Death of a Salesman

Question 1

Characters in A Death of a Salesman?

Answer 1

• ### Willy Loman

An insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. When Willy’s illusions begin to fail under the pressing realities of his life, his mental health begins to unravel. The overwhelming tensions caused by this disparity, as well as those caused by the societal imperatives that drive Willy, form the essential conflict of Death of a Salesman.

Read an in-depth analysis of Willy Loman.

• ### Biff Loman

Willy’s thirty-four-year-old elder son. Biff led a charmed life in high school as a football star with scholarship prospects, good male friends, and fawning female admirers. He failed math, however, and did not have enough credits to graduate. Since then, his kleptomania has gotten him fired from every job that he has held. Biff represents Willy’s vulnerable, poetic, tragic side. He cannot ignore his instincts, which tell him to abandon Willy’s paralyzing dreams and move out West to work with his hands. He ultimately fails to reconcile his life with Willy’s expectations of him.

Read an in-depth analysis of Biff Loman.

• ### Linda Loman

Willy’s loyal, loving wife. Linda suffers through Willy’s grandiose dreams and self-delusions. Occasionally, she seems to be taken in by Willy’s self-deluded hopes for future glory and success, but at other times, she seems far more realistic and less fragile than her husband. She has nurtured the family through all of Willy’s misguided attempts at success, and her emotional strength and perseverance support Willy until his collapse.

Read an in-depth analysis of Linda Loman.

• ### Happy Loman

Willy’s thirty-two-year-old younger son. Happy has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he compensates by nurturing his relentless sex drive and professional ambition. Happy represents Willy’s sense of self-importance, ambition, and blind servitude to societal expectations. Although he works as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department store, Happy presents himself as supremely important. Additionally, he practices bad business ethics and sleeps with the girlfriends of his superiors.

Read an in-depth analysis of Happy Loman.

• ### Charley

Willy’s next-door neighbor. Charley owns a successful business and his son, Bernard, is a wealthy, important lawyer. Willy is jealous of Charley’s success. Charley gives Willy money to pay his bills, and Willy reveals at one point, choking back tears, that Charley is his only friend.

Read an in-depth analysis of Charley.

• ### Bernard

Bernard is Charley’s son and an important, successful lawyer. Although Willy used to mock Bernard for studying hard, Bernard always loved Willy’s sons dearly and regarded Biff as a hero. Bernard’s success is difficult for Willy to accept because his own sons’ lives do not measure up.

• ### Ben

Willy’s wealthy older brother. Ben has recently died and appears only in Willy’s “daydreams.” Willy regards Ben as a symbol of the success that he so desperately craves for himself and his sons.

• ### The Woman

Willy’s mistress when Happy and Biff were in high school. The Woman’s attention and admiration boost Willy’s fragile ego. When Biff catches Willy in his hotel room with The Woman, he loses faith in his father, and his dream of passing math and going to college dies.

• ### Howard Wagner

Willy’s boss. Howard inherited the company from his father, whom Willy regarded as “a masterful man” and “a prince.” Though much younger than Willy, Howard treats Willy with condescension and eventually fires him, despite Willy’s wounded assertions that he named Howard at his birth.

• ### Stanley

A waiter at Frank’s Chop House. Stanley and Happy seem to be friends, or at least acquaintances, and they banter about and ogle Miss Forsythe together before Biff and Willy arrive at the restaurant.

• ### Miss Forsythe and Letta

Two young women whom Happy and Biff meet at Frank’s Chop House. It seems likely that Miss Forsythe and Letta are prostitutes, judging from Happy’s repeated comments about their moral character and the fact that they are “on call.”

• ### Jenny

Charley’s secretary.

Question 2

Who is the protagonist of A Death of a Salesman?

Answer 2

An insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. When Willy’s illusions begin to fail under the pressing realities of his life, his mental health begins to unravel. The overwhelming tensions caused by this disparity, as well as those caused by the societal imperatives that drive Willy, form the essential conflict of Death of a Salesman.

