The Duffer's Guide to Act One

•Let’s pretend you’re watching this play. You see a nice little two-bedroom house, probably only one bathroom, but that’s OK.

•We hear some nice flute-like music and feel like we’re entering Fantasia.

•Yet, instead of dancing hippos, Willy Loman, an old, worn-out salesman, enters. He’s talking to himself, and this just can’t be good.

•Willy’s back from a trip and carrying some bags. It’s late at night, and he definitely should be in bed.

•Inside, Linda, Willy’s wife, is surprised to see him – he is supposed to be gone for several days on a business trip.

•Her husband explains that he kept forgetting he was driving (scary). Since his mind was totally not on the road (and frequently his car wasn’t either), he headed home.

•Linda, ignoring the fact that Willy has been talking with imaginary people and driving off roads, recommends that he ask his boss to transfer him to a local office job.

•Willy insists that he’s vital as a travelling salesman, but eventually agrees. He’s sure that his boss, Howard, loves him enough to give him the local NY gig.

•Willy and Linda chat about their grown sons, Biff and Happy, who happen to be sleeping upstairs.

•Biff has just come home from the West, where he was working as a farmhand.

•Willy is mad at Biff. The father and son duo had yet another fight that morning, primarily because Willy can’t handle the fact that his 34-year-old son isn’t able to hold down a real job, you know, the kind with suits and fluorescent lights.

•He concludes that Biff must be lazy.

•Willy then declares his son is hard-working hot stuff (notice how he changed his mind about the lazy part?). He can’t understand why, in the greatest country ever (a.k.a. America), his son can’t get his life together. Clearly (to Willy), Biff is wasting his life in order to spite his old man.

•Willy reminisces, in a rather sad and I-want-to-live-through-you-vicariously kind of way, about what a hotshot Biff was in high school.

•Willy and Linda get to bickering about cheese and population growth (we weren’t aware of any correlation between the two, either).

•Biff and Happy are now awake (upstairs) listening to their dad’s odd mutterings. They’re worried about his sanity. We are, too.

•The brothers have a heart-to-heart conversation complete with reminiscing about their past. Biff, the sensitive one, tells Happy (the happy one?) that he’s upset about his fight with their dad.

•Happy thinks Willy is anxious about Biff’s aimlessness; he wants the low-down on what Biff is doing with his life.

•Biff tells his brother that he’s unhappy, hates the competitive world of business, and thinks farm work is better. (He likes acting strong and being shirtless, which he just can’t do in an office.)

•AND YET – he can’t keep even a farming job. This guy is having a serious internal battle.

•Happy’s name turns out not to fit him at all. He’s lonely despite having a decent job and endless women at his disposal.

•Biff and Happy fantasize about moving to the West together and being real men with a ranch and cattle and sweating in the sun while working with their hands.

•Biff seems ready to head for a ranch, but Happy won’t let go of his pursuit of wealth.

•Like so many other brothers, these two start chatting about ladies. Both want to settle down with someone, but Happy is a player and can’t stick to one woman. He’s super-competitive and chases his friends’ girls just for fun.

•Since the ranch idea is not working out, Biff says he’ll talk to this guy he used to work for named Bill Oliver. Biff was a salesman in Oliver’s sporting goods business way back when and thinks he made a good impression. He’s hoping Oliver will give him a loan so that he and Happy can start a business together.

•Happy thinks this is the best idea ever. With big dreams in mind, the brothers go back to sleep.

•Cut to downstairs, where Willy is still chatting with imaginary people.

•In his head, Willy relives the high school days of his sons.

•Said high school days go something like this:

•Biff and Happy are washing their dad’s car, hoping to impress him.

•The macho boys and their dad sit around and talk about how much everybody loves them and how popular they are.

•Biff says he’s "borrowed" (clearly stole) a football in order to practice his game (he’s a football star, and also, it would seem, a kleptomaniac). Laughing, Willy tells him he should return it (good parenting move). But neither father nor son takes the stealing seriously.

•The father starts going off about how great America is and how everyone busts out the red carpet in the New England towns where he travels for business.

•He’s bragging and over-doing it here.

•Still in the flashback, Linda enters with some laundry, which Willy makes the boys help her with. Biff gets his gang of fawning friends to help out, too.

•Willy hasn’t had enough of bragging about himself yet, so he starts telling his wife about how "well liked" he is and how he made a killing on his recent trip.

•Willy, who actually made $70 in commission, tells Linda it was $212.

•Sadly, when they add up the math, Linda finds that, even with the self-delusion and imaginary income, they’re still in debt.

•In a sudden (rare) moment of accurate self-reflection, Willy says people just don’t like him very much – but he blames his failure on being ugly and fat.

•Linda assures him that everything will be fine.

•No, wait, this is a flashback. We already know that "fine" never comes to pass.

•Now Willy’s mind flashes to a woman who is not Linda by any stretch of the imagination.

•The woman is putting her clothes on amidst some sexually suggestive jokes.

•Willy has given her some stockings (remember these stockings for a little while longer).

•Back to the other flashback (with his wife and the boys and the laundry). Willy promises to make everything up to Linda.

•Linda acts like a loving angel, obviously unaware that her husband is cheating on her.

•Willy notices Linda mending her stocking. She responds that new ones are too expensive to buy (apparently too expensive to buy for wives, but not for mistresses).

•Willy is thinking along the same lines as we are, and guiltily snaps at Linda, telling her not to mend the stockings in front of him.

•We then get another flashback to the time when Biff is in high school. (If you’re a little confused at all of these flashbacks, just imagine how Willy is feeling.)

•Bernard, the son of Willy’s neighbour Charley, comes running in, shouting that Biff is going to fail math.

•Being the model parent that he is, Willy tells Bernard to give Biff the answers to the test and get lost.

•Linda is worried about her son failing math, but her husband brushes off her concern with assurances that Biff’s charm will carry him through.

•So that was a crazy trip, and now we’re back to real time.

•Willy snaps out of his daydream and finds Happy.

•Willy’s thinking is disjointed. He’s now complaining about how he was an idiot not to go to Alaska with his brother, Ben, when he was a young man. Ben apparently got rich on his adventures.

•Happy is unable to help his hallucinating father.

•Charley, the neighbour, comes into the kitchen. He’s heard noises and wants to make sure everything’s OK (remember, it’s still late at night).

•Charley knows Willy’s financial situation and kindly offers Willy a job. Offended, Willy says he already has a job (big mistake).

•Charley advises Willy to stop putting so much pressure on Biff. Offended again (as usual), Willy tells Charley to screw off.

•Ben enters the stage (not the real Ben, though – this is an imaginary Ben that Charley can’t see).

•Willy talks aloud with imaginary Ben. Charley, still sitting in the kitchen, has no idea what’s going on (and is in all likelihood thinking of retracting the job offer).

•Now Willy converses with the imaginary Ben and the real Charley at the same time.

•He informs Charley that Ben recently died.

•Back in Willy’s mind, Ben is rushing out the door to catch a train. He repeatedly urges Willy to go with him to Alaska.

•Back in real life, Charley, irritated and confused to no end, storms out.

•Back in Willy’s mind, Willy asks Ben how he made so much money in Alaska.

•Linda (an imaginary version of her) enters and greets Ben.

•Now we get a bit more background on Willy. Turns out, his father abandoned him and Ben when they were kids.

•So the deal with Alaska was that Ben tried to follow their dad there. Ben’s no genius (or migratory bird) and due to his sketchy sense of geography, ended up in Africa instead.

•There (in Africa), Ben struck it big in diamonds.

•Now more craziness ensues when imaginary young Biff and Happy enter. Willy tells the boys that Uncle Ben’s success is proof that great dreams can come true.

•Imaginary Ben has to go catch his train, but tells Willy and the boys that his father (the boys’ grandfather) used to play the flute. He also used to drive Willy and Ben around the country by wagon and sell his inventions along the way.

•Predictably, Willy brags to Ben about how well he has raised his sons.

•Showing off his son, Willy pushes Biff to start a fistfight with his Uncle Ben. This is weird.

•Ben wins (unfairly), saying that in order to survive, you must cheat in fights with strangers. What a great piece of wisdom.

•Poor Willy, looking for approval and trying to keep Ben around, starts going off about how even though he’s a city slicker and a salesman, he is still a manly man (think loincloths and hunting). Willy sends his sons to steal lumber (!) so they can show their uncle how manly they are.

•Here comes more confusion. You just met real Charley, but now enters imaginary Charley.

•Imaginary Charley enters the kitchen just as young Happy and Biff run off to steal some wood for a building project.

•Charley warns Willy that he’s got to stop them from stealing or they’ll get in big fat trouble (like jail).

•Everyone erupts into a shouting match and Willy insults Charley’s manliness.

•Everyone leaves the stage except Ben and Willy.

•Willy confesses that he’s scared he’s not raising his boys well and begs Ben to stay and tell him stories about their father. But Ben’s not so nice (if you hadn’t noticed) and he leaves.

•So Willy’s been chatting and fighting with lots of imaginary figures tonight, but we think that’s just about it for delusions, at least for the time being, because here comes real Linda.

•Now we’re back in real time. Linda wants to know what on earth is going on.

•Willy wanders outside, insisting he needs a walk.

•Real Biff and Happy come into the kitchen, freaked out. Their mom says that Willy’s behaviour is worse when Biff is around. She tells Biff to stop drifting and to show his father some respect.

•Things heat up. Linda tells Biff to stay away from his father. Biff retorts that his father treats her terribly, and calls Willy crazy.

•Linda, deeply offended, responds that her husband is simply exhausted. (Yes, she’s clearly deluding herself.)

•Now she admits that Willy’s boss cut his salary and they’re struggling financially. Their dad has been borrowing money from Charley every week to pay the bills.

•Linda accuses her sons of being ungrateful and oblivious.

•Biff responds that Willy’s a fake but won’t explain why.

•To smooth out the situation, Biff tells Linda he’ll get a job and give them half his paycheck.

•As if things were not bad enough, Linda announces that Willy’s been trying to kill himself in car "accidents. " Also, she’s found a short length of rubber pipe attached to the fuse box (it seems he was trying to gas himself).

•Linda tells Biff that Willy’s life is in his hands, so he must be careful.

•Biff says he’ll straighten out, but he just wasn’t made to work in the business world.

•Willy walks in. Almost immediately, he and Biff begin to argue.

•Happy, the peacemaker, interrupts and says that Biff is going to see Bill Oliver the following morning to get a business loan.

•Willy is all happy and perky for about two seconds before father and son are at it again.

•Happy strikes again, trying to make the situation . . . happy. He tells his dad that he and Biff are thinking of starting a sporting goods line in Florida.

•Excitedly, Willy starts telling Biff how to behave around Oliver, who is in the sporting goods business. He acts as if they’ve already sealed a million-dollar deal.

•Somehow angered again, Willy storms upstairs. Linda and the boys follow him. The boys say goodnight and are lectured about their greatness.

•Biff wanders downstairs alone while Linda desperately tries to sing Willy to sleep.

Lesson Content : Tuesday 13th December : Act One (41-54)

Summary

Willy’s shouts wake Linda and Biff, who find Willy outside in his slippers. Biff asks Linda how long he has been talking to himself, and Happy joins them outside. Linda explains that Willy’s mental unbalance results from his having lost his salary (he now works only on commission). Linda knows that Willy borrows fifty dollars a week from Charley and pretends it is his salary. Linda claims that Biff and Happy are ungrateful. She calls Happy a “philandering bum.”

