Willy Loman Quotes - REQUIEM Flashcards
A quote from CHARLEY in the Requiem pointing out the truth of Willy’s life and the reason for his downfall. Men, again referencing Willy’s anonymity as one of many American men, cannot be sustained through wealth alone. We all need an emotional life to sustain ourselves, and money is not enough
“No man only needs a little salary”
A quote from CHARLEY in the Requiem, and uncharacteristic eulogy for Willy, giving his death a religious tone. The quote demonstrates the idea that a salesman sells himself, and that once he has run out of this self to sell, there is nothing. “Is” is substituted for “has” in “a salesman is got to dream”, suggesting that not only must the salesman harbour dreams in order to live in an uncaring world, the salesman is in fact born with the soul purpose of dreaming
“Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand. Willy was a salesman […] He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back - that’s an earthquake […] A salesman is got to dream, boy”
The play’s final stage direction, reflecting a cyclical structure. Nothing has changed; Willy has lived and died, desperate and determined to change the world with his Dream, and yet he died in vain. The world carries on as it always has, the natural world becoming more and more lost in the sea of capitalism that Willy helped to promote. The return of the flute music is a pathos-inducing reminder to the audience that Willy never reached his true dream, but died amongst the concrete of capitalist America
“Only the music of the flute is left on the darkening stage as over the house the hard towers of the apartment buildings rise into sharp focus”
