Willy Flashcards

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1
Q

How is it suggested that Willy is defined by his role as a salesman?

A

The title of the play being ‘Death of a Salesman’, though ironically we don’t actually see him working in the play

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2
Q

How is Willy introduced in the play and why/

A

His first introduction is of him in his role as a husband, which establishes the inequality in his marriage early on

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3
Q

What role does Willy have relating to gender?

A

Willy is the family patriarch which can be shown through Linda’s exaggerated deference to him:
“She loves him as though his tempers served only as sharp reminders of the turbulent longings within him”

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4
Q

How does Willy behave towards Linda in his happier memories?

A

He expresses devotion and appears to rely on Linda: “You’re the best there is Linda”
This dependence isn’t there in the present, shown when he shouts at her for buying the wrong cheese

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5
Q

What is the affect of Willy’s affair with The Woman?

A

He is haunted and feels guilty, he tries to justify it by telling Linda, “I get so lonely”
There is a greater betrayal in his suicide as he believes he is “worth more dead than alive” though this leaves Linda with loneliness

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6
Q

What is Willy’s most significant role in the play?

A

His role as a father

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7
Q

What is the influence of Willy’s role as a father?

A

His experience as a son, the only memory he has of is father is that he was “a man with a big beard” which left Willy feeling “kind of temporary about myself”

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8
Q

In Willy’s role as a father, what does he feel most anxious about?

A

Whether he is bringing Biff and Happy up correctly

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9
Q

How do Linda’s and Ben’s views of Willy as a father differ?

A

Ben assures Willy that he is being “first rate with your boys”
Whereas, Linda describes them as a “pair of animals”

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10
Q

What does Miller suggest is the cause of Biff and Happy being “a pair of animals”?

A

They are fed the wrong dreams by their father, shown through the mottos that he uses:
“Be liked and you will never want”
“Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money”

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11
Q

How does Willy’s failure as a father and Willy’s failure as a salesman contrast?

A

His failure as a father is more destructive, his suicide confirms that he “loved his sons better than life”

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12
Q

What is ironic about Ben criticising Willy’s achievements?

A

Ben is a figure of Willy’s imagination, so Willy choses to recall these memories, maybe its an act of self consciousness

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13
Q

In what ways do Ben and Willy differentiate?

A
  • Financially
  • Lifestyle
  • Personality
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14
Q

How does Ben describe Willy’s plan to kill himself, gaining the insurance money for Biff?

A

“A perfect proposition all around”

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15
Q

How is Willy presented as a neighbour?

A

Ungrateful due to his jealousy of Charley:
“You’ve been jealous of me all your life, you damned fool”, Charley says this as he counts out the $110 that Willy needs for his Insurance

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16
Q

How does Willy handle his own failures?

A

He takes it out on Charley as he is more successful than him; he calls him “disgusting” as he “can’t handle tools”

17
Q

What does Willy eventually come to recognise with Charley?

A

That he is “the only friend I got” and tells him Bernard is a “fine boy”, meaning that all of his other comments have previously been out of spite

18
Q

When do we see Willy’s role as a lover?

A

Only through mobile concurrency

19
Q

How does Willy’s treatment of Linda and the Woman differ?

A

The woman gives him compliments and he gives her new stockings, and Linda is left to mend her old ones

20
Q

Why does Willy patronise Howard?

A

Willy was successful at the firm when Howards was a baby and he cannot handle that someone the same age as Biff is his boss

21
Q

What quotation does Willy try to save his job?

A

“You can’t just eat the orange and throw away the peel- a man is not a piece of fruit”
This has no effect on Howard who fires him anyway, because of course you do eat the orange an throw the peel away