Death of a Salesman: Questions, Notes and Essay Topics

Originally, Arthur Miller wanted to call the play The Inside of a Head, and begin it with “an enormous face the height of the proscenium arch which would appear and then open up.” (Proscenium is what the Greeks called the front and center of the stage).  He obviously decided against that.  It is, in great part, the story of a man losing touch with his surroundings, having conversations with people that only exist in his head.  Willy stays in one place throughout the play, while his mind wanders. This causes dramatic tension.

The setting is his Brooklyn house, which is increasingly small, feeling more and more constricted.  The city continues to grow, killing the elms, preventing anything from thriving.

Heredity: each generation is repeats patterns of their family’s behavior.  Both Willy and Biff are less successful than their brothers.  Presumably, both Willy and his “wild-hearted” father were philanderers (cheating on their wives); both fathers failed their sons and left them insecure.

Tragic? Ultimately, Willy kills himself for insurance money that Biff doesn’t need.  Is he a fool?  Is he pathetic? Pitiful?  Does he gain some dignity through self-sacrifice?  Or, is he tragic because his criteria of goodness is so shallow, so empty, that it is based only on monetary value?

  

Here is a link to the Discussion Board: https://www.turnitin.com/discuss_view_flat.asp?r=63.6913289942395&svr=05&lang=en_us&threads=1&ord=1&tid=436345

 ACT ONE

1. Why is Willy home? Why is Linda alarmed that he’s home?

 

1. Why is Willy annoyed at Biff? How does he describe Biff? What does this tell us about Willy?

 

1. How has the neighborhood changed? Why does it matter to the story that his surroundings are no longer the way they used to be?

 

1. How does Linda treat Willy? How do the boys feel about him? Is Biff trying to spite Willy? Why does Biff come home in the spring?

 

 

1. Why won’t Happy go out West with Biff, and why won’t Biff stay? Why doesn’t either son get married and settle down?

 

1. How does Willy act toward the boys when they are young? How do they act toward him? How does Willy feel about Charley and Bernard?

 

1. What does Willy’s reaction to Biff ’s theft of the football tell us about Willy? He says the boys look like Adonises. What other clues show that Willy believes in appearances?

 

1. Willy praises and then curses the Chevrolet; he tells Linda that he’s very well liked, and then says that people don’t seem to take to him. What do these inconsistencies tell us about Willy?

 

1. Why does Willy make a fuss about Linda’s mending stockings? How is this important to the play?

 

 

1. Why does Charley visit? How does he feel about Willy? How and why do they insult each other?

 

1. Who is Ben? Why does Ben appear? What does Willy think about the future? About the past? What does Ben teach Biff?

 

1. What does Linda think is the trouble with Willy’s life? Why is she angry at her sons? Why does she put the rubber hose back after she had taken it? What does this tell about her?

 

ACT TWO

1. Why is Willy’s mood upbeat at the start of Act Two? What does he expect to happen?

 

1. Why does Willy tell Howard about Dave Singleman? Describe the dramatic effect when Howard listens to the voices of his family while Willy tries to talk business. Why does Howard tell Willy to drop off his samples and forbid him to go to Boston? Why is this such a blow to Willy?

 

1. What is Willy’s philosophy? How does Biff as a football hero embody his father’s dreams? Why does Charley say Willy hasn’t grown up?

 

1. In the restaurant, how does Happy reflect Willy’s values? Why does Miller have the girls come in?

 

1. How does Biff ’s realization that his life is a lie underline the theme of the play? Why does Biff take Bill Oliver’s fountain pen? Why can’t he tell his father what happened with Bill Oliver? Why do Biff and Happy leave Willy at the restaurant?

 

1. Why does Willy keep planting seeds where they’ve never grown before? Why does Willy think Biff will be impressed with his funeral? Why does Ben say that Biff will call Willy a fool?

 

REQUIEM

1. What is a requiem? What is the purpose of this final act? To what extent is it successful?

 

1. Charley says: “No man only needs a little salary.” To what is he referring? What else does a man need?

 

1.  What case can be made for seeing Linda as the center of the play, the character around whom all the events revolve?  Describe the kind of person she is.  What does she mean to each of the men in her family?

 

1. Apparently, Biff’s discovery of his father’s infidelity took place before WWII.  Do you think that his reaction is realistic?  It completely changes Biff’s life, his goals and his motivations.  Does that reaction make the play seem dated?  Is it realistic that a son or daughter would react this drastically – ruining their entire career out of spite – in today’s day and age?  Why/why not?

 

1. How are we supposed to feel about Willy’s suicide?  In what ways is Willy self-deluded until the very end?

 

1. What symbolic meanings do you find in the flute music?  In the stockings (both the ones he gives his mistress and the ones he sees Linda mending)?  In Biff’s sneakers, which he burns?  In the seeds and the act of gardening?

 

1. What is the importance of Charley and Bernard?  How is their father-son relationship different than Willy and Biff’s?
2. What do you think of Ben?  Is he a realistic character?  Is he a figment of Willy’s imagination?

 

1. What irony lies in Willy’s statement that “I haven’t got a story left in my head”?

 

1. Explain Charley’s point when he argues, “The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell.  And the funny thing is you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.”

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Essay topics. Select one of the following:

1. Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy is “watching a great man fall.”  Does Willy Loman’s story fit with this definition?  Is Willy Loman a great man, and how does he fall?  Was he a doomed tragic hero from the get-go, or could he have been saved, and if so, what would have to have happened differently?
2. How is Willy responsible for the people Biff and Happy have become?  What has Willy been taught about life and ‘success,’ what effects do these lessons have on Biff and Happy?  Consider the following characters’ ways of achieving success: Ben (Willy’s brother), Willy’s father, Willy’s idol Dave Singleman (Act II), Willy’s old boss Mr. Wagner, Howard Wagner, Linda, Bernard, and Uncle Charley.  How did their ideas about success and life affect Willy (even if the only way they affected Willy was that he rejected those ideas) and then Biff and Happy?  Consider also: the themes of stealing, ‘personal attractiveness’ and being well-liked, and the way that all the Loman men treat women.
3. Read over the following excerpt of the play and comment on its significance to the work.

BIFF: Why? You’re making money, aren’t you?

HAPPY [moving about with energy, expressiveness]: All I can do now is wait for the merchandise manager to die. And suppose I get to be merchandise manager? He’s a good friend of mine, and he just built a terrific estate on Long Island. And he lived there about two months and sold it, and now he’s building another one. He can’t enjoy it once it’s finished. And I know that’s just what I’d do. I don’t know what the hell I’m workin’ for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment—all alone. And I think of the rent I’m paying. And it’s crazy. But then, it’s what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, plenty of women, and still, goddamnit, I’m lonely. (Act 1)

4. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.

In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning.

Focus on one symbol in Death of a Salesman and write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole.

5. A topic of your choice.  You may select to analyze a specific scene and comment on the language, structure, diction etc. or you may choose to trace a thematic element.