Noble Intentions

The Many Deaths of Willy


The physical death that Willy suffers is not the only death that the title Death of a Salesman refers to.
The first death apparent in the play is an intellectual death. Willy has lost reason and a sense of reality, and his world submits to delusions and dreams. Willy latched on to a certain impression of the world and how it worked when he saw the elderly salesman Dave Singleman, who was “remembered and loved” by clients in thirty-one states. Willy saw the salesman make a living with a smile and a warm, tender voice on the phone and he can to believe that is all it takes in the world to be successful. Willy’s interaction with clients is shown when he is caught by Biff with a secretary. The only way that Willy can be noticed is by getting the secretary, whom he is having an affair with, to let him in to see the boss. Willy has sacrificed the emotional integrity of his marriage, and his relationship with his wife in order to try and be a success. The ignorance that flourishes in Willy is the first death that strikes the reader’s pathos.
His physical suicide is also a spiritual suicide. In Willy’s final scene Ben says to him, “It’s dark there, but full of diamonds”. Ben is referring to death, and how when Willy dies his insurance will give his sons twenty thousand dollars. By giving up his life trying to nobly bequeath twenty thousand dollars to his sons Willy is saying that he cares more for the materialistic matters of the world than he cares for his soul. Willy proves in his final action that his only God is success.
The final death that the title refers to, is the death of the American Dream, as seen through Willy’s death. The path of American can be seen straying from the path of freedoms that it was founded on. America revolted against tyranny, wanting to be free of any restraints, and as Willy’s life shows, America has come out from under British rein, only to turn around and enslave each other. Everywhere around him Willy sees how technology has “boxed [people] in”. Everyday more and more of the nature that was once a wide expanse across America’s land is cut down in order to build more houses and more technology to accommodate the population. Willy comments at one point that they can not go for a proper Sunday drive because “the windows don’t open on the new cars”. Now the cars are another box to be trapped in without any fresh air or escape. When cars were made affordable, they were viewed as the vessel to better things, they opened the expanse of America up to the common man. As Willy’s dementia demonstrates the common man is being boxed up in cars, houses, cities, and the world is slowly encompassing them like the coffin, the final box, where Willy is trapped.



Significance of Names


In Death of a Salesman character names provide an insight into their characteristics.
The salesman that Willy was inspired by was named Dave Singleman. David means one who is beloved. It is this quality in that creates Willy’s delusion of success. Willy sees flocks of people that come to Dave’s funeral, to cherish his memory and Willy is inspired to try to be that beloved also.
Willy’s other inspiration is his brother Ben. Benjamin means one who is blessed. As Ben says, “When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich”. Willy is always trying to find out Ben’s secret, unfortunately for him, there is no secret. Ben, by pure luck, ends up in Africa instead of Alaska and is blessed with wealth.
Happy possesses a name that has an ironic contrast to his actual behavior. Happy is far from content in reality, in his delusions however he believes that his happiness lies right around the corner, in the future or in a bed. Happy is actually a nickname, his real name is Harold, which means power. This meaning provides another contrast to reality, because while Happy has a good physique and is strong and healthy, he has always followed in the passive shadow of his brother Biff. Happy has no actual power, but he has plenty of arrogance and false confidence to cover it.
Linda is a seemingly happy, abiding wife, and her name provides insight into deeper layers of her character. Linda means beauty and protector of property. One of the jobs that Linda has had to take on as Willy’s wife and guardian is keeping track of him and all of their assets. She takes care of the bills and still finds the time to clean and cook. In the short moments where Linda is seen mending stockings the protector quality is shown. Linda is represented mending stockings, just as she mends the wounds of her crumbling family, always trying to keep the structure strong and keep it together. One method that Linda takes in order to keep the family stable is to put a slant on her perspective, she chooses what she sees and what she does not, and makes everything into what she wants and thinks is most appropriate and beautiful.
Finally, Willy’s name, William, means resolute guardian. Willy tries for all of his life to provide for his family, to give them what he never had, to guard them from suffering with his insight into the world. Willy’s advice is ironically the cause of the boys not succeeding. Despite their failure Willy refuse to step down from his role, he remains stubbornly continuing to try. The more resolute Willy is the more damage he does. In his last attempt to guard his boys from financial trouble tragically Willy kills himself.



