The play ran for 745 performances, winning both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.此劇上演745場，贏得Tony Award和普利茲戲劇獎。
The original production was directed by Elia Kazan with Lee J. Cobb starring in the leading role of Willy Loman.
Elia Kazan導演該部戲劇，Lee J. Cobb主演劇中領銜人物Willy Loman. ，由此，該劇第一次被搬上銀屏。
The play attempts to raise a counterexample to Aristotle's characterization of tragedy as the downfall of a great man: though Loman certainly has hamartia, a tragic flaw or error, his downfall is that of an ordinary man.
In this sense, Miller's play represents a democratization of the ancient form of tragedy;
在這種意義上而言，米勒的喜劇呈現出古代悲劇形式的民主化特點
the play's protagonist is himself obsessed with the question of greatness, and his downfall arises directly from his continued misconception of himself—at age 63—as someone capable of greatness, as well as the unshakable conviction that greatness stems directly from personal charisma or popularity.
Willy Loman returns home after an unsuccessful business trip. Willy 在一次失敗商業之旅歸來，Frustrated at his lack of success, his wife Linda suggests that he ask his boss Howard Wagner to allow him to work in his home city so he will not have to travel. 對丈夫職業失敗的沮喪之中，他的妻子琳達建議他向老闆華格納要求讓他在家裡的城市工作，因此免去奔波的辛苦。Willy complains to Linda that their son, Biff, who comes home for the holidays, has yet to make good on his life.但威利卻向妻子抱怨他們的兒子---biff，他恰逢假期歸來，卻只是勉強過活。
Biff and his brother, Happy, who is also visiting, reminiscence about their childhood together.
Biff和他恰好回家探親的happy，一同回味童年。
They discuss their father's mental degeneration, which they have witnessed by his constant vacillations and talking to himself.
目睹父親持續的踟躕和自言自語，他們討論著自己父親精神狀況的惡化的問題。
The two discuss dreams of forming a ranch in the west and establishing their own livestock company and Biff discusses Willy's frustration at his success.
Willy appears and confides with them with his plans of establishing a business that will eclipse that of his neighbor, Charley.
父親Willy此時出現，並向他們吐露自己計畫乾一番事業，好讓鄰居查理的事業，相形見絀。
Over the next parts of the play, Willy's perception of reality phases in and out of flashbacks.
戲劇後半部中，Willy通過不斷倒敘，現實得以慢慢鋪陳展開。
Over the course of the play's first act, during a dreamlike sequence, he meets his brother Ben, who had left to mine diamonds in Africa and thus became rich.
In another similar sequence, he encounters his mistress, with whom he flirts and gives gifts of stockings.
而後他又遇見了他的情婦，他調戲她並給她用長筒襪裝著的禮物。
Willy's delusional dream-sequences encroach upon reality, and his family is affected by them. Seeing Linda mending stockings, he orders her to throw them out. He also grows furious at Charley's son.
《推銷員之死》（Death of a Salesman）是劇作家亞瑟·米勒的劇本，完成於1949年，是一部相當具有影響力的二十世紀戲劇。這部劇作被視為是一場對在資本主義下的美國夢相當嚴苛的批評，同時也讓米勒以及劇中主角“威利·羅曼”（Willy Loman）成為家喻戶曉的人物。《推銷員之死》在演出之後大受好評，贏得了1949年的普立策獎，讓米勒成為美國的全國性作家。
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