Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller and first performed on Broadway in 1949. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play, it is considered by critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The cynical play follows the final hours of a mentally unstable salesman at the end of his career who fails to attain the American Dream.

Plot Summary

Willy Loman, a 63-year-old traveling salesman, returns to his home in Brooklyn after another failed business trip. He has difficulty remembering things and distinguishing the past and present. His wife, Linda, suggests that he request a job in New York. They discuss their older son Biff’s failures as Willy heads to the kitchen. There, Willy talks to an imaginary Biff, criticizing his failures. Meanwhile, Biff and his younger brother Happy reminisce about their youth and fantasize about living in the country. Willy falls into a memory of young Biff and Happy washing his car and displaying affection. Willy says that he will own his own business, one bigger than that of their neighbor Charley whom Willy dislikes.

Charley’s son, Bernard, interrupts the Lomans to say that Biff will fail math if he doesn’t study.