 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about Death of a Salesman, a play by Arthur Miller. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine the play in detail. We'll begin by looking at some context related to the author himself or the playwright himself, Arthur Miller, as well as what was happening when he wrote this play. We'll then examine in detail the play itself, analyze some of the key events, examine the main characters as well as themes and symbols. This video is really useful if you're studying this play as part of your coursework or exams as we delve into the necessary issues and indeed if you're about to watch this play you might well find this video very very helpful in understanding some of the key themes and underlying ideas. So let's get started. Now Arthur Miller is the playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman and this play was first performed in 1949 which was just a few years after the Second World War ended and within a decade of the Great Depression. Both periods had a really significant impact on the work of Miller and on Death of a Salesman in particular which is set in the late 1940s in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Boston. Now when it comes to context, in other words the things that were happening at the time of the play's writing but equally even slightly before the play's writing, the first of course is the Great Depression. Now the Great Depression was a really really terrible economic period for America which lasted between 1929 to roughly 1939 and this is when America plummeted into the worst economic downturn it had ever faced. Many banks, companies and families lost everything leaving a bruised national psyche that lacked confidence about the future. For Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman illustrates the personal effects of the Great Depression the shattered dreams of Miller's own family of American people are also reflected in the shattered dreams of the main protagonist Willie Lohman. As the main character Willie is unable to attain financial emotional stability despite a lifelong career as a salesman and a long marriage to a faithful and devoted wife. There are the important event is World War II and this was between 1939 to 1945. The limping US economy did improve as parts of the globe did plunge into this war as the economy shifted into high gear as manufacturers developed mechanized weaponry, communication technology, advancements in medicine and improved transportation to support the war effort. By the time the war ended in 1945 new technologies focused on domestic improvements including everything from washing machines to refrigerators and automobiles. Turning away from the horrors of the Great Depression and the war to the reaffirmation of life back at home many Americans availed themselves of new technology creating and embracing a new form of American consumerism. Thanks to advertising and the new mood of optimism many people believed they could have it all a nice home, a happy family and all the products that could keep life running smoothly. The other important idea that's explored in this play is that of the American dream. Now this is a well known phrase which was first used by historian James Trostlow Adams in his 1931 book called The Epic of America. He describes the dream as a place where, and to quote from the book, life should be better and richer and fuller with opportunity for each according to ability. Yet he cautions that the dream is not focused on motor cars and high wages but rather on a social order in which people are empowered to reach their highest capabilities and be recognized by others for what they are, an idea that Willie Lohman returns to again and again as he wrestles the importance of being well liked. Yet the goal of making the American dream something concrete rather than philosophical has often eluded many Americans such as Willie Lohman. They've struggled to define it within the reality of American living and some have translated the dream into materialism whilst others emphasize simple living. Some view America, the USA, as a land of opportunity where everyone has an equal chance of reward as a result of a productive work ethic. Still others argue that aspects of culture such as poverty, classism, racism and sexism keep the dream elusive for millions of Americans. The writer Thomas Byron Edzel cautions that, and to quote him, the growing gulf between the affluent and the middle classes is an athema to the American dream. However, for Eleanor Roosevelt, the American dream remained an essential task for Americans. She believed, as the First Lady of America, she was married to Franklin Roosevelt, that Americans must be constantly reminded of its brightness and the splendor and beauty of the American dream. These contrasting statements testify to the continuing challenges for Americans of both defining and achieving the American dream. Now the American dream of the 1940s is reflected in Willie Lohman's desire to achieve social recognition and material success. However, his sense of optimism has long been frustrated and the technology that promises to make life better and more fulfilling perpetually frustrates him. In the end, the promises of the future ring hollow as Lohman's sense of identity is unfulfilled, his relationship with his older son fractured, and he's unable to adapt to the changing world around him. Now when it comes to the plot of the play itself, we meet Willie Lohman who's an old salesman and he returns early from a business trip. After nearly crashing multiple times, Willie has a moment of