Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman," remains as pertinent today as its debut in 1949, perhaps even more so. It is the story of family dynamics and unattained dreams.
             Willy Loman has spent his entire career in sales. Now, at a time when he should be enjoying retirement, he is in reality a broken man, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Willy believed careers were built on personality, that if people liked him, he would be successful. However, over time, charm was not enough to close the deals. Now his life, the life he thought he had, has slipped away.
             Miller's play opens with Willy returning home from yet another unsuccessful business trip. His oldest son, Biff, is there, and Willy begins verbally attacking him for being a failure, for not making a career. His younger son, Happy, is also there, and Biff and Happy reminisce and comment on their father's verbal ramblings. Biff had been a high school football star and Willy had great expectations for him, convinced he would be successful.
             Throughout the play, Miller's character, Willy, bounces in and out of reality, sometimes daydreams of the past, and sometimes pure hallucinations. While the boys reminisce, Willy is taken back to younger days, when Biff was a football star and Willy's career still had potential of success. He tells the boys that some day he will own a business bigger than his neighbor Charley's. He also tells them that although Charley's son Bernard is smart, a bookworm actually, it is doubtful that Bernard will ever be successful because he is not a likable person, and being liked is what counts in business. In this daydream, Willy is forced to admit to his wife, Linda that the sales trip was not all that successful and they will not be able to meet all their monthly expenses. As Linda consoles him, his dream shifts to an interlude with his mistress, in which she thanks him for some sto...