The significance of Death of a Salesman lies within its ability to extend beyond the post-war period, and to “speak” to people today. Death of a Salesman is based upon living the “American Dream”; This gave the opportunity for men and women to have a well-paying job, own a home, the option of having two cars, marriage, children, and pets. The most important aspect of living the “American Dream” is to know that in order to achieve these things in life you must work hard to succeed. Miller made this obvious by showing both success and failure. Willy Loman and his family had great dreams, but did not work hard to make them become reality. Willy and his family expected these things to happen on their own with little effort. As Willy’s nephew Bernard pushed Biff to put effort in his schooling, Willy and Biff just blew it off as though it was nothing. Biff expected his football skills to be enough to succeed, which he later found out wasn’t true at all. Bernard became very successful and Biff was the opposite. He didn’t do anything in his life and became nobody. Willy is another example; he expected good expected good things to come in life without effort. He expected his children to become successful so they could support him, but instead they became bums. The stress of not being able to pay bills and the failure of his children was so unbearable that he became absorbed in the past. Often oblivious to what was going on around him. Willy also became suicidal, constantly crashing his car and he also had a short rubber pipe that connected to the gas pipe on the water heater. From the given examples I believe that Miller did “speak” to the people by showing that things in life don’t always go as expected and you must work hard to achieve success.

Arthur Miller maintained that Death of a Salesman was a tragedy. Although Death of a Salesman was serious, about a person who falls, and the fall was from an excess in personality; Willy Loman did not recognize the reason of this fall, was not worthy of our admiration, and did not accept responsibility. Death of a Salesman was about a salesman, Willy Loman. The financial burden, constant fighting, and Willy’s behavior made this play write serious. Willy falls because he had a poor work ethic and after losing his job, continued to refuse Charley’s job offers. Willy was proud and boastful, while living nothing but lies. He eventually dies from these faults in his character. Willy’s failure to recognize the reason for this fall is one reason Death of a Salesman is not recognized as a tragedy. He is not worthy of our admiration because he did not accomplish anything and did not work for anything. He was a bum just like his children. Willy did not accept responsibility for his actions. Even after being fired from his job, he still expected success to find him.

Some strengths of Death of a Salesman are the contrast between success and failure, and the description of characters. It is somewhat difficult to distinguish the difference between flashbacks and present time of the story. The contrast between success and failure is great because it shows the advantages of success and how to achieve it, and how failure can drive you down and make you miserable. The description of characters shows a wide variety of different personalities and outlooks. Willy could not accept his failure and always hoped for things that were far from reality, where as his brother Charley became very successful. They both raised their children very differently and it shows. Willy’s children were just like him, expected everything in life to be handed to them and making themselves believe that lies could build a good life. Whereas Bernard worked hard to become successful and became a father, husband, a lawyer. Making the most of his life and facing reality. With Willy’s inability to face reality it made it difficult to distinguish the past from the present. They sometimes became mixed together and hard to understand.