enlightenment and realizes he shouldn't be driving. Seeing that her husband is no longer able to do his job as a traveling salesman, Willie's wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss Howard to give him a local office job at the New York headquarters of his company. Willie thinks that getting the new job is a sure thing since he, mistakenly, sees himself as a valuable salesman. We start to learn more of the family's background as the play progresses and we hear about Willie and Linda's grown sons, Biff and Happy. Biff has just returned home from working as a farmhand in the west. Willie thinks Biff could easily be rich and successful but is wasting his talents and needs to get back on track. Willie thinks Biff wastes his talents as a way to spite him. Later on that night, Willie starts having flashbacks and talking to imagined images as if they were real people. We realize there's something amiss, he's ranting so loudly that Happy and Biff, his sons, wake up. The brothers are legitimately worried as they've never seen their father like this. Biff, feeling as though he should stay close at home and fix his relationship with his father, decides to talk to a former employer, Bill Oliver, about getting a loan to start a business. In the middle of the night, Willie talks to himself so loudly that everybody wakes up. Linda, his wife, admits to her sons that she and Willie are struggling financially. Worse still, Willie has been attempting suicide. She's worried and she takes it out on her sons accusing Biff of being the cause of Willie's unhappiness. Willie then gets in on the family discussion and the situation goes downhill from there. He and Biff begin to argue, but Happy interjects that Biff plans to see Oliver, his former employer, the following morning. Willie is overjoyed with this news. Everyone goes to sleep, believing that tomorrow will fulfill their dreams. Willie expects to get a local job from his boss and Biff expects to get a business loan. The next day, however, everything goes wrong. Willie feels happy and confident as he meets with his boss Howard. However, instead of getting a transfer to the New York office, Willie gets fired. Destroyed by the news, he begins to hallucinate and once again speaks with imaginary people as he heads out to meet his sons at a restaurant. Waiting for the father at the restaurant, Biff explains to Happy that Oliver wouldn't see him and didn't have the slightest idea who he was. Distressed and feeling spiteful, Biff stole Oliver's fountain pen. By now, Biff realises he's crazy to think he would have ever gotten alone and he and his family have been lying to themselves for basically their entire lives. When Willie does come into the restaurant demanding good news, Biff struggles to explain what's happened without letting his father down. Willie, who can't handle the disappointment, tries to pretend it isn't true and Willie starts drifting again into the dreamy past, reliving the moment when Biff discovers Willie's affair with a woman in Boston. While their father is hallucinating, Biff and Happy abandon him for two girls. Biff and Happy, Willie's sons later return home from their dates to find the mother waiting for them, furious that they left the father at the restaurant. A massive argument erupts. No one wants to listen to Biff, but he manages to get the point across that he can't live up to his father's unrealistic expectations and he is a failure. He's the only one who sees that they've been living a lie and he tells him so. The night ends with Willie realising that Biff, although a failure, seems to really love him. Unfortunately, Willie can't get past his son's failure. He thinks the greatest contribution that he himself can make towards his son's success is to commit suicide. That way, Biff could use life insurance money to start a business and within a few minutes, there's a loud crash and we learn that Willie has killed himself. In the final scene, Linda is sobbing. She's still under the delusion that her husband was a really well-liked salesman in his company. Therefore, Linda wonders why no one attended his funeral. Biff continues to see through his family's lies and wants to be a better man who's honest with himself. Unfortunately, Happy, his younger brother, wants to be just like his father and repeat the cycle. Now, when it comes to analysing the events of the play, Arthur Miller's play addresses the loss of identity as well as a man's inability to accept change within himself and society. Thus, the play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Willie Lohman's life and the play concludes, of course, with Willie's suicide and subsequent funeral. Now, Miller uses the Lohman family, Willie, Linda, Biff and Happy, to construct a self-perpetuating cycle of denial, contradiction and order versus disorder. Willie had an affair over 15 years earlier than the time within the play and Miller focuses on an affair and the aftermath to reveal how individuals can be defined by a single event and the subsequent attempts to disguise or radicate their event. For instance, prior to discovering their affair, Willie's son, Biff, adored his father Willie and believed all of his stories and even subscribed to his philosophy that anything is possible as long as a person is well liked. However, the realisation that his father Willie was unfaithful to his mother Linda forced Biff to re-evaluate him, as well as his perception of the world and he realised that Willie had created a false image of himself for his family society as well as Biff. Biff also finds that Willie is not really an invincible father or a loyal husband