The very first scene features Willy and his wife Linda, where Willy is disparaging their sons for coming home and being directionless. The primary aspect of the directing that facilitated the success of the film was the means through which the director provided a view into the lives of the characters in the play. These conflicts drive Willy to the realization that he is futilely struggling against fate, and he kills himself to give insurance money to his family.

The other son, Happy, is only marginally more successfully than Biff and makes the same mistake as his father in believing that he can find success in being a travelling salesman. Moreover, his relationship is complicated with his father after he learns of the fact that his father was cheating on his mother, completing the sense of disillusionment that Biff has with his father.

Ultimately, Biff is a man in his mid-thirties that is still directionless in life because he was always encouraged to make people like him rather than learning an important skill. This concept carries over to the relationships that Willy has with his sons, Biff and Happy. This leads to Willy not having money, which he considers to be the ultimate measure of success. Willy had worked for his sales company for decades and instead of being celebrated and rewarded for his hard work, Willy was being forced to accept few hours and worsening conditions. The major conflicts that were driving the plot of the play forward came with Wily Loman and the fact that the American Dream, a prominent theme of the play, proved to be non-existent. The first element of the play that is important to examine is the particular script that was utilized for this play. Examining this particular rendition of the play shows that the director, Volker Schlöndorff, was successful at using scene design, specific acting methods, and specific elements of lighting in order to create a successful rendition of the play. This was a taped performance rather than a live one, so there is no theatre that can be listed for the area in which it was performed. One version that has gotten considerable praise for its depictions of Willy Loman and his family was the 1985 depiction of the play which starred Dustin Hoffman in the title role of Willy. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a play that examines the themes of aging, honesty, and the concept of the American Dream.

Death of a salesman script sample