Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: Comprehensive Study Notes for Dramatic Tragedy (9675)
Welcome to your study notes on Arthur Miller’s pivotal play, Death of a Salesman! This text is essential for understanding how the concept of tragedy evolved from the ancient world of kings and gods (like those in Section A) to the modern world of ordinary people and economic struggle.
By studying this play through the lens of dramatic tragedy, you will learn how Miller takes classical ideas like the tragic flaw and applies them to the life of an everyday man, Willy Loman, creating what we call **Modern Tragedy** or **Domestic Tragedy**. Let's dive in!
1. The Type of Tragic Text and its Setting (Syllabus Aspects I & II)
The Shift to Domestic Tragedy
In classical tragedy (think Shakespeare or Ancient Greece), the hero is usually a public figure—a king, a prince, or a great general. Their fall affects the whole nation.
In Death of a Salesman, Miller deliberately breaks this mould. Willy Loman is a salesman, an **ordinary person** (Aspect I). His suffering is intense, but it is confined to his family and his immediate economic circumstances.
- Classical Tragedy: Deals with the fate of nations, driven by divine laws or great historical events.
- Modern/Domestic Tragedy: Deals with the fate of the individual, driven by social laws, economic pressures, and psychological failure. Miller argued that the common man is just as capable of tragedy as a king.
Quick Review: The tragedy of Willy Loman is significant because it grants tragic status to the aspirations and failures of the American working class.
The Settings for the Tragedy (Place and Time)
The **setting** (Aspect II) is crucial because it physically represents Willy's constricted life and the pressure of the modern world.
- The Loman House: Initially a symbol of Willy’s modest American Dream, it becomes a cage. The stage directions describe the apartment buildings surrounding the house, constantly threatening and suffocating it. The house is metaphorically being crushed by urban, capitalistic expansion.
- The Past (Memories/Flashbacks): Miller uses the stage structure to move seamlessly between the present reality and Willy's nostalgic or delusional memories. These memories are often set in the open, natural world (like when Biff and Happy were young and promising), symbolising freedom and potential—a stark contrast to the small, dark kitchen of the present.
- New York City/The Road: The city represents the ruthlessness of business (Howard Wagner’s office) and the false promise of the American Dream. Willy is literally and metaphorically "riding on a smile and a shoe shine," unable to succeed on the road, which should be his domain.
Did you know? Miller uses specific musical motifs, like the lonely, wistful sound of the flute, to evoke the lost promise of the natural world and Willy’s father, who was a successful flute-maker, suggesting a happier, simpler past.
2. The Protagonist’s Journey: Willy Loman (Syllabus Aspect III)
Willy’s journey is one of gradual physical and mental deterioration, fueled by his inability to distinguish between appearance and reality. This section covers his **flaws, blindness, discovery, and moral values**.
Flaws, Pride, and Folly (Hamartia and Hubris)
Willy’s **tragic flaw** (Hamartia) is his fierce, blind devotion to a warped version of the American Dream. He believes that success comes solely from being "well-liked" and having a good "personality," ignoring hard work and product value.
- Pride (Hubris): Willy is intensely proud, especially regarding his sons. He constantly exaggerates his own success and his importance to the company, even when he is earning nothing. This pride prevents him from accepting Charlie’s job offer, which would save him financially but wound his ego.
- Folly (Error in Judgement): His key folly is instilling these false values in his sons. He accidentally ruins Biff’s future by encouraging him to steal and cheat, and then later by having the affair that shatters Biff’s trust.
Analogy: Think of Willy’s life like an outdated map. He keeps trying to navigate a modern city using a 1920s map, refusing to acknowledge that the landscape has changed. His outdated values guarantee his failure.
Blindness and Insight
Willy suffers from severe **blindness** throughout the play, failing to see the truth about himself, his career, and Biff.
- Blindness: He cannot see that Biff is a failure *because* of the values Willy taught him. He only sees Biff as spiteful or lazy. He also constantly denies his financial ruin and mental instability.
