Willy Loman, the protagonist of "Death of a Salesman," has spent his
life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship
as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he
covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life
took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his
relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the
son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of
elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a
desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once
promised so much.