Angry and guilt-ridden, Biff offers to stay at home and get a job to help with expenses. Linda says that he cannot fight with Willy all the time. She explains that all of his automobile accidents are actually failed suicide attempts. She adds that she found a rubber hose behind the fuse box and a new nipple on the water heater’s gas pipe—a sign that Willy attempted to asphyxiate himself. Willy overhears Biff, Happy, and Linda arguing about him. When Biff jokes with his father to snap him out of his trance, Willy misunderstands and thinks that Biff is calling him crazy. They argue, and Willy maintains that he is a “big shot” in the sales world.

Happy mentions that Biff plans to ask Bill Oliver for a business loan. Willy brightens immediately. Happy outlines a publicity campaign to sell sporting goods; the business proposal, which revolves around the brothers using their natural physical abilities to lead publicity displays of sporting events, is thenceforth referred to as the “Florida idea.” Everyone loves the idea of Happy and Biff going into business together.

Willy begins offering dubious and somewhat unhelpful advice for Biff’s loan interview. One moment, he tells Biff not to crack any jokes; the next, he tells him to lighten things up with a couple of funny stories. Linda tries to offer support, but Willy tells her several times to be quiet. He orders Biff not to pick up anything that falls off Oliver’s desk because doing so is an office boy’s job. Before they fall asleep, Linda again begs Willy to ask his boss for a non-travelling job. Biff removes the rubber hose from behind the fuse box before he retires to bed.

Analysis

One reason for Willy’s reluctance to criticize Biff for his youthful thefts and his careless attitude toward his classes seems to be that he fears doing damage to Biff’s ego. Thus, he offers endless praise, hoping that Biff will fulfil the promise of that praise in his adulthood. It is also likely that Willy refuses to criticize the young Biff because he fears that, if he does so, Biff will not like him. This disapproval represents the ultimate personal and professional (the two spheres are conflated in Willy’s mind) insult and failure. Because Willy’s consciousness is split between despair and hope, it is probable that both considerations are behind Willy’s decision not to criticize Biff’s youthful indiscretions. In any case, his relationship with Biff is fraught, on Willy’s side, with the childhood emotional trauma of abandonment and, on Biff’s side, with the struggle between fulfilling societal expectations and personal expectations.

The myth of the American Dream has its strongest pull on the individuals who do not enjoy the happiness and prosperity that it promises. Willy pursues the fruits of that dream as a panacea for the disappointments and the hurts of his own youth. He is a true believer in the myth that any “well liked” young man possessing a certain degree of physical faculty and “personal attractiveness” can achieve the Dream if he journeys forth in the world with a can-do attitude of confidence. The men who should have offered him the affirmation that he needed to build a healthy concept of self-worth—his father and Ben—left him. Therefore, Willy tries to measure his self-worth by the standards of an American myth that hardly corresponds to reality, while ignoring the more important foundations of family love, unconditional support, and the freedom of choice inherent to the American Dream. Unfortunately, Willy has a corrupted interpretation of the American Dream that clashes with that set forth by the country’s founding fathers; he is preoccupied with the material facets of American success and national identity.

In his obsession with being “well liked,” Willy ignores the love that his family can offer him. Linda is far more realistic and grounded than Willy, and she is satisfied with what he can give her. She sees through his facade and still loves and accepts the man behind the facade. She likewise loves her adult sons, and she recognizes their bluster as transparent as well. She knows in her heart that Biff is irresponsible and that Happy is a “philandering bum,” but she loves them without always having to like or condone their behaviour. The emotional core of the family, Linda demands their full cooperation in dealing with Willy’s mental decline.

If Willy were content finally to relinquish the gnarled and grotesquely caricatured American tragic myth that he has fed with his fear, insecurity, and profound anxiety and that has possessed his soul, he could be more content. Instead, he continues to chase the fame and fortune that outruns him. He has built his concept of himself not on human relationships that fulfil human needs but on the unrealistic myth of the American hero. That myth has preyed on his all-too-common male weaknesses, until the fantasy that he has constructed about his life becomes intolerable to Biff. Willy’s diseased mind is almost ready to explode by the end of Act I. The false hope offered by the “Florida idea” is a placebo, and the empty confidence it instils in Willy makes his final fall all the more crushing.

Lesson Content : Tuesday 6th December : Act One (29-41)

Summary

The Woman is Willy’s mistress and a secretary for one of his buyers. In Willy’s daydream, they sit in a hotel room. She tells him that she picked him because he is so funny and sweet. Willy loves the praise. She thanks Willy for giving her stockings and promises to put him right through to the buyers when she sees him next. The Woman fades into the darkness as Willy returns to his conversation with Linda in the present.

He notices Linda mending stockings and angrily demands that she throw them out—he is too proud to let his wife wear an old pair (Biff later discovers that Willy has been buying new stockings for The Woman instead of for Linda).

Bernard returns to the Loman house to beg Biff to study math. Willy orders him to give Biff the answers. Bernard replies that he cannot do so during a state exam.

Bernard insists that Biff return the football. Linda comments that some mothers fear that Biff is “too rough” with their daughters. Willy, enraged by the unglamorous truth of his son’s behaviour, plunges into a state of distraction and shouts at them to shut up. Bernard leaves the house, and Linda leaves the room, holding back tears.

The memory fades. Willy laments to himself and Happy that he did not go to Alaska with his brother, Ben, who acquired a fortune at the age of twenty-one upon discovering an African diamond mine.

Charley, having heard the shouts, visits to check on Willy. They play cards. Charley, concerned about Willy, offers him a job, but Willy is insulted by the offer. He asks Charley if he saw the ceiling he put in his living room, but he becomes surly when Charley expresses interest, insisting that Charley’s lack of skill with tools proves his lack of masculinity.

Ben appears on the stage in a semi-daydream. He cuts a dignified, utterly confident figure. Willy tells Charley that Ben’s wife wrote from Africa to tell them Ben had died. He alternates between conversing with Charley and his dead brother. Willy gets angry when Charley wins a hand, so Charley takes his cards and leaves. He is disturbed that Willy is so disoriented that he talks to a dead brother as if he were present.

Willy immerses himself in the memory of a visit from his brother. Ben and Willy’s father abandoned the family when Willy was three or four years old and Ben was seventeen. Ben left home to look for their father in Alaska but never found him. At Willy’s request, Ben tells young Biff and Happy about their grandfather. Among an assortment of other jobs, Willy and Ben’s father made flutes and sold them as a travelling salesman before following a gold rush to Alaska. Ben proceeds to wrestle the young Biff to the ground in a demonstration of unbridled machismo, wielding his umbrella threateningly over Biff’s eye. Willy begs Ben to stay longer, but Ben hurries to catch his train.

Analysis

Just as the product that Willy sells is never specified, The Woman, with whom Willy commits adultery, remains nameless. Miller offers no description of her looks or character because such details are irrelevant; The Woman merely represents Willy’s discontent in life. Indeed, she is more a symbol than an actual human being: she regards herself as a means for Willy to get to the buyers more efficiently, and Willy uses her as a tool to feel well liked. Biff sees her as a sign that Willy and his ambitions are not as great as Willy claims.

Willy’s compulsive need to be “well liked” contributes to his descent into self-delusion. Whereas Linda loves Willy despite his considerable imperfections, Willy’s mistress, on the other hand, merely likes him. She buys his sales pitch, which boosts his ego, but does not care for him deeply the way Linda does. Linda regards Willy’s job merely as a source of income; she draws a clear line between Willy as a salesman and Willy as her husband. Willy is unable to do so and thus fails to accept the love that Linda and his sons offer him.

Willy was first abandoned by his father and later by his older brother, Ben. Willy’s father was a salesman as well, but he actually produced what he sold and was successful, according to Ben, at least. Ben presents their father as both an independent thinker and a masculine man skilled with his hands. In a sense, Willy’s father, not Willy himself, represents the male ideal to Biff, a pioneer spirit and rugged individualist. Unlike his father, Willy does not attain personal satisfaction from the things that he sells because they are not the products of his personal efforts—what he sells is himself, and he is severely damaged and psychically ruptured. His professional persona is the only thing that he has produced himself. In a roundabout manner, Willy seeks approval from his professional contacts by trying to be “well liked”—a coping strategy to deal with his abandonment by the two most important male figures in his life.

Willy’s efforts to create the perfect family of the American Dream seem to constitute an attempt to rebuild the pieces of the broken family of his childhood. One can interpret his decision to become a salesman as the manifestation of his desperate desire to be the good father and provider that his own salesman father failed to be. Willy despairs about leaving his sons nothing in the form of a material inheritance, acutely aware that his own father abandoned him and left him with nothing.

Willy’s obsession with being well liked seems to be rooted in his reaction to his father’s and brother’s abandoning of him—he takes their rejection of him as a sign of their not liking him enough. Willy’s memory of Ben’s visit to his home is saturated with fears of abandonment and a need for approval. When Ben declares that he must leave soon in order to catch his train, Willy desperately tries to find some way to make him stay a little longer. He proudly shows his sons to Ben, practically begging for a word of approval. Additionally, he pleads with Ben to tell Biff and Happy about their grandfather, as he realizes that he has no significant family history to give to his sons as an inheritance; the ability to pass such a chronicle on to one’s offspring is an important part of the American Dream that Willy so highly esteems.

Lesson Content : Thursday 1st December : Pages 21 to 29

We watched the section of the film version of the play covering Willy's first reminiscences of his past. We discussed the questions that were set for yout o consider when I was out of school on Tuesday.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet, but draw your attention to now, is the fact that the main events of the play take place in a 24 hour period of time. It is Monday night when the Act One starts with Willy's return home. The main action of the play concludes at the end of the following day.

Homework

Copy out and answer the questions set about pages 21-29.

Act One : Summary and Analysis : Part Three

Summary

Willy is lost in his memories. Suddenly, the memories of his sons’ childhood come alive. Young Biff and Happy wash and wax their father’s car after he has just returned from a sales trip. Biff informs Willy that he “borrowed” a football from the locker room to practice. Willy laughs knowingly. Happy tries to get his father’s attention, but Willy’s preference for Biff is obvious. Willy whispers that he will soon open a bigger business than his successful neighbour Uncle Charley because Charley is not as “well liked” as he is. Charley’s son, Bernard, arrives to beg Biff to study math with him. Biff is close to failing math, which would prevent him from graduating. Willy orders Biff to study. Biff distracts him by showing him that he printed the insignia of the University of Virginia on his sneakers, impressing Willy. Bernard states that the sneakers do not mean Biff will graduate. After Bernard leaves, Willy asks if Bernard is liked. The boys reply that he is liked but not “well liked.” Willy tells them that Bernard may make good grades, but Happy and Biff will be more successful in business because they are “well liked.”

Still in his daydream of fifteen years ago, Willy brags to Linda that he made $1200 in sales that week. Linda quickly figures his commission at over $200. Willy then hedges his estimation. Under questioning, he admits that he grossed only $200. The $70 commission is barely adequate to cover the family’s expenses. In a rare moment of lucidity and self-criticism, Willy moans that he cannot move ahead because people do not seem to like him. Linda tells him that he is successful enough. Willy complains that he talks and jokes too much. He explains that Charley earns respect because he is a man of few words. His jealousy of his neighbour becomes painfully clear. Willy thinks people laugh at him for being too fat; he once punched a man for joking about his “walrus” physique. As Linda assures him that he is the handsomest man ever, Willy replies that she is his best friend in the world. Just as he tells her that he misses her terribly when he is on the road, The Woman’s laughter sounds from the darkness.

Analysis

One of the most interesting aspects of Death of a Salesman is its fluid treatment of time: past and present flow into one another seamlessly and simultaneously as various stimuli induce in Willy a rambling stream-of-consciousness. It is important to remember that the idyllic past that Willy recalls is one that he reinvents; one should not, therefore, take these seeming flashbacks entirely as truth. The idyllic past functions as an escape from the present reality or a retrospective reconstruction of past events and blunders. Even when he retreats to this idyllic past, however, Willy cannot completely deny his real situation. He retreats into his daydreams not only to escape the present but also to examine the past. He searches for the mistake that he made that frustrated his hopes for fame and fortune and destroyed his relationship with Biff. Willy’s treatment of his life as a story to be edited and rewritten enables him to avoid confronting its depressing reality.

It is important to examine the evolution of Willy’s relationship with his family, as the solid family is one of the most prominent elements of the American Dream. In the present, Willy’s relationship with his family is fraught with tension. In his memories, on the other hand, Willy sees his family as happy and secure. But even Willy’s conception of the past is not as idyllic as it seems on the surface, as his split consciousness, the profound rift in his psyche, shows through. No matter how much he wants to remember his past as all-American and blissful, Willy cannot completely erase the evidence to the contrary. He wants to remember Biff as the bright hope for the future. In the midst of his memories, however, we find that Willy does nothing to discourage Biff’s compulsive thieving habit. In fact, he subtly encourages it by laughing at Biff’s theft of the football.

As an adult, Biff has never held a steady job, and his habitual stealing from employers seems largely to be the reason for this failing. Over the years, Biff and Willy have come to a mutual antagonism. Willy is unable to let go of his commitment to the American Dream, and he places tremendous pressure on Biff to fulfil it for him. Biff feels a deep sense of inadequacy because Willy wants him to pursue a career that conflicts with his natural inclinations and instincts. He would rather work in the open air on a ranch than enter business and make a fortune, and he believes that Willy’s natural inclination is the same, like his father’s before him.

Willy’s relationship with Happy is also less than perfect in Willy’s reconstruction of the past, and it is clear that he favours Biff. Happy tries several times to gain Willy’s attention and approval but fails. The course of Happy’s adult life clearly bears the marks of this favouritism. Happy doesn’t express resentment toward Biff; rather, he emulates the behaviour of the high-school-aged Biff. In the past, Willy expressed admiration for Biff’s success with the girls and his ability to get away with theft. As an adult, Happy competes with more successful men by sleeping with their women—he thus performs a sort of theft and achieves sexual prowess.

Willy’s relationship with Linda is even more complex and interesting. In one of his moments of self-doubt, she assures him that he is a good provider and that he is handsome. She also sees through his lie when he tries to inflate his commission from his latest trip. Although she does not buy his pitch to her, she still loves him. His failure to make her believe his fantasy of himself does not lead her to reject him—she does not measure Willy’s worth in terms of his professional success. Willy, however, needs more than love, which accepts character flaws, doubts, and insecurity—he seeks desperately to be “well liked.” As such, he ignores the opportunity that Linda presents to him: to view himself more honestly, to acknowledge the reality of his life, and to accept himself for what he is without feeling like a failure. Instead, he tries to play the salesman with her and their sons.

Lesson Content : Tuesday 29th November : Inside Willy's Head

Last lesson you read up to page 21 where Happy said "Sh.....Sleep Biff."

 

In today's lesson I want you to read from the stage directions that follow the line above;

 

Their light is out. Well before they have finished speaking , WILLY's form is dimly seen below in the darkened kitchen.

 

to the stage direction on page 29;

 

From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman.

 

(A summary and analysis of this section is provided on the post after this one.)

 

TASK

This is the first time that the audience is fully transported back in time via Willy's thoughts. After you have read the section between pages 21 and 29, discuss the questions below and be prepared to give your answers on Thursday.

• 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?
• What does Willy’s reaction to Biff ’s theft of the football tell us about Willy?
• What do we learn of Willy's hope and dreams?
• 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?
• “Five hundred gross in Providence” becomes “roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip.” How does Linda take Willy’s stories? What does this reveal about her?

Lesson Content : Thursday 24th November : Past and Present

Arthur Miller said of Death of a Salesman that it ‘explodes the watch and the calendar’. The past lives of Willy and his family are mixed in with what is happening to them in the present and this can be quite confusing when you read the play for the first time. It is less confusing if you see the play performed.

When the action shifts into the past it is not just as flashbacks to past events, to let the audience know what happened in the past. All of the characters, and especially Willy, are deeply affected now by what happened in the past.

What we see of the past is a mixture of the events and conversations that happened and the characters’ view of the past as it affects them now.

Producer David Thacker, describes the complex structure of 'Death of a Salesman'. CLICK TO WATCH

Arthur Miller wrote about the play that he wanted to show that;

‘nothing in life comes ‘next’ but that everything exists together and at the same time within us; that there is no past to be ‘brought forward’ in a human being, but that he is his past at every moment and that the present is merely that which his past is capable  of noticing and smelling and reacting to.

I wished to create a form which, in itself as a form, would literally be the process of Willy Loman’s way of mind.’

Miller helps the audience to be aware of scenes from the past in three ways....

1. When the action is in the present, the actors stay inside the imaginary walls of the house on the stage. When they enter into the past, they step through the imaginary walls onto the front of the stage and scenes from the past are shown at the front of the stage.
2. The lighting changes to allow the house to look as if it is covered in the shadows of leaves.
3. A flute plays to suggest happier times in the past. Miller says it suggests ‘grass and trees and the horizon’.

The Title of the Play

Miller said that his first title for Death of a Salesman was The Inside of His Head.

1. Why do you think Miller consider using it?
2. What aspects of the play does it emphasise?
3. How does it relate to the structure of the play?
4. Find a quotation from what you have read so far that would justify the idea that the play is about ‘the inside’ of Willy Loman’s head and explain why you have chosen this quotation.

Independent Reading : Litcharts

Litcharts.com have revision notes for 'Death of a Salesman' which can be downloaded freely as a PDF, read online or, if you are a 21st century type of student, be purchased as an app for one of those modern iphone thingies. A screen shot can be found below and I really do think it is useful.

Act One : Gradesaver Summary and Analysis : Part Two

The following summary and analysis covers the converstaion between Happy and Biff from pages 14 to 21 of your text. This is what we looked at last lesson.

Summary

At thirty-four, Biff is well-built but somewhat worn and not very self-assured. Happy, two years younger than his brother, is tall and powerfully made. He is a visibly sexual person. Both boys are somewhat lost, Happy because he has never risked defeat. The two brothers discuss their father. Happy thinks that Willy's license will be taken away, and Biff suggests that his father's eyes are going.

Happy thinks that it's funny that they are sleeping at home again, and they discuss Happy's "first time" with a girl named Betsy. Happy says that he was once very bashful with women, but as he became more confident Biff became less so. Biff wonders why his father mocks him so much, but Happy says that he wants Biff to make good. Biff tells Happy that he has had twenty or thirty different types of jobs since he left home before the war, and everything turns out the same. He reminisces about herding cattle in Nebraska and the Dakotas. But he criticizes himself for playing around with horses for twenty-eight dollars a week at his advanced age. Happy says that Biff is a poet and an idealist, but Biff says that he's mixed up and should get married.

When Biff asks Happy if he is content, Happy defiantly says that he is not. He says that he has his own apartment, a car, and plenty of woman, but is still lonely. Biff suggests that Happy come out west with him to buy a ranch. Happy claims that he dreams about ripping off his clothes in the store and boxing with his manager, for he can "outbox, outrun, and outlift anybody in that store," yet he has to take orders from them.

Happy says that the women they went on a date with that night were gorgeous, but he gets disgusted with women: he keeps "knockin' them over" but it doesn't mean anything. Happy says that he wants someone with character, like his mother. Biff says that he thinks he may work for Bill Oliver, whom he worked for earlier in life. Biff worries that Bill will remember that he stole a carton of basketballs, and remembers that he quit because Bill was going to fire him.

Analysis

Biff and Happy are both trapped in a perpetual adolescence. Both men are tall and well-built, but their emotional development does not mirror their physical appearance. Happy reminisces about his first sexual experience, while Biff handles a football, a sign of his childhood. The setting of the segment, the boys' childhood bedroom, also suggests that they are trapped in their past. Even the names of the two men, Happy and Biff, are childlike nicknames inappropriate for mature adults.

Biff, in particular, is a drifter who demonstrates little sense of maturity or responsibility. He moves from job to job without any particular plan, and is most content working jobs that use his physicality but do not offer any hope for a stable future. Biff is self-destructive, ruining every job opportunity that he might have, and realizes his own failure. He is aware that he is a disappointment and an embarrassment to his father, who holds great aspirations for his son. Biff feels that he is just a boy and must take steps to demonstrate a shift into the maturity of adulthood.

Happy, in contrast, is less self-aware than his brother, yet is equally confused and is similarly immature. Happy has the ostensible characteristics of adulthood including a steady profession, yet his attitude is that of a teenager. He is a manipulative womanizer who manifests little respect for the women he seduces; his euphemism for seduction, "knockin' them over," suggests at best an impersonal connection and at worst a violent subtext. Happy clearly demonstrates aspects of a Madonna-whore complex; he cannot respect women with whom he has sex, believing them to be inauthentic, and instead wishes to have as a partner a person who has "character" such as his mother. This suggests that Happy cannot respect a woman whom he successfully seduces.

Happy's immaturity is perhaps even more apparent in this segment of the play, for his adolescent qualities starkly contrast with his adult lifestyle. Although he has a respectable job, Happy compares himself to his co-workers in terms of physical accomplishment; he believes he should not have to take orders from men over whom he is athletically superior. He thus approaches the workplace with a school-yard mentality, believing that physical strength is more important than intellectual development.

Miller contrasts the ideas that the two men have with regards to success, the major thematic concern of the play. Biff believes himself to be a failure because he does not display the trappings of adulthood, such as a steady occupation and a stable home life, and because he has made mistakes in his life. Happy, in contrast, believes himself to be a failure because although he is ostensibly more successful than his brother, he still feels empty and unfulfilled.

Act One : Gradesaver Summary and Analysis : Part One

The following notes summarise / analyse the opening part of the play up until the point when Biff and Happy begin their conversation upstairs.

Summary

The salesman, Willy Loman, enters his home. He appears very tired and confused. Linda Loman, his wife, puts on a robe and slippers and goes downstairs. She has been asleep. Linda is mostly jovial, but represses objections to her husband. Her struggle is to support him while still trying to guide him. She worries that he smashed the car, but he says that nothing happened. He claims that he's tired to death and couldn't make it through the rest of his trip. He got only as far as Yonkers, and doesn't remember the details of the trip. He tells Linda that he kept swerving onto the shoulder of the road, but Linda thinks that it must be faulty steering in the car.

Linda says that there's no reason why he can't work in New York, but Willy says he's not needed there. Willy claims that if Frank Wagner were alive he would be in charge of New York by now, but that his son, Howard, doesn't appreciate him. Linda tells him that Happy took Biff on a double date, and that it was nice to see them shaving together. Linda reminds him not to lose his temper with Biff, but Willy claims that he simply had asked him if he was making any money. Willy says that there is an undercurrent of resentment in Biff, but Linda says that Biff admires his father. Willy calls Biff a lazy bum and says that he is lost. Willy longs for the days when their neighborhood was less developed and less crowded. He wakes up his sons Biff and Happy, both of whom are in the double bunk in the boys' bedroom.