Read an in-depth analysis of Willy Loman.

Question 3

Meaning title: Death of a Salesman

Answer 3

The title Death of a Salesman has numerous meanings. The first – somewhat obvious –is that a salesman (Willy) dies, so the title foreshadows his death. Furthermore, Willy wants to die like his father, “he died the death of a salesman” (Miller 61). However, it also represents the death of the American Dream. Willy worked his entire life as a salesman – an embodiment of consumerism – but the system – Capitalism – mercilessly crushes him. Hence, Willy never rises above a low-level sales position and is fired after he outlives his usefulness.

Question 4

What are the universal flaws of Willy, Biff, Happy, and Linda?

Answer 4

Willy

• False illusions about himself and the “American Dream.”
• Loves one son over the other, and unrealistic expectations about Biff
• Lying
• Adultery
• Stubborn to a level of absurdity

Biff

• Lazy and unmotivated
• Steals
• Unable to submit to authority

Happy

• Very shallow (as seen in his relationships with women)
• Over-confident
• He has no purpose in life (until the death of his father when he vows to be successful)
• He inflates his achievements to try to impress his father.
• Unhappy
• Cannot learn from his father’s mistakes

Linda

• To protective towards Willy
• Sets her husband and children up for failure
• Too nice and submissive
• Blind to Willy’s lies and deceptions

Question 5

Idea of non-realism in Death of a Salesman:

Answer 5

Though Death of a Salesman has very “realistic” themes and mundane, everyday-middle-American struggles, the main character – Willy – lives in a virtually invented, non-realistic world. Willy lives by the assumption that people love him and oblige him. In the business world, Willy believes that he is successful and influential, “I’m vital in New England” (Miller 04), but the illusion is shattered after his boss – Howard - lets him go after years of painstaking loyalty. Willy thinks that he is “well liked” by his customer base, but people hardly notice him, and he barely makes enough sales to provide for the family. Additionally, he has a non-realistic view of his job itself, saying that sales is “the greatest career a man could want” (Miller 61). His elusive grip on his employment realities, long hours, and no apparent benefits all stem from his father’s career as a salesman. His father, according to Willy, was particularly good at his job and “well liked,” which is why Willy tries to model his life after his father’s successes.

Finally, the salesman’s death is motivated by the idea that it will prove to Biff that he was “well liked” and esteemed. Half-way through the play, Willy talks about his father’s funeral, saying “he died the death of a salesman” (Miller 61) and people from “New York, New Haven, and Hartford” (Miller 61) attended the ceremony. Before committing suicide, he conveys his motivations to Ben, believing that he is like his father and that his funeral will also make an equally “massive” impression on his children. He wants to prove to Biff that he is “not nothing,” so Biff realizes that his old man was also “known” (Miller 130). However, no one comes to the funeral, indicated when Lina asks, “Why didn’t anybody come?” (Miller 110); hence, even Willy’s death was based on non-realism.

Question 6

Theme (Death of a Salesman): abandonment

Answer 6

his life is one abandoment to the next and leaves him in dispair. As a young child, Willy’s father leaves him to destitution and without a tangible legacy. His brother Ben leaves him to go to Alaska, leaving him with a false sense of what the american dream is. Willy develops a fear of abandoment, which magnifies the later disappointments he has that his family would not conform to the American dream. His inability to properly raise his sons leads to his estrangement from his family. When Willy believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusion and Biff leaves Willy babbling in the bathroom.

Question 7

Theme (Death of a Salesman): American Dream

Answer 7

that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will undoubtedly receive the material luxuriates of modern American life. He is fixated with the superficial and atractiveness of the Dream, which is at odds with the more gritty, rewarding understanding of the American Dream that speaks of hard work without complaint as the key to success. He has blind faith in this and leads to his emotional and mental decline.

