Preview

Death Of A Salesman American Dream

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1170 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death Of A Salesman American Dream
Death of A Salesman

Introduction

American is a capitalist society in which everyone is dispensable, where new is seen as being better: A place where people are valued by material things and not by their personality. The American dream rules America, believing that with hard work and a belief in yourself you can achieve your goals in life, money and many friends. Many people have tried to live ‘the dream‘, but few have achieved it after all a dream is only a dream.
Death of a Salesman is a play about one man of the many who chased ‘the dream' but after 34 years with no success at the age of 60 is cast out from the company he works for, abandoned like an orange peel once the fruit's heart has been devoured. His lack of success in life
…show more content…
In this scene Biff tries to explain that he has not got the money they need to start the new family business and that he had been kidding himself that he was a salesman like his father when he is only a clerk.

Characters

Willy Lomas - Main character Biff and Happy's father.

Willy has spent most of his life chasing the dream, this was his main goal but as his dreams fade, he begins to lose touch with reality, confusing the present day with memories of when he was more successful and people looked up to him - especially Biff. He suffers from depression and anxiety and he places his dreams upon his sons shoulders and pressurizes them to succeed where he has failed.

Biff - Willy's son - the older by 2 years.

Biff has had it easy in life; he was a high school football player but has spent his adult years drifting from one job to another. He doesn't know really what he wants in life, he has always admired his father, but since he learned of his father's affair and attempts at suicide he can now see his father for what he is.

Happy - Willy's youngest
…show more content…
Just before the woman enters Happy will wave to Stanley and then speak. The woman will enter from the left side through D1 she will then walk around T3 and sit facing the audience (this gives the audience and Stanley and Happy time to watch her and discuss her)
Stanley will then move to the table to wait on her as instructed by Happy. Happy will then stand up and move towards her and talk and offer her champagne. He sits facing her, turns to wave to Stanley to come over as he talks to her.
Stanley will then bring the champagne out to the woman; she sips it while they converse.

Props

Three tables, one left, one centre (main) and one at right.
Biff, Happy and Willy sit at the centre table. There will be flowers wilting on the table (not a high class restaurant but tries hard, rather like Happy and Willy).
The table and chairs are functional, but don't match and are well used.

Lighting

The lighting is kept dim, some of the lights in the restaurant aren't working but the light above the centre table works well and focuses the audience upon the action.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The characterisation of Willy is but one of Miller’s strengths in the play, for he cleverly uses time to show how Willy’s mind has been manipulated by the stress of his failings. Willy experiences flashbacks which his mind perhaps uses in order to protect him from the harsh truth of his present life. Willy’s two sons, Biff and Happy are fully grown, with Biff having turned sour towards his father and rejected the vision his father had for him. Still, Willy in his vulnerable state transports himself back to the time when Biff was a young, promising high school athlete who idolised his father and his ideals. Instead of encouraging academic achievement, Willy ensures his sons that if they are ‘liked’ they will ‘never want’. Sadly for both Willy and Biff, this was a delusion which saw Biff become the very…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman“ is a play illustrating the life of a man wanting success but takes his life for his family to be financially stable. At the story’s heart is a tragic depiction of the protagonist, a man who wants to be successful, who wants his kids to be successful, he wants to live the American dream. Miller balances the literary devices of of flashbacks, motifs, conflicts and characterization to perceive the cost of the American Dream.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unlike Willy and Happy, Biff feels compelled to seek the truth about himself. While his father and brother are unable to accept the miserable…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Willy Loman is the main character in Miller’s, Death of Salesman. Throughout the play, he struggles with his work ethic and well-being. In the story, Willy Loman is a sales man that is unable to accept him and society. In his older years gets fired from his job. His son is unable to receive a loan from the bank to start his own business. Willy affected by guilt kills himself, that way his son Biff is then able to collect his insurance money and become an entrepreneur. Willy does have flaws in his character that make him partially responsible for his own misfortune. Willy’s ultimate down fall is a result of social pressure, family and friend influences, and his psychological and emotional state of mind.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    One the other hand Biff still tries to “answer the call” and try to prove to his father that he will make something of himself. Moreover, Willy wanted to be a salesman for the reason that he wanted to make money and support his family. So, he tries to inspire them when he says, Don’t say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don’t breathe it to a soul. Someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll never have to leave home any more” (Pg. 30). Ever since Biff was in highschool he followed his father’s orders and played football so he could get into a good college. Since Biff is the typical jock, he relied on his looks to get him anywhere in life. Just like any everyday hero Biff needed to leave in order to find himself and go on that journey. At first Biff was mesmerized by beauty of the farm and that made him realize that he is in the same monotonous job everyday . However, when Biff goes back home he is reminded of why he left in the first place; he realizes he has to go find himself yet again. For example Biff says, “I’ve always made a point of not wasting his life, and everything I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life.” (Pg. 22-23) In order to “answer the call” Biff promises his dad that he going to find himself a steady job at Bill Oliver’s. Similar to Roy, Biff like any hero has their flaws for the reason…

