Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is as the title suggests, a morbid American tragedy. The play is shrouded by the gloom of a man meeting his downfall, and the realization that he will never attain any of his dreams.
The play follows Willy Loman, a 63-year-old salesman who is slowly going crazy. He believes that he was once a skilled, personable, traveling salesman who was always happy and successful. Unfortunately, years later, he seems to be on the downhill slope of a very harsh mental breakdown. Willy thinks he should be retiring, but instead finds that his work was fruitless and he is struggling to make ends meet. He is convinced that he is popular, and has many friends, but that verdict is quite far from the truth. Willy is fired from his job, and is too proud to take work from his neighbor, one of the only real friends he has. Willy always wants his sons to be rich, so they can support him, but neither of the boys becomes successful.
The entire play is basically watching Willy rant about how his dreams are being crushed. Willy reveals that he believes being well liked is the only way to become successful, and obsesses over the idea eventually to the point of his own demise. In the end, Willy decides to take his own life for two reasons: first, to prove that he really is well liked when people show up at his funeral and second, to enable his family to collect his life insurance money after he is dead. Ironically, neither of these things happens after his death, and the play ends in a cloud of despair.
In the end, the best lesson that can be learned from this play is the importance of staying in touch with reality (the other lesson is to stay away from Arthur Miller plays).