Arthur Miller interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded "All My Sons" as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of "The New York Times" had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of "Death of a Salesman". Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. "Death of a Salesman" premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed
Willy Loman of the show as he bares his soul saying "Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop! Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more. I'm just what I am, that's all." At Willy's funeral, Biff states that "He had the wrong dreams...He never knew who he was.". Although his younger son, Happy, is self-absorbed, he attempts to humor Willy. He views his Uncle Ben (his father's brother) as his role model rather than his father because Ben went out to the world as a teenager and was rich by the age of 21. He repeatedly reminds Willy of