Death of a Salesman:  Social Commentary

 

What is Miller suggesting about the system?

 

WILLY:  ‘Work a lifetime to pay off a house.  You finally own it, & there’s no one to live in it’ (1473).

 

WILLY:  ‘Population is getting out of control.  The competition is maddening!  Smell the stink from that apartment house!’ (1474).

 

HAPPY:  ‘All I can do now is wait for the merchandise manager to die.  And suppose I get to be merchandise manager?  He’s a good friend of mine, and he just built a terrific estate on Long Island.  And he lived there about two months and sold it, and now he’s building another one.  He can’t enjoy it once it’s finished.  And I know that’s just what I would do’ (1478).

 

WILLY:  ‘Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken!  I’m always in a race with the junkyard!  I just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs.  The refrigerator consumes belts like it’s a goddam maniac.  They time those things.  They time them so when you finally paid for them they’re used up’ (1504).