Question 8

Theme (Death of a Salesman): betrayal

Answer 8

Willy’s primary obsession initially in the first scene of the first act and throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has the right to set certain expectations for Biff. When he walks out on these dreams, Willy percieves this as a full frontal personal assault. Even though Willy was a salesman, he could not even sell his son on the idea of the American Dream. Biff feels that Willy and Happy are “phony little fake” and they betrayed him with their unending stream of ego-inflating lies.

Question 9

Symbolism (Death of a Salesman): Seeds

Answer 9

represent Willy’s oppurtunity to prove the worth of his labor as a salesman and a father. He desperately tries to grow vegetables in the night as a sense of shame about barely being able to put food on the table and leaving no legacy for his children. He fears he will not be able to help his children as much as his father who abandoned him was unable to help him. The unfruitful quality of the seeds (it’s nighttime??) symbolize Willy’s sense of failure with Biff. Despite the formula, the way that Willy tried to cultivate Biff went awry.

Question 10

Symbolism (Death of a Salesman): African Jungle and Alaska

Answer 10

These regions represent the true potential that exist in Biff and Willy. Willy’s father found success in Africa and his brother Ben became rich in Africa. These exotic locations in comparison to Willy’s Brooklyn neighborhood show how trapped Willy is in his preconceived notions of what successful looks like. Alaska and the African jungle symbolize Willy’s failure, while the american west symbolizes Biff’s potential. Biff relaizes that he is only content on farms in the open and is an outlet to escape the delusions of his father. He has the 19th-century pioneer vibe that focuses on the importance of the individual.

Question 11

Symbolism (Death of a Salesman): diamonds

Answer 11

represents tangible wealth and the validation of one’s labor. A symbol of American wealth that he would be able to pass onto his children, just as a diamond ring is often passed through generations. The dream’s promise of financial security has eluded Willy despite the fact that he passed up going to Alaska to pursue it. At the end of the play, Ben encourages Willy to enter the “jungle”-scary death- in order to get the diamond (insurance money??)

Question 12

Symbolism (Death of a Salesman): Linda’s and stockings

Answer 12

The stockings are an obsession throughout the play, as they carry the weight of being a symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. New stockings are important in perserving Willy’s pride in his financial success and his ability to provide for his family. His ability to give Linda good stockings are meant to ease his guilt about and suppress the memory of his betrayal of Linda and Biff for the woman

Question 13

Symbolism (Death of a Salesman): Rubber hose

Answer 13

symbolize Willy’s attempts at suicide, as he has tried to kill himself by inhaling gas. This is ironic because it is the very substance essential to one of the most basic elements with which he must equip his home for his family’s health and comfort: heat. Death by inhaling the gas parallels the metaphorical death that Willy feels in his struggle to afford such a basic necessity.

Question 14

Who is Happy Loman?

Strenghts and weaknesses?

Question 16

Theme: Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

Answer 16

Dreams function purely as a form of self-deception in Death of a Salesman.

Like Susan Boyle and Selena, Willy Loman is a dreamer of epic proportions. His dreams of material success and freedom dominate his thoughts to the point that he becomes completely unable to distinguish his wild hopes from rational realities in the present. Happy and Linda also are extremely optimistic, but at least they maintain their ability to distinguish hopes from reality. Biff struggles against the force of Willy’s dreams and expectations more than any other character, and we don’t blame him. How’d you like to have a guy like Willy as a dad? Talk about unrealistic expectations.

1. Consider Charley’s assertion that dreaming is inherent to, and a necessary quality for, a salesman. Does this seem to hold true in the play?
2. How does the extremity of Willy’s dreams contribute to his own downfall?
3. Why does Happy defend his father’s radical aspirations and hopefulness?

Question 17

Theme: Lies and Deciet

Answer 17

Willy, Linda, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the realities of their lives when they are unable do so physically, like Biff and Ben when they move out of New York.

The Lomans are all extremely self-deceptive, and in their respective delusions and blindness to reality, they fuel and feed off of one another—kind of like praying mantises do after mating. Willy convinces himself that he is successful, well-liked, and that his sons are destined for greatness. Unable to cope with reality, he entirely abandons it through his vivid fantasies and ultimately through suicide. Linda and Happy similarly believe that the Lomans are about to make it big… any day now. Unlike the other members of his family, Biff grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the vicious cycles of lies. It’s gotta be tough being the black sheep.

