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Rosse Rica Avila is the name :) Im definitely 12 years existing or yet surviving in this world. I Was Discovered at April 7, 1998. And I obviously, I blow my Candles every 7th Day of April! I laid my first step in Butuan and Grew here. Pinay and proud to be one, always. A Grade 6 Gold Student in Rainbow of Angels Learning Center, Inc. I am a strong girl. Although, being strong doesn't always mean holding back the tears. Sometimes, you have to let them fall. I keep my stuff in line even when tears are falling. I could still say those three words: I AM FINE. Sometimes, I SMILE to hide the pain. Sometimes, I LAUGH to hide the sadness. Sometimes, I SHOUT to let the pain out. I love God. God first, always. I love my family and friends more than anything in this enormous world. I love Philippines. I love Dreaming? YES. I love ice cream- Double Dutch x) I love the colors Green, Purple, Pink and Black. I love the RAINBOW after the rain. I love taking pictures of myself and everyone else. I love to draw. I love candies. I love Facebook and Blogging, duh?

Source: http://summarycentral.tripod.com/deathofasalesman.htm Author: Arthur Miller

Year of Publication and Historical Background
.......Death of a Salesman was published in 1949. In that year, America was enjoying an economic boom that initiated a significant trend: the absorption of small businesses by large corporations that reduced the importance of the individual worker and increased the importance of the company as a whole and its bottom line. To an extent, Willy Loman must cope with this trend.

Characters
Protagonist: Willy Loman Antagonist: In a broad sense, competitive America society represented in part by Howard Wagner; in a narrow sense, Willy's combative son Biff
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Willy Loman: An aging salesman haunted by a feeling that his life has been a failure. He hallucinates about past events. These hallucinations center on his dreams for a better tomorrow; on the future of his son, Biff, a star football player; and on a woman with whom he had an affair while on a sales trip. During his hallucinations, he sometimes talks to himself. Linda: Willys loyal wife. She accepts her role as a devoted and subservient housewife. Biff Willys older son, who has trouble holding a job and getting along with his father. After he returns home from the West, his presence and his failure to get a job exasperate Willy. Hap: Willys younger son, who has a steady job but is afraid to take risks to better himself Charley: Successful businessman who lives next door to Willy. Willy envies him because he is a constant reminder of what Willy is not. Willy snidely says Charley is liked, but not well liked. Nevertheless, Charley lends Willy money and even offers him a job. Bernard: Charleys son. He is intelligent, hard-working, and successfuleverything Biff Loman is not. Ben: Willys deceased older brother, who appears only in Willys hallucinations. He struck it rich at an early age in South African diamond mines. He symbolizes the success that has eluded Willy. Howard Wagner: The son of Willy's former boss, Frank Wagner, whom Willy admired. Howard, who is now Willys boss, represents a new breed of business executive, interested more in advancing technology than people. He fires Willy because of his inability to perform satisfactorily. Stanley: A waiter at a bar/restaurant where Willy meets his sons. The Woman: An employee of a Boston company who has an affair with Willy. She is one of the subjects of his hallucinations. Miss Forsythe and Letta: Attractive young women whom Hap and Biff meet in the bar/restaurant Jenny Charley's secretary

SUMARRY:

Plot Summary By: Arthur Miller... 2003

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.......Traveling salesman Willy Loman arrives home later than expected one evening after a car trip through New England. When his wife, Linda, greets him, he tells her that he was delayed because his car kept swerving and he had to drive slowly. Linda is deeply concerned, for he has been in a series of accidents lately. She thinks the accidents are suicide attempts, symptoms of a terrible realization that begins to gnaw at him: failure as a husband, a father, a human being. .......Loman, 63, no longer receives a salary from his company, only commission. He lives in a shabby house on which he still owes money. Bills for appliance repairs are piling up. He frequently borrows money from his neighbor Charley, a successful businessman, even though he doesnt like Charley and sometimes ridicules him. Willys son Biff is a 34-year-old neer-do-well who has recently returned home from the West after failing to make his mark. His other son, Hap, 32, has a steady job, his own apartment, and a way with women. But he lacks the push and derring-do to rise above mediocrity. Nevertheless, Hap has big ideas for business ventures that he and his brother can look into now that they are together again. .......In high school, Biff was a star football playerthe pride of the Loman household earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Virginia. But he lost it after failing a high-school math test. .......Tired and irritable after his motor trip, Willy complains to Linda about repair bills and about Biff. Nothing seems to work, he says, slamming a fist on the kitchen tablenot the refrigerator, not the car, not Biff. But although Willy ridicules Biff one moment, calling him a lazy bum, he praises him the next, saying he has what it takes to succeed in the business world. .......Meanwhile upstairs, Happleased that Biff has returned homereminisces with his brother about their high-school days and proposes plans for business ventures. Biff, who has worked many jobs and says he once herded cattle, announces he may try to get a job selling sporting goods for Bill Oliver, for whom he worked years before in a local store. .......Downstairs again, Willy begins hallucinating. He sees himself in the back yard of the Loman house, years ago, with his sons. Willy laughs when Biff tells him that he stole a football from a locker room. It was all good fun; it was what spirited young men do. The future is as bright as the sun that shines down on them as they play catch and Willy tells Biff that he will be a successful businessman someday, more successful than their neighbor, Charley, who owns his own business and enjoys respect even though, as Willy says, he is liked, but not well liked. Willy boasts about his own success: On the road selling his products, he says, everybody recognizes and esteems him; he has even