or a fantastically successful salesman like he wants everyone to believe. Instead, he's self-centred, he fails to appreciate his wife and can't acknowledge the fact that he's only marginally successful. Hence, Willie fantasises about lost opportunities for wealth, fame and notoriety. Even so, it would be incorrect to state that Miller solely criticises Willie. Instead, Miller demonstrates how one individual can create a self-perpetuating cycle that expands to include other individuals. This is certainly the case within the Lowman family. Until the end of the play, Willie effectively blocks the affair out of his memory and commits himself to a life of denial. He can't remember what happened so naturally he doesn't understand why his relationship with Biff has changed so much. Willie wants Biff's affection and adoration as before but instead the two constantly argue and Willie vacillates, sometimes criticising Biff's laziness and ineptitude and other times praising his physical abilities and ambition. Linda and Happy are also drawn into this cycle of denial. Linda is aware of Willie's habit of reconstructing reality however she also recognises that Willie may not be able to accept reality as shown through his numerous suicide attempts prior to the beginning of the play. As a result, Linda chooses to protect Willie's illusions by treating them as truth even if she must ignore reality or alienate her children and do so. Happy is also a product of Willie's philosophy. Like Willie, he manipulates the truth to create a more favourable reality to be himself. For instance, when Happy tells everyone he's an assistant buyer even though he's only the assistant to the assistant, he proves he's incorporated Willie's practice of editing facts. Miller based Willie's character on his two uncles called Manny Newman and Lee Balsam who are salesmen. Miller saw his uncles as independent explorers charting new territories across America and it's noteworthy that Miller doesn't disclose what type of salesman Willie is. Rather than drawing the audience's attention to what Willie sells, Miller chooses to focus on the fact that Willie is just a salesman and as a result, he expands the import of Willie's situation. Willie's an explorer, conqueror of New England territory and a dreamer and this allows the audience to connect with him because everyone has aspiration dreams and goals. Willie's despair results from his failure to achieve this American dream of success and at one point, Willie was a moderately successful salesman opening new territory in New England and Biff and Happy viewed him as a model father. However, once Biff discovers they're fair, he loses respect for Willie as well as his own motivation to succeed and as Willie grows older, making sales becomes more difficult for him so attempts to draw on past success by reliving old memories. Willie loses his ability to distinguish reality from fantasy and this behavior alienates him from others thereby diminishing his ability to survive in the present. As the play progresses, Willie's life becomes more disordered and he's forced to withdraw almost completely to the past where order exists because he can reconstruct events or relive old memories. The play continues to affect audiences because it allows them to hold a mirror up to themselves. Willie's self-deprecation, sense of failure and overwhelming regret are emotions that an audience can relate to because everyone has experienced them at one time or another. Although most don't commit suicide in the face of adversity, people connect with Willie because he's a man driven to extreme action. An audience may react with sympathy towards Willie because he believes he's left with no other alternative but to commit suicide. On the other hand, an audience may react with disgust and anger towards Willie believing he's deserted his family and taking the easy way out. Either way, individuals continue to react to the death of a salesman because Willie's situation isn't unique. He made a mistake one that irrevocably changes relationship with the people he loves most and when all of his attempts to eradicate his mistake fail he makes one grand attempt to correct the mistake. Willie vehemently denies Biff's claim that they are both common ordinary people but ironically it's a universality of the play that makes it so enduring. Biff's statement, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you, is true after all. Now when it comes to key characters, the first of course is the protagonist Willie Lohman. He's the salesman of the title and the husband of Linda. We never learn what he sells but he's thoroughly bought into a version of the American dream in which charisma and luck count for more than diligence or wisdom. All his life he represents himself to his family as being constantly on the verge of huge success while privately wondering why he hasn't risen to the heights he believes is capable of reaching. Eventually the schism between his dreams and reality results in mental collapse in which he relives significant moments from his past without learning the lessons of that past. He also invests all his hope in his sons and is disappointed in the way they turn out, not realising that his shallow dream of success has influenced both Biff's disillusionment and Happy's shallowness. His death represents a final transformation of himself into a commodity, a life insurance policy for the benefit of his family whose love he's felt fully recognised while he was still with him. The other key character is Linda Lohman. She's Willie's wife and she remains devoted to him even as he betrays her at two