Death of a Salesman Flashcards
Act 1: Give quotes to describe setting at start:
“A melody is heard”
“aware of towering angular shapes”
“blue light” “angry glow of orange”
“small, fragile seeming home”
“an air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality”
“The flute plays on”
Act 1: Willy quote about being tired
“I’m tired to the death”, “[The flute has faded away. He sits on the bed beside her, a little numb]”
- dream fading
Act 1: Stage direction to demonstrate Willy’s mistreatment of Linda and Linda’s sensitivity to Willy
“[with casual irritation]: I said nothing happened.”
“[very carefully, delicately]: Where were you all day? You look terrible”
- fem crit
Act 1: Quotes to show Willy’s chaotic mind about thoughts and seeing
“No, I see everything” - irony
“I absolutely forgot I was driving” “I might’ve killed somebody”
“I have such thoughts, I have such strange thoughts”
- disturbed psyche
Act 1: Willy quote about capitalism and buying a house
“Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it”
- capitalism
Act 1: Willy prioritises money over Biffs happiness
“How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life?”
- ironic; both want to be outdoors
Act 1: says Biff is lazy later contradicts
“Biff is a lazy bum!” later says “he’s not lazy”
Act 1: Willy about Biff getting “lost”
In the greatest country in the world a young man with such personal attractiveness, gets lost.
Act 1: Willy gets angry about cheese LATER linda’s patience
“[with infinite patience]”
Act 1: Biff and Happy introduced how does the stage directions describe them?
“Biff” “a worn air and seems less self-assured”
“Happy” “Sexuality is like a visible colour on him, a scent that many woman have discovered”
Act 1: How does Happy describe women?
“Boy, there was a pig!” “[They laugh, almost crudely]”
- fem crit
Act 1: Biff soliliquay about his desires vs expectations
“To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation”
“all you really desire is to be outdoors”
- Marxist; american dream
Act 1: Biff speech - desire of outdoors vs comes back to Willy’s expectation
“there’s nothing more inspiring or - beautiful than the sight of a mar and a new colt”
“What the hell am I doing … twenty-eight dollars a week!”
- ecocritical; nature vs urbanisation sense of freedom
Act 1: Happy expresses he isn’t happy
“goddammit, I’m lonely”
- capitalist society and the American Dream has not brought him any happiness “it’s what I always wanted”
Act 1: Happy talks about his conquests of married women
“ruined her” “he’s the third executive I’ve done that too” “I don’t want the girl, and, still I take it” - contradictions; fem crit
Act 1: [music insinuates itself] Willy praises Biff for cleaning car
“polish the car”
“Show him how you do it, Biff! You see, Happy?”
- car: american dream + consumerism
Act 1: Willy bad father about theft of ball
“[laughing with him at the theft]”
Act 1: Willy insults Bernard
“What an anemic!”
“Bernard can get the best marks in school” “when he gets out in the business world” “you are going to be five times ahead of him”
“Be liked and you will never want”
Act 1: Willy’s price in how much money he made - truth revealed by Linda
“sellin’ thousands and thousands”
“five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston”
L: “commission … Two hundred- my God”
Act 1: Willy’s insecurities + Linda’s responce - laugh heard
“I’m fat. I’m very-foolish to look at”
“They do laugh at me. I know that”
“The handsomest” then
“From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman” - flashback, analepsis
Act 1: evidence for affair
“She squeezes his arm, kisses him”, slapping her bottom”
- contrast to relationship with Linda “stockings”
“[The woman bursts out laughing, and Linda’s laughter blends in]
Act 1: Tells Linda off for mending stockings
“They’re so expensive”
“[angrily, taking them from her]” “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!”
Act 1: Linda + Bernard informs Willy of all of Biff’s crimes/ things he is doing wrong his responce:
lots going on at once; willy’s guilt
“I’ll whip him!” - repeated
“[The woman’s laugh is heard]”
- “Shut up!”, “Get outa here!” - denial
- B: “if he doesn’t buckle down he’ll flunk math!”
- “[exploding at her] There’s nothing the matter with him” “He’s got spirit, personality-“
“Linda, almost in tears”
“Why is he stealing?”
Act 1: stage direction about leaves; change in set when he explodes at Linda
“wilting and staring. The leaves are gone”