- Discovery and Learning (Too Late): The final moments of the play are Willy’s moment of insight (Anagnorisis). He realizes that Biff, despite their fights, truly loves him and needs him to stop chasing illusions. In the final confrontation, Biff shouts, "I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you." This harsh truth is the profound discovery that leads Willy to his final, tragic action.
Moral Values
Willy’s moral values are corrupted by consumerism and the pursuit of superficial success. He places a higher value on:
- Appearance over Substance.
- Popularity over Integrity.
- Potential (illusion) over Reality (truth).
His final moral decision—suicide to gain the insurance money—is an attempt to finally provide Biff with the tangible success (money) he could never provide through his career. He frames his death as a final, heroic sales transaction.
Key Takeaway: Willy’s tragic journey is defined by his misplaced values and the catastrophic consequences of his own pride, which prevent him from seeing reality until it’s too late.
3. The Role of the Opponent and Fate (Syllabus Aspects IV & V)
The Tragic Opponent (Aspect IV)
Unlike classical tragedy where the hero faces a clear human villain (like Iago in Othello), *Death of a Salesman* features a diffuse, intangible antagonist.
The Opponent is the Capitalist System:
- Howard Wagner: Though not malicious, Howard is the **physical embodiment** of the cruel, modern business world. When he fires Willy, he treats him like an obsolete machine, focusing only on profit and efficiency. This proves that "being well-liked" is worthless when measured against the bottom line.
- The Illusion: Willy is also his own worst opponent. His denial and mental health crisis are the primary forces driving him toward catastrophe.
Miller suggests the true villain is the **American Dream** itself, when corrupted into pure materialism, pitting the individual against an uncaring, gigantic corporate power structure.
The Presence of Fate: Inevitability (Aspect V)
The play does not rely on Greek gods or prophecies, but Willy’s tragic end feels utterly **inevitable**.
- Psychological Inevitability: From the opening scene, Willy is struggling with suicidal thoughts and an inability to drive safely. His mental trajectory makes his death seem inescapable.
- Economic Inevitability: He is trapped in an impossible economic cycle. He cannot retire, he cannot earn, and he cannot ask for help without sacrificing his identity. This financial bind acts as a modern-day curse or decree of Fate.
Memory Aid: For modern tragedy, think of **FEAR**:
F - Financial/Economic Pressure
E - Emotional Delusion
A - American Dream (Corrupted)
R - Reality (Avoidance of)
How the Hero’s Behaviour Affects the World (Aspect VI)
Willy's deluded behaviour has a profound, destructive impact on his family:
- Biff: Biff is emotionally crippled by his father’s hypocrisy and false values, leading to instability, unemployment, and deep psychological pain (the core conflict of the play).
- Happy: Happy internalises his father’s superficiality, becoming a womaniser and a shallow corporate climber who continues the cycle of delusion, proving Willy’s lesson was learned, but wrongly.
- Linda: She is forced into the role of a passive enabler, protecting Willy’s fantasies while witnessing his slow, painful decay. She suffers in silence, bearing the financial and emotional weight.
Key Takeaway: The forces against Willy are modern: the ruthless system, his own mind, and the toxic heritage he passes to his children.
4. Structure, Language, and Violence (Syllabus Aspects VII, VIII, IX, X)
Structural Pattern: Complication to Catastrophe (Aspect VIII)
The play follows the classic tragic structure but shifts dramatically between time periods to enhance the sense of inevitable downfall.
- Prosperity to Disorder (The Setup): Willy begins the play exhausted and delusional. We learn through flashbacks about his past "prosperity"—the moments when his sons were full of potential and he felt successful.
- Complication (Rising Action): The major complications include Willy being fired by Howard, Biff trying and failing to secure funding for the "Loman Brothers" sporting goods idea, and the growing, violent confrontation between Willy and Biff.
- Climax: The final, emotional blowout in the restaurant and the intense confrontation back home, where Biff cries, forces Willy to confront the truth of Biff's love.
- Catastrophe: Willy’s suicide via car crash (to secure the insurance money).