    • 1268 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a young boy, Biff, Willy’s oldest son showed athletic promise and charming personality that made him proud. Willy instilled in Biff and Happy; that in order to be successful in life all you needed was personality and great looks. He put little emphasis on hard work and repeatedly throughout the play applauds his boys for their popularity. For example, when a neighbor boy, Bernard attempts to get a young Biff to study for his Math regents, Willy…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With failure comes consequences, unfortunately Willy fails to acknowledge severity of his. Near the end of the play Willy’s advice seems unreliable in Biff’s eyes due to Willy’s failure to acknowledge his defeat in life and many of his past mistakes that only Biff knew about. Willy chased his American Dream for far too long leading to the destruction of him and his…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After this event occurs, Biff throws away everything he ever worked for in order to “punish” his father. He allows himself to fail math, to not go to college, and to abandon his family. Biff then goes to the South, where he works as a farmhand and eventually winds up in jail. He does all of this after realizing that all of the values his father had instilled in him were not even being lived out by his father. Everything Biff thought he knew appears to be a lie to him. In Willy’s mind, these values were true and he was simply showing his sons that they were both more than capable of being successful. By squandering his entire future, Biff shows that he is not capable and does not care enough to be a success.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In most of his flashbacks, Willy describes them both as “liked, but not well liked”, inferring to his sons that they will not make it far due to the lack of popularity. Present day, Willy relies on Charley for his money every week. This samples Willy’s pride. During a game of cards, Willy is offered a job working for Charley. He is immediately offended, with a sense of jealousy for his success. Changing the subject, Willy gloats about putting up his own ceiling, which he claims every man should know how to do, even though he knows Charley does not. He tries to gain his lost pride back by finding a weakness of his friend. Like his father, Bernard’s success makes Willy’s dignity falter. When Bernard is asked for advice and the reasoning to why Biff never attended summer school, it shows how desperate he is for guidance. However, when he asks Bernard if it was him who caused this dismay, Willy is irritated at Bernard putting blame on him. He sees it as though his pride is deteriorating by the…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Sometime during Willy's early adulthood, he meets and marries Linda. They live in Brooklyn and raise two sons, Biff and Happy. As a father, Willy Loman offers his sons terrible advice. For example, this is what the old salesman tells teenage Biff about women: "Willy: Just wanna be careful with those girls, Biff, that's all. Don't make any promises. No promises of any kind. Because a girl, y'know, they always believe what you tell 'em." This attitude is adopted all too well by his sons. Happy grows up to become a womanizer who sleeps with women who are engaged to his managers. Several times during the play, Happy promises that he is going to get married, but it is a flimsy lie that no one takes seriously.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biff Loman’s future looked bright when he was in high school- being the star football player with three major scholarships to colleges looked pretty promising- but yet returns home when he is much older claiming that he is “finding himself.” After flunking math his senior year, Biff looked to his father for help, only to catch him in the midst of an affair. The affair changed Biff’s views on his father, someone who he used to greatly admire then questions his father’s hopes for Biff. Biff’s dream is to move out west and live out on a cattle ranch while his father wants him to follow his footsteps to become a salesman: the job that Willy feels is the ultimate dream. When home, Biff tries everything in his power to attempt the path Willy has set out for him, even meeting with a possible job employer to create a new business. Biff confides in Happy and says, “And then he gave me one look and- I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been” (Miller 104). After the failure of this interview, Biff is left to feel as though his father is the one at fault and the reason that Biff is unsettled…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biff Loman's Tragic Flaw

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He expresses a tragic flaw, undergoes a fall due to his flaw, and then endures suffering after he recognizes his flaw. His tragic flaw, like his father’s, can be best identified as a lack of self-knowledge. He does realize that he doesn’t want to be like his father, but has trouble telling him this due to Willy’s flaws. He moves the plot along by agreeing to meet with Bill Oliver. As previously stated, the meeting is a complete failure and leads to a huge fight between Biff and his father, that leads to his father’s death. This combined with his many years of thievery and job hopping contribute to his character’s downfall. Despite his errors, he does gain self-knowledge by the end of the play. In his self-recognition, he realizes that he was not his father, he isn’t a salesman, and that he had spent years trying to be something that does not reflect his dreams or wants. He also develops a new understanding of his father’s lack of self-knowledge and how it led to his death. After his self-recognition, Biff endures suffering; He doesn’t have a stable job, his brother and mother are unhappy, and his father is dead. He gained a better understanding of himself, but at a high cost. Biff’s character expresses the main theme of the play, which is self-knowledge. His continued attempts to both please and argue with his father are the base for the…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. Inadequacy: As Biff goes through life, he never actually commits to anything. He never shows his full potential. Biff has had insufficient jobs such as a shipping clerk, a salesman, and a businessman only to discover that life is only a “manner of existence.” He is also an insufficient worker. When Biff worked for Bob Harrison, he would whistle in the elevator like a comedian. A big businessman cannot raise a young man to do a responsible job when he acts that way.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    successful in life. When Biff realizes that his father's life was based on illusions he…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The audience can see straight away that Biff has not matched up to his fathers expectations in life. Willy cannot comprehend why Biff has to become a successful business man. The problem Biff has is he still accepts his fathers distorted idea of the American dream which is that anyone who is well liked with "personal attractiveness"…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays