Willy Loman, sixty-three years old, cannot sell anymore, cannot face his failures, cannot stop believing in a dream that was never true. Arthur Miller's 1949 play is the great American tragedy of the common man, its form a mixture of realism and expressionism that moves through time as memory moves. 'Attention must be paid' is Linda's plea for her husband, and it has become a plea for everyone whom the American dream has broken. The play is performed constantly because Willy Loman is still being created.