What is the most important attribute in life?.Is there such thing as the American Dream or is it a myth?.Why are dreams important in life? What are your dreams or goals?.Linda ends the play saying, "we are free".Įssential Questions for Death of a Salesman Biff realizes that his father's life and focus were on the wrong dream, and he goes back to the ranch, determined to find happiness in his work. In the end, his delusions get the best of him, and he kills himself in a car crash to provide his family with the $20,000 in insurance money.Īt his funeral, Happy vows to prove that his father's life was not in vain and continues in the business. Now after years at the same company, Willy has become tired and old, he asks his boss to be put in the New York office. He focuses on his neighbor, Charlie, a wealthy business owner who worked hard and on his brother, Ben, who stumbled on a diamond mine in Africa and is now wealthy. More flashbacks reveal that Willy has lived a life of regret, filled with envy. In the flashback, Linda is seen mending her stockings this makes Willy upset and prompts him to tell her to throw them away. Although he tells Linda that his sales have been going great, things are quite the opposite, and he will soon be in jeopardy of not paying his bills. It becomes clear that, for some time, Willy was having an affair with an unidentified woman for whom he purchased silk stockings. In another daydream, Willy is talking with Linda and then drifts to hearing his mistress’s laughter. However, in reality, Happy is in the business world, going nowhere, and Biff, unable to hold down a steady job, works as a ranch hand out west.
Willy valued these attributes and believed they would help his boys go far.
#Death of a salesman 1949 series
Through a series of flashbacks, the audience learns that Biff, the younger of the two boys, was praised by Willy for being athletic and well-liked. Willy Loman, the protagonist, is a traveling salesman, his wife, Linda, is a stay at home mother, and his two sons, Happy and Biff, have grown up "yet to make something of themselves."Įarly in the play, the two sons are home visiting, which causes Willy to reminisce about their childhood. Set in New York City, in 1949, the audience follows the Loman family through their psychological battle with the American Dream.
#Death of a salesman 1949 movie
This is a feat the 1951 movie version pulls off handsomely.Start min Gratis Prøveperiode* Quick Death of a Salesman Summary "Death of a Salesman" is so stagebound that it's hard to find ways to open it up for the screen, so why bother? The story and performers draw audiences in to "Salesman," and because the subject matter is so unremittingly bleak and despairing, the acting has to be of a very high caliber to sustain interest. It's amazing how many dimensions there really are to this character, and Dunnock finds and plays them all beautifully. She mediates, observes, cajoles, admonishes, plays on sympathies, comforts and encourages. Mildred Dunnock's Linda may be the best performance in the movie. Kevin McCarthy and Cameron Mitchell play them to perfection. The two sons, Biff and Happy, are such ne'er do wells and so dishonest that they are thoroughly unsympathetic. March is wonderful, even if he does start out the movie at something of a fevered pitch rather than working up to it, as another reviewer says. The print is not very good, but the movie is fine. The Fredric March version of "Salesman" made its way to YouTube in October, 2014. Indeed, even if you have to wait seven years. I think it deserves a DVD release, as does the 1966 (German?) version of "The Crucible." I check on the DVD availability of this version of "Salesman" every now and then, as well as the 1949 version of "The Great Gatsby" with Alan Ladd, along with some other films that are (surprisingly) not on DVD, such as "Last Year At Marienbad" and "Sundays and Cybele." Good things come to those who wait. I have always been a big fan of March, and the rest of the cast all seem ideal choices for their roles. I would love to make that determination for myself. In his autobiography, "Timebends," playwright Arthur Miller says he was pleased with this version of "Salesman" and felt that Fredric March was effective as Willy.