Historical Context
Arthur
Miller initially had the concept for “Death of a Salesman” when Miller was
17 years old and working at his father's company. The original story was about
an aging salesman who has no luck with his sales and is ridiculed by his
potential customers. In the
postscript for the manuscript, Miller noted that the person on which the story
was based ended up killing himself by throwing himself in front of a subway
train. However, it should also be
noted that the inspiration for the play came from many sources, including an
encounter with Miller’s uncle in 1947 on whom Willy Loman is also based.
Through his uncle, Miller met many other salesmen and they also had an
influence on the caricatures of salesman apparent in the play.
Miller described some of them as having a lot of personal dignity, being
ultra-competitive, able to withstand inevitable putdowns, and “forever
imagining triumphs in a world that either ignores them or denies their presence
altogether.”
Miller
did not write “Death of a Salesman” immediately after his encounter with his
uncle, since he was very involved with the production of his “All My Sons,”
which had just premiered in theaters. He
waited about a year later, in April 1948, until the play began to formally come
together, a combination of a portrayal of his own uncle and his original short
story concept.
