Salesmanship

"Charlie: 'Willy, when're you gonna realize that them things don't mean anything? You named him Howard, but you can't sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you're a salesman, and you don't know that.' " pg 1602

A common theme circulation throughout all acts of "Death of a Salesman" is the concept of worth and how it factors into life as a salesman. Willy spends a lot of his time complaining about how appliances such as fridges and cars that he thought he just bought were already falling apart. Willy thinks that things that cost money should be expected to last. However, Willy also believes in things that don't cost money. This fact is revealed about Willy in the scene above where Charlie is quoted. Unfortunately, in this scene is dispossessed of this idea, the idea that even things you can't buy with money still have worth. Until know, the audience can assume one of the reasons Willy hasn't killed managed to kill himself yet is that he knows that he still has worth alive, no matter how he might feel the opposite is true sometimes. Just a few lines after Charlie utters this speech, Willy reflects on how since he paid his insurance, he is worth more dead than alive. Charlie tries to undo the damage his quote unintentionally did, but he can't. Willy kills himself later that night.

Willy's realization in this scene is a depressingly tragic theme that questions the concept of worth and where it truly lies. Especially in the life of a salesman, worth can be confusing and get muddled up with all the quotas and dollar signs that involved in the life of a salesman. The life was so hard on Willy that his final sale ended up being his own life.