Analysis:

At the beginning of the play, Arthur Miller establishes Willy Loman as a troubled and misguided man, at heart a salesman and a dreamer. He emphasizes his preoccupation with success. However, Miller makes it equally apparent that Willy Loman is not a successful man. Although in his sixties, he is still a traveling salesman bereft of any stable location or occupation, and clings only to his dreams and ideals. There is a strong core of resentment in Willy Loman's character and his actions assume a more glorious past than was actually the case. Willy sentimentalizes the neighborhood as it was years ago, and is nostalgic for his time working for Frank Wagner, especially because his former boss's son, Howard Wagner, fails to appreciate Willy. Miller presents Willy as a strong and boisterous man with great bravado but little energy to support his impression of vitality. He is perpetually weary and exhibits signs of dementia, contradicting himself and displaying some memory loss.

Linda, in contrast, shows little of Willy's boisterous intensity. Rather, she is dependable and kind, perpetually attempting to smooth out conflicts that Willy might encounter. Linda has a similar longing for an idealized past, but has learned to suppress her dreams and her dissatisfaction with her husband and sons. Miller indicates that she is a woman with deep regrets about her life; she must continually reconcile her husband with her sons, and support a man who has failed in his life's endeavor. Linda exists only in the context of her family relationships. As a mother to Biff and Happy and a husband to Willy, and must depend on them for whatever success she can grasp.

The major conflict in Death of a Salesman is between Biff Loman and his father. Even before Biff appears on stage, Linda indicates that Biff and Willy are perpetually at odds with one another because of Biff's inability to live up to his father's expectations. As Linda says, Biff is a man who has not yet "found himself." At thirty-four years old, Biff remains to some degree an adolescent. This is best demonstrated by his inability to keep a job. He and Happy still live in their old bunk beds; despite the fact that this reminds Linda of better times, it is a clear sign that neither of the sons has matured.

A major theme of the play is the lost opportunities that each of the characters face. Linda Loman, reminiscing about the days when her sons were not yet grown and had a less contentious relationship with their father, regrets the state of disarray into which her family has fallen. Willy Loman believes that if Frank Wagner had survived, he would have been given greater respect and power within the company. Willy also regrets the opportunities that have passed by Biff, whom he believes to have the capability to be a great man.

Miller uses the first segment of the play to foreshadow later plot developments. Willy worries about having trouble driving and expresses dissatisfaction with his situation at work, and Linda speaks of conflict between Willy and his sons. Each of these will become important in driving the plot and the resolution of the play.

Lesson Content : Tuesday 22nd November : Pages 16 to 21

In the lesson today we recapped the action of the first 16 pages of the play. I asked you to work in pairs in order to answer the followign questions:

• What do you learn about Willy and Linda's relationship from their conversation on page 13?
• In what ways are Biff and Happy's differences shown in the stage directions before they appear on page 14?
• What does Biff and Happy's conversation between pages 14 and 16 ("And still - that's how you build a future.") reveal about:
• Their relationship with each other?
• Their relationship with their father?

We had some useful discussion about the nature of Willy and Linda's relationship - I think we agreed that it seems to be a relationship built on love and affection - as well as thinking about the ways in which Biff and Happy differ. It was interesting to see you recognising that there appear to be some contradictions between what Miller tells us of the brothers and how they then appear to act.

Biff and Happy have a seemingly close relationshp and they appear to be very comfortable in each other's company. They talk about girls and their hopes and dreams.

In the second part of the lesson you read in pairs to page 21 where Biff and Happy go to sleep. I put it to you that Happy appears to be a bit of a 'scumbag' during this conversation as he openly admits to being promiscuous. He says he 'hates' himself for behaving in the way he does but also says "I love it." Again, this seems to be a contradiction.

Homework

What have you learnt about the character of X so far?

250 (ish) words in your red books please. Hand this in on Thursday so I can mark your fine efforts.

Lesson Content : Thursday 17th November - Pages 12-16

Due to the World of Work day with Years 9 and 11 our lesson was cancelled today. I asked you all to read pages 12-16 in the time you gained. This needs to be done for next week's lesson on Tuesday.

Lesson Content : Tuesday 15th November : Pages 8-12

In the lesson today we bagan by looking back through the stage directions relating to Willy and Linda. You had written an analysis of these last Thursday and I gave somne feedback about your efforts.

I was generally pleased and it was encouraging to see individual students engaging with the task and providing independent critical opinions. You do, however, need to focus on the following:

• Get the basics right - spell the characters names correctly, use capital letters where needed, structure your writing in paragraphs and make use of the PEE format.
• Think carefully about the tone of your writing. This needs to be formal and any casual or informal language needs to be avoided. This will be something you need to practice every time you produce written work for me.
• Make sure you analyse language right down to word level. Ask yourself about the effect of particular word choices. I commented on the use of the word 'burden' to describe Willy's sample cases and the fact that, to me, this had a meaning far more significant than it literally referring to the heaviness of these cases. To me, the cases are symbolic of Willy's job and the word 'burden' suggests that his job is weighing him down. It seems as if he is being crushed by his own overly high expectations of what he should have achieved.

We then started to read through the first pages of the play itself - thanks to Larissa for playing the part of Linda so eloquently! After reading we discussed what we had learnt about Willy's job and his relationship with his family.

I asked you to complete notes on this and bring it to Thursday's lesson.

Lesson Content : Thursday 10th November : Stage Directions Assessment

In the lesson today you were given the task of analysing what you learn about the characters of Willy and Linda Loman from Miller's stage directions before their first entrance to the stage.

I will mark your books over the weekend and post some feedback once that is done.

I was browsing the web tonight and found the following observations about the stage directions we looked at last lesson - the ones introducing the setting of the play - and thought it would be useful ton share these with you. I am not sure I agree with all the points made but you can make your own minds up.....

