Death of a Salesman: Questions

Death of a salesman: Questions

Act 1. Discuss the scene between Linda and her sons, giving the most attention to Linda's speech. How does Linda's description of Willy contribute to your understanding of him? Can you argue why this play has been called a modern tragedy?

Linda's speech in Act I helps the viewer understand the deep, pathological sense of depression and insecurity that underlines Willy's apparently irrational behavior during the play. If it were not for the growing awareness that Willy is suicidal, thinking of killing himself so that his family can have his insurance money, much of his attitude would seem bullying, insensitive and unreasonable. The flashbacks that take place in Willy's head would also be difficult to understand, as they are enacted on stage. Linda's speech illustrates Linda's well-intentioned but false, protective instinct towards her husband. "How can I mention it to him? Every day I go down and take away that little rubber pipe. But when he comes home, I put it back where it was? How can I insult him that way?" (Miller 63).

The relationship between husband and wife is based upon lies, just like the relationship between the parents and grown children of the Loman family. Linda says: "I know every thought in his [Willy's] mind," but clearly she does not, given that she was unaware of his infidelity as a younger man. Also, the fact that so much takes place in Willy's head shows how little the other characters know of his mind, despite the fact Linda knows her husband is contemplating suicide. These types of long-standing lies and misunderstandings are mirrored in Willy's relationship with his sons, especially Biff, as Willy does not understand how Biff catching him unawares with 'the other woman' affected Biff, resulting in Biff refusing to go to summer school or to college on a football scholarship. Happy's lack of ethics and desire to 'strike it rich' also mirrors his father's unreal view of life and easy success in America.

Willy's tragedy is his inability to achieve the American ideal of success, partly because easy success is a lie, and partly because he cannot see that people who are successful in America, like Bernard, do work hard. He knows that he is a failure as a salesman, working solely on commission, despite his advanced age, and a failure as a father, having alienated his beloved oldest son. The business scheme the boys propose buoys their father's sprits, however ridiculous it may sound. But it is part of the tissue of lies that underlines the Loman family, the lies of the American dream.

Willy Loman is not a tragic character in the classical Greek and Roman sense of tragic character being a great man with a tragic flaw. His tragedy is his ordinariness, and his aspirations to greatness, love, and 'likeability' through wealth. He does not have a single tragic flaw, he has many, but he is also a victim of fate and circumstance, of living in an American society that idealizes wealth and financial success, as well as the fact that he never learns the tools to garner that success.

Act 2. Discuss the scene between Willy and Ben, consider what advice Willy is asking of Ben, note Bens reply "let me think about it." What might miller be suggesting by it? What importance does this scene have in the play? What themes are evoked in it?

Ben's relationship with his brother Willy throughout the play exemplifies Willy's longing for the success that never comes. Ben profits from diamond mines, while Willy dies an unremarkable salesman, valuable, Willy thinks, only for his life insurance policy. Unlike Willy, Ben seemed to care less for the opinion of others. He struck out on his own in Alaska in search of riches, while Willy was more attracted to the idea of being a well-liked salesman.

In this final scene with Ben, however, the viewer becomes aware of how much Willy's mind is unhinged. "A man has got to add up to something" he says (Miller 119). The "twenty thousand dollar proposition" is not a business deal, although it is phrased like one, but the money the family will get if Willy dies (Miller 119). Willy sees dying as his last chance to make money, which is why Ben appears in his consciousness. Ben represents money and success in Willy's mind. But Ben also represents the idea of fighting, noting that suicide is cowardly.