Magic the gathering (04)
Death of a salesman
Characters:
William Loman:
A salesman. William, called Willy, is past 60 years of age, quietly dressed and exhausted by his job. Willy travels every week. He is the New England man of the Wagner company.
“Personality always wins the day.“
Linda Loman:
Linda is the wife of Willy.
She more than loves him, she admires him. She would be content with a happy family.
“Life is a casting off.“
“Why must everyone conquer the world?“
Biff:
Son of the Lomans. He used to admire his father but lost confidence in him. Today he only fights with his Dad.
Biff tramped around the last years taking a lot of jobs. This upset his father. He needs to find himself.
Harold:
Younger son of the Lomans. He is a bum. He seduces the engaged wifes of his bosses.
He is always called Happy.
Story:
The story starts with Willy coming home a few days too early from a trip. Linda shows a lot of trepidation. Willy tells her that he was too tired and couldn’t make it. He couldn’t drive because he couldn’t manage to keep his mind on driving. Linda wants to calm her confused husband down.
Willy Loman worked all life long to accomplish something but his work is hardly appreciated. His wife is foundation and support for the disappointed man. William seems not only confused but senile near to insane. He forgets a lot and lives in his own world, consisting of a mixture of current events and memories. As a result he is very vunerable.
Willy is maybe going to lose his license because he had an accident with the car.
Another one.
Willy often talkes to himself and misses what other people say.
He often criticises his son Biff because he wants him to make good and, even more important, better than he himself for he’s got a miserable job. He wants his boys to have an easier live without the problems he has.
Biff wants to make his future but he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He is unhappy and not content because he thinks that he wastes his life.
He doesn’t know what he is working for but he realises that he has to settle.
Biff has problems with the increasingly embarassing behaviour of his father.
When Willy was younger he cared a lot for his children. He wanted them to have success and was worried if he raised them right. But the main thing he told his sons was that success in the job is most important. It’s also very important for Willy to be liked.
But he overdoes his education.
Although Linda keeps building him up he realises that everyone laughs at him. He has to realise that he is a failure in his job.
Even though Linda is very important for him, Willy cheats on her. He has an affair with another woman in another city.
Willy is upset because he had the chance to take an opportunity together with his brother that could have gained him a lot of money.
This especially makes him sorrow because he and his wife are always short on money. Another problem for him is that everyone in his family was a businessman but him. His brother made his luck. Even his father had success.
He hurts the ones he loves. He insults the caring neighbor and friend Charly, who borrows him a great amount of money.
Willy is unjust and insulting towards Linda.
Over the years Willy and Biff grew hateful to each other. Willy blew Biff so full of hot air that he could never stand taking orders. As a result he lost every job. Even though His mother tells Biff to treat his father with respect and finally make up his mind he shows few pity.
Willy’s company finally takes his salary away.
He is depressed because noone welcomes him anymore. His old friends are dead and he is exhausted. He always worked for his sons’ benefit.
Because of this it’s a shock for the sons when Linda tells them that their father tried to kill himself. He put his whole life into his boys and can’t bear that they turned their backs on him. Willy thinks that Biff has been spiting him all the years and that’s eating him up.
But Biff is just disappointed because he lost confidence into his father when he was young and discovered that his father has an affair.
When Happy has a business idea for both brothers everything seems to improve. Biff wants to borrow money from an old friend to realise Happy’s idea.
Willy who is simply too exhausted to work on the road again asks his boss for another job and is fired although he worked nearly all his life for that firm.
When his neighbor Charley offers him a job he refuses. He can’t work for him because he is jealous of his success.
In the evening the boys and their father meet to eat dinner together. Biff tells his father that he didn’t get the money but they can hardly communicate. Finally Willy breaks down and the boys leave quarreling.
When Biff and Happy come home Linda is very angry because the boys deserted their father and wants to throw them out of the house.
Willy, disappointed and sad, wants to kill himself to get Biff the money of his life-insurance because he wants to show his son that he is someone. He fights for his love.
Biff wants to wrap it up but the last talk turns into fighting too. But Willy recognises that his son loves him. As a consequence he knows that there will be pity for him. He takes the car and kills himself.
I liked this book because of the very interesting psychological background. Willy Loman always wanted his sons to be successfull and thought them how but his efforts made them unsuccessful.
It’s the story of a father who loves his sons and boys who love their Dad. But all of them can’t talk with each other.
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