met the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. .......During the hallucination, Charleys son, Bernard, comes by and reminds Willy that Biff should be studying for his math test. Passing it will assure his entry into the University of Virginia on a scholarship. Willy dismisses Bernard as a pest; Willys son, a star athlete, cannot be bothered with such trivialities as math. Being able to throw a footballbeing able to meet the mayor of Providencethose are the things that count. Like his father, Willy says, Bernard is liked, but not well liked. .......Willy also hallucinates from time to time throughout the play about his late older brother Ben, who made a fortune in African diamond mines. Ben is the man Willy has always wanted to be. .......Willy returns to reality momentarily, bemoaning his present state of affairs, and Lindaever a supporting pillarcomforts him, saying people esteem him and his sons respect him. He then slips back into an illusion, seeing himself in a Boston hotel room with a woman with whom he is having an affair. (These lapses enable playwright Miller to reveal not only Willys disturbed state of mind but also the secrets of his past.) He also sees Bernard again, who warns Willy that Biff is breaking the law by driving without a license and that he is jeopardizing his future by not studying for his math test. The woman in the hotel room then speaks to Willy, and he again returns to reality and shouts at Linda, this time defending Biff. .......When they hear their father ranting, Biff and Hap go downstairs. Willy and Biff argue, make up, then argue some more. Linda does her best to pacify them. Every time she interrupts the conversation to promote an armistice, Willy scolds her. Eventually, everyone makes peace and goes to bed. .......Willys problems continue to worsen. After Linda pleads with him to ask his boss, Howard Wagner, to station him in New York so he no longer has to go on tiring road trips, Willy broaches the idea to Wagner, saying that hes too old to travel anymore and that hes willing to accept a modest salary. Wagner not only refuses to grant the request, but he also fires Willy. .......Meanwhile, Biff, who has agreed to ask Bill Oliver for a job, fails even to get an interview with Oliver. In a bar where Biff, Hap, and Willy are to have dinner, Biff first lies to his father about his latest failure, then admits he did not see Bill Oliver. They argue. To pacify Willy, Biff says he has an appointment with Oliver the next day. .......Biff and Hap then leave with women they met before Willy arrivedMiss Forsythe and Letta. Willy goes to the restroom and hallucinates again about the woman in the hotel room. Here is the scene he relives: .......A persistent knock at the door of the hotel room unnerves Willy, and he orders the woman into the bathroom to hide. The door opens and Biff presents himself, informing his dad that he has traveled all the way to Boston to tell him that he failed math with a 61 and his teacher wont give him the extra four points needed to pass and to graduate. He begs his father to talk to the teacher. .......Youre on, Willy says. Well drive right back. .......Biff says the teacher doesnt like him because one day Biff imitated him in class by speaking with a lisp and crossing his eyes. They both laugh raucously. Unfortunately for Willy, the woman in the bathroom laughs too, and she comes out. Biff, shocked, begins

