“Death of a Salesman” Theme Essay Sample

In ¨Death of a Salesman¨ it shows how a man named Willy Loman is losing his identity and is losing the grip on himself. Willy strives for the American dream and he denies what is happening in reality for him to achieve the American dream of success and money. Willy dislikes change and does not accept it well because it is not in his own envisionment of what he sees. He is losing his own identity from him being unable to accept the change that is coming around him. The theme of “Death of a Salesman” is that with the inability to accept change within themself and around them, one can lose the grip that they have on themself. 

Willy does not want to accept change in himself and in the reality around him. In the first act of the play it can be seen that this is true. When Linda was saying that she had got a new type of cheese Wily responded with the following, “I don’t want a change! I want Swiss cheese. Why am I always being contradicted?”(Death of a Salesman,1.1.131-132). By Willy saying this it shows that he does not accept change and does not prefer for things to change for him. This ties back to the theme where it states his inability to accept change. This can be seen throughout the play because Willy is always having flashbacks of past events that have taken place when he saw himself as successful. Willy is in denial of what he has become and he looks back onto his past self to reflect on his success that he used to have. This reflection on past success can be seen when Willy says “I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston”(Death of a Salesman, 1.1.624). This shows that Willy reflects back on his past success to make him feel successful in the present time he is in. Willy also does not accept that he is an average salesman rather than a great salesman who he may have used to be.  This can be seen when Willy says “ A hundred and twenty dollars! My God, if business don’t pick up I don’t know what I'm going to do!”(Death of a Salesman, 1.1. 665-666). Linda replies with “Well, next week you’ll do better”(Death of a Salesman, 1.1.667). Willy responds with “Oh, I’ll knock ‘em dead next week. I’ll go to Hartford. I’m very well liked in Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me”(Death of a Salesman, 1.1. 668-671). Willy does not accept that he's not as good as a salesman as he once was and can barely be able to provide for his family now.  Willy is a tragic hero who is at the will of his own ability to accept change in what is happening around him and to him. 

Willy is slowly losing a grip on himself and reality. This can be seen when him and Charley are playing cards at the kitchen table and Willy is talking back and forth with his dead brother Ben. Ben is talking about the success that can be seen in Alaska and how he was surprised that Willy was not there because of the opportunity and success that can be had there and how Willy strives for success. This can be seen when Ben says “I must make a train, William. There are several opportunities I’m looking at in Alaska.”(Death of a Salesman, 1.1. 883-884). In response Willy says “Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.”(Death of a Salesman,1.1.885-886). All of this dialogue between the two was a flashback and a memory that Willy had that he thought was real. This shows that he is losing the grip of sanity that he has on himself and he is losing himself as he denies change and the reality of the world around him. When Willy was explaining to Howard why he wanted to become a salesman he said the following, “His name was Dave Singleton. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet slippers-I’ll never forget-and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want.”(Death of a Salesman,2.1.272-280). Willy had based his dreams off of the success of Dave and was able to see that being a salesman could be something he could do even into old age. Willy thought I would work out and he has had that dream set in his mind. He has lost his grip on the reality around him and has not seen that he is not as successful in age as Dave was. Willy keeps reflecting back on his prior success in life but is not considering the loss of success that he is having with him coming of age. This causes him to want to always reflect back to the past when he was successful and it is what ends up being his downfall. 

Willy is a tragic hero character who eventually becomes the make of his own defeat. With his idea of the American dream and his influence that he had at an earlier age he has begun to disconcert his lack of success he has had that has come with his age. He is now barely able to keep up with the funds that his family requires and he begins to see it towards the end. When Willy begins to see that he can not provide for his family he takes the choice of taking his own life. Willy takes his car and crashes it so that his family can get the insurance money from him taking his own life. Willy is a man who had a Hamartia of being a good salesman but this would be the image that he had in his mind all the time and caused him to always want to be successful. This caused him to look back on prior success he had rather than seeing his present self and understanding he is just an average salesman at best. When he sees this finally he only sees the one way to provide for his family in the end. Taking his own life so his family could have the insurance money to provide for themselves was the way that Willy thought was best to provide. Willy, with the inability to accept change within himself and around, he began to lose the grip that he had on himself.