First Read of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

I started Death of a Salesman last night and so far there are many things I have interpreted about the characters and plot. As soon as I started reading this book i noticed the amount of imagery in the description of the setting. of course it was setting the scene for the play, but unlike some other plays I have read in the past, it wasn't vague at all. The next thing I learned while continuing to read was the characters names and titles. Willy, I gather, is the main character and the salesman in the story. I saw some foreshadowing when Willy talked about being unable to keep his mind focused while driving. Willy seems to have issues going on in his mind and these problems are shown by him being forgetful and also not being fully "in the present" - mind wise. In my opinion, he is almost showing signs of alzheimer's disease. Another thing I noticed about Willy is the contradictions he makes. One example of this is when he is discussing his elder son, Biff with his wife, Linda. Biff is unsuccessful and cannot seem to find his place in life. From a young age both sons of Willy and Linda seems to have a lot of potential for greatness and Willy is disappointed to figure out his sons are not want he expected them to be. The contradiction I was referring to is when Willy spews out a mean remark about Biff being a lazy, drop out then almost immediately contradicts himself by talking about Biff's great potential and how he's on the verge of going far in life. Biff's younger brother, Happy, seems to be doing okay work wise, but like Biff, he is not happy with his success and wants to do more in life. My overall take on this book, from what I've read so far is that as an old, worn-out salesman, Willy is unhappy with the way his life turned out. He talks about his old dreams of his boys becoming big shots and him moving up in life, but none of that seems to turn out as he wanted. This results in Willy constantly talking to himself aloud, replaying memories of better times.