Three Themes of Death of a Salesman

In the play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, there are three themes that occur throughout. One of the big themes of the book is the idea of the American Dream.  The American Dream is the idea of a "self made man" who succeeds in life and goes from poverty to being rich.  Willy believes that being "well- liked" and popular are the keys to success and he tries to instill these beliefs in his two sons, Happy and Biff.  At first the dream was Willy's, but he has gotten too old and didn't succeed, so now he wants that life for his sons, and wants to push them to get it.

Another theme in Death of a Salesman is the idea of abandonment.  This is shown through Willy's whole life.  When Willy was about 3 or 4 years old his dad left the family, so Willy never really go to know him.  When he left he also left the family with hardly any money.  Later on Willy's older brother, Ben leaves to go start a life in Alaska.  Those two losses in Willy's young life could very well be the reason for Willy's yearning for the American Dream.

A third theme shown in the play is deception.  Willy doesn't want to let down or look bad in front of his family, so he tries to make himself sound better then he really is.  He tells his sons that he makes more money than he really does, so he will sound more successful.  He doesn't want to appear as a failure to his sons, he wants it to look like he posses the American Dream.  He also lied to his wife, Linda about how much money he made so he didn't appear to have failed, even though Linda knew how much he was really making and what he was really doing.  He also was dishonest about the fact that he was cheating on Linda.  She just assumed he was working she didn't know what was going on.   Biff did find out about it, because he walked in on them.

Nicole

Flaws of the Salesman

In the play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy tries to teach his boys some values.  I think what Willy is trying to teach his sons is that being "well liked" will lead to success and is most important.  On page 18  Willy says "Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not- liked.  He's liked, he's not - well liked."  This is explaining that his business is going to be even bigger than his brothers because he is well liked and his brother is not.  He thinks that his children will do well in life not because of their success, but because they are popular. 

I think that these are probably not the best concepts for him to teach his sons because it is more important to develop the character within then to try to change yourself for what other people want you to be.  It may be true that well you are in school if you are popular, you get invited to more things and have more friends, but in the real world it takes more than being popular and well liked to get you anywhere.

These Inconsistencies tell us that Willy changes his opinion on things based on the circumstances of the situation.  Whichever answer will help him or benefit his argument in the situation is the one he uses, whether it contradicts something he has said in the past or not.  It also depends on the mood he is in. For example when he is talking about Biff and says he's a lazy bum he was mad and arguing that Biff needs to get a job and that he's too old to not be able to hold a job.  Then when he says Biff is a hard worker that was because Linda had told him that she thinks he was lost so Willy felt bad so he was saying that Biff has such "personal attractiveness" he shouldn't be getting "lost".  When he was talking about the Chevvy being a great car he was in a good mood then when he said it was a bad car it was because he was stressed because he owed money that he didn't have for it to be fixed so he was stressed and upset.

Linda reacts to him by just agreeing with him no matter what he says.  She doesn't try to argue she just agrees even if what he is saying is a contradiction to something he has said previously.  I think this is both helpful and harmful.  It is helpful in the short term because it saves Willy from arguing with her or over reacting.  This is harmful in the long term though because he is never confronted with his contradictions, so he just continues and doesn't work on correcting himself, but he may not even realize he is doing it.

Nicole