What are the main themes in Death of a Salesman?

The main themes and symbols of Death of a Salesman include family relationships and, at large, the shortcomings of the American dream and all of its consequences, namely the financial well-being that can afford people certain luxuries.

What does single man imply Death of a Salesman?

It suggests that he was a single man, a bachelor. He didn’t have Willy’s responsibilities or expenses. And he never thought about retiring because life on the road was more interesting than sitting alone in some furnished room waiting to die.

What does Dave represent in Death of a Salesman?

Dave Singleman is Willy’s oft-cited aspirational hero of the sales industry. Singleman is representative of the old world of salesmen, one in which personality and connections determines success instead of dogged service of the boss.

Who is the most decent man in Death of a Salesman?

In the Introduction to The Collected Plays, Charley is explicitly described by Miller both as “a capitalist” and as “the most decent man in Death of a Salesman” (37).

Who is Dave Singleman in death of a salesman?

A man named Dave Singleman has had a lot of influence over Willy. Because of Dave, Willy makes the decision to become a salesman. Willy think a lot of Dave because of his ability to sell from the phone.

What are the themes in the book Death of a salesman?

Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream.

What did Willy think of Dave from death of a salesman?

Willy think a lot of Dave because of his ability to sell from the phone. Willy considers ‘…what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?’

What does Charley say at the end of death of a salesman?

A salesman is got to dream, boy.” Charley says this at the end in the requiem. He waxes poetic about the life of a salesman as he eulogizes Willy. He paints Willy as a victim of his profession, and attributes to Willy the mythic quality which Willy aspired for in life. This is the same mythic quality Willy saw in Singleman.