major points during the play committing adultery with a woman as a younger man and committing suicide with a deluded belief that he will solve the family's problems by doing so. As the person closest to Willie she realises he's trying to kill himself and exhorts his son to show him more love however she's responsible for his death as any of the other characters are as her encouragement fuels Willie in his doomed pursuit of glory. The other important character is Biff Lohman whose Willie and Linda's elder son. He's always been in the shadow of his father's expectations for him beginning with the starred career as a high school football player and prospective college student. With that impressionable age he witnesses Willie's affair with the woman which is enough to shake his faith in everything his father has ever told him. When the play begins he's grasping for answers in his life having worked as a farm labour for years and still unable to meet his father's standards of success. In the course of the play he has a revelation that he like his father is not destined for greatness yet he realises he can still achieve happiness through his own simpler version of the American dream working with his hands in wide open spaces during the things that fulfill him. He represents Willie's better more honest nature which Willie tragically turns away from. The other character is Happy Lohman and he's Willie and Linda's younger son. He's the assistant to an assistant manager at the department store and is willing to do whatever is convenient. He is deplicitised to his family, he takes bribes at work and sleeps with the girlfriends of his colleagues. At the end of the play he resolves to carry on Willie's legacy but making as much money as possible which is in some ways a twisted misinterpretation of what Willie's death meant. In the importance that Happy places of getting ahead and in this readiness to delude himself he represents the worst aspects of Willie's nature. The other character is Ben Lohman and he was Willie's adventurous brother who died in Africa when the play begins. At moments of great stress or doubt, Willie converses with Ben's ghost. Ben is an embodiment of the most old-fashioned aspect of the American dream the idea that a man can set out into the wilderness by himself and come back wealthy. Willie regrets not following Ben's path and testing himself against rugged natural settings. Yet he barely knew Ben and Ben showed contempt for him on his few visits to Willie's home. Charlie's another character and he's Willie's neighbour and study businessman. He's a constant friend to Willie through the years. Though Willie is quick to take offence whenever Charlie tries to bring Willie's unrealistic unrealistic dreams down to earth. Charlie foresees Willie's destruction and tries to save him by offering him a job. He gives the final allergy about what it meant for Willie to live and die as a salesman. Howard Wagner is another important character and he's Willie's boss and the son of Frank Wagner who founded the company for which Willie works. He's a cold selfish man and he inherits his success without building anything himself. He refuses to take the personal association between Willie and his father into account when he tells Willie that there's no place for him at the New York office and he represents the new impersonal face of the sales business. Now when it comes to themes the first is that of the American dream as well as disillusionment. So a key component to the American dream is the idea that financial prosperity is available to anyone who works for it and Willie learns the lie behind this proposition even as he watches other characters succeed financially. His brother Ben, his neighbour Charlie and Charlie's son Bernard. Throughout the play Willie Moment's desire to be well liked and well respected drive him as much as his desire for financial success. He believes that the American dream is a two-part idea financial success and the recognition of that success of our society. Willie mistakenly measures his value through the social respect to recognition of others and he bestows this belief on his sons. The other key theme is that of illusion versus reality. For Willie Lowman issues of illusion and reality are complicated and the structure of the play makes these issues complicated for the audience as well as Miller weaves flashbacks into the present reality of the play. March of Willie's life of illusion is fuelled by his need to manipulate the truth to his own advantage. For instance he spends the facts about his sales earnings withholding information about his impoverished financial state from his family for the purpose of appearing successful. One of the most significant illusions which haunts Willie and ultimately his whole family is his infidelity to Linda. Instead of acknowledging the truth and accepting responsibility for his betrayal Willie makes up a story to tell his son which doesn't fall Biff. Willie's conflict with Biff comes to a climax when Biff finally names Willie for what he is, a phony. In fact the entire Lowman family lives under a cloud of illusion and self-deception. They keep information from each other and never speak openly about the family's dysfunction continue to behave as if they're a happy family in the cusp of success. While Linda Lowman knows the truth about her husband his deteriorating mental state and suicide attempts she continues to live a life devoted to Willie. Her self-deception requires that she turn of blind eye to the full effects of Willie's choices and in contrast Charlie and his son Bernard who both financially successful