Willy Loman Quotes - ACT ONE Flashcards
An opening stage direction which reflects the pressure under which Willy places his fragile family due to his dependance on the American Dream
“We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind [the house], surrounding it on all sides… We see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home”
An opening stage direction which tells of the natural world that Willy left behind, perhaps a world in which his love truly lay, in order to pursue a capitalist-fuelled existence which brings him and his family only disappointment
“A melody is heard, played upon a flute. It is small and fine, telling of grass seeds and the horizon”
“The flute plays on. [Willy] hears but is not aware of it”
A quote from when Willy arrives home at the beginning of Act One showing that he understands the futility of capitalism from the start of the play, but is too blind or proud to act on this understanding
“Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it”
A quote from the beginning of Act One, when Linda tells Willy that he shouldn’t be so hard on Biff, which presents his scorn of the natural world and a belief that success is simply monetary gain
“How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life?… He has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!”
A quote from the beginning of Act One, when Willy complains about the confined nature of their existence, presenting the imprisoning nature of urban capitalist America in which Willy is not entirely comfortable
“The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks”
A quote from the beginning of Act One, when Willy reminisces about a happier time, which presents the stifling nature of capitalism and the way in which it kills growth, natural and personal, Willy having enjoyed a friendly relationship with his son prior to capitalist intrusion
“The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the backyard… Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?”
A quote from the memory in Act One in which Willy is speaking to his doting boys who are simonizing his car., telling them that he is going to own his own business on day, Happy asking if this will be “like Uncle Charley”. The quote demonstrates Willy’s belief in the dream - that appearance and wealth is what creates a happy life
“Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not - liked. He’s like, but he’s not - well liked”
A quote from the first memory Act One, when Bernard rightly tells Willy that just because Biff is popular does not mean that he is going to get into university. The quote shows Willy to be scornful of hard work and skill, believing that popularity is enough to allow one to succeed, believing this to be the correct view of the American Dream (perhaps his hamartia)
“Don’t be a pest, Bernard! [To his boys] What an anaemic… Bernard is not well liked, is he?”
A quote in Act One of Willy’s memory of the Woman demonstrating his need to be well liked in order to feel successful, so much so that he will cheat on his doting wife
“You picked me, heh?”
A quote from Act One after the woman memory when Willy finds Linda mending her stockings after remembering his giving some to the Woman. This reflects Willy’s guilt - they are a requirement for Linda and yet something Willy cannot provide for his wife, and when he can, he gives them to his mistress to feel well liked. This is perhaps then representative of the hardship under which Willy places his family in his quest to achieve his distorted American Dream
“[angrily taking them from her] I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out!”
A quote from Act One when Willy is talking to his sons about Ben, presenting his idolisation of Ben and what he stood for - his success, his instant, miraculous achievement, and his wealth
“Walked into the jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress”`
A quote from Act One when Willy is talking to Charley, who offers him a job, presenting Willy’s hubris - he is unsuccessful and this is hurting his family, but his pride is too great to accept a job from the successful Charley
“I got a job, I told you that. [After a slight pause] What the hell are you offering me a job for?”
A quote from Act One when Willy is talking to Charley, showing that Willy has practical talent like his flute-making talent, but negates this for an unhappy, unsuccessful life because he believe that to succeed in the business world will bring him happiness
“Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living room?”
A quote from Act One when Ben appears during Willy and Charley’s card game, suggesting that Willy’s peripeteia came prior to the play, in following the American Dream as opposed to the natural world
“If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different”
A quote given by BEN in Act One which presents Willy’s false hope in the American Dream - Willy worships the idea of ease of wealth and prosperity, symbolised by Ben, but fails to see that, in reality, Ben’s success, and thus success in general, is simply mere luck
“William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And by God, I was rich!”