- Resolution/The Requiem: The final scene (the **Requiem**) provides a brief sense of resolution, but no true order is restored. Linda is left heartbroken, and Happy vows to continue pursuing Willy’s failed dream.
Use of Plots and Sub-plots (Aspect IX)
The main plot (Willy’s professional failure and mental decline) is mirrored and enhanced by the sub-plots:
- Biff’s Story: The key sub-plot is Biff’s struggle to find self-worth and purpose. His conflict with Willy is the emotional engine of the tragedy.
- Happy’s Story: Happy serves as a cautionary echo. He has achieved some superficial success but remains morally empty and committed to his father's false path.
Significance of Violence and Revenge (Aspect VII)
Physical violence is limited (Biff tearing up the seeds, the car crash), but the play is saturated with **psychological violence**.
- Psychological Violence: The constant emotional abuse and disillusionment Willy inflicts on Biff, and the mental torment Willy suffers from his own memories and failures, are the true forms of violence in the text.
- Revenge: There is no traditional revenge, but Biff’s inability to succeed can be seen as a subconscious form of revenge against Willy’s oppressive expectations. Willy’s ultimate suicide is an attempt at final, self-inflicted justice (or retribution) for his failure as a father and provider.
Dramatic Language to Heighten Tragedy (Aspect X)
The language is deliberately simple and naturalistic, reflecting the common man. However, Miller uses specific techniques to elevate the emotional experience:
- Repetition: Willy constantly repeats phrases like, "I’m vital in New England," or demanding to know if Biff is spiteful. This repetition highlights his mental decay and his obsession with validating his worth.
- Motifs and Imagery: The imagery of **planting seeds** is tragic. Willy is desperate to plant something tangible that will grow, representing his failed attempt to plant successful values in his sons. The fact that the seeds cannot grow in the confined, urban setting underscores his fate.
- Stage Directions: Miller's stage directions are poetic, particularly describing the lighting and music (the flute, the jungle sounds in Willy’s head), creating a lyrical atmosphere that heightens the psychological drama beyond everyday realism.
Quick Review: Miller uses a non-linear, fragmented structure to show how Willy’s past errors constantly invade his miserable present, making the catastrophic end inevitable.
5. Affecting the Audience: Pity, Fear, and Understanding (Syllabus Aspect XI)
The final, crucial aspect of tragedy is the impact on the audience. Miller aims to elicit two main responses, as prescribed by Aristotle, adapted for the modern context:
Pity and Fear
- Pity: We pity Willy because he genuinely tried to succeed and to love his sons, even though his methods were disastrous. We see his suffering (his exhaustion, his confusion, his lack of self-worth) and feel deeply sorry for him, especially as his wife, Linda, defends him: "Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a man."
- Fear: We feel fear (or anxiety) because Willy Loman is a “common man.” His failure is relatable. The audience fears falling prey to the same pressures—losing identity to a job, or realising one has wasted a life pursuing hollow illusions.
Understanding of the Human Condition
Through Willy's destruction, Miller comments powerfully on the real world:
- The tragedy teaches us that the human need for **dignity** is essential. Willy’s desperation stems from the fact that society has stripped him of his dignity once he ceased to be profitable.
- It forces us to question the cost of the American Dream. Is success measured by popularity or by integrity? The play serves as a profound **commentary on society**, asking what values truly matter in a materialistic world.
Encouragement: Don't worry if separating "pity" and "fear" feels tricky! The key is to discuss how the audience feels emotionally connected to Willy (pity) and how his situation makes them reflect critically on their own lives and society (fear and understanding).
***Key Terms and Concepts Checklist***
- Domestic Tragedy: Focus on the common man.
- Hamartia (Tragic Flaw): Willy's false belief in popularity as the key to success.
- Hubris (Pride): His refusal to accept help or reality.
- Anagnorisis (Discovery): Willy’s moment of realization that Biff loves him.
- The American Dream: The corrupting antagonist/villain.
- Requiem: The final, reflective scene after the catastrophe.