Death of a Salesman Flashcards
Success
Willy about Ben: “There was a man started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines.” | DIAMOND SYMBOLIZATION
Willy to Linda: “God Almighty, [Biff]’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away.” | STAR SYMBOLIZATION, FATHER’S HIGH HOPES FOR STARS
Familial kindness
“He’s only a little boat looking for a harbor. (She is trembling with sorrow and joy.)” – Linda about Willy to Biff as he prepares to meet Mr. Oliver (reminding him to be kind to his father) | METAPHOR, UNSTEADY CHARACTERIZATION
Linda about Willy to Biff and Happy: “The man who never worked a day but for your benefit?”| RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE, SELFLESS CHARACTERIZATION
Protestant work ethic/meritocracy
Willy to Happy: “The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!” | IDIOM, EMPHASIS
Ambition
Charley: “And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. … A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.” |
Happy, post-Willy’s funeral: “He fought it out here, and this is where I’m going to win it for him.”
Failure
Willy to Linda: “The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard. … They massacred the neighborhood. (Lost.) More and more I think of those days, Linda.” | NATURE MOTIF, ENTITY OF “THEY”, NOSTALGIA
Biff to Happy: “I’m thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s when I come running home.” | AGE EMPHASIS
Hope
Willy: “Gotta break your neck to see a star in this yard” | BROKEN SYSTEM, HYPERBOLE
Linda: “He likes to have a letter. Just to know that there’s still a possibility for better things.” | FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP, CHANCE
Alternative paths (subvert success)
Biff to Willy: “[W]e don’t belong in this nuthouse of a city! We should be mixing cement on some open plain or – or carpenters. A carpenter is allowed to whistle!” | THEME OF BELONGING, WHISTLE SYMBOL
Biff at Willy’s funeral: “You know something, Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.” | IDENTITY, LACK OF PRESSURE
Leave
Linda: “Well, dear, life is a casting off. It’s always that way.” | KNITTING REFERENCE, ALLUSION TO NICE ENDINGS
Identity
Biff to Charley in the Requiem: “The man didn’t know who he was.”
The American Dream
Happy in the Requiem: “He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have - to come out number one man.”
Charley: “No man only needs a little salary.”
Feeling commoditized / bad employer-employee relationship
“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!”
Need for connection / crumbling life
“Where are you guys, where are you? The woods are burning! I can’t drive a car!”
