salesman quotes Flashcards
Miller tragedy of the common man (essay name) quote
“I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.”
Yung Willy haz friends who open doors
‘when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing boys: I have friends. ‘
Yung Biff believes in the power of his father’s charisma
Pg118 ‘He’d like you, Pop. You know the way you could talk.’
Ben bigs up dad at Willy’s expense
With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime
what’s willy’s dad’s music?
‘a high, rollicking tune’ (he played the flute)
How Linda says to Willy how the kids think of him
Pg37 “few men are idolized by their children the way you are”
How Linda says to the kids how they act to Willy
Pg60 ‘he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs!’
Happy don’t know Willy
Pg115 ‘No, that’s not my father. He’s just a guy.’
Willy moment of vulnerability, impact of dad leaving
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”
Willy insecure about parenting skills
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?”
Biff’s through with the impact of WIlly’s dreams on him
‘I had to be the boss big shot in two weeks, and I’m through with it!’
Linda deep quote qua Willy
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
willy isn’t well liked
the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me”
2 quotes biff is well liked
“That’s because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball there’d be an uproar.”
Pg34 L: ‘the way they obey him!’
Biff deep quote qua Willy
‘there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he’s ever made’
Biff Happy aint as big as he says
You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?’
brothers differing reactions to hearing W suicidal
Biff, with great horror: how?
-Happy, angrily: ‘That – jerk’
all 3 men aware how dench the bros are (3 quotes)
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
Happy is described in similar terms to Stan
‘Sexuality is like a visible colour on him, or a scent that many women have discovered’
first line of stage directions salesman
‘A melody is heard, played upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling of grass and trees and of the horizon’
description chez loman
‘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’
Biff’s description of the salesman life
‘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’
Willy’s dream/promise to the boys
‘someday I’ll have my own business, and I’ll
never have to leave home any more’
Ben quote
“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”
intended original title of streetcar
inside his head
Raymond Williams on Willy
“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”
biff knows he isn’t a special fairy
‘Pop! I’m a dime a dozen and so are you!’
happy is lost
‘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’
