Suicidal? There's help for that!

Throughout the play, we find out that Willy is just not stable. Whether it be a mental condition, or just years of being delusional, Willy is just not all there in the head. The title: "Death of a Salesman" is itself an allusion to the end of the play. At the end, Willy commits suicide and leaves his delusional self behind. This is not the first time that this has happened, however. Onstage, there is a garden hose. This is a constant reminder to the audience of Willy's past attempts at suicide.

Abandonment

The theme of abandonment is prevalent in this play. As mentioned previously in my last post, Willy's father leaves him and Ben when they were very young. Also, Ben leaves Willy to move to Alaska. This seems like it would be something to stop Willy from abandoning his family, but nevertheless the cycle continues by Willy leaving his family constantly for work. In the end of the play, Willy sort of abandons his family completely by committing suicide. His father ran away from his problems and left his family to deal with it, and now so did Willy by completely removing himself from the situation.

Ol' Willy

The main character in Death of a Salesman is named Willy Loman. Throughout his life, he is the "low man", hence the name, even though he works a lot for his family and tries to seem like a role model for his sons. It is referenced that his dad wasn't around much, and that he wants to be there for his kids. However, this contradicts with the fact that Willy is always out of town for work. He tries to provide but is so delusional that he can't, and he is backed up by his eagerly supportive wife, Linda.