Death of a salesman essay sample

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Death of a Salesman
The play titled Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is fascinating because of the
numerous themes that it depicts in the lives of the characters. One of the main themes brought
out in the play is desertion. This study will address the theme of abandonment as depicted in the
play.
The play reveals that Willy’s life is a continuous series of neglect from one family
member to another, a fact that leaves him disappointed, unhappy, and with despair. Willy’s
series of desertion was something that he has lived with from his young age, when his father left
him and his brother Ben. Willy says, “Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance
to talk to him and I still feel—kind of temporary about myself” (Miller Act 1). The play reveals
that the neglect is both physical and emotional. The reason for the physical and emotional
abandonment is the fact that his father neither left him any material possession nor left him an
emotional connection. Willy, therefore, lives in fear of being left behind from his family and
himself. A clear example of neglect is the fact that Ben, Willy's brother, cased him off when he
went to Alaska to work and later ended in Africa where he became rich after owning a gold
mine. Willy could not deal with the fact that Ben, his only brother, had left him in a search for a
lower life in Alaska. As the play ends, Willy permanently left his wife and children by
committing suicide. He, however, believed that this was his final attempt to make things tight
with his family, but it was evident that he failed.

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The theme is also depicted when Biff discovered that his father had a secret affair with
another woman. Biff felt an emotional rejection because the man that he looked up to did not live
his expectations. For this reason, he felt detached from his father, and he decided to move away
from his father and his home for many years without returning to visit his parents. The reason is
the fact that he felt that his father had failed to fulfill his parental duties as the role model.
Additionally, Willy’s fears did not only affect himself, but they also affected the manner in
which he raised his children.
Linda, Willy’s wife, also abandons all her activities and focuses on ensuring that his
husband does not experience any other forms of neglect from the people that he loves. This
reveals that Linda is willing to forfeit her happiness to see that his husband is okay. She asks him
to leave his job at Brooklyn and move to New York because she fears that any other cases of
neglect may cause his husband’s death. From the play, it is evident that Linda is also afraid of
desertion, but she eventually faces it when her husband commits suicide. She questioned herself
when people failed to attend her husband’s funeral, she said: “Why didn’t anyone come? But
where were all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him” (Miller, Act 2). This revealed that
most of Willy’s friends had also deserted him at the end.
In conclusion, the play Death of a Salesman showed the theme of abandonment in the
characters and the manner in which it affects their lives. Willy is the most influenced character
who eventually commits suicide because he has failed to deal with his fear of being alone.

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Work Cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Stamford, Conn: Educational Dimensions, 1973.