Critical Essays Major Themes in Death of a Salesman. Death of a Salesman addresses loss of identity and a man’s inability to accept change within himself and society. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations, and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Willy Loman’s life.

The American Dream is the dominant theme, or main idea, in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman’s notions of the American Dream equate success with being well-liked. Likeability is an important quality for a salesman like Willy, yet he is unable to achieve the success he desires.

In Act I, Scene 1, Miller introduces the three major themes of Death of a Salesman: denial, contradiction, and order versus disorder. When Willy returns home early from a sales trip, Linda casually asks if he wrecked the car.

Themes in Death of a Salesman

• Theme #1. American Dream. The American Dream has been one of the themes of most literary works written during that time.
• Theme #2. Dangers of Modernity.
• Theme #3. Gender Relations.
• Theme #4. Opportunity.
• Theme #5. Family.
• Theme #6. Personality Cult.
• Theme #7. Natural and Artificial World.
• Theme #8. Betrayal and Abandonment.

It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. It is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century….

Death of a Salesman
Subject	The waning days of a failing salesman
Genre	Tragedy
Setting	Late 1940s; Willy Loman’s house; New York City and Barnaby River; Boston

Willy’s death is ironic because he fails to accomplish his cherished goals of domestic happiness and professional success. At the end of the play, we learn that the only people who attend Willy’s funeral are his immediate family and Charley, his neighbor. No one else shows up, not even Willy’s boss Howard.

Failure 3: Biff can’t seem to find a job that suits him, and although things were going well for him in Texas, he panicked because the job he had as a farmhand wasn’t the kind of job Willy expected him to have. Biff failed to fulfill Willy’s expectations, and that makes him a complete failure in his father’s eyes.

What is ironic about Linda’s wondering why no one came to the funeral? Throughout the play, Linda was the only character who consistently knew the truth. She knew the truth of Willy’s previous suicide attempt. Of all people, she should be least surprised that no one would attend the funeral.

The irony is in the end of the speech when she says “we’re free”. The last payment is made so they are out of financial debt. This is a tragic time for the family because Willy has just died but it is also a very happy moment because they are out of debt, which they have tried to be their whole lives.

We’re free

Willy’s Tragic Flaw In classical tragedy, the main character frequently suffers from the tragic flaw of hubris, or excessive pride. But the tragic hero of Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, doesn’t necessarily suffer from pride. Instead, he suffers from a false vision of what helps a man achieve the American dream.

Like Charley says, “No man only needs a little salary”—no man can sustain himself on money and materiality without an emotional or spiritual life to provide meaning.

Death of a Salesman Happy is angry that Willy committed suicide, while Biff says that Willy “didn’t know who he was.” Charley tells them that a salesman’s life depends upon dreams. Happy is determined to fulfill Willy’s dreams, but Biff plans to leave Brooklyn.

Why did Biff decide to leave for good? He was tired of supporting his parents. His dad kicked him out. He wanted to give his father peace of mind.

Biff comes home to discover what is really important to him. He come home so that he can leave home of his own accord. He finally comes to terms with what he really wants in his own life and not what his father wants him to be. Spring is the season of the melting of ice, rebirth and new growth.

Biff bailed on summer school and the math credit. From here, he spiraled downward. He started working on ranches in the West, but couldn’t hold a job because he kept stealing from his bosses. When we meet him in the play, he’s 34 years old and has finally realized just how bad Willy messed him up.

Biff’s real name is ‘Barbara’ and Chip’s real name is ‘Chip’. When Kipper was little he couldn’t say ‘Barbara and David’ and instead he called them ‘Biff and Chip’. This made everyone laugh and the two names stuck!

Biff is betrayed by his father’s emptiness and selfishness, and he can no longer idolize Willy or believe in his version of the American Dream. This spirals into a life of failure and drifting, which reflects Willy’s own failures in business, and the tragedy of his never achieving the American Dream.

The reason of Biff hates Willy so much is that he knows Willy’s extramarital relations. He is ashamed about his father’s behavior. In Biff’s mind, he always considers his father a great, outstanding person, but after he knows that he has an extramarital relation, he was so depressed.

There really isn’t one person who is to blame for Willy’s death. There are a combination of factors that led Willy to kill himself. Willy was consumed with his own conception of the American dream; the play chronicles his sprialing downfall.

At the conclusion of the play, Biff has learned, or at least finally acknowledged, the truth about his own life and his father’s life.

Biff is bothered by the way that Willy refuses to live in reality. When Biff was in high school, Willy fantasized about Biff’s great football future and made excuses for Biff. Effectively, this refusal to engage in reality means that Biff and Linda are ignored by Willy. They are invisible to him in their reality.

Happy Loman is Willy and Linda Loman’s son in Death of a Salesman. Happy is thirty-two years old, younger than his brother Biff by two years.

The title also refers to the death of Willy’s salesman dream—the dream to be financially successful and a father to hotshot sons. By the end of the play, Willy is flat broke and without a job. In the end, Willy’s salesman dream is dead, dead, dead.

He was a football star with lots of potential in high school, but he failed math his senior year and dropped out summer school due to seeing his father with another woman while visiting him in Boston. Biff, who had previously idolized his father, became disillusioned with him, and he decided not to enter business.

Ben is Willy’s adventurous and lucky older brother. Of course, he’s dead, so he only appears in the play as a character in Willy’s troubled imagination. Willy totally idolizes Ben because he was an adventurer who escaped the world of business and got rich quick by finding diamonds in the African jungle.

Happy Loman Willy’s thirty-two-year-old younger son. Happy has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he compensates by nurturing his relentless sex drive and professional ambition. Happy represents Willy’s sense of self-importance, ambition, and blind servitude to societal expectations.

Biff is tired of fighting and blaming Willy for his own lack of success. Biff says that he and Willy are nothing but ordinary people who could easily be replaced by others. He and his father argue, and, when Biff breaks down and cries, holding onto Willy, Willy is amazed and “elevated” at Biff’s love for him.