The next day, Willy is to meet the boys for dinner in a restaurant. He goes on to explain that the important thing in life is to be well-liked. The boys tell Willy about their plans, and Willy thinks that together the two could absolutely conquer the world. He and his brother, Happy, decide to ask Bill Oliver, whom Biff used to work for, for a loan of $10,000 to begin a business of their own. Now, after some fourteen years of wandering and working odd jobs, Biff returns home. After this episode, Biff seemed to hold a grudge against his father and could never again bring himself to trust him. Later, Willy reveals through his disjointed memories that Biff had caught him with another woman in his motel room in Boston. He never fulfilled the potential Willy felt he had. Biff was playing in a great football game, and people were coming from all over the country to offer him scholarships. Willy thinks about Biff when Biff was a senior in high school some fourteen years ago. He asks about his son, Biff, who has just come home for a visit after being away for a long time.

He tells his wife, Linda, that he just can’t seem to keep his mind on driving anymore. When Dave died, people from all over the country came to his funeral.īut, as the play opens, Willy has just come back home after having left for New England that morning. He constantly compares himself to Dave Singleton, a salesman who would go into a town, pick up a phone, and place many orders without ever leaving his hotel room. Willy Loman has been a traveling salesman for thirty-four years, and he likes to think of himself as being vital to the New England territory he works. The times of the play’s action fluctuate between 19, making a simple narration of plot impossible and probably not very meaningful, thus a summary of the action, not necessarily in the order of the play, is much more helpful: The story of Death of a Salesman is told partly through the mind and memory of Willy Loman, the protagonist.

Death of a salesman summary script