1. What compels the Lomans to deceive themselves and one another?
2. How does self-deception function as a coping mechanism for the Lomans?
3. Compare and contrast instances of attempted deception between members of the Loman family with instances in which a Lomans try to deceive someone outside of the family (for example, Willy’s deception of Linda as opposed to his deception of Howard). How are the outcomes different?

Question 18

Theme: Successs

Answer 18

Willy’s obsession with obtaining concrete evidence of success distracts him from recognizing the important intangibles in his life, particularly the love of his family members.

Throughout Death of a Salesman, Willy pursues concrete evidence of his worth and success. He is entranced by the very physical, tangible results of Ben’s diamond-mining efforts and strives to validate his own life by imagining similar material signifiers of success. Willy projects his own obsession with material achievement onto his sons, who struggle with a conflict between their intangible needs and the pressure to succeed materially. Let’s just hope they have better luck than their parents at figuring it all out.

1. To what extent is tangible wealth essential to Willy? To Happy? Biff? Linda? Charley and Bernard?
2. How is the possession of tangible wealth linked to the concept of freedom and escape in Death of a Salesman?

Question 19

Theme: Respect and Reputation

Answer 19

Willy’s obsession with being well-liked hurts his reputation by detracting from his focus on working hard, living ethically, and behaving virtuously toward others.
Willy mythologizes important figures in his life in order to validate his dreams. If others can achieve his hopes, so can he.

Reputation is one of Willy’s primary concerns. He thinks that all you need to succeed is to be attractive and well-liked. Ha!—if only it were so easy. He celebrates his son’s popularity in high school, asserting that it is vastly more important to be fawned over than to be honest or talented. This might be true if you’re Kim Kardashian, but alas, the Loman family has nothing on the Kardashians. Much of the time, Willy considers himself a well-liked man. He aspires to be just like a salesman he knew whose death was mourned far and wide. Despite his fixation on reputation, Willy and his family members are neither well-known nor well-liked, and Willy’s funeral is sparsely attended. Harsh.

1. To what extent does being well liked matter in the business world of Death of a Salesman?
2. Who, if anyone, is well-liked? Does any link seem to exist between being well-liked and behaving virtuously?
3. Let’s talk about Dave Singleman, the well-known salesman, and his death. How is he mythologized? How does his death compare to Willy’s?
4. How does Willy idealize his sons, and especially Biff? How does he idealize Ben?

Question 20

Theme: Appearances

Answer 20

Biff’s dedication to keeping up his appearance suggests his remaining desire to impress his father.

The entire Loman family places heavy value on appearances and good looks. Many of Willy’s fondest memories of Biff involve his son dwarfing others with his personal attractiveness. In addition, when Willy gives in to feelings of self-doubt, he worries that it’s his appearance that’s holding him back in business. Death of a Salesman may be making a larger statement by showing the Lomans’ fixation on attractiveness over real substance—could the play be trying to get across the idea that all of America falls prey to the very same mistake? What do you think? Is America itself way too obsessed with image and appearance?

1. What relationship, if any, does appearance have with success in Death of a Salesman?
2. What might the Lomans’ fixation on appearance suggest about their abilities in other areas?
3. Discuss the passage in which Willy attributes his business problems to his appearance. What makes him think this is the source of his problems?

Question 21

Willy Loman: Desire to Escape

Answer 21

So let’s talk about all these flashbacks. Part of this “downward spiral” we keep talking about has to do with Willy losing a grip on reality and on time. Because his life, by his standards, sucks, Willy escapes into the past and also conveniently gives us, the reader or audience, the background information we need. “Escape” becomes Willy’s middle name—not unlike his own father, who abandoned him and his brother when they were young.

All this escape business brings us to Willy’s mistress. “The woman” gives Willy everything he needs: an alternate world and an ego-boost. Miller makes sure we are able to understand these reasons for why Willy has the affair. If we, the reader/audience, hated Willy for being a cheating jerk, we wouldn’t be so upset at his death. But we don’t hate Willy. We don’t even call him a cheater. Why? Because we understand the psychology behind his affair. He is simply trying to escape.

Question 22

Why did Willy Kill himself?

Answer 22

Which brings us, right on schedule, to the end of the play. As we all know, Willy kills himself. But why? Well, he was clearly still harboring misguided hopes about success for Biff. It seems Willy would rather kill himself than accept the fact that really, honestly, all his son wants is some shirtless sweaty time in Midwestern haystacks.

The point is, Willy is still deluded when he kills himself. We all know the money isn’t going to be used to start a business. What’s sad is that Willy doesn’t. That final delusion is almost worse than his death itself.

Speaking of this death, let’s talk about the title of the play. Willy was always in pursuit of being the perfect salesman, and before he kills himself he expresses a wish to die “the death of a salesman.” So here’s the big money question: does he?

To answer that, we have to ask ourselves just what does it mean to be a salesman in this play? We know what it means in Willy’s mind (if we say “well-liked” one more time…), but Charley brings up an interesting point at the funeral: part of being a salesman is having a dream. Part of being a salesman is about selling yourself. We’ll let you take it from there.

Question 23

Hamartia in Willy’s character:

Answer 23

If you saw Willy Loman sitting across from you on a bus, you probably wouldn’t peg him for a hero. If you got to know him, it would probably seem even less likely. Still, Willy Loman is often thought of as a hero. Of course, he’s a particular kind of hero: a tragic hero. The ancient Greeks were the first to write about these doomed souls. Sophocles’ Oedipus is the most perfect example—at least according to Aristotle.

But how is slouchy old Willy Loman in any way similar to the heroes of Greek tragedy? Well, dear Shmoopsters, they share a little thing the Greeks liked to call hamartia. This word is often translated as “tragic flaw,” but it’s more accurately translated as “a missing of the mark” or a “mistake made in ignorance.”

Just like Oedipus, Willy Loman goes through his life blindly, never realizing the full truth of himself. Willy refuses to admit that he’s a failure. You could say that the idea of hamartia is seen in Willy through his delusional personality. Also, like Oedipus and almost all tragic heroes, Willy’s hamartia causes his own downfall. In the end, Willy’s delusions lead him to take his own life.

Question 24

Anagnorisis in Death of a Salesman:

Answer 24

According to Aristotle, tragic heroes also have a moment of recognition, or anagnorisis. This is supposed to be a moment where the hero realizes the terrible mistake he’s made and usually moans about it a lot. This happens to Oedipus when he realizes that he’s inadvertently killed his father and slept with his mother. (Whoops!)

You could argue that Willy has a small realization near the end of the play. He never says it directly, but at some point—probably after Howard fires him—he must realize that he’s just never going to succeed in business. If he didn’t come to this realization, then he wouldn’t decide to kill himself so Biff could use his life insurance money.

However, though Willy must make some small realization toward the end of the play, we hesitate to label it as full blown anagnorisis. Willy definitely goes to his death amid a cloud of delusion. Even after Biff totally lays it out for his dad that all he wants to do is be a cowboy or whatever, Willy refuses to understand.

The pitiful salesman kills himself, thinking that Biff will use the life insurance money to start a business. It becomes painfully obvious at the funeral that this is totally not going to happen, showing that Willy went to his death without coming to grips with reality. Yes, it seems that, unlike many classical Greek tragic heroes, Willy doesn’t have a major anagnorisis.

Question 25

How is Willy the “common man?”

Answer 25

Willy is also different from his tragic predecessors because he isn’t royalty of any kind. Yep, Willy is just a salesman. He has no real power in the world, and not too many people really care when he dies. Unlike the legendary and powerful Oedipus, Willy is a nobody. But why would Arthur Miller try to write a tragedy about a total schmuck? Did he not read Aristotle’s book or something? Hardly—we’re guessing that Miller knew Aristotle’s ideas better than we do. It turns out that the fact that Willy is an everyday guy is part of the whole point Miller is trying to make.

