, it is considered a classic in American theatre. The play centers on the Loman family: Willy, Linda, Happy, and Biff. The primary focus is on Willie Loman and his quest for covetous success as a salesman in addition to his felt need to have successful sons.…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays