FREE ESSAY ON DEATH OF A SALESMAN

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949, 1977) portrays a man who struggles with the
task of having a good family relationship at home with his wife and two sons, and
procrastinating being a successful salesman. The play reveals how procrastination can
destroy an individual's life. Through an analysis of the character of Willy Loman and his
actions in the five major periods of his life (i.e., sending Biff to college and showing
interest in his football ability, paying the last house payment on the house, getting
fires from his job of some thirty-odd years, having Biff catch him cheating on Mrs.
Loman, committing suicide by running his car into a tree), the theme is developed.
Willy Loman made everything in his life much harder than it really was. He seemed to
complain and procrastinate about everything. Take for example when Willy was supposed to
speak with Biffs math teacher to better Biffs grade in the class. Willy said,  I'll tell
you what Biff, Let me go down there and have a talk with her and see if I can't just fix
that grade in there for you! How would you like that, Huh? (1273). Biff really thought
his father would go down to the school and straighten everything out with his teacher.
Willy Loman never even set the first foot in the doorway towards Biffs school. This
showed the power of procrastination that was dwelling over Willy's personality. Willy
couldn't even hold up to his end of the deal for his own son. Mr. Loman had broken
another promise from procrastination, but this time it was his own son. 
Every week Willy Loman has to borrow $50.00 from his next-door neighbor Charley. Every
week when Willy borrows the money he tells Charley that next week he will pay him back.
For over 5 years Charley has been hearing this same sentence come out of Willy Loman's
mouth every week when he comes to borrow $50.00. The problem is Willy has been working
for the same sales firm for over 30 years. When he first began he had a good sales year
in 1928. This was the only year in 30 years of sales the Willy had a good month. This was
when Willy Loman was both on salary and commission. Since then his sales ratings have
dropped, and he has been taken off of salary, and only given commission. This is why he
has to borrow $50.00 from Charley every week and pretend to his wife, Linda that the
$50.00 is his paycheck. Willy probably doesn't sell anything because every deal he
composes to a buyer is left with broken promises, which Willy is notorious for, and the
deal falls through. Take for example, when Willy is talking to Mrs. Loman and says, They
don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England (1224). This
quotation perfectly outlays the basis for Willy's procrastinating personality. Not only
can Willy break a promise, but also he is always better somewhere else. No matter what
the circumstance is for Willy Loman, there is always something better for him elsewhere.

At the relative beginning of the play Willy pays the last house payment on his house. A
sense of over joy and accomplishment would come over most people, but Willy and Linda's
situation was slightly different. The time it takes to pay off a house is normally closer
to retirement in most adults' life. Retirement is normally referred to as the golden
years in ones' life. The house is paid off, the children are up and grown, the family is
financially stable, the house and everything around it is in perfect working order, and
now it is time to enjoy the couple of years you have left in your life. Through Willy's
years of procrastinating he has cheated himself short of most of this. He has no money,
and is borrowing $50.00 weekly from the next-door neighbor. His sons are up and grown,
but tend to fight and argue with him instead of cherishing the few years left in their
father's life. The house is paid off, but it is falling apart as well as everything in
it, because Willy has failed to take the time he said he would to hold the house
together. Linda is talking about what they have left to pay off after the last house
payment is sent in when she says, Well, there's ninety-six for the washing machine. And
for the vacuum cleaner there is three and a half due on the sixteenth. Then on the roof
you have got twenty-one dollars remaining, but it is still leaking (1234). The quotation
is perfect evidence that explains the whole situation in the Loman household. It backs up
the idea that Willy should have been well on top of the maintenance of the house and he
wouldn't have had the problem with the roof leaking. As for the vacuum cleaner and the
washing machine, most people in Willy and Linda's age group would have had all of this
paid off long ago. This also proves as evidence that Willy's procrastination has set him
behind.