In Arthur Miller’s famous essay, “Tragedy of the Common Man,” he states, “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” Miller goes on to say that it’s not the fact that past tragic heroes have been royal that makes them resonate with modern audiences. It’s that fact that they share the same problems as we do today, the same flaws, fears, and hopes.

Some critics have said that true tragedy is impossible when your hero is a common man. They say that when an everyday guy goes down, not as many people suffer as they would if it were a king. OK, sure, but we have a question: is the size of a tragedy really limited to the world of the play? Can’t we look into the life of a common man and recognize our own flaws? Can’t we see those flaws in society around us? Why can’t a common man’s life have size and meaning?

Miller ends his essay by saying, “It is time, I think, that we who are without kings took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time—the heart and spirit of the average man.” Preach it, Arthur, preach it.

Question 26

Who is Linda Loman?

Answer 26

Willy is also different from his tragic predecessors because he isn’t royalty of any kind. Yep, Willy is just a salesman. He has no real power in the world, and not too many people really care when he dies. Unlike the legendary and powerful Oedipus, Willy is a nobody. But why would Arthur Miller try to write a tragedy about a total schmuck? Did he not read Aristotle’s book or something? Hardly—we’re guessing that Miller knew Aristotle’s ideas better than we do. It turns out that the fact that Willy is an everyday guy is part of the whole point Miller is trying to make.

In Arthur Miller’s famous essay, “Tragedy of the Common Man,” he states, “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” Miller goes on to say that it’s not the fact that past tragic heroes have been royal that makes them resonate with modern audiences. It’s that fact that they share the same problems as we do today, the same flaws, fears, and hopes.

Some critics have said that true tragedy is impossible when your hero is a common man. They say that when an everyday guy goes down, not as many people suffer as they would if it were a king. OK, sure, but we have a question: is the size of a tragedy really limited to the world of the play? Can’t we look into the life of a common man and recognize our own flaws? Can’t we see those flaws in society around us? Why can’t a common man’s life have size and meaning?

Miller ends his essay by saying, “It is time, I think, that we who are without kings took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time—the heart and spirit of the average man.” Preach it, Arthur, preach it.

Question 27

Describe Biff’s character development:

Answer 27

Don’t let Biff’s tough-guy name deceive you. He’s not just the big, dumb lump that his name might make you imagine. In fact, he’s the only character in the book who shows any real personal growth. Sure, Biff is also flawed, just like everyone else. He can’t hold down a job, he steals from all of his employers, and he even went to jail. Despite these shortcomings, however, we can’t help but like Biff. Why? Because he shows real initiative on the personal development front.

The deal with Biff is that he’s Willy’s oldest son and the one whom Willy seems to be really crazy about. Biff was a hotshot in high school as the star football player. However, he never put much energy into his schoolwork and failed math as a senior. A lot of this was due to the fact that Willy let him get away with anything and never encouraged him to do well in school. Without the math credit, Biff couldn’t graduate and therefore couldn’t take his football scholarship to college. Wow, great parenting, Willy.

Things might have worked out for Biff even though he flunked math. He could’ve taken a summer course and made everything all right. However, right about that time Biff caught his dad cheating on his mom, and it made him go kind of crazy. Once again, Willy had a bad effect on his son’s life. Biff bailed on summer school and the math credit. From here, he spiraled downward. He started working on ranches in the West, but couldn’t hold a job because he kept stealing from his bosses. When we meet him in the play, he’s 34 years old and has finally realized just how bad Willy messed him up.

Question 28

How is Biff Self-aware?

