Themes of a Salesman

A major theme highlighted in Death of a Salesman is how men and women were viewed differently in society.  Women at the time had very few rights.  Men were usually well respected while women were not respected.  Men did all of the work to acquire high monetary status for their family.  The job that women had was to make life better for their husbands. 

Two themes that go hand in hand in the story of Willy Loman are time and success.  Time is never on a person’s side.  Willy Loman knew that he was old and was going to die pretty soon.  Willy wanted to die successfully which is why he worked so hard.  He felt that he failed in life because he was not successful, and he was running out of time quickly.  Willy also lived in the past and wanted ever so much to be able to go back and fix his mistakes so that success would be possible.

                Another theme that is revealed in Arthur Miller’s novel is the decision of doing things fairly or cheating.  I think of Charley and Ben representing the Angel and Devil on Willy’s shoulder respectively.  Charley and Ben were both successful businessmen however Charley did everything by the book while Ben had no problem cheating.

DOAS (1-40)

Willy tried to teach Biff and Happy that hard work is necessary to succeed.  It is not likely that a person would become successful without doing something to get that far in life.  He also taught his children by example of his brother Ben that it is also a good thing to know exactly what you want.  You have a better chance at success if you have goals and are focused on completing them.

These are two great lessons for a father to teach.  I am taught these lessons by my parents all the time.  They tell me that I need to work hard to get where I want to be.  I do not like hard work however I know I need to do it to be successful.  They also tell me that now is the time when I should be figuring out what I want to do in life.  In order to find the right college and job you must know what you like to do and what you would want to do in the future. 

In many cases when a person constantly contradicts themselves they would be thought of as a liar.  I do not believe this is the case with Willy.  Willy has trouble remembering things which is why he is so inconsistent.  Willy cannot help his contradictions.

Linda chooses to just ignore Willy’s contradictions.  I believe that this actually hurts Willy because Willy would have no other way of knowing that he contradicts himself.  On the other hand Linda should not accuse him of lying.  The best possible thing that Linda could do is to gently inform Willy of his inconsistency.