Death of a Salesman Discussion Responses
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Death of a Salesman
Discussion Responses
Act I
1.
Willy frequently contradicts himself.
Find some examples.
What might
these contradictions represent?
There are a few examples from early in the play.
One of the first occurs when Willy tells Linda that he opened the windshield on
the car driving home (Miller 3).
Then, just a few pages later, Linda says they
should go for a drive in the country and open the windshield, only for Willy to
explain that the windshield does not open on the newer cars.
Willy is then
astonished and realizes he was so confused he thought that he was driving a car
he owned years before (Miller 7-8).
Another occurs when Willy and Linda first discuss Biff.
Willy refers to Biff as “a
lazy bum,” then contradicts himself just a few lines later by saying that Biff is a
“hard worker” and “not lazy” (Miller 5-6).
There is yet another example later in Act I, during one of Willy’s pseudo
“flashbacks.”
Willy comments on the “goddam Chevrolet,” saying that “they
ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car!” (Miller 23).
Yet this is only a short
while after he has just proclaimed to Linda that “Chevrolet…is the greatest car
ever built” (Miller 21).
Lastly, around the same time Willy is discussing the Chevrolet, he also brags to
Linda that he sold “five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in
Boston,” only to admit a few lines later that it was actually closer to “two hundred
gross on the whole trip,” a substantial difference (Miller 22).
There may be even more examples, but these are some of the big ones.
Now
what might they represent?
They tell us a couple of things.
One is that Willy
seems to be becoming increasingly confused as he ages.
We could perhaps
even speculate that he might be experiencing an early form of Alzheimer’s
disease given the severity of some of these contradictions, such as when he
thought he was driving a car he had owned years before.
His confusion could
also possibly be explained to some degree by the extreme stress that he feels
over work and his sons.
Since Willy is a fictional character and we cannot have
him psychoanalyzed to confirm any of this, we can only theorize.
The important
thing is understanding that Willy is having a difficult time distinguishing between
reality and his imagination.
2.
What values does Willy attempt to impart in his sons?
Have they lived up
to these values?
Willy cares a great deal about being successful, and it is important to understand
what Willy considers a sign of being successful.
It is not just wealth or being a
successful businessman that he values.
If so, he would have greater respect
and esteem for Charlie, as Charlie is a successful businessman.
Instead, Willy
seems to equate success with being “well liked.”
He uses this expression or one
similar to it throughout the play, as if it is some target or objective that every man
should reach for.
This is also what he tries to teach Biff and Happy, and is why
he condemns Charlie by saying that Charlie is “liked, but…not—well liked” (Miller
18).
As of the beginning of the play at least, neither Biff nor Happy have really lived
up to these values in Willy’s eyes.
Biff works a manual labor job on a ranch at a
minimal salary, and Happy is still trying to earn a promotion at his store while
sleeping with the girlfriends and wives of his superiors (not a good career move!)
3.
Even though this play presents scenes from the past, they are not exactly
flashbacks.
How are they presented then?
Why did Miller choose to
present them in this way?
Notice how these scenes seem to flow naturally into the present of the play.
They present memories of Willy’s, so in that way they are similar to flashbacks,
but the seamless transition between past and present is different from a true
flashback.
In some cases we are confronted with both past and present at the
same time, such as when Willy plays cards with Charlie but also has a discussion
with his older brother Ben (Ben is not really there).
This disjointed presentation
of Willy’s past with his present only further shows that Willy’s mental and
emotional states are not what we would call healthy.
4.
Why does Linda believe Willy wants to kill himself?
Why might Willy want
to?
Not only does Linda find a hose in the basement next to the water heater (which
suggests Willy has considered—or perhaps even attempted—asphyxiating
himself by attaching it to the gas line), but she also tells Biff and Happy about a
woman who claims she saw Willy deliberately drive off of the bridge (rather than
it being an accident as Willy claimed) (Miller 43).
As for why Willy wants to, we have already discussed his confused mental state,
but there is also the money and career problems he is facing.
Willy cannot even
support Linda and himself fully anymore and has been borrowing money from
Charlie, only to tell Linda that it is his salary.
This all ties into the intense sense
of pride and self-esteem that Willy has wrapped up into being a “well liked”
salesman.
He is failing at that, and it is troubling him in a very deep, dark way.
Act II
1.
What does Willy mean by “you can’t eat the orange and throw the peel
away”? (p. 61)
Willy makes this curious comment to Howard when he is trying to persuade
Howard to give him a desk job and a steady salary (instead of a commission
based one).