During the play Willy has broken so many promises, that at one point in his life he isn't
satisfied with Mrs. Loman, and cheats on her with another women. The only problem is Biff
walks in on his dad and this other women. Willy tries to make an excuse for the whole
situation and says, Get out of here! Go back! Go back. This is Mrs. Francis, Biff, she is
a buyer. They're painting her room. Go back, Mrs. Francis, go back (1276). This portrays
Willy's procrastination in the light. First of all, he didn't even have the decency to
remain faithful to his wife of 30 years. Another promise that he has broken. The second
event that sets the situation off is he doesn't even have the courage to fess up to his
own son and tell him he has been having an affair with another women. Biff has just
walked in on him cheating on Mrs. Loman, and Willy can't even fess up to his own mistake,
and lies once again to his own son. Willy has a major problem with honesty and
procrastination. Mr. Loman tends to cover things up or put them off, where as he should
be the man he is suppose to be and take the blame for something he did wrong, instead of
make up an excuse and divert the blame elsewhere.
About three-quarters of the way through the play, Willy Loman gets fired from his job at
the firm, for some 30-odd years. This totally crushes Willy, because this event puts his
dishonesty and procrastination in plain view where he realizes he has destroyed one of
the only things he has left, his job. Willy then questions how he will ever pay Charley
back the money he owes him. All of reality hits Willy at once when he says, I was fired,
and I am looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited
and the woman has suffered. The gist of it is that I haven't got a story left in my head,
Biff. So don't give me a lecture about the facts and aspects. I am not interested (1270).
This is the one major event in the play where Willy realizes what he has done wrong. He
realizes he has lied and procrastinated his whole life away, and now he has nothing.
Thomas Porter agrees with this view also, and evidence of this is when he says, Willy
finishes by facing the harsh fact that his whole life has been a lie. The triumphal
ascent of the Alger hero is reversed in every particular. The rags to riches dream never
materializes, and the salesman never escapes his rags (Porter 27). Most people would
learn from this mistake, pick back up where they left off, and continue on with their
life to better themselves with what little time they have left. Not Willy! No sir! He
talks as if he were going to get back up, not let this event slow him down, and better
not only his life, but Linda's as well. This is another procrastination by Willy, and his
life slowly falls until destruction from here.
At the end of the play, Willy kills himself by running his car into a tree. This was not
the first time he tried to kill himself. Take for example earlier in the story when Mrs.
Loman finds out Willy has been huffing gas off of the hot water heater in the basement.
Another instance is when Linda tells Happy and Biff that the insurance claims adjustor
called and the car wrecks Willy had been in were deliberate, and possibly an attempt to
commit suicide. The quotation in the play comes when Linda says, He's trying to kill
himself. Remember I wrote you that he smashed the car up again? In February? The
insurance inspector came. He said that they have evidence that all the accidents in the
last year, well they weren't accidents (1246). Willy's death is a procrastination of his
life. He realized that the things he was dishonest about or procrastinated would
eventually catch up with him, and when they did they were a lot more troublesome. A few
editors also came up with an opinion of Willy's identity also, like when they say, The
whole question of Willy's hidden identity is curiously like that in Oedipus. The key
words, he does not know who he is, point the parallel almost unmistakably (Bierman,
Weales, Hart, and Johnson 269). Willy took the easy way out by killing himself. He
couldn't live up to the events of the day. Killing himself in the end by running his car
into a tree was a symbol of what kind of person Willy Loman really was. It portrayed he
was a procrastinator, always looking for the easy way out.
Willy Loman made everything he did much harder than it really was. He seemed to complain
and procrastinate about everything. Willy's life was not too bad because he had two good
sons, a loving wife, and a boss that dealt with his procrastinating personality for many
years. Willy's life went through a downhill fall, when it should have been coming uphill.
He was nearing retirement, the house was paid off, and his two sons had moved out and
started their own lives. Willy Loman could not deal with the circumstances of the time,
so he took the easy way out and killed himself.
Works Cited
Martine, James J. Death of a Salesman. Critical Essays on Arthur Miller. Ed. Thomas 
Porter. G.K. Hall and Company, 1979. 21-44.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Text and Criticism. Eds. Gerald Weales, Judah
Bierman, James Hart, and Stanley Johnson. 1st Ed. University of Pennsylvania: 
Penguin Books, 1977. 265-270.
Miller Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Literature; An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 
Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Upper Saddle River: Prentice
Hall, 1998. 1222-1285.