and appear to be happy don't seem to suffer from the kind of self-deception as Lowman's. The other theme is that of betrayal so as young men Willie and his brother Ben were abandoned by the father when they when he left the family presumably for Alaska. This first betrayal in Willie's life is a betrayal of family values as a father's responsibility to stay with this family and help raise his sons. Subsequently Ben who's a surrogate father figure betrayed Willie when he left Willie behind to travel to Africa where he made his fortune and then died. Willie also feels betrayed by Ben in that he believes that Ben held some secret success to wealth that he didn't share with his brother Willie. In both cases Willie's father and his brother chose to live lives of adventure and wealth in place of building family connections. These early betrayals then led to Willie's betrayal of his own family in various forms. As a traveling salesman Willie frequently abandoned his sons for road trips leaving them fatherless for a long period of time. He then betrayed Linda in his affair with the woman and in the end he acted out the ultimate betrayal of his family when he abandoned them through suicide. The other theme is nature versus the man-made environment. Although Willie Lowman feels driven to be a success as a salesman he has another conflicting longing that peers throughout the play. He loves nature and the country life in fact. Traveling allows Willie to feel a sense of freedom and participation in the natural world although he's just driving through it. When Willie is feeling at his worst he wishes for fresh air, a garden and the outdoor life yet his sense that real success comes from working in a man-made environment keeps him changed his life in a New York city and a job in which he can't achieve personal financial success. Biff also loves nature and faces the same in a conflict with his father. He loves working on a farm in the west but he has been so indoctrinated by his father's ideas about the American dream and business success that he can't embrace what he clearly enjoys. Unable to settle into a satisfying career Biff moves back and forth between the freedom of the country and the confinement of the city for a time subscribed into a dream of owning a sporting goods store with happy. Now when it comes to the symbols in the play the first is that of distant lands. So distant geographical locations represent freedom and possibility in contrast to the confinement and death of New York City. In several of Willie's memories his brother Ben appears and asks him to accompany him to Alaska, a wide open land of opportunity. In the end Ben ends up in Africa another wild and mysterious location and becomes rich in the Diamond Night Minds there by the age of 21. At the beginning of the play Biff returns from an enjoyable walk on a farm in the west to try and make a more substantial and traditional living in New York all the while longing to return to the west to start a ranch. All three distant locations symbolize the possibility of escape and independence. The other symbol is that of stockings. So silk stockings became a symbol of both Willie Lohman's betrayal as well as deception. Both Willie's wife and his lover discuss stockings. To be economical Linda Lohman spends time repairing her damaged stockings a fact that annoys her husband because it emphasizes his failure to provide his family with luxuries. Willie Lohman also gives new stockings to the woman with whom he's having an affair with in Boston and when Biff Lohman discovers his father's affair he shouts you you gave her mama's stockings a further sign of Willie's betrayal of his family. Mila's choice of stockings is significant in that during the Second World War materials used to make stockings including silk, nylon and rayon were rationed for the war effort and this essential component of a woman's wardrobe was really hard to get. This historical context therefore emphasizes Willie's efforts to give to the woman but not his own wife something rare and valuable that's very hard to come by. In this way Willie's gift to the woman's in praise of Willie are more helpful to him in maintaining his own delusions of success than the vision of his wife mending her own torn stockings. Seeds are another important symbol and they symbolize Willie Lohman's longing for nature something that he can't get in his city dwelling. His desire to plant seeds reveals a healthy need to nurture growth but it's not well planned or executed. He fails at raising his sons and he's trapped in a world in which he is unfruitful. When he explains that he needs to get seeds his wife reminds him that there's not enough light to plant a garden yet near the end of the play Willie in a delusional state is out in the backyard planting seeds a lost effort to create something fruitful with his life. The flute is another important symbol and the play begins and ends with the melody of a flute and music career appears many times throughout the story. Willie's father who deserted Willie as a child was a flute maker and salesman. The instrument which is small fine telling of grass and trees and a horizon symbolizes the past for Willie a connection to nature as well as a sense of abandonment and longing for a deep connection with this family. The flute also serves as a signal to the audience that Willie's memories are near and that the past is about to overtake the present. So that's all if you found this video useful please do give it a big thumbs up and share it with anybody who you think might benefit from it. 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