I am analyzing the play, “Death of a Salesman” with
a historical lens. At first, I had to
think for a very long time because I did not find anything that really stood
out besides the fact that the play was first shown in 1949. Throughout the entire play, there are
character actions that are written on the script telling what the characters do
and how they are feeling sometimes.
These really help because one can see that the way the characters in the
story acted, and what they did were, as some would describe, old
fashioned. For example, Linda is always
waiting after her husband like a servant and in return treated badly. Some call this old fashioned because many
women today like to be described as independent and free to do what they wish,
not wait on their husbands. In the
beginning of the play when Willy first enters, Linda called after him “…with
some trepidation” (22) so I believe that she fears him to an extent, whereas
women today like to be fearless because they have a sense of independence and
they should not have to fear any man.
When one closely examines the background of the
story, they should take note of the dates and what was going on. This story takes place about twenty years
after the great depression; so many Americans were once again becoming
financially stable, creating inflation.
The only problem was that not all Americans were making enough money to
afford the finances that came with the inflation, so this made the poor even
poorer. During the whole play, the
problems arise because of financial reasons.
The root of all the bad in the story is finances, and that they do not
have enough money. Because of this,
Willy thinks that since he has life insurance, he would help his family more if
he were dead by getting them money from his life insurance and they would
appreciate him once again. He tried to
commit suicide more than once. For
example, Linda cries out to Willy after he “accidently” crashed the car, “You
didn’t smash the car, did you?” (22). Linda does not want to believe it, but
Willy is trying to commit suicide because he wants to be appreciated in a way. And he has reason, after the Great Depression
when so many Americans were rising and he was not, he would most probably get
frustrated. Biff even tells Happy that “There’s
one or two things depressing…” (30) Willy.
