Shelter in Place

Brief Summary Willy Loman, the central figure in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, occupies a position to which few characters in literature ascend. Willy serves as a point of reference in contexts outside of literature—invoked to describe anyone who is crushed by the immense forces of American capitalism. This habit suggests a certainty about the play’s meaning that often forms around a widely acknowledged masterpiece despite its multitude of ambiguities. Death of a Salesman vividly portrays the destructive power of certain American tendencies, such as equating wealth with virtue and possessions with self-worth. But the extent of the play’s ambition can quickly obscure the fact that it is also a story about one family and its individual members, culminating in the father’s suicide. What brings Willy Loman to this point cannot be reduced to the malignant influence of the society in which he lives, although an economic system determined by abstract principles rather than human needs is in part responsible for Willy’s fate. As he says to Howard, his boss, "a man is not a piece of fruit!” (pp. 61-62), but to Howard and the world he represents, the bottom line always comes first. Willy’s history with the Wagner Company and Howard’s father cannot keep Howard from firing Willy. All Howard can say to Willy is "business is business” (p. 60). Believing that his family will benefit more from his life insurance policy than from his continuing to live, Willy seems to accept the implication underlying Howard’s statement—that the value of a person can be quantified according to actual wealth or earning potential. As he says to Charley, "you end up worth more dead than alive” To argue, however, that Willy kills himself primarily because he realizes the true nature of his world neglects the all-consuming power of his illusions, which retain their hold on him to the end. He is seduced by an American dream that is corrupted; he spends his life working to pay for a house, a car, and a refrigerator, without suspecting that it’s a game he cannot win. Even though Willy finally seems to understand the absurdity of owning something only when it is no longer of any use to him, he maintains his belief in the worth and worthiness of being well liked, as if the game were about something more than numbers. But what makes Death of a Salesman more than an indictment of a system and gives Willy a truly tragic dimension is the intimation that Willy suffers not just from the inhumanity of free enterprise, but also from his inability to reconcile the hopes he had for his life with the one he has actually lived. ISBN:09780141182742 Author:Arthur Miller