Willy is actually using the orange as a metaphor for himself—and
many other working-class individuals whose best years are used up working for a
company only to be tossed aside in their twilight.
This is exactly what is
happening to Willy.
He has put decades into working for Howard and Howard’s
father, only for Howard to now discard him with nothing to show for it.
The
company has “eaten” the best, most productive years of Willy’s life and now
unceremoniously discards the “peel” that remains.
This is actually one of the central themes of the play, and one that applies even
today.
2.
Why does Willy suddenly need to plant seeds? (p. 96)
This is yet another metaphor.
After the troubling ordeal of being fired by Howard,
informed of Biff’s failure with Oliver, and then abandoned at the restaurant by
Happy and Biff, Willy is near his breaking point.
He has a sudden urgency to plant seeds, and makes the comment that he does
not “have a thing in the ground” (Miller 96).
This goes back to one of Willy’s
central conflicts, his inability to provide for Linda and to leave something behind
for her and his sons.
At this point he has nothing but the life insurance policy, so
he feels a need to plant something to leave behind, even if it is only a garden.
3.
Why is it that Biff didn’t go to summer school?
Do you think this is a valid
reason?
Why or why not?
In one of Willy and Biff’s final conversations, Willy tells Biff that he “cut down [his]
life for spite!” (Miller 103).
Willy is referring to when Biff caught him in the hotel
with the woman he was having relations with at the time—just before Biff was
supposed to go to summer school so he could still graduate and go to college.
Biff is understandably upset at discovering his father’s infidelity, but reacts in a
rather extreme fashion by not going to summer school and as a result throwing
away his college scholarship.
This is why Willy believes that Biff “cut down” his
life—just to spite his cheating father.
This event is the source of the rift between
Willy and Biff, who used to be very close.
As to whether or not this is a valid reason for Biff not to go is a matter of opinion
of course.
One could argue that it is understandable he had a strong emotional
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reaction at discovering something like a parent being unfaithful—particularly one
he had really looked up to—and was not thinking clearly when he decided to not
go to summer school.
However, I favor the argument that Biff really did “cut down” his life for spite.
He
did far more harm to himself than Willy by choosing to abandon his education.
4.
What is the significance of the stockings? (p. 95)
There is a part early in the play in which Linda is mending her stockings and Willy
angrily tells her to stop, as if he is somehow disgusted by what she is doing
(Miller 26).
This doesn’t make a lot of sense at the time, but later we learn why
stockings have such a negative connotation for Willy.
During the scene in which young Biff catches Willy at the hotel with the woman,
Willy gives her stockings in his haste to get rid of her.
Biff is deeply troubled, of
course, and even makes the comment, “You—you gave her Mama’s stockings!”
(Miller 95).
This is an “adding insult to injury” moment for Biff, who has just
discovered his father being unfaithful.
5.
Why does Willy kill himself?
What mistake or mistakes of Willy’s lead to
this tragedy?
Willy’s failures have become too much for him to handle.
He has lost the job in
which so much of his identity was wrapped up in, he blames himself at least
partially for how Biff’s life has turned out, and he feels that he has nothing of
value to leave behind for Linda and his sons—until he realizes that his life
insurance policy is worth $20,000.
This is why he makes the comment to Charlie
that he is “worth more dead than alive” (Miller 76).
Willy chooses to kill himself
so that his family can benefit from the life insurance, as he sees it as the only
way to provide for them now.
Willy’s perspective on these things is very flawed.
He seems to place too much
emphasis on money, and certainly too much on the importance of being “well
liked,” which for Willy just seems to mean being popular.
I am sure that Linda
and his sons would much rather have him than the $20,000 from the life
insurance.
Additionally, he may have not had a retirement or savings to rely on,
but he most likely could have found some kind of work to keep him going.
6.
What do you think will become of Biff and Happy?
Biff seems to have at least learned something about himself—that he much
prefers his manual labor jobs that allow him to work outside, even if it means not
earning very much.
Biff seems the most likely to go on and find some kind of
happiness because he has rejected Willy’s flawed notions about being successful
and “well liked.”
With that said, Biff could also end up in trouble if he continues to
do foolish things like stealing.
It is difficult to say how things might turn out for Happy.
He is intent on following
in their father’s footsteps and trying to make it big in business.
Hopefully it will
work out better for him than Willy.
7.
What is the meaning behind Linda’s uttering of “we’re free”? (p. 112)
This is part of the play’s irony in that Willy kills himself just before the last
mortgage payment is made.
Linda means that they are free of that major debt
and obligation—except Willy is now dead of course so her statement is deeply
and darkly ironic.
It also shows her intense grief over Willy’s death.