Answer 28

While Biff is in some ways desperate to impress and please his dad, he also realizes that Willy has flawed, materialistic dreams that Biff is neither able nor desires to achieve. Unlike his father and brother, Biff is self-aware and values the truth. In one shouting match with Willy, he says that he can’t hold a job because his dad made him so arrogant as a boy that he can’t handle taking orders from a boss. Finally, a moment of truth. Yet, despite his insight and honesty, Biff is unable to communicate openly with his father. Willy is simply unable to accept the truth.

Biff reminds us that the American Dream is not every man’s dream. Rather than seeking money and success, Biff wants a more basic life. He wants to be seen and loved for who he is. He wants his dad to stop being such a deluded twerp. Sadly, Miller seems to say, Americans (Biff, in this case) are made the victims of the country’s success. Just as Willy is unable to understand or even love his son, America as a whole is unable to understand those who value simple pleasures over the rat race. At least, that’s what Death of a Salesman seems to argue.

Question 29

How does Happy relate to Biff and Willy?

Answer 29

Happy might as well be Willy Jr., because this apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Though he is relatively successful in his job, he has his dad’s totally unrealistic self-confidence and his grand dreams about getting rich quick. Like Biff, but to a lesser extent, Happy has suffered from his father’s expectations. Mostly, though, his father doesn’t pay that much attention to him. Willy was always a bigger fan of Biff. Happy, maybe because he always felt second-best, has more of a desire to please his father. Despite his respectable accomplishments in business and the many, many notches on his bedpost, Happy is extremely lonely.

Happy is competitive and ambitious, but these feelings are misdirected. Unable to compete on his own terms in the business world, Happy blindly pursues women—like his friends’ girlfriends—purely for the sake of doing so. Looks like he’s taken his sense of competition to the realm of sex. Of course, this, much like the world of business, fails to satisfy him.

Question 30

How did Happy respond to Willy’s death?

Answer 30

Just as the saddest part of Willy’s suicide is his continued delusion, the saddest part of Happy’s ending is his own persistent misbelief. Still driven by what he feels he should want (money, a wife), he sticks to Willy’s foolish dreams to the bitter end.

Question 31

What is the function os Charley in the play?

Answer 31

Charley is Willy’s longtime neighbor who is just plain nice. He functions as a voice of reason and practicality in a world of delusion and confusion. Charley is humble, reserved, down to earth, and honest. Since he actually has some self-confidence, unlike Willy, Charley doesn’t need to brag to everyone to make himself feel better. At one point in the play, Willy is shocked to find that Charley hasn’t shouted from the rooftops the fact that his son, Bernard, is arguing a case before the Supreme Court.

Charley is the character against whom Willy is always measuring himself. Willy constantly criticizes Charley for not being well-liked, for not being interested in football, for having a nerdy son, and for not being a real man. It seems like Willy is always putting his neighbor down because he’s jealous of him, plain and simple.

Question 32

How is Bernard a foil?

Answer 32

Charley’s son, Bernard, is as different from Biff as Charley is from Willy. While Biff was a popular high school football star, Bernard was the über-nerd. Nerdy though he was, Bernard was always looking out for Biff, helping him with his homework and showing concern when Biff failed math.

Bernard, who once idolized Biff, ends up with a happy and successful life. Of course, success for Bernard has nothing to do with being handsome or popular. He actually ends up being a lawyer in his adulthood and goes off to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Humble like his father, Bernard doesn’t rub his success in Willy’s face—he only inquires after Biff with concern.

Question 33

How is Ben a foil to Willy?

Answer 33

Ben is Willy’s adventurous and lucky older brother. Of course, he’s dead, so he only appears in the play as a character in Willy’s troubled imagination. Willy totally idolizes Ben because he was an adventurer who escaped the world of business and got rich quick by finding diamonds in the African jungle.

One of Willy’s lifelong regrets is that he didn’t go with his brother to Alaska. Unlike Willy, Ben was able to take a risk and stray from the world of fierce ambition and competition. Willy interprets Ben’s good fortune as undeniable proof that his dreams of making it big are realistic.

