Themes

Time is forever.  This theme is controversial because it is positive but also has a very negative side to it.  The idea of continuously getting better as time moves on is significant to being a salesman.  Some people may be born with talent but others work for a while and hard to earn prestige.  However time turns on us as we get progressively older.  Willy Loman is experiencing that because he is getting old, losing his memory, his kids are older and distant and with age comes death.  

Women come second to men.  This may not ring true now but back in the 50's, when the play takes place, women are definitely viewed as lower class.  Willy constantly demands things from Linda, interrupts her and does not really listen or care about her opinion.  Plus he cheated on her which shows how little he cares.  Willy's actions reflect in his sons because they are both womanizers and do not really care about woman's feelings or thought.  Willy remains alpha-male along with most husbands from the time period.

There is constant mentioning of things falling apart in the house.  Willy's life is falling apart.  His kids are bums and are living in the house, Willy is not making enough money, and he is slowly going insane.  The refrigerator is broken, the car, the hot water and the ceiling.  Not only is it breaking hard enough, but more ironic is that he has to pay for all this but is not making enough money to do so.  The tough thing is to judge whether or not WIlly actually knows his life is falling apart.  I'd place my bet on yes.

Death of a Salesmen (Homework I)

Willy's biggest value is hard work and he really tries to instill that in Biff and Happy.  One really cannot just slack off and be successful, sure it is possible but it really is not as rewarding.  Willy also seems to focus on being well-liked.  Being well-liked will get you only as far as people are nice.

Hard work is more important to teach a son rather then being well-liked because if my father really only taught me to be well-liked we would probably have a better relationship.  Hard work is all he cares about but it makes sense because if you cannot work hard to get what you want you will really never get anything.  I would probably be like Willy though because you really cannot be a jerk because that really will not get you far either, but you cannot be friends with everyone, someone hates you.

Willy contradicts himself a lot but it may be because of his very bad memory.  It really is not his fault because he cannot control his poor memory.  It probably cannot all be to blame his memory either because he seems very indecisive which is a really bad attribute to have.  If you cannot make a decision and stick with it, no one will ever believe what you are saying.

It is not apparent if Linda is blind to his constant inconsistencies or just does not want to embarrass him.  This hurts Willy in the long run because he may not be aware of it when someone could be telling him.  Linda could probably tell him without him freaking out if she tells him the right way instead of just being very upfront about it.