salesman quotes

Question 1

Miller tragedy of the common man (essay name) quote

Answer 1

“I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.”

Question 2

Yung Willy haz friends who open doors

Answer 2

‘when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing boys: I have friends. ‘

Question 3

Yung Biff believes in the power of his father’s charisma

Answer 3

Pg118 ‘He’d like you, Pop. You know the way you could talk.’

Question 4

Ben bigs up dad at Willy’s expense

Answer 4

With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime

Question 5

what’s willy’s dad’s music?

Answer 5

‘a high, rollicking tune’ (he played the flute)

Question 6

How Linda says to Willy how the kids think of him

Answer 6

Pg37 “few men are idolized by their children the way you are”

Question 7

How Linda says to the kids how they act to Willy

Answer 7

Pg60 ‘he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs!’

Question 8

Happy don’t know Willy

Answer 8

Pg115 ‘No, that’s not my father. He’s just a guy.’

Question 9

Willy moment of vulnerability, impact of dad leaving

Answer 9

Longingly: “Can’t you stay a few days? You’re just what I need, Ben, because I - I have a fine position here, but Dad left when I was a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel – kind of temporary about myself”

Question 10

Willy insecure about parenting skills

Answer 10

Hanging on to his words: “…Because sometimes I’m afraid that I’m not teaching them the right kind of - Ben, how should I teach them?”

Question 11

Biff’s through with the impact of WIlly’s dreams on him

Answer 11

‘I had to be the boss big shot in two weeks, and I’m through with it!’

Question 12

Linda deep quote qua Willy

Answer 12

Willy loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the papers. He’s not the finest chracter that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and attention must be paid

Question 13

willy isn’t well liked

Answer 13

the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me”

Question 14

2 quotes biff is well liked

Answer 14

“That’s because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball there’d be an uproar.”

Pg34 L: ‘the way they obey him!’

Question 15

Biff deep quote qua Willy

Answer 15

‘there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he’s ever made’

Question 16

Biff Happy aint as big as he says

Answer 16

You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?’

Question 17

brothers differing reactions to hearing W suicidal

Answer 17

Biff, with great horror: how?

-Happy, angrily: ‘That – jerk’

Question 18

all 3 men aware how dench the bros are (3 quotes)

Answer 18

H: “I want to just rip off my clothes in the middle of the store”
B “Men built like we are should be working out in the open”
W: “I thank the Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises

Question 19

Happy is described in similar terms to Stan

Answer 19

‘Sexuality is like a visible colour on him, or a scent that many women have discovered’

Question 20

first line of stage directions salesman

Answer 20

‘A melody is heard, played upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling of grass and trees and of the horizon’

Question 21

description chez loman

Answer 21

‘We see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality’

Question 22

Biff’s description of the salesman life

Answer 22

‘to suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off’

Question 23

Willy’s dream/promise to the boys

Answer 23

‘someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll

never have to leave home any more’

Question 24

Ben quote

Answer 24

“He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a moustaches and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him”

Question 25

intended original title of streetcar

Answer 25

inside his head

Question 26

Raymond Williams on Willy

Answer 26

“a man who from selling things has passed to selling himself and has become, in effect, a commodity, which like other commodities will at a certain point be economically discarded”

Question 27

biff knows he isn’t a special fairy

Answer 27

‘Pop! I’m a dime a dozen and so are you!’

Question 28

happy is lost

Answer 28

‘he, like his brother, is lost, but in a different way, for he has never allowed himself to turn his face towards defeat and is thus more confused and hard-skinned, although seemingly more content’