Willy also associates Ben with knowledge and self-awareness, qualities that he himself is severely lacking. Willy always wants advice, and Ben gives it. Of course, it’s frequently not very good advice and is usually the product of Willy’s own imagination.

In his imagined conversations with his brother, Willy pries him for information about their father, about how he succeeded financially, and for advice about parenting Biff and Happy. It’s hard to talk about Ben and his responses to these pleas, since he is either a memory of the past or a figment of Willy’s imagination. And given Willy’s complete lack of credibility, it’s hard to tell even these apart.

But one thing we can take as true with reasonable confidence is the scene where Ben fights Biff. Ben wins, but only by cheating, informing the boy that that’s the only way to win. There’s some sketchiness surrounding his success in Africa (we’re thinking he wasn’t just handed the diamonds and sent along his way). He even says, in Willy’s imaginings, “The jungle is dark but full of diamonds.” That’s big stuff right there.

Considering Ben’s self-serving nature and amoral proclivities, the word “dark” connotes more than just shadows under the trees. We’re not going so far as to say words like “evil” or “Darth Vader,” but Ben’s success is certainly blemished by his apparent use of cheating to get what he wants.

Question 34

What is the tone?

Answer 34

Sympathetic, Candid, Mocking

The tone is apparent primarily through the play’s stage directions. The directions are sensitive to the very real pain suffered by the characters. However, in its frankness, the tone is also mocking of Willy’s blind acceptance of a very hollow, materialistic version of the American Dream.

Question 35

What is the multifacited meaning of the title?

Answer 35

1. Ideal Funeral
2. Death of Willy’s Dream
3. Capitalism and the American Dream

Question 36

Symbolic meaning of Alaska, Africa, American West?

Answer 36

Death of a Salesman takes place primarily within the confined landscape of the Lomans’ home. This narrow, and increasingly narrowing setting is contrasted with the vastness of the American West, Alaska, and Africa. If the Lomans’ home symbolizes restriction, both physical and mental, distant locations symbolize escape, freedom, and the possibility of something better. While Willy insists New York is a land of opportunity and abundant success, his idolization of his brother Ben’s adventures and forays into faraway lands shows that he is really not so convinced. Furthermore, Biff, Happy, and Ben repeatedly suggest that the Lomans are better suited to physical, hands-on kinds of work, an assertion supported by their failure as salesmen. Willy’s obsession with distant lands further proves that he might prefer a very different livelihood than the one he has.

Question 37

Seeds:

Answer 37

The seeds that Willy insists on buying and planting are an important symbol in the play. Willy is frequently troubled by feelings of confusion and inadequacy. He’s uncertain about how to raise his sons and worries that, like his own father, he will be unable to provide for them. When Willy says, “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” we have a feeling he’s really talking about his sons and their future. Willy is additionally preoccupied with being well known and leaving a legacy when he dies. All of these feelings come to a head in Willy’s seed planting. Through planting seeds, Willy wants grow something that will thrive, provide for others and remain after his own death. The MOST interesting part is that he chooses planting to make up for being a failed salesman – he’s actually better suited to working with his hands, to agriculture, to labor, just like his son Biff.

Question 38

Tennis Racket

Answer 38

The tennis racket Willy observes when he chats with Bernard in Charley’s office is a symbol of Bernard’s success and Biff’s failure. While athletic Biff and Happy hoped to make a fortune selling sports equipment, it is Bernard, who in high school stood on the sidelines while Biff played sports, that now owns the tennis racket.

Question 39

Diamonds and the jungle

Answer 39

The diamonds that made Ben rich are a symbol of concrete wealth in Death of a Salesman. Unlike sales in which Willy has nothing tangible to show for his work, the diamonds represent pure, unadulterated material achievement. The diamonds are also seen as a “get-rich-quick” scheme that is the solution to all troubles. When Willy is considering killing himself, he hears Ben telling him that, “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds.” The jungle here is a risk (physically and, more interestingly, morally), which has the potential to yield wealth. In deciding to commit suicide, Willy perceives himself going into the dark jungle to get diamonds for his son.