Editing Death of a Salesman (section)

== Plot ==
The play takes place in 1949. The setting is the Loman home in [[Brooklyn]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Arthur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmJa4tLn0vMC |title=Death of a Salesman |date=1994 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-23307-5 |pages=29, 33 |language=en}}</ref> located amidst a typical row of urban apartment buildings.

[[Willy Loman]] suddenly returns home in the middle of the night exhausted after a failed business trip to [[Boston]]. Worried over Willy's rapidly declining state of mind and a recent near fatal car accident, his wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss, Howard, to allow him to work in his home city so he will no longer have to travel. Willy complains to Linda about their son, Biff, who is 34 years old and has yet to do something meaningful with his life. Despite Biff having a promising [[High school football|football]] career in high school with many scholarship offers, he failed in mathematics and was therefore unable to enter a university and spent years drifting around the [[Western United States]] working many odd jobs with no clear goal.

Biff and his younger brother, Happy, who is temporarily staying with Willy and Linda after Biff's unexpected return from the West, reminisce about their childhood together. They discuss their father's mental degeneration, which they have witnessed in the form of his constant indecisiveness and daydreaming about the boys' high school years. Eventually, Willy walks in, angry that the two boys have never amounted to anything. In an effort to pacify their father, Biff and Happy tell him that Biff plans to make an ambitious business proposition the next day.

The next day, Willy goes to Howard’s office for a non-traveling job in town while Biff goes to make a business proposition, but they both fail. Howard staunchly refuses to give Willy a New York job, despite his desperate pleas and ignoring Willy's 34 years of devotion to the company. Willy then loses his temper and ends up getting fired when Howard tells him that he needs a long rest and is no longer allowed to represent the Wagner Company. On the other hand, Biff waits hours to see a former employer named Bill Oliver who does not remember him and turns him down. In response Biff, feeling crushed, impulsively steals a [[fountain pen]]. Willy then goes to the business office of his neighbor Charley, where he runs into Charley's son Bernard, who is now a successful [[lawyer]]  about to argue a case in front of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] and is happily married and has two children of his own. Bernard tells him that Biff originally wanted to go to [[summer school]] to make up for failing math, but something happened in Boston when Biff went to visit his father that changed his mind. Charley then offers Willy a stable do-nothing job, but Willy vehemently refuses despite losing his job. Charley, who feels insulted, reluctantly gives the now-unemployed Willy money to pay off his [[life-insurance]] premium, and Willy shocks Charley by remarking that ultimately, a man is "worth more dead than alive."

Happy, Biff, and Willy meet for dinner at a restaurant called Frank's Chop House, but Willy refuses to hear the bad news from Biff and constantly interrupts. Happy tries to coax Biff to lie to their father. Biff angrily tries to tell him what actually happened as Willy gets frustrated, withdraws to the restaurant’s bathroom, and slips into a [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]] of what happened in Boston the day Biff came to see him: Biff had come to Boston to ask Willy to convince his teacher to curve his failing math grade, so he could graduate. However, Willy was in the middle of an [[extramarital affair]] with a receptionist named Miss Francis when Biff arrived unexpectedly, and saw the half-dressed woman with him. Biff did not accept his father's cover-up story for her presence, and angrily dismissed him as a liar and a fake before storming out. From that moment, Biff's views of his father changed and set him adrift.

Biff leaves the restaurant in frustration, followed by Happy flanked by a pair of attractive women named Miss Forsythe and Letta, leaving a confused and devastated Willy behind. When they later return home, Linda scolds them for abandoning their father while Willy remains outside, talking to himself. Biff tries to reconcile with Willy, but the discussion quickly escalates into emotional conflict. Biff conveys plainly to his father that he is not meant for anything great, insisting that both of them are simply ordinary men meant to lead ordinary lives. The argument reaches an apparent climax as Biff hugs Willy and begins to cry as he tries to get Willy to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Rather than listen to what Biff actually says, Willy appears to believe his son has forgiven him and will follow in his footsteps, and after Linda goes upstairs to bed, lapses one final time into a [[hallucination]], thinking he is talking to his long-dead wealthy brother Ben. In Willy's mind, Ben "approves" of the scheme Willy has dreamed up to [[suicide|take his own life]] in order to give Biff his life insurance money to help him start a business and that his funeral will be well attended with all his admirers which will leave Biff feeling “thunderstruck”. Willy then promptly exits the house, and Biff and Linda cry out in despair as the sound of Willy's car blares up and fades out. The car crashes and Willy instantly dies.

The final scene takes place at Willy's funeral. Linda and Happy stand in surprise after Willy’s funeral is sparsely attended only by his family, Charley, and Bernard (who does not speak during the scene). Biff upholds his belief that he is no longer interested in becoming a businessman like his father and decides to drift away. Happy, on the other hand, chooses to follow in his father's footsteps. Linda who is liberated from her financial burdens begins to sob, repeating “We’re free. . . .” All exit, and the curtain falls.