The concept of Death of a Salesman involves the tragic tale of a salesman who is married with two sons. He is past his prime and his sales are so slow that he is unable to pay his bills. He also seems to be experiencing some form of dementia as he becomes confused and irritable quite easily. He is torn between a past whose successes were not quite the terrific memories he retains of them and a present without much success at all. As he says to Howard when he is treated without respect, “There were promises made across this desk! You musn’t tell me you’ve got people to see—I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit!” (Miller). Because of his perceptions of himself as a failure, Willy has tried and eventually is successful at suicide. The casting of roles is significant in this work because each role has nuances of character that must be satisfied in order to validly recreate the author’s intent as written. Pretending a cast could be assembled from all of Hollywood’s actors and actresses, the following would be my choice for casting five main roles in Death of a Salesman: Willy-Jimmy Stewart; Linda-Greer Garson; Biff-James Dean; Happy-Montgomery Clift; Ben-John Wayne.
When looking at the character of Willy Loman, it would be quite valid to cast Jimmy Stewart in the role. Stewart has exactly the confused demeanor and vulnerability required for the role. As he so well demonstrated in It’s A Wonderful Life, Stewart would be excellent for embodying the feelings of failure and low self-esteem that boil over into desperation and suicide in the character of Willy. Stewart was also excellent at playing confused and talking to himself, so he would be ideal in the scenes where Willy is having flashbacks, confused and talking to himself. Stewart was excellent at talking fast as well, so he woul...