Death of a Salesman

“Death of a Salesman” is a 1949 play written by Arthur Miller. This play is about an aging and struggling salesman, Willy Loman, and his family’s misguided perception of success. In Willy’s mind being liked is more important to him than anything else to him. He also believes that his self-worth is determined by material success. In the end his beliefs is what actually destroys him, and shows how he was wrong about himself. He dies and barely anyone attends his funeral, Biff decides not to follow in his father footstep while Happy decides to follow his father’s belief. The two major themes in “Death of a Salesman” are abandonment and betrayal.
The beginning of this abandonment issue we seen started with Willy’s father, who left him with at a young age, and his brother who decided to head towards Alaska. Willy then started believing the American dream would take him out of an average lifestyle. Eventually this hope becomes an altered reality for Willy, failing to see his reality as a failure. Willy’s past and determination to achieve the American dream could be seen as of way to coping with his abandonment issues. Willy enforces his desire to obtain a perfect life by raising his sons to live this way. Willy, dealing with this abandonment issue also decides to have an affair. This ultimately causes Biff to question his father’s ambitions and confront him at the Chop House.
Betrayal is also major theme because this tragic play is full of betrayal. The first time that betrayal becomes apparent in the story is in the beginning of the play when Willy’s two sons, Happy and Biff come home to live with them for a while. Willy constantly speaks highly of his son Biff throughout the play showing that he admires all of the achievements that he has accomplished in high school. Willy is also always pushing Biff to be the best that he can and motivates him to be as successful as possible because that is the only way they will be able to have happy lives. Willy wants for