In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which opened in New York in 1949, Willy Loman believes that being liked is the key to success. “Be liked and you will never want,” he says. He admires an old salesman, Dave Singleman, and recalls that “hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral.”
Willy has spent his life making friendly contacts on the road. At the end of the play, only his family, his neighbor Charley and Charley’s son Bernard come to his funeral. His wife Linda asks why nobody else came.