The stage directions set the scene with a melody from a flute “telling of grass and trees and the horizon” (Miller, 7) just before the curtain rises. The set however is simple without a tree or musical instrument in sight. Several rooms are represented rather than one, and these are impressions of rooms rather than functional environments. For example, the kitchen is represented by a “table with three chairs, and a refrigerator” (Miller, 7) though four people live in the house. This representation symbolises a lack of money or perhaps a division in the family. This division is shown in other ways: the family’s bedrooms are set at different levels, and the living room is “unseen” (Miller, 7). The entire setting is sometimes transparent depending on whether Willy Loman is talking in the present, or experiencing flashbacks. In these flashbacks, characters from Willy’s past including his ‘younger’ family walk through walls like ghosts. The transparency of the walls represents a weakness in the structure of the building, described as a “small, fragile-seeming home” (Miller, 7), and is symbolic of a weakness in the unity of the family who live there.

Miller uses highly metaphorical and descriptive language to describe the set. There is an “air of the dream” that clings to the little house; and a “blue light [from] the sky” falls upon the house and the surrounding areas, revealing “an angry glow of orange” (Miller, 7). Interestingly, blue and orange are colours in the flag of the (pro-slavery) Confederacy. Although these colours symbolise an open blue sky (nature), and an angry glow of orange (pollution), they are also symbolic of Willy Loman’s slavery to the American Dream. Willy lives with his family in a small home surrounded by a “solid vault of apartment houses” (Miller, 7). The description “solid vault” shows how fragile Willy’s home actually is. The Loman’s house is unlike the other houses: Willy is depicted as an outsider.

From the description of the set in Death of a Salesman themes of fragility, madness and frustration emerge. Fragility emerges from Miller’s descriptions of the small “fragile” house; madness from Willy’s “imaginings” and the coming and going of characters through walls; and frustration through the small house surrounded by homes more “solid” (Miller, 7) emphasizing the struggle and lack of success of its owner. These themes are present throughout the play and are often depicted through highly metaphorical and symbolic language.

(Taken from Comparison of the Uses of Setting and Symbol in A Doll’s House and  Death of a Salesman at consideredcapricious.com)

Lesson Content : Tuesday 8th November - First Impressions

In today's lesson we looked at the opening stage directions provided by Miller. I wanted to get you thinking about what the playwright's vision was for the setting of the play.

You worked individually before moving into groups. Then, as a whole class, we discussed your thoughts.

Homework

For homework (due in on Thursday please) I asked you to write approximately 250 words in response to the following question:

After reading thew first part of the stage directions  for Act One, what have you learnt?

We used some question sin the lesson to guide our discussion. These are reproduced below so that you may use them to structure your response. I am looking for quality of thought and opinion. You need to think intelligently and critically and put your ideas forward in an articulate way.

•       Why does Miller choose a flute to play the opening melody?

•       What purpose does the music play before the curtain rises?

•       Why do you think Miller refers to Willy as the SALESMAN rather than by his name?

•       What is the significance of the ‘towering, angular shapes’ that are behind the house?

•       What impression do you get of the Loman’s house?

•       What could be meant by ‘An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality’?

•       There are only 3 chairs around the kitchen table but 4 members of the Loman family. Is this significant?

•       What is unusual about the way Miller suggests the set for the stage needs to be created? How is the audience meant to view the action taking place on the stage?

Lesson Content : Thursday 3rd November - The American Dream

It is important that you have an understanding of what 'The American Dream' is in order to fully understand the frustratioons of Willy Loman in DOAS.

Inn the lesson I talked you through the ideas behind this concept and the main points I made are as follows:

·         The idea of the American Dream is that, through a combination of hard work, courage and determination, prosperity can be achieved.  These values came to America with the early settlers and were passed on to later generations.

·         In the later half of the 19^th Century, there was a distinct possibility of coming across a fortune through relatively little effort, as long as you were able to invest in land.  Many early prospectors bought cheap land west of the Rockies in the hope of finding deposits of gold.  The American Dream was a driving force in the Gold Rush of the mid to late 1800s, as well as encouraging the immigration that followed.

·         The Irish Potato Famine and other problems in Europe encouraged mass immigration to America.  People fled the problems at home in order to prosper from the freedom and financial security that they had heard existed in America.

·         As the 20^th Century drew closer, the Dream became that of industry and capitalism, with men such as John D Rockerfeller beginning life in humble conditions, but going on to control vast corporations and the fortunes that resulted.

·         Successes such as these suggested that talent, intelligence and a willingness to work hard were all that was needed to achieve the dream.

·         America has always been perceived as a place where the streets are paved with gold; consequently, there are more legal immigrants to the US per annum than any other country in the world.  They were (and are) drawn to work in the major cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit.

·         During the 1920s and 1930s, the Depression was a cause of major hardship and seemed to be a reverse of the Dream which people had held dear for so long.

·         The end of WWII drew young American families to live in comfort and stability in the suburbs, living the life of a ‘perfect family’.  However, the rise of the hippy values of the 1960s rejected this ideal – but did not kill it off entirely.

·         Some say that that the American Dream is misleading.  It is impossible for everyone to gain prosperity simply through hard work and determination.  The consequence of this is that those who do not achieve success believe that it is entirely their fault.

·         In addition, the poor are penalised as their poverty is seen as proof of their laziness.

·         The American Dream does not take account of the fact that the family and wealth that one is born into, as well as traits such as natural intelligence, have a bearing on potential success in life.

·         The word ‘Dream’ is important – what does it suggest?

We came to the conclusion that a dream is just that, a 'dream'. Reality is something very different. When we read through the play bear this in mind. What is The American Reality for Willy Loman?

·         In Death of a Salesman, Miller shows that the American Dream is superficial and meaningless.



INDEPENDENT LEARNING

What else can you find out about The American Dream?

It is worth doing some wider reading around this subject to broaden your knowledge.

There was an interesting article in the magazine Vanity Fair titled Rethinking The American Dream. This is a good place to start. You can read the article by clicking on the link below:

Rethinking The American Dream