Willy’s Unfulfilled Dreams and Frustrated Hopes Death of a Salesman is about the struggles and failure of Willy Loman. A middle aged, quietly dressed, exhausted traveling salesman. In Death of a Salesman Miller begin the play with Willy Loman, who after an unsuccessful attempt to start a selling trip, has just returned home early. Willy’s family had notice him talking to himself about things from the past. Linda his wife, seeing his exhaustion knows Willy is close to his psychological breaking point. She pleads with him to ....