to weep. Willy says, Shes nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely. .......Deeply disappointed in his father, Biff calls him a liar and a fake. The scene shifts back to the bar. When a waiter named Stanley calls out to Willy, Willy awakens from his hallucination and comes out of the restroom assisted by Stanley, who tells him that his sons have left with the two women. Willy gives Stanley dollar, saying, Youre a good boy. Stanley refuses the money, but Willy throws out more bills. .......I dont need it anymore, he says. .......Willy asks directions to a store that sells gardens seeds. After Stanley gives directions to a hardware store, he stuffs the money in Willys coat pocket after Willy turns around to leave. .......When Biff and Hap arrive home, Hap gives his mother flowers and tells her he and Biff was out with two girls. She angrily knocks the flowers to the floor and says, Dont you care whether he [Willy] lives or dies? .......She then orders them out of the house. .......I dont want you tormenting him any more, she says. .......But Biff insists on seeing his father, now in the back yard planting seeds. After going out to the garden, Biff tells Willy he is leaving never to return. They go inside and Biff asks to shake his fathers hand. Willy refuses and says, May you rot in hell if you leave this house! They argue violently. However, still holding out hopes for Biff, Willy says, The door of your life is wide open! .......Biff says, Pop, Im a dime a dozen, and so are you! . . . I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. Biff breaks down and hugs his father, and Willy says, Isnt that remarkable? Biffhe loves me! Linda and Hap both assure Willy that his observation is true. Everyone goes to bed except Willy, who tells Linda he will come upstairs in two minutes. Moments later, there is the sound of a car starting up and driving off. .......There is a crash. Willy dies. .......At the funeral, Hap says Willy did not die in vain. He had a good dream. Its the only dream you can haveto come out number-one man. Linda says, Willy, I cant cry. It seems to me that youre just on another trip . . . . I made the last payment on the house today. And therell be nobody home.

Conflict
.......Willy Loman, like so many other American men of the last century, is in conflict with

society, his family, and himself. In his struggle to compete in materialistic America, he comes up short; society beats him down. In his effort to communicate with his son Biff and mold him into a success, he fails. In a war with his own inner self, he refuses to accept what he isordinary, average, unremarkable. Ultimately, Willy's inner and outer conflicts destroy him.

Climax
.......The

climax occurs when Biff, who well knows his own and his father's limitations, tells Willy, Pop, Im a dime a dozen, and so are you! . . . I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you.

Moral Lesson
Loyalty, honesty, integrity are the lessons In the Biography of DEATH OF THE ALESMAN by Arthur Miller.

Comments and Reactions

Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman has been described as an American tragedy. I wholeheartedly agree with that classification, but perhaps it isnt the blustery, senile salesman Willy Loman who experiences tragedy. Instead, maybe the real tragedy befalls his wife, Linda Loman.
.......

Classic tragedies often involve characters who are forced to deal with circumstances that are beyond their control. Think of poor Oedipus squirming at the mercy of the Olympian Gods. And how about King Lear? He makes a very poor character judgment at the beginning of the play; then the old king spends the next four acts wandering in a storm, enduring the cruelty of his evil family members.

Glossary
Ben: In Scottish and Irish, this is a word meaning mountain peak. Willy looks upon Ben as the summit of success. Biff: This name is also an English noun meaning to hit or strike. Biff verbally strikes back at Willy. Diamonds: Symbol of wealth, success, and--because of their hardness--the durability of a reputation earned by skill and hard work. Garden, Seeds: Willy speaks of buying a home in the country. There, he says, he will grow vegetables. Later, after his fortunes continue to decline, he buys seeds and begins planting them in the back yard of his present home. A garden--whether in the city or in the country--symbolizes Willy's desire to lead a productive life. The vegetables will be visible evidence that he can do something right. Happy: This name may be an ironic commentary on the future of Willy's younger son: He appears to be following in his father's footsteps and thus seems destined for unhappiness Jungle: Ben entered a jungle to mine diamonds. The jungle symbolizes the competitive, often-heartless business world. Loman: This surname obviously represents the low social status of Willy and his family, as well as the state of Willy's mental health.

Study Questions and Essay Topics

y

When Willy arrives home at the beginning of the play, he complains that nothing around him at his household seems to worknot the refrigerator, not the car, not Biff. What irony do you see in Willy's observation? What is the cause of the conflict between Willy Loman and his son Biff?

y y y y y y

Why do so many Americans today overemphasize the importance of material success? Should parents "push" their children to succeed, as Willy pushes Biff? Does American society promise more success than it offers? What do you think Willy's wife wants out of her marriage and life in general? Research the life of Arthur Miller. Then write an essay explaining how his own experiences helped shape the subject matter of Death of a Salesman. What is Miller's attitude toward the main character? Does his play ridicule Willy? Is it sympathetic toward him? Or does Miller remain essentially neutral and objective? Write a psychological profile of Willy Loman. Take into account the statements he makes and the hallucinations he experiences. Support your observations with research gleaned from reliable sources. What is a hallucination? What causes them?