"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

Notes

Motifs and Themes

"Kid"

Watch how often the the idea of "Kid," and "Boy," and "When are you going to grow up?" is tossed around in the play. Biff, talking to Hap about himself, says that he sees himself as just a boy. "I'm like a boy. I'm not married. I'm not in business, I just--I'm like a boy." Willy warns Biff not to use the word "Gee" because "Gee" is a boy's word (The next morning, Willy will say "Gee whiz" to Linda). Later in the play, Howard will call Willy "Kid." This patronizing attitude must add to Willy's own insecurity. He seems sensitive to slights of this kind and therefore might use it as a kind of warning to Biff or maybe he uses it as an unconscious attack, the kind where the victim becomes the victimizer. This insecurity about his immaturity (even at the age of 63) is highlighted by how angry Willy gets when Charley asks him in Act II, "When are you going to grow up?"
 

Poetry

Arthur Miller's language can be problematic for some people. There are lines that just don't ring true or  seem realistic. Linda talks about what she finds behind the fuse box: "And behind the fuse box--it happened to fall out--was a length of rubber pipe--just short." What is this supposed to be? What is Willy supposed to do with this rubber pipe that would kill him, breathe in gas? The moment he became unconscious, the pipe would fall out of his mouth. The fact is that it does not matter. It is the image of the rubber pipe and the gas that counts. The image expresses the concept of suicide and that is all Miller needs for the audience to understand. Another example of unrealistic or stylized language is the lies that the members of the family tell each other about their past or even their present situations. These lies don't hold up under the least bit scrutiny, even for these people. It is not the actual lies that they tell, but the image that they convey. The boys and Willy tell lies. That is the important concept for the audience to gather in. When the playwright tries to give an impression of reality rather than reality itself, it is a matter of style an thus is considered stylized. You will notice this in some movies and television shows. Sometimes the scenery or the language is obviously fake or unreal. Didn't the director notice? Of course she did. Look at the television shows Hercules or Xena: Warrior Princess. Their costumes and language are way too modern for the time they are supposed to inhabit, but the show still conveys enough about the setting for the audience to get the idea that it happens sometime in the mythical past. The directors are showing a bit of style in their presentation.

Just as the scenery in Death of a Salesman is designed so that there is only enough of the house to give the image of a dwelling that exists under the dominance of the apartment buildings, the dialogue is written so that there is just enough story to give a hint of the major events in the life of the Loman family. The play is not meant to be reality. It is meant to convey an image or view of reality. In the same way Pablo Picasso paints pictures that are not realistic yet comment on the reality of our lives, so does Miller create a world that that cannot exist in reality but casts an image that exposes truths about reality.

Act One

Willy and Linda

• Willy, seemingly out of no where, asks, "How do they whip cheese?" While this might appear to be a random remark, it is important to note that the playwright has only two or three hours to reveal the important facts in this family's life. Nothing can be wasted with such a task. Therefore nothing should be random, but rather all of the dialogue should be calculated to reveal. If you are aware that you have a great play in front of you, your task is to figure out what is the purpose of  each minute of the play. In the case of the whipped cheese, Tom B., Class of '04, points out that it indicates Willy's surprise at change. Willy is amazed at changes in people, technology, home and neighborhood.  This will be a major theme during the play. Here in the first act, Willy bemoans the change in the neighborhood and how the elm trees that were in the lot next door were cut down to put up an apartment building. Now he feels boxed in and indeed the script indicates that the buildings surrounding Willy's home loom over them just as Willy feels that the society he doesn't fit into looms over him..

Happy and Biff in the room together:

• Biff talks to Happy about coming out West with him. For a time, Happy is enthralled with the idea. "That's what I dream about, Biff." Happy abruptly kills the dream that makes him happy by asking about the kind of money a person could make out West. The dream that makes him happy, Happy won't pursue. The dream about money and possessions that offers no satisfaction for him, Happy only pursues.
• Happy talks about women and reduces them to objects. "I get that anytime I want, Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted." With what is Happy disgusted? Later he says to Biff that he wants somebody with "resistance." What does he want her to resist? Who is it that Happy really does not like?

