Death of a Salesman

Plot: In essence, Death of a Salesman is set up in the larger framework of the prodigal son story. Biff Loman, who has spent many years drifting and lost in the West, comes home to the rest of his family, Willy, Linda, and Happy. Willy and Biff are constantly at each other's throats: Biff because Willy refuses to listen to him, and Willy because he thinks Biff is wasting himself and acting childish. As the play goes on and Willy regresses further and further into the past and into himself, we learn that Biff gave up on himself after he learned Willy was cheating on Linda, and that Willy has made plans to kill himself. Finally, in the end, Biff decides to leave his home forever and instead find happiness where he knows his heart lies: in the West. Willy, clinging to the belief that Biff loves him and will become a successful city businessman with a little insurance money, finally kills himself. His other son, Happy, makes a vow to follow Willy's dream and "make it for him," in essence vowing to become Willy himself, disillusioned and unhappy, believing that money and popularity are the keys to salvation.

Setting: The broader setting of the play is in New York, the city of material and dreams, money and power. It is the city that holds Willy in the palm of its hand. Taking a closer look, Willy's home has no ceiling. It's openness both stands in stark contrast to his refusal to open up to his family and allows readers/watchers to "see" the solid vault of apartment houses (others' dreams) that crowd out the sky, obliterating the stars and refusing to let Willy see all of the opportunity he might have. The apartment houses so block the sun (hope) that Willy's garden refuses to grow. He can't cultivate hope, opportunity, or a new dream because of the twisted values he holds and others' dreams/values crowding around him.

Theme: Follow your own dreams, don't get caught up in the dreams/success of others. At the end of the play, Biff remarks that there was "more of him [Willy] in the front stoop than in anything he ever sold." This solidifies readers' suspicions: Willy's true happiness lay in his hands. He was constantly building and fixing things, and in fact, he did dream of exploration and opportunity once: he had the chance to go to Alaska with his brother Ben, but Linda instead reminded him of Dave Singleman, a salesman who made his living making phone calls at the age of eighty five. Thus is Willy corrupted and influenced by the dreams/success of others, and in this way he remains like a child, as shown in the play's continual references of "pal," "kid," and other childish nicknames.
In contrast to Willy, Biff has found himself in the West, on the farm. As he says, he is extremely happy there, but he can never manage to stay there but instead runs back to the city, because Willy has taught him that you can't be happy unless you're making a lot of money or at the top of the industrial chain. In spite of this, Biff knows where he is happy; this is something Willy can't seem to grasp. Willy and Biff are identical in their true dreams, but Biff stands as a kind of foil in that Biff is willing to recognize and stand up for it, while Willy refuses to believe that he was meant for such "lowly" things. The irony is that Miller even points out where Willy should be heading with his name, "Loman," as in "low man," like Willy claims carpenters and farmers are. He doesn't seem to realize that a life as Dave Singleman is the loneliest life you can lead, and in the end, Willy is just a single man against the great windshield of life. Yes, he was knocked aside, chewed up, spit out, but maybe, if he hadn't tried so hard to follow someone else's footsteps, he'd have made his own prints in the sand, and found his way to happiness.

Tone: I think Miller's tone is pretty heavy and serious. This play is a drama and tragedy rather than an absurdist allegory like American Dream. Every character leads a tragic life and the play is interspersed with Willy's regressions into the past or his fights with Biff.

Characters: Linda is a somewhat controversial character to discuss. On the one hand, she loves Willy deeply, but takes care of him as a mother would a child. On the other, she helps prevent him from finding inner happiness and hides the truth from him. When Willy wants to go with Ben to Alaska, it is Linda who reminds him that he has a job in the city, and that he "wants to be" like Dave Singleman. And when Linda discovers the rubber tubing that Willy might use to kill himself, instead of confronting him, she leaves it there. She's continually trying to amp up his spirits with lies like that his boys will become successful and that things are going to turn out "wonderfully."

More Quotes: 
"When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle. When I was twenty one I walked out, and by God, I was rich!" This is a quote from Ben. He is a low man in an entirely different way from the Lomans we know. Obviously Ben is excluding the darker details from his younger brother, of how exactly he got rich.   However, this quote also symbolizes both the "jungle" Willy walks through in his quest for riches and Willy's dream of exploration and opportunity, which he never fully realizes.