Noble Intentions


Willy is characterized by his actions and by his lack of action.
Willy is on a journey and on his journey he stumbles and ultimately falls, but when the larger picture of his life is revealed he is conveyed to be of noble intentions, but tragic ending. Willy wants to be remembered, a quite common desire for the common man that Willy is. However, the way he goes about trying to fulfill his desires is where he separates from normality. Most people with strong desires work harder and harder until they achieve their goals, Willy on the other hand does not want to earn his reward; Willy wants it handed to him. In a vision of what the American Dream has become, Willy believes he can get everything he wants with jokes and smiles. Willy shows how the work ethic that Americans used to stand for has diminished into a society that has their hand out. Willy is a common man, with knowledge of where he wants to be, but no understanding of how to get there. With only the best intentions in mind, Willy one by one fails all those who depend on him.
Willy is so focused on his goal that he loses sight of everything else, including who his sons are becoming as he fights to provide for his image of them. Willy does not know what his sons have become, he has memories in his head and he substitutes his impression of what they were for what they have become.
Linda is a very devoted woman, but she can only give so much and be so patient; she tries to deny Willy’s problems but they don’t go away. His sons believe in him and fear for his safety at the same time, but are too confused with their own twisted lives to be able to help Willy.
In the end, Happy respects Willy and seeks to do his memory justice, in a fashion much like the twisted path of his father, while Biff takes his father’s memory and learns from his father’s mistakes, moving on towards something better.



Biff


Biff is where Willy has tried to invest his life’s learning and earnings. Willy has delusions of grandeur as to what Biff will become. First, Willy believes that Biff can follow his football career to the top of the world. This dream is impeded by Biff failing math in his senior year.
Even when Biff can not succeed through sports, and all of his scholarships are dropped, Willy continues to believe that something will come along for Biff. He is thoroughly convinced that Biff is a barreling train, driving towards a wonderful future, and each time Biff fails Willy excuses it and promises himself and Biff that something will come for him.
To get Biff the greatness he needs Willy believes that he will have to succeed wonderfully in the business world, and the respect that he receives from others, as well as the money, will send Biff on his way to greatness. In a final attempt to fulfill this delusion Willy kills himself to provide insurance money for Biff.
In addition to Willy, Happy also dotes on Biff, putting him on a pedestal of Godliness. Happy is always Willy’s second concern, and he lets himself stay in Biff’s shadow. Occasionally Happy tries to get his father’s attention, with such phrases as, “I’m losing weight, you notice, Pop”. Happy is not able to take Biff’s position until Willy dies, at which point he assumes the path always meant for Biff and determines to take on the world and be great.
Biff's difference from Willy is also seen in how they treat women. Willy does not seem to have an appreciation for women’s feelings. Willy ignores his wife’s concerns, often interrupting her while she is talking with such complaints as, “Why am I always being contradicted?”. Willy does not see how much Linda is the reason that the family has stayed together as long as it has, and all the bills have gotten paid. Women are not so much of lesser beings to Willy, so much as he does not recognize their humanity.
With his affair Willy uses the woman to subside his loneliness and uses her position as a secretary to get closer to clients. When Biff comes to see Willy, Willy hides the woman in the bathroom, so that he will not be found out, then pays her off to remain silent with new stockings.
Unlike Willy, Biff wants “to find as girl-steady, somebody with substance”. Biff has never been able to keep a job for a long time, and never been able to settle down, and he wishes that he were able to. Biff thinks that perhaps he could find motivation to settle down and be successful in the arms of a woman. Having seen Willy cheat on Linda, Biff has calmed down, stopped being a “run around”. Biff sees the pain that his mother goes through and he wishes that upon no one. Biff does not want to turn out like his father, and he learns from his father’s mistakes with woman. Biff acknowledges the depth and intelligence of women, such as he proves when Happy deserts their father to “paint the town” with a few girls and Biff refuses to contribute to his brother’s abuse of the girls.



Minor Characters


One of the important minor characters is Charley. Charley is Willy’s foil, contrasting everything that Willy is. Charley has become successful in the business world, as Willy has always wanted to be. Charley recognizes, as Willy never has, that jokes and smiles do not sell everything. He possesses the knowledge and understanding of business and the reality of the business world.
In addition to having the successful career that Willy has always desired, Charley also raised a successful son, who when Willy sees him in the present is about to present a case to the Supreme Court. Concerning Bernard, Willy asks Charley “you never told him what to do, did you?”, Charley answers Willy with, “My salvation was I never took any interest in anything”.
Charley has done everything that Willy wanted to do without any effort. Charley is Willy’s neighbour, just as much of a common man as Willy, except he lives in the real world, and Willy lives in a dream.
Another minor character of major importance is Ben. Ben and the elderly salesman Dave Singleman are the two people Willy admires most. As Ben repeats again and again, “When I was seventeen I walked into a jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich.”. Willy asks Ben desperately “How did you do it?”. Ben has no concrete answers for him on how he became successful. Ben’s success lied in luck, good timing, and persistence. Ben provides another contrast of what Willy could have become. Willy had a chance to go to Alaska and be successful in the gold strikes, and Willy “was almost decided to go” when he decided to go into selling instead. Both of these minor characters had opportunities that Willy had, except they took them and succeeded where Willy did not and failed.