• Why does Happy continually tell his father he is losing weight?
• What is Willy's reaction to Biff's "borrowing" the football?
• How do the boys treat Willy?
• Why does Willy think Bernard will fail and Biff will succeed?
• What kind of future does Biff have before him at this point?
• Why, as Willy tells his boys, will Charley not succeed?

 

• How does Willy's attitude change with Linda? Has he been as successful as he has indicated to the boys?
• How does Linda feel about him?
• How does Willy feel about his appearance?
• What does Willy envy about Charley? What does this say about what he has told the boys?
• Willy displays a tremendous amount of self doubt. Why do you think he values being "well-liked"?
• Who is the woman in the hotel room? Give several reasons for Willy to be there with her.
• Why does Willy get mad about Linda mending stockings?

 

• How old was Willy when Ben left? Did Willy ever have a chance to go off with Ben?
• What was Ben's reason for setting off for Alaska? Why should Willy feel he lacks a role model for fatherhood?
• What did Willy's father do? Why is Willy a salesman?
• Willy asks Ben what Willy should teach them. What is Ben's answer?

 

• During this scene Linda shows pure, unconditional love for Willy.
• Linda knows who her sons have become. She is not fooled, though she loves them.
• Linda tells the boys that Willy has been trying to kill himself.
• "There's a rubber pipe, just short." Don't be concerned with how the pipe works. It is a symbol of his desire for death.
• Linda takes it away, but she puts it back. Why does she put it back?

• "He threw me out of the house." Have you guessed why Willy and Biff are in such great conflict?
• "Because we don't belong in this nuthouse of a city! We should be mixing cement on some open plain, or -- or carpenters." Biff is displaying the self knowledge that he just can't seem to hang on to. Willy, who built the ceiling in the kitchen, the porch, and did the work on the house, should have been a carpenter.

Act Two

Howard's Office:

• What does the tape recorder represent? Is it a symbol for anything?
• Dave Singleman is the salesman who at the age of eighty-four made his living. It is this image that convinced Willy to follow the career of sales. Willy is helped by his background where his father did the same thing when he was a boy.
• It is Dave Singleman who died the death of a salesman. What was that?
• "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away--a man is not a piece of fruit!" Can anyone make a case for this being the central quote of the play? 

I want all of my students to remember this quote. Workers, people, are not commodities. They are not meant to be used up and then disposed of. When you are the person in charge, the owner of a great company or an officer in a small one, when you are the foreman or the boss, please remember that, while you have the responsibility of the company to think of, you are an advocate for humanity. This is one of the most important roles you will ever have, so remember to fill it with all your wisdom and compassion.
• What does it mean for Howard to repeatedly call Willy, "Kid"?

• How has Willy's opinion of Bernard changed?
• Willy asks Bernard, "What happened?" What happened?
• Bernard relates that Biff had gone to find Willy in New England. When Biff came back, Bernard knew that Biff had given up his life. What happened in Boston?
• Is this revelation about Willy and Biff significant enough to motivate or initiate all of the subsequent action in their lives? This is an important question for you.

• Biff realizes the truth about his life. He was a shipping clerk for Bill Oliver. Oliver never knew who he was. Everything that Biff told himself was a lie .
• Why does Biff steal the fountain pen? (Please note that the value of a good fountain pen would have been significant.)
• Willy repeats his refrain: "The woods are burning." What does this mean to him?
• In this family lies feel better than truth. (Remember The Matrix. Do you want the blue pill or the red pill?)
• Biff pleads with Happy: "Help him. Help him. Help me. Help me." Why does Biff link these two ideas?
• Happy says to the girls: "That's not my father. That's just some guy I know." What does this tell you?

• Linda has finally had it with her boys.
• Biff, in his climactic speech, tries to get Willy to understand that what is destroying them is the dream. "I saw the things that love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke. . . . Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!" Why is it important for a person to accept who he really is? For another take on this theme, see the movie On the Waterfront.

Who is Ben supposed to represent? What is he supposed to be a symbol for?

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